Confluence Docs 3.0 : Installing and Configuring Plugins using the Plugin Repository Client This page last changed on Oct 25, 2009 by ggaskell.
| Plugin Safety Plugins are very powerful: they can change the behaviour of almost any part of the Confluence server. This makes it very important that you trust a plugin before you install it. To help ensure the authenticity of a plugin, always be aware of its origins and/or its creator.
The Plugin Repository provides an easy way to install and configure plugins. If you are using Confluence version 2.3 or later, the Plugin Repository is included as part of Confluence. If you are using Confluence 2.0 - 2.2.10, you can use the Plugin Repository after you install the Confluence Repository Client. Confluence versions prior to 2.0 cannot use the Plugin Repository, so you will need to install and configure plugins manually instead. You need to have System Administrator permissions in order to install and configure plugins. On this page: Using the Plugin Repository Filtering the List of Plugins Using the List of Plugins Viewing Plugin Modules and Versions Administering the Plugin Repository Uploading a Non-Repository Plugin Obtaining More Information About Plugins in the Plugin Repository Troubleshooting ## Using the Plugin Repository Go to the 'Administration Console' and click 'Plugin Repository' in the left-hand panel. The following will be displayed: Screenshot: Plugin Repository #### Filtering the List of Plugins Along the top of the page, you'll see three items which allow you to choose the plugins you want displayed: Status filter — Defaults to 'All Plugins'. Choose one of the following to limit the list of plugins displayed: 'Installed Plugins' – Plugins which have been installed on your Confluence instance. 'Outdated Plugins' — Plugins for which updates are available 'Available Plugins' — Plugins which are available, but have not yet been installed. 'Supported Plugins' — All plugins which are supported by Atlassian or a third-party. Search — Enter text in the middle textbox to quickly find what you're looking for: Quickly locate plugins by searching on their title, description, vendor and other details. Just type what you are looking for and let Confluence do the rest The search results are filtered by the status filter (as discussed above), so if you want to see all installed plugins from Adaptavist.com, for example, set the filter to 'Installed Plugins' and type 'Adaptavist.com' into the search box. Categories list — Filter by category: Simply choose the desired category from the list and only plugins relating to that category will be displayed. Note that plugins can exist in more than one category. #### Using the List of Plugins Under the filter options, the list of plugins matching the current filter settings is shown in a table. Each column in the table shows information about a particular plugin, and allows you further configuration options: Plugin Name — Displays the name of the plugin (linked to the detailed information page)and the plugin vendor (linked to their website if applicable) Click the '+' icon to expand the information display showing plugin description. Click the '-' icon to hide the description again. Payment — Can be one of the following: Free (self explanatory) Donate (it's free, but you should consider donating to keep it that way) Buy (it's commercial - click the link to show a price list and purchase online) Status — Shows the current status of this plugin in respect to your Confluence installation: Installed - installed and up-to-date Outdated - installed, but there are new versions available Available - not installed yet Non Repository - a version is installed which is not in the repository Support — Tells you who supports the plugin: 'Atlassian' — The plugin is supported by Atlassian. If you have any problems, please raise a ticket at the Atlassian Support System. 'Unsupported' — The plugin has been developed by a third party, not by Atlassian, and is not currently supported by Atlassian. In addition, the third party has not yet given detailed information about support arrangements. This does not necessarily mean that the plugin is not supported. Please refer to the plugin's home page in the Confluence Extension space or the Atlassian Plugins Exchange site. The 'Support' column can also contain a link to the third-party plugin support site. Read more information about supported plugins. Install — Install, upgrade or uninstall a plugin: When installing or upgrading, everything is automatic (i.e. it downloads and installs for you, etc). Although the client (since 1.0.2) warns you of dependencies and (since 1.0.3) will do its best to check what has been downloaded is what you asked for - Confluence may break as if you had uploaded the plugins to the Plugin Manger yourself. Where it can, the client will error constructively allowing you to choose the best course of action for yourself. In general, things usually work - and if they don't its a bug with the client or the metadata. If the Confluence Repository Client encounters a password request when downloading the plugin (usually case with Commercial plugins), you will be prompted for a username and password. If the plugin is installed into WEB-INF (or otherwise uninstallable) it will display 'Manually Installed. where the actions would be. Enabled — If the box is ticked, the plugin is enabled, otherwise it's either disabled or partially disabled. You can enable or disable individual modules within the plugin from the plugin details screen (see later). Configure — If the plugin offers further configuration options, you can click the 'Configure' link. A new screen will open, showing the specific options offered by the plugin. You can click the table headings to sort the table. Click a second time to reverse the sort. ## Viewing Plugin Modules and Versions When you click the name of a plugin in the plugin list, you'll be taken to the detailed view for that plugin. General information and plugin module details are shown at the top of the display and from here you can disable or enable individual modules. Note: Disabling a plugin module may cause other modules in the same plugin to cease to function correctly. When in doubt, make sure you disable or enable the entire plugin. Near the bottom of the display a table outlines all plugin versions and shows which you have installed. Just like the plugins list, you can click the '+' to expand the details shown for a specific version. This screen also allows you to quickly install, upgrade, downgrade and uninstall any version of the plugin. ### Administering the Plugin Repository There are various settings on the 'Admin' tab. The most important of these is the 'Data Source' — without this, you'll see no plugins in the list and will get a fair number of errors. The 'Earliest Plugin State' allows you to filter the plugin list to versions at or above a specific state: Alpha, Beta, Release Candidates, Stable. If you are running in a production environment, you will usually want to set this setting to 'Stable + Release Candidates' or 'Stable Only'. The 'Plugin Compatibility' setting allows you to restrict the list to only show plugin versions that are specifically known to work with your version of Confluence. In many cases, plugins will work with your version of Confluence, but they might be marked as 'unknown' compatibility if the plugin author hasn't been able to test with that specific Confluence version. As such, it's extremely useful if you find an 'unknown' version of a plugin to work (or not work) with your Confluence that you let us know (by any means possible) so that we can update the repository to reflect this. The 'Category Visibility' setting allows you to trim down the categories list by hiding categories that don't contain a plugin yet. ### Uploading a Non-Repository Plugin There are several plugins that are not currently listed by the Plugin Repository which need to be manually uploaded either as a file or from a remote server URL. If you want to install such a plugin: Click the 'Upload' tab. Enter either the file name or the URL of the remote server URL. Click the 'Install' button. ### Obtaining More Information About Plugins in the Plugin Repository Above we have described the 'Plugin Repository' screen in the Administration Console. For more information about these plugins, please refer to its page on the Atlassian Plugins Exchange site. To find a specific plugin quickly on this site, ensure that you are in the Plugins section of this site and use the search tool. You should only need to enter a few keywords of the plugin's name to find it. ## Troubleshooting ##### Problem Loading the Plugin Repository with IE7 There is a problem using the Plugin Repository with Internet Explorer 7. You may see an error message saying 'Object error'. In this case, the browser will just hang until you close the browser window or tab. This problem is caused by a bug in IE7, which Microsoft have fixed in Windows Service Pack 3. Details are on our JIRA site at CONF-10837. There are some workarounds for those who cannot install the Microsoft Service Pack. You can use a different browser instead of IE7, such as Firefox. Or you can upload the plugin jar into Confluence manually, via the 'Plugins' option in the Administration Console. See Installing and Configuring Plugins Manually. ##### RELATED TOPICS Confluence Plugin Guide Attachments: enable-plugin.png (image/png) enable-disable-plugins.png (image/png) manage-plugins.png (image/png) PluginRepository.png (image/png)

Document generated by Confluence on Nov 05, 2009 23:27