Confluence 5.4-Beta1 Release Notes
28 November 2013
Highlights of Confluence 5.4-Beta1:
Downloading this Confluence release
The Confluence 5.4 Beta 1 release is available at the download centre. Before upgrading, please review the upgrade notes.
Development releases are not production ready. Development releases are snapshots of the ongoing Confluence development process. While we try to keep these releases stable, they have not undergone the same degree of testing as a full release, and could contain features that are incomplete or may change or be removed before the next full release.
No upgrade path. Because development releases represent work in progress, we cannot provide a supported upgrade path between development releases, or from any development release to a final release. You may not be able to migrate any data you store in a Confluence development release to a future Confluence release.
Atlassian does not provide support for development releases.
Highlights of Confluence 5.4-Beta1
New blueprints
We are adding new blueprints all the time. In this beta release:
- Documentation space blueprint - space blueprint for software teams who manage their product documentation in Confluence.
- Retrospective blueprint - page blueprint for software teams to run their retrospectives at the end of a sprint.
- JIRA Report Blueprint - page blueprints for software teams to create change logs (or release notes) and status reports. This blueprint uses the JIRA Issues macro and the new JIRA Chart macro. The change log can also display a static report, which means the report displays a snapshot of status at the time of creating the report and is visible to users who may not have permissions to access JIRA.
The Product Requirements blueprint has also been updated to add a prompt for you to create a JIRA issue to track your requirements. We have also renamed some headings on the requirements table, to make it clearer when you highlight text to create your stories in JIRA.
JIRA Agile integration
If you use JIRA Agile and Confluence together, you can now create and/or link Confluence pages to JIRA Agile epics, stories and sprint reports. These features require JIRA Agile 6.3.5 or later.
Quote in comment
Highlight any text on a Confluence page and you will now see a Quote in Comment button appear near your selection. This will add the selected text to the comment field, with the Quote style applied - much faster than copy and paste. Users can choose to disable this function in their profile Settings.
Create JIRA Issue from highlighted text
If you use Confluence and JIRA together it is now even easier to create JIRA issues right from your Confluence page.
Highlight any text on a Confluence page and you will see a Create JIRA Issue option near your selection. This triggers a dialog where you can enter all the info necessary to create the issue in JIRA. The highlighted text populates the issue summary.
If your highlighted text is in a table, you can choose to create multiple issues at the same time, using text in the same column of your table. If you use JIRA Agile and have an an epic on the page, you can choose to link the new issues to that epic.
Limitations: If the project or issue type you select has required fields or custom field configuration you will not be able to create the issue from within Confluence.
New instructional text type for templates
A new type of instructional text is now available for templates - JIRA Macro. When creating a template users can now add a JIRA macro prompt, which will trigger the JIRA Issues macro dialog - allowing users search for or create an issue in JIRA.
In a template choose Template > Instructional text > JIRA Macro.
For plugin developers: The JIRA Macro instructional text type can be added in the same was as text or a user mention. See Instructional text in blueprints for more information.
Changes to the Confluence byline
We have made some changes to the Confluence byline and breadcrumb areas:
- The Attachments and Page Restrictions icons are now located next to the page breadcrumbs.
- The View Change and Show Comment links have been removed - click the edited date on the byline to see the most recent change to the page, and any change comment that has been entered.
View connections between Confluence and JIRA
Confluence page bylines now feature a JIRA Links button. This button gives you quick access to issues, epics, and sprints linked to the Confluence page.
Macro improvements
Page Properties Report macro
This macro has been updated to include pagination and sorting. You can specify the number of items to display on each page of the table (with links to additional pages of results) and also specify a column to sort the table by.
JIRA Chart macro
The new JIRA Chart Macro is used by the JIRA Reports blueprint and enables you display the results of a JIRA search as a pie chart on a Confluence page.
JIRA Issues macro
There are a number of improvements to the JIRA Issues macro. You can now:
- create Epics from within the macro
- configure the number of results returned by the macro.
We have also added a handy refresh icon to the macro, so you can refresh to see recently added or updated issues.
Widget Connector macro
This macro now supports Wufoo forms. You can also now paste a Wufoo URL and it will autoconvert into the widget connect macro.
Changes to thumbnail directory storage
Thumbnail directory storage layout has changed to allow many more thumbnails to be stored without running into the max-files-per-directory limit (see 
CONF-20464 - Use similar directory hierarchy for thumbnails as for attachments (
Resolved) ). Following the upgrade to 5.4, new thumbnails will be generated as required by the application, and placed in the new directory structure. Pre-existing thumbnails from before the upgrade will be ignored, and not cleaned up. If disk space is a concern, then delete the CONF_HOME/thumbnails directory prior to the upgrade.
Plugin compatibility notes
Gliffy 5.4.3 or earlier is not compatible with Confluence 5.4. Upgrade to 5.4.4 or later.
Supported Platforms
Added support for PostgreSQL 9.1 and 9.2.
End of support notices
Advance Notice: End of support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 8
To allow us to dedicate resources to providing the best experience on modern browsers, Confluence 5.5 (including minor releases) will be the last release that supports Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). See End of Support Announcements for Confluence for more information.
Advance notice: End of support for PostgreSQL 8.3
Confluence 5.4 will be the last release that supports PostgreSQL 8.3. See End of Support Announcements for Confluence for more information.
Giving feedback
We'd love your feedback so please:
- Feel free to comment on this page with your feedback, or
- Send us your comments via the 'Got Feedback' option in the header of your EAP Confluence site.
Upgrade notes
Follow the usual upgrade instructions to upgrade your test site to this release.
Advanced Notice
These are points of interest for plugin and add-on developers.
- Plugin developers: please read developer guide to preparing for Confluence 5.4 for advanced developer notices.