This page last changed on Jan 16, 2007 by michael@atlassian.com.
Getting the source code
Firstly, you will probably only have access to the source code if you have a commercial license. If you don't, but feel you should, contact Atlassian and see what you can work out.
Assuming the above, do the following:
- Download the desired version of Confluence.
- Expand the archive to your desired location (we'll call it $CONFSRC)
- Open the 'confluence' subdirectory under it.
- Open the contained build.properties file in a text editor and adjust it to meet your environment settings. In particular, pay attention to the following:
- JDK Version - This should be set to whatever your target JDK is called in IDEA. On Mac OS X, this is usually '1.4' or '1.5' (without quotes). Eg:
- Source code location - The location of extra source code. For some reason this is set incorrectly in the default source release. Set it to this:
- Application Server Settings - Uncomment these and point to your app server installation. Only uncomment the ones you actually have installed. Eg:
- Application Settings - The settings in which your application server will launch confluence. The settings below will allow you to access the running server at http://localhost:8080/confluence:
- WAR Settings - These should already be set for you in later versions, but it's good to check them. Eg:
- Database Settings - If you are using an external database, set this up as documentation dictates.
Creating the IDEA project files
- Open a command prompt and enter the following:
- That's it! Now just open up the freshly-generated 'confluence.ipr' file in IDEA. It should look something like this:

Setting up the Confluence environment
Once the project is loaded, you will need to set up where the 'confluence home' is.
- Open src/etc/java/confluence-init.properties
- Set the 'confluence.home' property to the location you want confluence data stored. An example might be $CONFSRC/confluence/home, or somewhere in your home directory. If the location doesn't exist, Confluence will try to create it when you run the webapp.
Compiling and running/debugging Confluence
Now that it's set up, we should make sure it's all working by getting it to run inside IDEA.
- Click the 'confluence' module and then select 'Build > Make Project' from the menu. Alternately, click the
button.
 | The most common problem here is that the JDK has not been set up correctly. If you have a problem, check the following:
- Right-click on the 'confluence' module in the project window and select 'Module Settings' at the bottom of the popup-window.
- Select the 'Libraries' tab
- Check that a valid JDK has been selected for the module.
- Check the other modules in the project for the same.
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- From the drop-down beside the
button, select your app server (eg. 'Tomcat').
- Click the
button next to the app server drop-down.
Hopefully your project will now run and you will be able to access Confluence through your web browser.
To debug, basically switch the last step of the above to clicking the button instead of the button.
What's Next?
Now that we've got Confluence running, we can start working on plugins.
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