The latest release of the Confluence SharePoint Connector is loaded with new features that help make the static content you store in SharePoint easier to embed within the dynamic content you create and share in Confluence.
Access Content in SharePoint From Confluence, Fast
Confluence 4.0 delivered a new intuitive editing interface that lets users create rich content with extraordinary speed and simplicity. Combine the content storage benefits of SharePoint with the new content collaboration power of Confluence and you’ve solved your team’s collaboration struggles.
SharePoint’s often used to store legacy documents. There are times when you need to make these documents accessible in Confluence where everyone’s collaborating around projects and getting their work done. Atlassian’s made it even faster for the users that live in Confluence to embed custom SharePoint Lists and link to SharePoint documents in Confluence pages with Macro Autocomplete.
It’s also easy to jump over to SharePoint from the lists embedded in Confluence pages with a new View in SharePoint link accessible from the macro property panel.
Lastly, Atlassian’s made the integration that the SharePoint Connector provides more discoverable to Confluence users by including the SharePoint Document Link and List macros in the editor’s Insert Menu.
Faster Linking to SharePoint Content
Let’s face it, collaborating around the content in SharePoint is a burden. However, pulling content stored in SharePoint into Confluence will not only save you time, but your mental health too!
Improved SharePoint Document Link Macro
Effortlessly create links to your SharePoint server’s Office documents while editing Confluence pages. Links inserted using the SharePoint Link macro let users open and edit SharePoint documents directly in the appropriate Office application, such as Excel or Word, without having to load the SharePoint site.
SharePoint List Macro
If you’ve got a group of related documents – like collateral for an upcoming product launch – that are stored in SharePoint, the the SharePoint List macro makes it easy to share those documents with other stakeholders that get their work done in Confluence. The macro can display most SharePoint list types and document libraries giving you the ability to access and collaborate around all of your SharePoint documents in Confluence.
Watch Confluence Content from SharePoint
If you’re viewing a Confluence page or blog post within a SharePoint site you can now choose to Watch it to receive email notifications whenever changes are made.
Up-to-date Content, All the Time
Even better, if someone edits the Confluence page or blog post while you are viewing it, the Confluence Web Part in SharePoint will automatically refresh so you’re guaranteed to be viewing the most current version. Keeping up-to-date with the dynamic content that lives in Confluence just got easier.
Available Today!
To try Atlassian’s SharePoint Connector 1.5, click the link below – and to learn more about SharePoint or Confluence and what they can give you, read away or drop us a line.
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Tags: 1.5, Atlassian, Confluence, connector, documents, download, fast, interface, SharePoint
Best of 2011: Confluence Edition
Here’s Atlassian’s Matt Hodges’ take on Atlassian Confluence’s best additions of 2011, which he says “paved the way for the future of online collaboration:”
2011 was the year Atlassian satisfied more than 2,235 of our customers’ votes for new features and improvements with three of our biggest releases, ever. 2011 was the year Atlassian took Confluence to the cloud with our new OnDemand platform, made it even more affordable for small teams, and started to get you new features, faster. 2011 was the year a new era in content collaboration was born.
Taking a page out of Ken’s book, here’s my pick of the starting XI of 2011 for the Confluence Family.
Keeper – The Anchor
No. 1 – A Faster, Richer, Simpler Editor
Suitably, this position is filled by the brand-new editor that shipped in Confluence 4.0. On-top of a brilliantly simple design, it’s packed full of rich editing features that make it lightning fast and able to satisfy two of your top 10 most voted feature requests – Merge Table Cells and Copy and Paste Images.
Defense (4) – A Solid Foundation
Any winning team needs a strong defensive line. In 2011 Atlassian built and improved upon four rock-solid pillars to ensure Confluence continues to thrive in 2012.
No. 2 – Easier Connections to Active Directory, LDAP, and Crowd
Connecting Confluence to an external user directory used to be painful, whether it was Active Directory, other LDAP servers or Atlassian Crowd. You had to edit XML files, and the configuration options were limited. Confluence 3.5 brought a simple, powerful , and flexible directory management interface and support for nested groups, another top 10 most voted for feature request.
No. 3 – Stronger JIRA Integration
Confluence is great for collaboratively defining specs. JIRA‘s perfect for tracking the tasks that need to be completed to make those specs a reality. In Confluence 3.5 Atlassian made it easy to link the specs you develop in Confluence to the actionable issues you track in JIRA, without leaving the editor.
Since more than half of Confluence customers also use JIRA Atlassian wanted to reduce complexity with your setup and give your users one username and password for both applications. With the release of Confluence 3.5 and JIRA 4.3 you can now manage all your users in one place by allowing you to delegate Confluence User Management to JIRA.
No. 4 – New Installer with Guided Upgrades
With new releases coming frequent and often Atlassian wanted to help you get new features to your users, faster. Much to the delight of any sysadmins that are looking after Confluence, Confluence 4.0 brought with it new guided installers for Windows and Linux.
No. 5 – More Plugin Points for Developers
Confluence 4.0 was designed to allow for constant innovation and improvement. Atlassian worked closely with our amazing partners to make sure they can take advantage of the power of the new editor. The latest version of Gliffy is an excellent example of how plugin developers can deliver a more powerful and most importanlty, intuitive user experience in Confluence.
Midfield (3) – The Collaborative Engine
Soccer is a team sport. It’s ultimately a collaboration amongst players that leads to a result. Midfield starts the plays. They facilitate the collaboration that helps win games. In 2011, Atlassian added 3 new features to help users share and discover the rich content they create to foster collaboration and achieve better results.
No. 6 – A New Way to Share
Tired of copying and pasting Confluence links into emails? Atlassian was too, so in Confluence 3.5 they added a ‘Share’ button to every page and blog post. Then in Confluence 4.1 Atlassian gave you a simple keyboard shortcut – ‘S’ – so you can bring right people into the discussions and projects that are taking place in Confluence without picking up your mouse.
No. 7 – Autowatch Content You Care About
Have you ever forgot to watch a page that you’ve created, edited, or commented on? Autowatch ensures you are always kept in the loop by automatically watching any pages or blogs posts that you contribute to. You’ll never miss another play again.
No. 8 – Familiarly Social @mentions
@mentions are a great way to notify other users about content and conversations they should be involved in. Best of all, they work just like Twitter and Facebook. When mentioned, users receive an email notification so they can jump right into Confluence and start contributing.
Strikers (3) – The Cutting-Edge
There are some features that are game-changers. They kick goals and win games. That’s how I like to think of these three features Atlassian gave you in 2011.
No. 9 – Autoformatting Magic
With the new editor in Confluence 4.0, came more power and speed thanks to Autoformatting. Type wiki markup and watch Confluence convert it to rich text, on the fly. Bold, italics, strike-through, underline, headings, lists, emoticons, tables – it all works.
No. 10 – Professional Image Effects
Creating content that looks good has never been this easy. Click an image and choose from a set of professional effects. That’s it. Whether it’s screenshots in your release notes or snaps from your company’s holiday party, Image Effects makes everyone look like an editing pro.
No. 11 – Instant Autoconvert
Autoconvert takes the links you paste into the editor – Confluence pages, JIRA issues, YouTube videos, Skitch images, Flickr photo streams, and Vimeo videos – and transforms them into the dynamic content you desire. Autoconvert will save you valuable time everyday, helping you get things done, faster.
Off the Bench – Awesome Additions
There when you need them, your substitutes can fill the holes that pop up during play and change the game. They add the extra flare that’s sometimes needed to win. 2011 was a year Atlassian saw some incredible add-ons – new and old – jump off the bench and shine.
No. 12 – Manage Leave and Track Projects with Team Calendars
In June, at our third annual Atlassian Summit Atlassian revealed a brand-new add-on for Confluence – Team Calendars – where people, projects, and content meet. Since then Atlassian’s given you a new Team Calendar release, 30 days or less…guaranteed. Our two most recent releases delivered the new features you’ve been asking for – now you can share your custom date fields from JIRA and add multiple people to a People Calendar event.
No. 13 – The SharePoint Connector Meets Confluence 4.0
That’s right, just last week Atlassian released version 1.5 of the SharePoint Connector. Compatible with Confluence 4.0, the SharePoint Connector takes full advantage of the new Confluence editor to make SharePoint integration easier to discover and use.
No. 14 – Get Schooled at Atlassian University
Also revealed at Summit 2011, Atlassian University is an online training tool that teaches your company how to use Confluence through videos and step-by-step interactive tutorials. With over 40 self-paced classes, it’s the fastest and most intuitive path to becoming a master of Confluence.
No. 15 – Incredible Add-ons
Confluence 4.0 paved the way for plugin developers to provide a more natural, richer, and intuitive user experience. Here are some stand-outs:
- Scroll Wiki Forms for Structured Content
- Tasks & Approvals with Ad hoc Workflows
- UI Mockups with Balsamiq
- Number Headings, Any Way You Want
- Custom Designs with the Original Theme
- Google Docs Connector for Confluence
- Arsenale Lockpoint for Controlled Attachment Locking
What Will 2012 Hold?
There’s no doubt it’s been a big year for Confluence, our biggest yet. Atlassian has an awesome team that continues to grow and execute. Thank you to our customers, new and old, and the extended Confluence community – users, experts, and plugin developers. Happy Holidays and safe New Year from the Confluence Team.
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Tags: 2011, addition, altassian, autoconvert, Calendar, community, Confluence, expert, feature, flickr, instant, manage, matt hodges, mockup, plugin, release, social, team, user, vimeo, youtube
JIRA: Best 11 of 2011
2011 was an epic year for the JIRA Family including two massive releases, the launch of a new product – Atlassian Bonfire – and the introduction of Atlassian OnDemand just to name a few things. Atlassian’s Ken Olofsen had a tough time whittling this list down to just 11 things, but “did his best” to use a “traditional 4-4-2 formation“ (see primer on jersey number relevance) to highlight his “JIRA Best XI” for 2011. So, here’s Ken:
The Keeper
For anyone who’s played the game, you’ll know that goalkeepers are a special breed and sometimes a bit looney – no offense to Michael Knighten or any other ‘keeps out there.
Keepers are typically the older veteran who is wildly popular with both the team and the fans, and for our team this is no exception:
No. 1 – User Timezones
JRA-9 was not only the oldest, but also the most voted feature (454 votes), we added to JIRA in 2011. And we didn’t just add timezones support, we took timezones to the next level by making it clear for distributed teams to see when other teammates are either sleeping or on the job.
The Defense
A solid foundation is the key for any winning team, so it was important for the JIRA team to bolster the back line and build a platform for success:
No. 3 – New Installers / Upgraders
At the heart of the back four we have the new installers for Windows and Linux. Not only did we add simple way for administrators to setup and configure JIRA, we inculded an unattended installer and automated upgrader for pain-free JIRA deployments going forward. On top of that, we even provided a self-updating plugin manager, database config tools and enhanced importers.
No. 5 – Application Links
The other anchor in defense, Application Links are the glue holding all your Atlassian tools together providing aggregated activity streams and key integration capabilities.
For example, connecting JIRA to Confluence allows quick issue creation and linking of JIRA issues from Confluence. In fact, with the recent release of Confluence 4.1 JIRA issue links will instantly autoconvert in the Confluence editor:
No. 2 – Admin Overhaul
In addition to adding LDAP & Active Directory support, centralized user management, and a new visual workflow designer; we revamped the JIRA Administration interface to make it easier than ever to manager your instance. A new project-centric administration screen makes it simple to see how each project is setup, so you can make changes quickly.
No. 4 – JIRA on the Bookshelves
Four new books hit the shelves this year providing an excellent array of resources for JIRA admins and plugin developers:
The Midfield
As the engine room of the team, the midfield is where the heavy lifting happens. We added a number of key features and enhancements to make JIRA even more powerful than ever.
No. 6 – Visual Workflow Designer
JIRA’s versatility is rooted in it’s powerful workflow. That’s why I was personally very excited to see the acquisition and integration of the Visual Workflow Designer making it easier than every to create and modify workflows on the fly:
No. 7 – Activity Streams
No one can quite “bend it like Beckham”, but JIRA Activity Streams are incredibly flexible and configurable.
Each team member can dial in their personal activity streams to keep tabs on the specific systems, people and activities that are important to them. They can also vote, watch and comment directly from their dashboard, or drop custom streams into their favorite RSS reader.
No. 8 – JQL Search Change History
JIRA Query Language set the gold standard for advance search within issue trackers. In 2011, JQL blossomed into the prototypical “two-way player” by adding historical search capabilities. Use the “WAS” operator on everything from status to assignee and uncover changes made “BY” certain people anytime in the past. Great for building killer dashboards, ad hoc reporting or just sleuthing around JIRA.
No. 10 – Issue Creators
The spark at the center of midfield is the “creator” who gets it all going. JIRA has no shortage of ways to create issues – the web, your browser, your IDE, email, remote APIs, applications likeConfluence, and more. In 2011, we introduced JIRA Mobile Connect for collecting user feedback and crash reports from your mobile apps and the JIRA Issue Collector for creating issues from your website:
And just wait, 2012 promises even more!
The Forwards
Leading the attack, the forward line is always part of the action and usually the ones making the real difference. In our team, the strikers come from our popular add-ons, GreenHopper and Bonfire:
No. 11 – Rapid Board
After spending a few months in the “GreenHopper Labs”, we finally unveiled the Rapid Board. Based completely on JQL, Rapid Views introduce a new way for agile teams to view issues in JIRA and work through their daily tasks.
No. 9 – Session-Based Testing
Atlassian Bonfire is the newest member of the team and is already blazing a trail for exploratory testing. We all rely heavily on automated testing, but with the growing emphasis on usability and user experience, many software teams are spending more time manually testing applications.
Bonfire’s session-based testing evolved out of our own need for better tool for managing our agile testing efforts.
Off the bench
Every strong team needs the support of a deep bench, and ours knows no limits:
No. 12 – The JIRA Ecosystem
This year the JIRA ecosystem exploded, bringing the list of JIRA add-ons – plugins, applications and integrations – to over 400!
No. 14 – Slick New Emails
2012 and beyond
The JIRA team has been working very hard to make all of our customers, new and old, as happy and successful as possible. And with JIRA 5 on the horizon, 2012 promises to be even more exciting for the JIRA Family.
On behalf of the entire JIRA Team, I’d like to thank you for being part of our success. Happy New Year!!
PS. Don’t forget to check out the Confluence Starting XI for 2011. While no match for this JIRA team, it’s quite impressive as well.. 
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Tags: 2011, add-ons, Atlassian, best, development, email, Greenhopper, JIRA, Twitter
Bamboo 3.4‘s ready for download and ready to spread a little joy for the holidays. This release provides some gifts for Atlassian’s Git users, and will bring joy to those expanding their continuous integration process into the cloud.
What’s New in Bamboo?
Improved Git Support & Compatibility
Git users can get more out of Bamboo during their holiday break. Satisfying many votes from our Git users, Bamboo’s integration with Git’s now compatible with Git submodules. Git submodules are simply a reference to another repository at a particular snapshot in time.
- Ruby, Python, and Javascript software projects often have dependencies on third-party libraries
- Java developers need specific versions of a library in java that have not been released
The new support for Git submodules allows Atlassian users to structure your projects the way you want, and makes it easy to build multi-module projects. The full capabilities of your Git client are now at your disposal for Git-based development. Simple and powerful, just like Git!
Note: Building with Git submodules requires that you have a native Git client and add it as an agent capability in Bamboo. If you’ve not configured your agent capabilities to use your native Git client Bamboo will use the embedded Git client (which doesn’t support submodules).
Curious about Git submodules and how you can use them? Learn about Git submodules here.
Share Repositories
The holidays are all about sharing, so Atlassian thought repositories in Bamboo should join the fun. In Atlassian’s previous Bamboo release, Atlassian introduced the ability to monitor and check out code from multiple repositories. Multiple repositories in Bamboo are great for both small projects that wish to build and include externally developed open source software as part of their project, and large projects that consist of multiple modules located in different repositories. Whether you are working on a small or large project, you may be using the same repositories across multiple build plans in Bamboo. Following the DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) principle, you can now share your repositories across these plans. Bulk manage repositories across multiple plans with a single configuration change. For admins, that means you don’t have to edit each plan/job to change a repository. All you have to do is go into the Shared Source Repositories, and make your changes there.
- Changing working branches: post release, you may want to change the working branch. Now you don’t have to go into each job and update the Source URL manually.
- Changing servers: if you are moving servers and changing base URLs, simply change the base URL in one place.
- Changing passwords: admins update SCM passwords (every month) as per company policy; now you don’t have to edit each plan/job to reflect those changes.
A huge time saver for those trying to keep repositories in sync across multiple plans.
Define a shared repository that can be used globally. From there, you can share the configuration with as many plans as you want.
After you update your shared repository configuration, the changes will be picked up by all Plans that use that repository. Share away!
Grow in the Cloud – Elastic Agents with Windows Support
Give your team the ultimate gift, more build power. For those of you taking advantage of elastic agents in the Amazon EC2 cloud, Atlassian now has Windows and .NET support.
Growing capacity
Considering growing your Windows instances without having to install Windows? It all comes within an Amazon EC2 image. After the image is spun up, you can be easily connect to your instance with a Windows Remote Desktop application from any operating system.
Windows application testing
Windows instances from Amazon are great for any Windows installer testing. Like a typical VMware image, an EC2 image can easily be discarded after use, which is important because some Windows applications leave too much left over in the registry. If you need to test Internet Explorer for your web front end tests or Microsoft SQL Server for your database backend, it’s all possible on Amazon EC2.
Saving installed applications
Just like Linux AMIs, you can install any packages, add software, and make system configurations. Easily save these changes to your new AMI image, which can be added to your Bamboo EC2 Image configuration.
Windows EC2 with Amazon and Bamboo allows for elastic growth to meet your demands. Don’t have enough VMWare hardware to go around? Expand your build system into the Amazon cloud, along with Bamboo’s elastic agents.
Want to get going on installing elastic agents on Windows/.NET? Check out a how-to blog on elastic agents and Windows.
“Easy on the Eyes” Emails
There’s alot of “bling” flashing around, so Atlassian decided to make emails more “blingy”. There are many options to receive builds notifications in Bamboo – RSS, instant messenger, IDE pop-up, through JIRA and email (the most popular). The goal of all these notifications is to digest the information you need quickly, so you can resolve any issues. The new email template makes it a whole lot easier to find important information about a build at a glance. Identify which test(s) failed, view code changes, and jump to the context of changes directly from the email. Not to mention, it looks and feels like the Bamboo UI.
Agent Security
Sensitive information’s now even more secure in Bamboo. Verify that remote agents are allowed to connect to the Bamboo server, and prevent unknown agents from connecting to the server. When Agent Security’s enabled, an administrator must manually approve agents before they can communicate with the server in any way.
There’s more…
- Improved dashboard performance: your dashboard should feel a little snappier with improved caching
- New Bamboo logo: You may have seen the new Bamboo logo on our website. It’s now in the product!
This release has over 107 new features and improvements implemented. Check out the full release notes for more details.
Ready to download
The Bamboo Holiday Release is now ready for download – get started with a 30-day FREE trial or upgrade your current instance.
Filed under: Atlassian, News | Leave a Comment
Tags: .net, 3.4, Atlassian, Bamboo, bamboo 3.4, Cloud, compatible, development, elastic agents, email, git, holiday, java, javascript, management, module, Project, python, release, ruby, simple, submodule, update, windows
Editor’s note: Please note the total coolness of these Confluence 4.1 features, *in addition to what’s listed below*: pimping your images, autoconvert of content from the likes of YouTube, Google Maps, Vimeo, Flickr (paste a URL, Confluence will turn into content automagically), and find and replace. This is awesome stuff – so make sure you’re sitting down and holding onto something!
Who doesn’t like a big Christmas stocking packed with goodies? It’s the season of giving and, this week, you’ll be able to rip open Confluence 4.1 and get your paws on all the new features packed into this big release. Atlassian’s Ryan already peeled back the covers on Image Effects – in this post Atlassian gives you a sneak peek at 5 more improvements coming your way in Confluence 4.1. Like every Confluence release, there’s something for everyone.
1. Use Any Character in Page Titles
Satisfying many of your votes, Confluence 4.1 removes the restrictions on characters in page and blog titles. This allows more descriptive page names and generally removes restrictions when creating page titles and naming your content.
Click to view full image2. Set a Global PDF Stylesheet
Fulfilling 90 more of your votes, Confluence 4.1 let’s you set a custom PDF stylesheet at the global level, just like custom layouts. When a PDF Space export is requested, it will fall back to this global stylesheet if there is no specific individual Space stylesheet defined. This means users won’t have to re-apply the same stylesheet to all their individual spaces, if they primarily want one look and feel – perfect for enforcing company-wide styling guidelines.
3. Follow Your Network On the Dashboard
Think about how you work – usually you work closely with a handful of people everyday – people in your immediate team, direct reports, and stakeholders in other teams. Just like Twitter, you can follow these people in Confluence to build you own ‘Network‘. In Confluence 4.1 it’s easy to stay-up-to-date on what your Network’s been up to with a new tab on the Dashboard.
Click to view full image4. View and Filter Attached Files in a Space
When you want to display all the attachments of a Page on a Page, you can use the regular Attachments macro. A new Space Attachments macro in Confluence 4.1 lets you display all of the files attached to the Pages in a Space, in a table view and filter them by file type. Perhaps you have a bunch of training files attached to Pages in a Space. No you can list them all on one Page to aid discovery.
Click to view full image5. Translations Made Easier
For those customers working on translating the user interface, Confluence 4.1 has a new feature to make your job easier. After visiting the Confluence Dashboard, just add this text to the end of your Confluence URL and press ‘Enter’.
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?i18nMode=lightning
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This will then cause each element of the user interface to display its special key name while Confluence is still in an interactive mode. This makes it easier to find the essential context for each key, which can then be searched on http://translations.atlassian.com where you can enter an appropriate translation for your custom language pack.
The key names are displayed with a “lightning bolt” graphic between elements of the names. For example, the Browse button will show up like so:
The key system.space.menu can be found on http://translations.atlassian.com, allowing you to write a better translation for the term Browse, being able to see the full context of where the UI element belongs and what it means to the user.
When you’re finished translating, just add the following text to the end of your Confluence URL and press ‘Enter’.
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?i18nMode=normal
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Helping You Transition to the Confluence 4.x Generation
Thinking of upgrading to Confluence 4.x? How could you resist? Atlassian’s created a set of resources to help you manage the transition. Tutorial videos, Quick Reference and Upgrade Guides – you can find it all here.
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Tags: 4, 4.1, Atlassian, autocorrect, character, Confluence, content, effects, feature, features, flickr, global, google maps, image, improvement, network, page titles, pdf, release, stylesheet, transition, vimeo, youtube
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