This page last changed on Nov 16, 2006 by david.soul@atlassian.com.
Old documentation

This is the old list of frequently asked questions, left here temporarily. Please refer to the latest FAQ for up-to-date information.

The best way you can help make this FAQ more useful is by asking questions: either in any of the places above, or by leaving your questions in the comments below.


General

How does Confluence differ from a wiki?

Essentially, Confluence is a wiki. Our aim was to build an application that was built to the requirements of an enterprise knowledge management system, without losing the essential, powerful simplicity of the wiki in the process.

From the wiki, we took the following lessons:

  • It should be easy for anyone to create and edit pages
  • It should be easy for anyone to link pages together
  • It should be easy to see what has changed recently
  • The site should be searchable
  • Users should have the tools to organise and group pages without having any particular structure imposed upon them

On top of that, we added professional features, such as the partitioning of content into separately managed spaces, user- and group-based access control, automated refactoring, PDF exporting, searchable attachments, a comprehensive remote API, easy installation and a professional and easy-to-use presentation; all wrapped up in Atlassian's "Legendary Service".


Can I use CamelCaseLinks like they do on WardsWiki?

Yes. However, CamelCaseLinks are turned off by default. The site administrator can enable them from the Administration Console.


How do I display an attached image in a page?

Simple. Attach the image to the page. You can then include the image in the page by putting just the attachment filename in your image tag, like so: !attachmentFilename.jpg! For example, the following code produces the subsequent image:

\!fish.gif\!

Go to the User Guide for more information on Working with images.

RELATED TOPICS:
Working with images
Confluence User Guide


Can I set Confluence to redirect users to a space homepage immediately after login?

Yes. This is configured by a site administrator from the Administration Console. Please vist the doc page on how to do this.

RELATED TOPICS:
Confluence Administration Guides
Customising Space Homepage


How do I migrate Confluence from one database to another?

First perform an XML backup of your Confluence site. You can do this from the Administration > Backup and Restore page.

Once you've made the backup file, you can set up a new Confluence instance from scratch against your new database and restore the backup that you just created. Detailed instructions can be found here.

RELATED TOPICS:
Configuration Guide
Confluence Administration Guides


Where does Confluence store all its data?

Attachments, extensions and configuration files are stored in the Confluence Home Directorythat was configured when Confluence was first installed. All remaining data resides in the configured database. For more detailed answer to this question, see Confluence System Files and Data Storage.


I can not find the "Rich Text" editor. Does Confluence 1.4.3. contain the Editor?

The Rich Text Editor (aka WYSIWYG editor) is available in Confluence 2.O and upwards. A site administrator will need to enable Rich text editing from the Administration Console before you can use this option.

If you wish to upgrade your Confluence installation, instructions can be found here.

RELATED TOPICS:
Rich Text Editor Overview
Enabling Rich Text Editing


Users and Permissions

How do I configure Confluence for public/anonymous access?

There are two different permissions that need to be set to allow anonymous access to a Confluence site. First, the 'Anonymous' user needs the global "Use Confluence" permission, secondly you need to give 'Anonymous' permissions in each space you want to make public. Full instructions can be found here.

RELATED TOPICS
Security Overview
Users and Groups


Can I restrict access to individual pages within a space?

Yes, Confluence has a fine grained security structure that allows you to restrict access at the site, space and page levels. More information can be found in the Confluence User Guide.

RELATED TOPICS:
Page Level Permissioning
Space Permissions Overview


How do I prevent just anyone from being able to sign up for new accounts?

Public signup can be enabled or disabled from the 'General Configuration' section of the Administration Console.


How do I share users and groups between Confluence and [*JIRA|http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira]**?*
This topic has been covered in length here


I have lost my administrator password, what do I do?

You will have to change the pasword manually in the database. A detailed description of the process can be found under Restoring Passwords To Recover Admin User Rights.


Does the license check include deactivated users?

No. The license check only includes users who have 'use Confluence' permission.

As of Confluence 2.1.x, you can no longer deactivate users, but users who cannot use Confluence are still not counted in the license check.

RELATED TOPICS:
Removing a User
Viewing License Details


Troubleshooting

I am using MySQL, and after a while Confluence stops working with database errors.

MySQL's JDBC drivers have an annoying default behaviour where if a connection is idle for a certain amount of time (by default, eight hours), it is closed. Since Confluence uses a connection pool, this means that pooled connections die if they are not used within a certain time period.

The solution is to append ?autoReconnect=true to the end of your database's JDBC URL.

  • If you are using JNDI data-sources, you will do this in your application server's configuration files.
  • If you have configured Confluence to access the database directly, you will need to manually edit the hibernate.connection.url property in the confluence.cfg.xml file in your confluence.home directory. After you have changed the URL in this file, restart Confluence.
Note

In Confluence versions 1.0RC5 and before, there was a bug that manifested when you used Confluence to connect directly to a MySQL database instead of going through a datasource configured in the application-server under which Confluence runs. Unfortunately the symptoms of the bug were identical to the much more common problem above, so it took us a little longer to find the problem than we should have.

So long as you specify autoReconnect=true, Confluence 1.0RC6 and later should remain connected to your MySQL database indefinitely.


When Confluence tries to send mail, I get a "javax.mail.NoSuchProviderException: smtp" error.

The technical explanation is that you have two different versions of Sun's Javamail libraries in your application classpath. When Confluence tries to send an email, Java gets confused as to which version of the library it should be using, and falls over. If (and only if) you are encountering this error, try removing the Javamail-1.3.jar and activation-1.0.1.jar files from the confluence/WEB-INF/lib directory of your Confluence installation, and restarting the server. The problem should go away.

You can find more information on this forum thread


I am using MS SQL Server and I get a "ResultSet can not re-read row data for column 2" error.

See the Known Issues For SQL Server


I am trying to use thumbnails, and I get the message: "This Confluence installation can not generate thumbnails: no image support in Java runtime"

On some Java installations (i.e. Unix without X11), you need to pass an additional parameter to Java when you are starting up to tell it how to use its image-manipulation libraries.

To get thumbnail support working in this configuration, you need to start java with the argument '-Djava.awt.headless=true'. If you are using tomcat (or the Confluence standalone edition), try setting the environment variable JAVA_OPTS before starting the server. Assuming you're using the bourne or bash shell:

export JAVA_OPTS=-Djava.awt.headless=true

On Fedora Linux, you will also need to install the xorg-x11-deprecated-libs package. (See: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=130239)

For other application servers, techniques may vary. If you need help with a particular server, mail us at confluence-support@atlassian.com


I am using Fedora Linux, and PDF exports fail with an UnsatisfiedLinkError

You need to install the xorg-x11-deprecated-libs package. (See: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=130239)


I am getting Out of Memory errors, how can I allocate more memory to tomcat?

Since the default memory setting usually is around 64 or 128MB, you might have to adjust the settings to run a bigger Confluence instance with sufficent memory. In order to allocate more memory to tomcat, you will have to change the following settings:

On Linux
Edit the file $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/startup.sh and insert the following line, subsituting for the desired value, eg. Bash Shell:
export CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms(min heap)m -Xmx(max heap)m;

On Windows
Edit the file $TOMCAT_HOME\bin\startup.bat and insert or alter the following line, subsituting for the desired values:
set CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms(min heap)m -Xmx(max heap)m

For example if you want to allocate a minimum heap size of 256MB and a max heap size of 512MB you will have to write the following on Windows:
set CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms256m -Xmx512m

If you are running tomcat 5.5 via tomcat.exe, you can update the heap size by running tomcatw.exe and setting the required values via the Java tab.

On OS X
If you are using the 'serveradmin start appserver' to start and stop tomcat, then you will need to update /usr/share/servermgrd/bundles/servermgr_appserver.bundle/Contents/Resources/run.sh


Search is not finding my data AND the indexing process does not appear to be completing. Whats happening?

If you are not seeing pages returned by the search that you expect to be returned, it's most likely that the indexing is not running correctly (either not running or failing). You can check the status of the index processing via the "Administration Console | Administration | Content Indexing" link.

Why could indexing be failing? The indexing process is multi-threaded and therefore has a tendency to consume a lot of resources when running an initial index or reindexing the entire site. So, what can do wrong?

  • Some systems do not like the multi-threaded index process. You can set the index process to us only a single thread by setting bucket.indexing.threads.fixed=1
  • The index process may also block if there are insufficient available database connections. Increasing the number of connections from 15 to 30 will help in this situation.

For more detailed information, see the Content Index Administration page.


I am trying to install Confluence but the demo-site.zip is missing?

There are some cases where the unzip utility used to unzip the Confluence download will recursively unzip all contained zip files. The demo-site.zip should be located in the WEB-INF\classes\com\atlassian\confluence\setup directory. If it has been extracted, you will see an entities.xml file in this directory instead.


I am trying to compile a plugin, but get an error about the "target release"

When compiling plugins and using version 1.5 of the JDK, the following error may appear:

[javac] javac: target release 1.3 conflicts with default source release 1.5

This is due to the fact that the default target for the plugins is version 1.3 of the JDK, which 1.5 cannot compile for. To fix this, open the src/etc/plugins/build.xml file and change the "1.3" in the following line to "1.5":

<javac destdir="${library}/classes" target="1.3" debug="${debug}" deprecation="false" optimize="false" failonerror="true">

I am getting "404" errors in the Space tree view

If you are browsing a space and looking at the "tree view", 404 errors may appear (or it will display "Loading...") if the base url of your Confluence instance is not set.

You can fix this by going to Administration -> General Configuration, and making sure that the "Base URL" setting is set to the correct address/domain name and path.


I am getting an error message about NoClassDefFoundError when using the Chart macro

The following error may appear when viewing certain pages where the Chart Macro is used:

Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError
at org.jfree.chart.ChartFactory.createAreaChart(ChartFactory.java:874)
at com.atlassian.confluence.extra.chart.ChartMacro.getChart(ChartMacro.java:217)
at com.atlassian.confluence.extra.chart.ChartMacro.execute(ChartMacro.java:102)

This is indicative of an out-of-date version of the Chart macro. Make sure you have the latest version and have removed any old versions or dependencies. If you are using Confluence 1.4, it may be a symptom of not having the jfreechart and jcommon JARs in your installation, which are required.


Confluence says "the license you entered was not valid" when I try and register

If this happens, please check your logs. The following message may appear:

2006-03-19 16:32:05,969 ERROR [atlassian.license.decoder.LicenseDecoder] String) Exception looking up public key: null
java.security.spec.InvalidKeySpecException
   at gnu.java.security.provider.DSAKeyFactory.engineGeneratePublic(java.security.spec.KeySpec) (/usr/lib/libgcj.so.6.0.0)
   at java.security.KeyFactory.generatePublic(java.security.spec.KeySpec) (/usr/lib/libgcj.so.6.0.0)
   at com.atlassian.license.decoder.LicenseDecoder.getPublicKey(java.lang.String) (Unknown Source)
   at com.atlassian.license.decoder.LicenseDecoder.getLicense(com.atlassian.license.LicensePair, java.lang.String) (Unknown Source)
   at com.atlassian.license.LicenseManager.setLicense(java.lang.String, java.lang.String) (Unknown Source)
   at com.atlassian.confluence.setup.actions.SetupLicenseAction.validateLicense() (Unknown Source)
   at com.atlassian.confluence.setup.actions.SetupLicenseAction.validate() (Unknown Source)

If you see this, you are most likely using GCJ/Kaffe, which sometimes has problems running Confluence. Please try using the Sun JDK.


I am getting JavaScript errors when using Confluence

If your web browser is complaining about JavaScript errors or functions not being defined, then it is possible that you are not retrieving the latest versions of pages from your Confluence instance.

To fix this, you need to clear your browser cache. Follow the instructions for your particular browser:

  • Internet Explorer
  • Firefox - Open the Preferences -> Privacy -> Click on the "Clear Cache" button
  • Safari - Go to the Safari menu -> Clear Cache

If you are still having problems, please create a support request.


fish.gif (image/gif)

JSPwiki is pretty good. Why would i want to use
confluence instead?

Posted by at Sep 13, 2004 15:48

JSPWiki is pretty good. Before we wrote Confluence, we used JSPWiki for our extranet. However, one of the motivations behind writing Confluence was to produce an application that did all the things that we, as a business, needed from a wiki, but that the open source alternatives didn't supply.

  • Multiple spaces – you can divide your content into multiple wikis (without reconfiguring the application-server) while still managing and aggregating them as one coordinated site
  • Users and permissions built in – JSPWiki's user-based security is still described on their site as "early alpha", and is far less easy to configure.
  • Full text search – Searching for "JSPWiki" on jspwiki.org took over a minute to return. Searching for "Confluence" on confluence.atlassian.com returned in a second. Confluence also allows you to search attachments such as PDFs, word documents or powerpoint presentations.
  • Export – You can export Confluence pages or spaces to PDF or HTML. JSPWiki recommends you do HTML exports by running an external spider against the site.
  • Better integrated – Things like comments, blog-posts and email notifications are built directly into Confluence, while in JSPWiki they are third-party plugins
  • Refactoring – you can move pages around or rename them and Confluence will automatically rename all links to that page
  • And much more – trackbacks, thumbnails, page hierachies, page subscription, online help, WebDAV file storage, a more comprehensive remote API...
  • Support – it's our job to make sure any problems you have running Confluence get solved
  • Full-time Development – We pay people to spend all day improving Confluence. To put the list above in perspective, JSPWiki has been in development since 2001. Confluence has been in development just over a year.
Posted by cmiller at Sep 14, 2004 09:42

Does confluence have the ability to automatically create a Table Of Contents for a page? What would be really nice is a table of contents with some javascript that allows you to hide or show the TOC by clicking on a show/hide link.

Posted by at Jul 31, 2005 15:26

I think the Table of Contents Macro is what you are looking for.

Cheers,
Jens

Posted by jens@atlassian.com at Jul 31, 2005 19:21

I need to nest a table within a table in Confluence, but am a very new user. I believe this is probably just a syntax/notation issue for me (read - stupid user trick) Can you point me in the right direction?

Posted by at Aug 17, 2005 16:37

You can't nest tables in wiki markup.

If you want to use tables for page layout, see the {section} and {column} macros.

Posted by tom@atlassian.com at Aug 17, 2005 18:48

This has probably been asked several times, but how do i call a macro from within a use macro? isnt ther a render() method or someting?

Posted by at Aug 26, 2005 05:25

All text inside the body of a user macro is left alone by the Confluence renderer. In other words, there is no way to call a macro from inside a user macro at the moment.

Cheers,
Dave

Posted by dave@atlassian.com at Aug 29, 2005 01:22

Hi,

I would like to automate the exporting process. Is there a way i can script it so that say, every month i am able to export the latest set of documents to HTML.

Thanks
G

Posted by gvasista@gmail.com at Dec 12, 2005 14:13

Hi Gautam,

There is currently no solid documentation on creating a plugin that will hook into the scheduling system for Confluence.

There is a bit of information at this page. You could also have a look at the MailPollJob class as an example of what you would need to do. Once you have completed the plugin, you just add it to the schedulingSubsystemContext.xml file (much like MailPollJob is).

Jeremy

Posted by jeremy@atlassian.com at Dec 14, 2005 00:23

Sorry, what you would be writing is not actually a "plugin". It's just an additional class that would be hooked into the scheduling subsystem - there is no scheduling support for plugins at the moment.

Please be aware that you are modifying Confluence's configuration files, which will be overwritten when upgrading, so you would have to make sure you apply the changes across new versions.

Jeremy

Posted by jeremy@atlassian.com at Dec 14, 2005 00:28

Which you also can't nest.

Posted by tooluser at Jan 23, 2006 15:15

Hi,

 Why cant i export a Wiki in Wiki Markup format ?

 I have a family of pages which i want to export in Confluence format and then import back into another space as Confluence pages.

 
Thanks

Gautam

Posted by gvasista@gmail.com at Feb 06, 2006 14:02

Hi,

Just to add to the above question, i am trying to copy Confluence format wiki spaces from one Wiki server into another.

 
-G

Posted by gvasista@gmail.com at Feb 06, 2006 17:22

Click on the "Browse Space" link, then the "Advanced" tab. On there, you will find an option to export the space - you can then use that export to import the space in to a different Confluence installation.

Posted by gfraser at Feb 06, 2006 17:28

Does Confluence provide internalization support for its interface?

Posted by ersiner at Feb 14, 2006 07:47

I believe it's coming in Confluence 2.2. See this evidence.

Posted by david@randombits.org at Feb 14, 2006 09:03

I have a page which is titled "Araçlar". It has a non ISO-8859-9 character and so Confluence creates its link as ...viewpage.action?pageId=... Is there a way to tell Confluence to interpret 'ç' character as 'c', or "ö" as 'o', so that we can get URLs which makes more sense to users ?

Posted by ersiner at Feb 15, 2006 03:28

To be clear, when I have a page titled "Araçlar", I would like to have a URL as ../Araclar (not ../Araçlar of course) instead of ..viewpage.action?pageId=... . Is this possible?

Posted by ersiner at Feb 15, 2006 03:45

( I thought macros would be escaped in Rich Text mode but they were not in my previous message. So I'm repeating here again. )

What I do not like about internalization support in some applications is that they do not pay enough attention to grammatical rules for different languages. Say we have a message

"Welcome ${user}"

in English. Some implementations only provide support for replacing "Welcome" with a local string and they do not think saying Welcome in that languge may be like

"foo ${user} bar".

So I would like to see a better approach from Conluence. What is the status of internalization in Confluence within this context?

Posted by ersiner at Feb 15, 2006 04:08

You can create an alias to the page using David Peterson's {alias} macro.

Posted by gfraser at Feb 15, 2006 06:40

Is this now supported with release 2.2.1a?

I'd really like to be able to export specified spaced to PDF each night (if any changed made that day).

Posted by michael.mckeown@snowyhydro.com.au at May 29, 2006 20:45

Yes, Trigger Plugins are available from 2.2.

However, you might find it easier to use the Remote API method exportSpace() from a script that you run nightly. This has been possible since 1.4.

Posted by mryall at May 29, 2006 21:26
Document generated by Confluence on Feb 07, 2007 23:55