Summary

Using the REST API might be helpful to automate some operations on Confluence.

A Confluence user or the administrator may need to delete a page in Confluence without using the GUI or using the database for it , but going through the User Interface (UI) could be rather impractical depending on the situation (for example the page is not accessible via browser).

This document provides a step-by-step procedure on how to use the Confluence REST API to delete the current version of a page, provided you have the pageid.

The suggested solution is provided as a set of bash commands using curl to run the REST API call. You may use this as an example to create an automation tool in your preferred coding language.

Solution

1. Set up environment variables as suggested below.

   • Code

   USER_NAME=<username> ### You must be either a Space Administrator or a Confluence Administrator since we will purge the trash
   USER_PASSWORD=<user password>
   CONFLUENCE_BASEURL=<Confluence Base URL> ### FQDN and context path without the trailing slash
   CONTENT_ID=<page ID>

   
   
   

2. Send the page to the Space Trash.
   The DELETE operation will change the page status from CURRENT to TRASHED.
   The expected HTTP status for this request is 204.
   This operation can be reverted from the UI by accessing the Space Trash.

   • Code

   curl  -u ${USER_NAME}:${USER_PASSWORD} -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json' -X DELETE ${CONFLUENCE_BASEURL}'/rest/api/content/'${CONTENT_ID}'?status=current'

3. Purge the  page from the trash.
   This is the operation that will delete the  page metadata from the Confluence database and the actual file(s) from the file system.
   The expected HTTP status for this request is 204.
   This operation cannot be reverted.

   • Code

   curl -v -u ${USER_NAME}:${USER_PASSWORD} -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json' -X DELETE ${CONFLUENCE_BASEURL}'/rest/api/content/'${CONTENT_ID}'?status=trashed' >/dev/null

With the steps above we provided an example of how to completely delete the current version of a page.

With this, you may be able to create a script in your preferred coding language to delete a set of  pages.

See Also

Confluence Server REST API

Confluence REST API Documentation