Confluence Docs 3.1 : Confluence 3.1 Beta 2 Release Notes
This page last changed on Dec 02, 2009 by ggaskell.
Confluence 3.1 Beta 2 is a public development release ("Beta") leading up to the official release of Confluence 3.1, which we aim to ship in Q4, 2009. Both "Milestone" and "Beta" versions of Confluence are development releases, which are preliminary releases leading up to the official release of a major Confluence version. They are a snapshot of our work in progress and provide an advance preview of new features to our customers and the general public. Confluence plugin developers can also use development releases to test and fix their plugins in advance of an official release. The main distinction between a beta and a milestone release is that milestone releases typically acquire new features with each subsequent milestone version, whereas beta releases are predominantly feature-complete. Beta releases still undergo bug fixing and occasionally, existing features may be enhanced or added in subsequent beta versions.
For all production use and testing of Confluence, please use the latest official release. Who should try this out?With beta releases, the Confluence development team aims to provide plugin developers with an opportunity to see the latest changes in the code. Furthermore, if you are a Confluence customer who is eager to see the new features and provide us with feedback on our upcoming major release, we encourage you to try out our beta releases.
Each beta release has passed all our automated tests, has undergone some performance testing and has been used for one week on our official internal Confluence server. Furthermore, most of the solved issues have been reviewed. Be aware that our beta releases are still undergoing final performance and compatibility testing for databases and application servers. Hence, we recommend that you use beta releases on installations with small (as opposed to full production-level) user bases. Upgrade ProcedureIf you wish to upgrade your existing Confluence installation with this version, ensure you have created a separate copy of your current Confluence production installation first and using that copy, follow the normal upgrade instructions to upgrade it to this beta release. If you have also implemented customised site- or space-specific layouts, you will need to re-implement them after the upgrade. Otherwise, some of the new features in Confluence (or possibly existing features) may not function correctly. DownloadsAll development releases are available from Development Releases on the Atlassian website. Known IssuesBelow are some known issues associated with Confluence 3.1. On this page: JIRA and Confluence deploymentConfluence will not start up if JIRA 4.0 is running on the same application server installation, for example, by attempting to run Confluence and JIRA 4.0 in the same Apache Tomcat server installation. This problem results from a bug in JIRA (tracked as JRA-19894) that is scheduled to be fixed in JIRA 4.0.2. In the meantime, please read our KB article on how to resolve this issue. In the meantime, you can run JIRA and Confluence in different 'instances' of the same application server, for example two separate Apache Tomcat server installations. If you do so already or have installed standalone distributions of both Confluence and JIRA 4.0, you can ignore this known issue. JIRA Gadgets in ConfluenceAs of Confluence 3.1, users can embed gadgets into Confluence pages. When integrating JIRA gadgets into Confluence pages, you may encounter UI problems like a missing "Login"-button which is required to make the gadget authenticate with the JIRA server. This problem can be circumvented by setting up JIRA and Confluence to use Trusted Apps communication (since it removes the need for manual authentication). See KB article for details. Bamboo integrationOur continuous integration product Bamboo exposes gadgets which can be embedded into Confluence pages. However, some of these exhibit problems once embedded onto a Confluence page:
These bugs are being fixed in Bamboo 2.5, which will ship in January 2010. PDF exports only render gadgets as linksIf you place any gadget on a Confluence page and export the page to PDF, the gadget output will not be rendered in the PDF output. Instead, each gadget is rendered on a page as a box containing the name of the gadget, the latter of which is hyperlinked. Clicking this hyperlink, opens the gadget contents itself in a new browser window or tab. Problematic Confluence Gadgets window when running Confluence on Java 6The Confluence Gadgets window may indicate that 'An error has occurred while trying to load the Gadget Directory' and prevent you from accessing the URLs of your Confluence gadgets. This problem can occur if you are running Confluence on Java 6. After you install Confluence 3.1 or upgrade an existing Confluence installation to this version, please check the Confluence Gadgets window immediately after starting the Confluence server. If you see this error message and cannot access your Confluence gadgets, it can be resolved by restarting Confluence. (You may need to do this more than once.) For more information about this issue, please refer to CONF-17417. Other issuesRefer to our JIRA site for a list of Confluence 3.1-specific bugs. Highlights of Confluence 3.1Highlights of this Release:
Gadgets are small objects that offer dynamic content and functionality which may be served by any OpenSocial-compliant web application, such as JIRA 4.0+, Confluence or non-Atlassian applications such as iGoogle and Gmail.
Inserting a JIRA Gadget onto a Confluence Page
The new 'drag and drop' feature allows you to drag one or more file(s) which are accessible from your computer and drop them directly into a Confluence page or blog post.
For more information about this feature and on how to set it up, refer to the Drag-and-Drop documentation. Screenshots: Attaching an Image to the Image Browser
Screenshot: Attaching Multiple Files to an 'Attachments' list
Confluence now provides full support for the new Office 2007 file formats, allowing you to view and edit content from Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx and .dotx), PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx and .potx) and Excel 2007 (.xlsx) files.
Confluence introduces a new page moving feature, that easily allows you to move the page you are currently viewing, adding or editing to another page elsewhere in the same or another space of your Confluence site. This feature is available through a new 'Move Page' dialog box, which provides the following flexible methods for moving pages:
A new 'Image Browser' has been introduced to replace the old 'Insert Image' window. The image browser provides a less-cluttered and enhanced interface that allows you to:
Confluence's drafts features have been enhanced, such that you can now view any of your unsaved draft changes before deciding to resume editing them. This nifty feature comes in handy, particularly when other people have made subsequent changes to a page or blog post in your drafts list and you need to merge changes or resolve a conflict.
Confluence's page restrictions feature has been incorporated into a convenient and accessible dialog box that is now easier to use than before.
Confluence 3.1 now fully supports the following recent web browser versions:
Edit Mode Exit NotificationWhenever you add or edit a page, comment or blog post and then click onto another Confluence feature that navigates away from your unsaved content, a message box appears, warning that your content will be saved as a draft (if it is a page) or lost (if a comment). This allows you to cancel out of this action if it was accidental. New Rich Text Editor Insert MenuConfluence's rich text editor now combines a number of its commonly used editing features into a new convenient 'Insert' menu.
Macro Browser Smart FieldsWhen using the Macro Browser, an 'auto-complete' feature is now provided on any parameters that require the entry of a single item, such as a page title, username or space key. This greatly facilitates the customisation of macros and minimises the need to know the exact item names in advance. Editor speedThanks to many individual technical improvements, the Rich Text Editor opens up a lot faster than in previous Confluence releases. On a local network it appears almost instantly, and even when accessing a Confluence server on a different continent (in our case, accessing a Confluence server in the US from Australia) it takes less than 3 seconds to start editing a page.
Add Pages or Blog Posts from the DashboardYou can now add pages or blog posts directly from the Dashboard without having to browse to a specific space first. To do this, click on either the 'Add Page' or 'Add Blog Post' buttons to open the pop-up balloon, which allows you to choose the space in which to add the new page or blog post and in the case of pages, a template on which to base the page content. New 'Link to this page' featureIf you wish to link to a Confluence page from any other location on the web, use the convenient 'Link to this Page' feature (available from any page's or blog post's 'Tools' menu). Upon selecting this feature, the 'Link to this Page' dialog box opens, from which you can copy three versions of the link to embed elsewhere:
'More' option on Activity StreamsA 'More' option has been added to various activity streams throughout the Confluence interface, including the profile sidebar, a user's profile page and via the recently updated macro. Clicking 'More' expands the list of results, providing a convenient means of accessing progressively more distant user activities. User Interface Performance ImprovementsMost JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) files are now downloaded in one batch, greatly improving the performance of Confluence's editing features and general page rendering. Other Small Enhancements and Improvements to Confluence
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Document generated by Confluence on Dec 10, 2009 18:41 |