You can register gadgets from external web sites (such as JIRA, iGoogle or Gmail) with your Confluence installation, so that the gadgets appear in the macro browser and people can add them to Confluence pages via a gadget macro.

Choose one of the following ways to register the external gadgets on Confluence:

  • Subscribe to all of the external application's gadgets: You can add all the gadgets from your JIRA, Bamboo, FishEye or Crucible site – or from another Confluence site – to your Confluence gadget directory. People can then pick and choose the gadgets to add to their Confluence pages. 
  • Register the external gadgets one by one: If you cannot subscribe to an application's gadgets, you will need to add the gadgets one by one. This is necessary for applications and websites that do not support gadget subscription, and for applications where you cannot establish a trusted relationship via Application Links.

Both methods are described below. First, consider whether you need to set up a trust relationship between Confluence and the other application.

Setting up a trust relationship with the other application

In addition to registering the external gadgets, we recommend that you set up an OAuth or Trusted Application relationship between the application that serves the gadget (the service provider) and Confluence (the consumer). The trust relationship is required for gadgets that access restricted data from the external web application.

See how to configure OAuth or Trusted Applications Authentication, using Application Links.

If the external web application provides anonymous access to all the data you need in the gadgets, then you do not need a trust relationship.

For example, if your gadgets will retrieve data from JIRA and your JIRA server includes projects and issues that are restricted to logged-in users, then you will need a trust relationship between Confluence and JIRA. If you do not set up the trust relationship, then the gadgets will show only the information that JIRA makes visible to anonymous users.

Subscribing to all of the application's gadgets

You can add all the gadgets from your JIRA, Bamboo, FishEye or Crucible site – or from another Confluence site – to your Confluence gadget directory. People can then pick and choose the gadgets to add to their Confluence pages.

To subscribe to another site's gadgets:

  1.  Choose the cog icon , then choose General Configuration under Confluence Administration 
  2. Choose External Gadgets in the left-hand panel.
  3. Click the Gadget Feeds tab.
  4. Enter the base URL of the application you want to subscribe to, in the text box labelled Gadget Feed URL. For example, http://example.com/jira or http://example.com/confluence.
  5. Choose Add. Confluence will convert the URL to a gadget feed and place it in the list of 'Added Gadget Feeds'.

On this page:

Related pages:

Screenshot: Subscribing to a gadget feed

Registering individual gadgets

If you cannot subscribe to an application's gadgets, you will need to register the gadgets one by one. This is necessary for applications and websites that do not support gadget subscription, and for applications where you cannot establish a trusted relationship via Application Links.

First you will need to obtain that gadget's URL and copy it to your clipboard.

Getting a gadget's URL from an Atlassian application

If your web application is another Atlassian application such as Confluence or JIRA:

A gadget's URL points to the gadget's XML specification file. In general, a gadget's URL looks something like this:
http://example.com/my-gadget-location/my-gadget.xml

If the gadget is supplied by a plugin, the URL will have this format:
http://my-app.my-server.com:port/rest/gadgets/1.0/g/my-plugin.key:my-gadget/my-path/my-gadget.xml
For example:
http://mycompany.com/jira/rest/gadgets/1.0/g/com.atlassian.streams.streams-jira-plugin:activitystream-gadget/gadgets/activitystream-gadget.xml

To find a gadget's URL in JIRA:

  • Go to your dashboard by clicking the Dashboards link at the top left of the screen.
  • Click Add Gadget to see the list of gadgets in the directory.
  • Find the gadget you want, using one or more of the following tools:
    • Use the scroll bar on the right to move up and down the list of gadgets.
    • Select a category in the left-hand panel to display only gadgets in that category.
    • Start typing a key word for your gadget in the Search textbox. The list of gadgets will change as you type, showing only gadgets that match your search term.
  • Right-click the Gadget URL link for that gadget and copy the gadget's URL into your clipboard.

To find a gadget's URL in Confluence:

  • Choose Help > Confluence Gadgets to see the list of available Confluence gadgets.
  • Find the gadget you want.
  • Right-click the Gadget URL link for that gadget and copy the gadget's URL into your clipboard.
 

Getting a gadget's URL from another application

If the gadget comes from a non-Atlassian web application or web site, please consult the relevant documentation for that application to obtain the gadget's URL.

Registering the gadget for use in Confluence

Now that you have the gadget's URL, you can register it in Confluence, so that people can add it to their pages. You need system administrator permissions to register a gadget. 

To register the gadget in Confluence:

  1. Choose the cog icon , then choose General Configuration under Confluence Administration
  2. Choose External Gadgets in the left-hand panel.
  3. Paste your gadget's URL into the Gadget Specification URL field in the 'Add a new Gadget' section.
  4. Choose Add. Your gadget will be shown in the list of registered gadgets below and it will also become available in the macro browser.

Screenshot: Registering external gadgets one by one


Removing access to external gadgets

To remove a single gadget from Confluence, click the Delete button next to the gadget URL.

If you have subscribed to an application's gadgets, you will need to remove the entire subscription. You cannot unregister a single gadget. Click the Delete button next to the gadget feed URL.

The gadget(s) will no longer be available in the macro browser, and people will not be able to add them using the Gadget macro. Any pages that already use the gadget will show a broken gadget link.

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