Confluence 4.0 Editor FAQ

Confluence 4.0 will introduce a new editor. We first made this announcement at Atlassian Summit in June 2010.

People are already asking important questions, which we will answer below as soon as we can and in as much detail as is available. We are publishing these FAQs as early as possible, as soon as we have information that will be useful to you. The content is not final, but it is as correct and authoritative as we can make it. We will update it on an ongoing basis, as we get closer to the release date of Confluence 4.0.

On this page:

How can I stay informed about the progress of the new Confluence 4.0 editor?

Here are some things you can do:

• Watch this page if you would like Confluence to send you an email when we update the page.
  Sign up for a username on this documentation wiki if you do not already have one, then open the 'Tools' menu on this page and click 'Watch'.
• Sign up to the Confluence User Task Force.
  What is the User Task Force? Click here to expand...

  The purpose of this user task force is to give you the opportunity to provide a more detailed level of feedback on Confluence as a product. This will help us learn more about our market and better meet your needs. Members of the task force would be asked to participate in such things as:

  • General surveys on Confluence use cases, features and ideas.
  • Feedback on early releases of the product.
  • Usability and user experience testing.

  How often would you be asked to participate? As a general rule we won’t be asking you to participate any more than once a month.

  We will notify all members of the Confluence User Task Force once the new editor is available for feedback. You can sign up here.

Why is Atlassian introducing a new editor?

The editor is the single most important feature in Confluence. Currently, Confluence has two editors: the rich text editor and the wiki markup editor. Each has its strong points and its weak points.

• The rich text editor in particular has problems in stability and consistency, because it has to convert all content from rich text to wiki markup before storing content on the database. This leads to the so-called 'round-tripping' problems, where the page looks different in display mode than when created in edit mode.
• Many people find the wiki markup editor hard to use, particularly for long pages and complex layouts. We often hear from customers that the number one barrier to wiki adoption in their organisation is that people have to learn wiki markup.

Many customers have given us great feedback on the shortcomings of the current editors and the things they would like to see in a Confluence editor. We are introducing a single new editor to replace both the wiki markup editor and the rich text editor. The new editor will help us to solve the problems mentioned above and will provide a stable platform on which we can build high-demand features in future releases.

What about features that were previously available only in wiki markup?

We have identified these features and will add support for as many as possible in the new editor. For example, the new editor will include superscripts and subscripts, which are currently not available in the existing rich text editor. We will update this page as soon as we have a list of features that will be supported.

So you are basically eliminating the wiki markup editor and keeping the rich text editor?

No. While the new editor is WYSIWYG like the current rich text editor, the new editor has a completely different architecture based on XHTML and is thus faster and significantly more reliable. Our goal is to incorporate the strengths of wiki markup with the richness and intuitiveness of the WYSIWYG editor to produce a rich, hybrid editing experience. In particular we are introducing options that offer the speed of the old wiki markup editor, via new features such as autocomplete and shortcut keys.

When will the new editor appear in Confluence?

The new editor will be in Confluence 4.0, scheduled for release in 2011. We will give as much notice as possible before the final release and will provide further updates when we can.

What does the new editor look like?

The new editor is still evolving and changing. If you like, you can take a look at the early prototype demonstrated at Atlassian Summit in June 2010. Watch the video at this link. Please note: This is an early prototype and will change.

Will Confluence still have a wiki markup editor?

No. We plan to incorporate the best parts of the wiki markup editor into the new editor.

Will you be able to edit the source XHTML code directly?

We don't know the answer to this question yet. We are considering the implications of including an option to edit the source XHTML, and will update this page as soon as we have some definite information to give.

What format will Confluence use to store its page content?

XHTML. Up to now, Confluence has stored its content in the database as wiki markup. In Confluence 4.0, the content will be stored as XHTML. Basically, XHTML is like HTML but complies with stricter formatting rules. Where HTML is based on SGML, XHTML is based on XML, which is a subset of SGML. Because XHTML documents need to be well formed, they can be parsed using standard XML parsers.

Will there be a tool to convert existing content from wiki markup to the new XHTML format?

Yes. Where possible, Confluence will automatically upgrade existing content into the new XHTML storage format. There will be some API changes but we are trying to keep them to a minimum and we will provide facilities to convert wiki markup to XHTML. We will document and publish the API changes well before the release of Confluence 4.0, to give developers enough time to give us feedback about the changes and to adopt the new APIs.

Will there be any API changes?

See the answer to the question above.