Confluence Docs 3.3 : Confluence 3.1 Release Notes
This page last changed on Feb 01, 2010 by smaddox.
8 December 2009 With great pleasure, Atlassian presents Confluence 3.1. Confluence 3.1 is a major release which presents a number of new features and enhancements. With Confluence 3.1, we introduce OpenSocial Gadgets, which allow you to add functionality from other web applications or websites, such as JIRA 4.0+, iGoogle or Gmail, directly into a Confluence page or blog post. Confluence also provides its own Gadgets that can be embedded into other web applications. The new Drag-and-Drop feature is a major step forward in Confluence file attachment. With Drag-and-Drop, you can attach one or more files to a page or blog post simply by dragging them from your desktop onto the Confluence page. You can also embed images, Office documents and PDF files into a page or blog post while in edit mode simply by dragging and dropping them into the rich text editor. Office 2007 documents are now fully supported in Confluence so features like document import, edit in Word and embedding documents in a page now work with Office 2007 files. With the new Move Page feature, you can more quickly and reliably move the page you are editing or viewing to a new parent page, even to one within a new space. An enhanced Image Browser lets you preview images before embedding them into a page. You can also attach image files to a page by dragging and dropping them into the Image Browser window itself. A new Page Restrictions dialog lets you view and apply page restrictions without editing the page. Draft Comparisons allow you to view changes made to a page or blog post before they are actually saved. Other editor enhancements include Exit Notifications to prevent the loss of unsaved content in a page, blog post or comment, a new Insert Menu for the rich text editor, fields that auto-complete in the macro browser and improved rich text editor speed. Confluence 3.1 now fully supports Internet Explorer 8, Safari 4 and Firefox 3.5. Other smaller improvements include the ability to add pages or blog posts directly from the Confluence dashboard, a facility to link to Confluence pages more easily and the ability to expand activity streams at the click of a button. Finally, we have also introduced a simplified installation process for evaluators to help get Confluence up and running quickly. Simplified Confluence evaluation installers have been created for MacOS X and Windows operating systems.
Upgrading from a previous version of Confluence
Highlights of Confluence 3.1
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. Confluence can interact with any gadgets that support the OpenSocial specification.
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. Screenshot: 'Drag-and-Drop' Images or Other Files Directly onto a Page Video: Using Drag-and-Drop 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.
Screenshot: Embedding an Office 2007 Document
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 in the same or another space within your Confluence site. This feature is available through a new 'Move Page' dialog box, which provides the following flexible methods for moving pages:
Screenshot: Moving a Page to a Known Parent Page
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:
Screenshot: Previewing an Image in the Image Browser
Confluence's drafts feature has been enhanced, such that you can now view unsaved changes in your drafts as a 'diff' before you decide to resume editing them. This nifty 'draft comparison' 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. Screenshots: Accessing and Viewing Changed Content with Draft Comparisons
Confluence's page restrictions feature has been incorporated into a convenient and accessible dialog box, which is now easier to use than before.
Screenshot: The Page Restrictions Dialog Box
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. Rich Text Editor SpeedThanks to many individual technical improvements, the rich text editor opens up a lot faster than in previous Confluence releases. In a local network environment, the rich text editor is accessible almost instantly. When accessing a Confluence server on a different continent, the rich text editor still opens up rapidly. In our Sydney office for instance, accessing the rich text editor from our Confluence server in the US takes less than 3 seconds.
Confluence 3.1 now fully supports the following recent web browser versions:
Confluence now provides full usability with these recent browser versions as many bugs associated with these browsers have been fixed.
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:
Get 'More' from your Activity StreamsA 'More' feature has been added to various activity streams throughout the Confluence interface, including the user profile sidebar, user profile page and 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
Known Issues in this ReleaseWe have an enthusiastic and dedicated group of testers and customers who jump in there, try out the new Confluence release and report any problems so that we can fix them quickly. We value this feedback, which means that we can tell you about some minor known issues in Confluence 3.1. Sometimes we find out about a problem with the latest version of Confluence after we have released the software. In such cases we publish information about the known issues in the Confluence Knowledge Base. Please check the important technical advisories on the front page of the Knowledge Base. A big thank you to everyone who helps us ensure that Confluence keeps getting better and better. The Confluence 3.1 Team![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Document generated by Confluence on Jul 09, 2010 01:09 |