Macro Browser

Will 3rd party plugins be available thru the macro browser, or just bundled plugins?

Both bundled and third party plugins can be accessed via the macro browser. There are two exclusions.

1. User Macros

2. Plugins without need to use the page editor (and thus the macro browser). Balsamiq Mockups, for example, is a plugin which is accessed via the page menu, and not by editing macros.

How hard is it to create a gui for the macro browser (to supply option fields) for custom plugins?

Not hard. It just requires some changes to your macro definition in the atlassian-plugin.xml file. This document describes how to update your plugin to support the macro browser. http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Updating+macros+for+the+Macro+Browser

Does the Macro browser automatically detect all plugins that you have installed?

Yes, it will list all your options based on the plugins you have installed.

Status Updates

Does the new social networking functionality connect to Twitter and Facebook?

It's a self-contained network right now. Integrating status updates with twitter is something we're considering for the future.

Networks and Profiles

Is there a way to turn off the network feature so that people cannot follow me inside of Confluence?

There is no "don't allow follower" option yet, but you can customise the UI to hide this feature.

Status Updates are permission based, so System Administrators can disable it for her users (groups, indivduals, or all).

If I don't want my email showing, can I hide that field on my user profile?

You will be able to take your email out of your profile.

Are activities displayed in the network and recent activity based on permissions of people being able to see that content, right?

Yes. The activity streams, like search, respect object-level permissions. The user activities a viewer can see are are restricted to the viewer's ACLs? For example, User A can see space X and Y. User B can only see space X. In this context user B would only see changes made by user A in space X but not in space Y.

Are we planning on linking AD information back to the profile so that the user profile displays fields from AD or other apps like an HR system?

This is not currently supported but it's on the list for consideration in future releases.

General

What are the minimum server specifications and requirements for Confluence 3.0?

It depends on the load, how many users and requests. This page describe the hardware requirements for Confluence 3.0: http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Server+Hardware+Requirements+Guide

Will there be support for mobile themes in 3.0 (iphone, Blackberry, WAP)?

A new Confluence iPhone app was released last week and there is also a blackberry theme that you can buy.

Does Confluence 3.0 fully support Opera browser?

Not currently. Please see a list of all supported browsers here.

Performance

Where can we find the performance test cases that were mentioned. Are there templates available from atlassian to do our own performance tests?

Our performance test scripts are shared here, and further, latest results comparing performance between 2.10 and 3.0 are public.

For large instances of Confluence, please vew - Large Instances of Confluence.

What are you using for load testing, and would you be willing to open source the scripts so that these can be used by us to diagnose performance with large customers?

Yes - we actually have made this public, and made pretty detail documenation. This can be viewed here: http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Performance+Testing+Scripts

Office Connector

Will Office Connector work with Confluence 2.10 and Office 97?

Yes, it will work with .doc file types

Does Confluence 3.0 support Office 2007 for viewing and importing documents?

Office 2007 support was not added to Confluence 3.0 but is on the near term roadmap.

Does Confluence 3.0 support editing pages in Word on a Mac.?

We did not add support for this in Confluence 3.0 but is on the near term roadmap.

Upgrade

Are the third-party plugins like ThemeBuilder and Comala Tech Workflows already compatible with 3.0?

Many third party plugins have been updated for 3.0, but we can't guarantee that all have though. It's up to the plugin developer to upgrade the code to support Confluence 3.0.

We avoided upgrading because it breaks our old macros due to changes in the actual macro names. Can 3.0 import 2.7.3 Confluence pages and retain/update old macro names to the new names and preserve the original format?

No, macros will still likely break in the upgrade. We're working on a plugin manager that will let you know exactly which plugins might not be compatible with the upgrade, you can read more at http://blogs.atlassian.com/news/2009/05/introducing_the_3.html

If upgrading from 2.7, must I take multiple version upgrade steps? .. or straight to 3.0?

I believe that you can,yes. Be sure to test the upgrade first and use our support team if you run into issues. Please read the upgrade notes at http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Upgrade+Notes+Overview

I was reviewing the upgrade docs on the web and just wondered if there are there any upgrade gotchas going from 2.56 to 3.0?

If you're upgrading from 2.5.6, you'll need to have a ""step"" inbetween it and 3.0 check the upgrade notes http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Upgrade+Notes+Overview and feel free to contact our support team. Also please read the upgrade notes at http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Upgrade+Notes+Overview

Pricing Changes

For the new 2,000 user license tier, if I have more than 2,000 users in my AD userstore, how do I limit Confluence access to just 2,000 users inside of AD?

It's a measure of how many of those users have the 'can use permission' in confluence (set from the global permissions page). you can be hooked up to an AD with 40,000 users, but only give 2,000 permission to access Confluence.

Maintenance will be based on the new pricing, but we will NOT have to pay the new price to stay with unlimited licensing, right?

Correct...your license will continue working. if you want to extend maintenance, it will be based on the new pricing.

Existing unlimited licenses are perpetual, right?

Correct. All install licenses are perpetual - ongoing fees apply only to maintenance and support. If you have an existing unlimited license, the price for future years of maintenance and support will increase from $4000 commercial / $2000 academic to $6000 commercial / $3000 academic. If you've deployed to fewer than 2000 users, however, you can migrate from the unlimited license to a new 2000-user license to avoid the increased maintenance costs and continue to pay annual maintenance and support fees of $4000 commercial / $2000 academic.

I currently have 100 users, and a 500 user license. Can I downgrade my installation to the new 100 user license, so that I pay the 100-user maintenance fee?

Yes, you can downgrade the license. contact sales@atlassian.com when you need to extend maintenance

Roadmap

Are you expecting a 3.0.1 release before 3.1? Would you recommend waiting for a point release before going to Confluence 3?

Yes there will be a 3.0.1 release in the next couple weeks. Confluence 3.0 has substantial performance improvements and bug fixes so you'll gain a lot by upgrading to 3.0 today. There's always going to be a better version of Confluence waiting around the corner so it's up to you to decide on when to upgrade

When will Confluence 3.1 be released?

We're aiming to deliver Confluence 3.1 in the fall of 2009.

Experimental Features

What were the names of the last few plugins that were demonstrated?

We haven't officially named any of these features yet. Per demonstrated a few experimental technologies, namely:

• Dashboard Actions Plugin - for adding pages, selecting templates and posting to blogs from the dashboard. This plugin is available on the Atlassian Plugin Exchange at https://plugins.atlassian.com/plugin/details/7821 .
• Atlassian Content Navigation -  provides quick navigation using keyboard shortcust for common tasks inside of Confluence. You can download a beta version of the ACN at http://labs.atlassian.com/wiki/display/ACN
• Atlassian Drag and Drop FireFox Plugin - Lets you drag and drop images and file attachments from your desktop to Confluence. You can test the FireFox plugin at http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFEXT/Atlassian Drag and Drop Firefox plugin

These new features are cool, are they supported?

Right now, these are all unsupported but encourage you to test them in a demo environment and give us your feedback so that we can eventually support them and bundle inside the core product.