Confluence 3.5 : Release Notes 3.3-beta3 ("Beta3")
This page last changed on Jun 10, 2010 by smansour.
Beta release advisory Confluence versions marked "Milestone", "Beta" or "Release Candidate" (RC) 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. Release candidates are close to being ready for final release, but may still undergo changes before the final release.
For all production use and testing of Confluence, please use the latest official release. Who should try this out?With development 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 development releases.
Each development 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 development releases are still undergoing final performance and compatibility testing for databases and application servers. Hence, we recommend that you use development 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 development 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. Welcome to the Confluence 3.3 Beta programThe Confluence team is really excited to share with you the Confluence 3.3 Beta 3 release. We still have a few bugs to fix, but overall we feel that most of the features below will be ready to ship by the final 3.3 release later this month. New FeaturesHighlights of this release: Confluence Page GadgetConfluence now provides a gadget many have been requesting: the Page Gadget. This allows the display of any Confluence page within a gadget, with optional 'View' and 'Edit' links.You can embed this gadget into your JIRA dashboard or another Confluence instance. Page gadget configuration With autocomplete for space names and page titles: Rendering macros in the gadget The gadget renders macros that occur in the page. Most major macros work within the Confluence Page gadget, such as the Content by Label and the Recently Updated macros: Additionally, you can embed rich content with the View File macro within a Page gadget:
Editing FeaturesImage Properties Panel Introducing a new image properties panel! Manipulating images is now possible in the Rich Text Editor. Simply click (or select via keyboard with shift and arrow keys) an existing image and the image property panel will be available.
Link Properties Panel Editing links in the Rich Text Editor is now easier with the new properties panel. You can easily see the link and edit or unlink existing links on the page. Just place your cursor somewhere inside the link. Macro AutocompleteWe have extended the autocomplete feature introduced in Confluence 3.2 to include macros. You can now type '{' in the Rich Text Editor to trigger macro autocomplete. Just continue typing to search for a particular macro and open it in the macro browser. Notification FeaturesEmail Notification for Network and Blogs For their Atlassian Fedex 14 project, Don Willis and David Taylor enhanced email notifications for blogs and networks. The 'Subscribe to all Blog Posts' option gives you notifications for all the blogs in the system, subject to permissions. If you select 'Subscribe to Network', you will get notifications when anyone you are following edits content or changes their status, also subject to permissions. You can configure these options in your email settings: Manage Page WatchersAn implementation of Matt Ryall's FedEx 14 project is available in this version of Confluence: a dialogue to view and manage watchers on pages and blog posts, as well as view all watchers of a space. This option is only currently available to space administrators. It addresses CONF-5032 and most of CONF-3703 for approximately 150 votes. Screenshots below:
Change Comments on Blog Posts You can now comment on the updates you make to blog posts, in the same way as you can for pages. Engine RoomSecure Administrator Sessions ('Web Sudo')Confluence has another line of defence against hijackers of administrator sessions. All features in the Administration section of Confluence (and some in the Space Administration section) will require the user to validate their credentials before proceeding. After validating, a message at the top of each page reminds you of your temporary administrator session. The temporary session will expire after 10 minutes of administrator inactivity and can also be terminated manually. The secure administrator settings are configurable via the Confluence Administration Console. Login CaptchaAs another important security improvement Confluence now requires the user to answer a Captcha question after a given number of failed login attempts. This security mechanism protects not only the login page but the RPC-interface as well. After a configurable number of failed login attempts via the RPC interface, the user is required to log in using the web interface which then presents the Captcha image. This feature is enabled by default but can be disabled in the Confluence Administration Console. The configuration options include the number of failed login attempts. The default threshold for login attempts is three. XSRF Protection on Comment CreationThis security mechanism requires an XSRF token to be present when adding a comment. Don't worry though, a system is in place so that your session will not expire and you can take your time to write the perfect comment! All the bundled themes have been updated to use this feature. There is also an option in the new Security Configuration screen to disable this feature if you need to keep using a theme that does not yet support the feature. Login InformationConfluence now captures metadata about login attempts, including the dates of the last failed and successful login and the number of failed logins. In addition, a Confluence administrator can now reset the number of failed logins for a particular user. Infrastructure ChangesVarious changes to aid plugin development:
Deprecation NoticeDWR has been deprecated as of 3.3-m1. Support for the client side JavaScript proxies has been moved into the Confluence Legacy Web Resources plugin which is going to be disabled by default. If you need any of the following web resources you will need to enable this plugin:
You will also need to make the following resource a required resource in your view template: legacy.confluence.web.resources:dwr-confluence General ImprovementsGeneral Configuration UIThe General Configuration screen in the Administration Console has finally been given a face lift. It now uses an AUI form style. Accessibility ImprovementsWe've added labels, legends and skip links so that Confluence is now more 508-compliant. We still have a long way to go, but these pages should now be more screen-reader friendly:
Improvements to Importing Word DocumentsThe structure of the 'Tools' > 'Import Word Document' feature has been improved to make it more intuitive. Version-Specific Help LinksConfluence now follows the Atlassian Help Link specification. All help links will now redirect to the version of the Confluence documentation that matches the version of the Confluence application that you are using. If you wish, you can configure the redirecting of the help links by editing the help-paths.properties file. You could do this if you need to point Confluence help links to an internal documentation site. Library Upgrades
New Dashboard ActionsThe dashboard actions are now buttons. On mouse-over, the text turns blue. When clicked, the button is indented. They have also been moved – they appear above 'Spaces'. New Welcome MessageThe dashboard welcome message has been updated. Slimmer Blog ViewThe blog view has been modified as shown in the screenshot below.
Other changes not visible:
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Document generated by Confluence on Mar 16, 2011 18:45 |