Confluence 8.0 beta release 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.
Issues with this beta?
Please raise an issue to tell us about it.
Highlights of 8.0.0-rc1
Released
- Minor bug fixes
Highlights of 8.0.0-beta1
Released
Improvements to search results ranking
For DATA CENTER SERVER
We've made it easier to find what you're looking for using Confluence search. In Confluence 8.0, we've refined the search ranking logic to return more relevant results, and increase content discoverability – with no extra filtering or tinkering required on your end.
Here's a summary of what's changed:
- recently created or modified content from the last year, but especially the last week, will be given priority
- pages, blog posts, spaces and user profiles will rank higher than attachments and comments with the same matching search terms
- titles that match the search term will be prioritised 2 times higher than matches in the body content.
Keep an eye out here for more resources about how our search ranking works.
Express yourself with the emoji menu
For DATA CENTER SERVER
Introducing the emoji menu: a quick and easy way for you to access your emojis when words just won't do. Browse emojis directly from the editor toolbar, and insert them into your page or page comment. You can also open the emoji menu by using the new keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Shift+M (for Windows) or Cmd+Shift+M (for Mac).
Teams that have migrated their HipChat emojis from Confluence Server to Data Center will be able to view and insert these from the emoji menu, or by typing in their associated emoji shortcut.
Screenshot of expanded emoji menu from the editor toolbar.
Learn how to use Symbols, emojis and special characters on Confluence.
If you haven't already, Migrate your HipChat emojis from Confluence Server to Data Center.
Manage your license usage more effectively
For DATA CENTER SERVER
Admins can now get a clearer picture of licensed user count with a searchable list of licensed users in Confluence administration.
As requested by many of you, we've also included last login details , so you can easily spot unused or idle accounts consuming your license. This will help you make an informed decision about the type of license you need, and any users to remove or delete.
As they say: if you don't use it, you lose it! We've just made it more transparent, so you can make the most of your license.
To view your Confluence licensed user count, and list of licensed users:
- Go to Administration menu
, then General Configuration. > License Details. - Choose License Details in the left panel.
- In the Licensed user count row (1) you'll see how many users are consuming your user count.
- Select the view list (2) link.
- You'll be taken to the Users page to view a filtered list of licensed users only (3) and their details (4).
Screenshot of License Details page in Confluence administration screen.
Screenshot of Users page in Confluence administration screen.
See Managing your Confluence License to learn more.
Security and platform upgrades
Confluence 8.0 reaffirms our long-term commitment to delivering a modern and secure platform for Enterprise users. In this release, we've made significant architectural upgrades to Confluence's foundational technology including Hibernate 5.6, Struts2, Log4j2 and more.
We've also taken steps to clean up our code base, remove deprecated code and reduce tech debt. This continued maintenance effort will strengthen our security posture and our ability to scale and perform for Enterprise customers in releases to come.
Other notable changes
- For low-vision and keyboard-only users, we have resolved over 25 issues related to accessibility improvements to ensure you can perform essential tasks within Confluence. Check out the full list of fixed issues
- For teams working across different geo-locations, we've improved the accuracy of the date lozenge format. See how the date lozenge will appear in your language setting on the Configuring Time and Date Formats page.
- To make scaling Confluence and the delivery of new features easier in future releases, we've cleaned up our code base by removing deprecated code since 7.x. See Deprecated code paths removed in 8.0.
Upgrade notes
Upgrading from previous versions of Confluence
For DATA CENTER SERVER
Confluence 8.0 is a platform release with breaking changes. We strongly recommend you take a full back up your Confluence Home directory and your database before upgrading.
- If you are on Confluence 6.0.5 or later, you can upgrade directly to the latest version of Confluence 8.0.
- If you are on a version earlier than Confluence 6.0.5, discover the most efficient upgrade path from your current version to Confluence 8.0 on the Upgrading Confluence page.
Change to appearance of tables and macros in the editor
For DATA CENTER SERVER
To increase the speed of our editor, we’ve stopped providing a patch that fixed a bad editing experience on older browsers. The patch automatically wrapped macros and tables in paragraph tags. Now that it has been removed, you may see tables touching macros in the editor (1). Rest assured, when you preview or publish the page, the table and macro appears well-spaced (2).
Screenshots of editor view and published view that show the difference in spacing between a table and panel macro.
Supported platforms changes
End of support for several databases
As previously announced, the following databases are no longer supported:
- H2 embedded database
- MySQL 5.7
- PostgreSQL 11
End of support for JNDI DataSource connections
As previously announced, we have ended support for data source connections in Confluence 8.0. If you use JNDI DataSource connections, we recommend you connect your database with a direct JDBC URL. This will also make upgrading to future versions of Confluence easier.
Support for Java 17
We now support running with a Java 17 JVM to ensure we can run on supported Java LTS releases for the lifetime of Confluence 8.x.
End of support for Java 8
As previously announced, we have ended support for running Java 8 on Confluence 8.0. If you currently use Java 8 you should move Java 11 or Java 17, which are supported by Confluence. Java 11 continues to be bundled with Confluence.
End of support for UTF-8 database encoding in MySQL
As previously announced, Atlassian will not support UTF8 database encoding in MySQL databases in Confluence 8.0. If you run Confluence with a supported MySQL database, you should use UTF8MB4 encoding.
Removal of Usage Stats plugin
As previously announced, we have removed the Usage Stats plugin in Confluence 8.0 as its functionality is largely superseded by Analytics, which was added to Confluence Data Center 7.11.
For more information on these notices, see End of Support Announcements for Confluence .
Infrastructure changes
As a platform release, Confluence 8.0 contains breaking changes that may affect apps. Head to Preparing for Confluence 8.0 to find out how these changes will impact app developers.