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Version history

Version Date Notes
9.0.0 25/07/2023 Automations. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide
1.0.0 01/04/2023 Invite-only Early Access release. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide

Release notes

9.0.0

This release introduces the automatic content processing feature known as "automation".

Automations (auto-archive and auto-delete)

Automatic batch processing of content is a critical element of any Content Lifecycle Management strategy. For example, it allows auto-archiving information that reached its end-of-life, but can't be permanently deleted ("content retention" policy). Or, it allows auto-deleting information that must be disposed due to regulatory requirements ("content disposal" policy).

The new feature allows defining automation schemes which are collections of automations and which can be applied to any Confluence space. An automation itself is defined by a schedule (when to execute), a CQL query (which pages or blog posts to process) and an action (what to do with them). It is an extensible framework that introduces the "archive" and "delete" actions in this release. If there is interest, we will introduce additional actions in the future.

Learn more about the automations.

Upgrading from 1.0.0

In this release, a new scheme type is introduced, a new notification and the corresponding notification email template is added, and permissions have to be reviewed. It may look like a lot of steps, but can be completed in 1-5 minutes, follow the guide below.

Steps:

  1. Login to Confluence as administrator, go to Settings → Manage apps. Expand the block "Better Content Archiving" and click Update. Confirm the update in the dialog.
  2. Go to Settings → Better Content Archiving in the left-side bar (in the Apps section). Click Allow access and confirm the question.
  3. This step depends on your Confluence plan:
    • Standard, Premium and Enterprise plans
      Manual page archiving is made available only for these plans by Confluence. Therefore, the app can support automatic page archiving only on these plans.
      1. To add the new notification and the corresponding notification email template which will be sent after pages were archived:
        1. Go to Settings → Better Content Archiving in the left-side bar (in the Apps section) → Notification configuration.
        2. If you have not customized the notifications or notification email templates previously, just reset the notification to the defaults, because those include the required changes. For this, open the "..." menu (next to the Add new scheme button), click Reset schemes and confirm the question.
        3. Otherwise, if you have customized the notifications or notification emails, add the changes manually so that your customizations are also kept.
          1. To add the new notification email template:
            1. Click the Notification email templates tab, then click Add new template.
            2. Enter these values:
              • Name: 
                Archived Contents
              • Description: 
                Sent when contents that were actually archived are reported.
              • Email Subject: 
                {{totalContentCount}} content{{#if(gt totalContentCount 1)}}s{{/if}} archived
              • Email Content: download archived-contents-notification-email-9.0.0.txt, then copy and paste its content to this field.
            3. Save.
          2. To add the new notification:
            1. Click the Notification schemes tab, then click the scheme named General Notification Scheme.
            2. Click Add new notification.
            3. Scroll down to the bottom to see the new notification, and enter these values:
              • Schedule: 
                0 4 ? * SUN
              • CQL Query: 
                arch.event.archivedOn > now("-24h")
              • Search In: uncheck the option Current pages and blog posts, and check the option Archived pages.
              • Email Template: choose "Archived Contents".
              • Notify: check the options Last modifier, Author and Space administrators.
            4. Save.
            5. Repeat these steps if there are other notification schemes in which you want to use the new notification.
      2. Automatic page archiving requires the "archive page" space permission for the user that represents the app. Unfortunately, Confluence does not grant this permission when you install the app (or any other app)!
        It may feel weird that an app can delete a page, but it can't archive a page, by default?! We fully agree, and we even think that this is a major design flaw in the default space permission set granted by Confluence. We already reported it to Atlassian, so please remember to vote for the issue here: ECO-48. Until the issue gets resolved, you have to add that space permission manually.
        To add the missing space permission:
        1. Go to a space where you want to use auto-archiving, then to Space Settings → General in the Space permissions box in the right, and click Edit Permissions in the "Individual users" section.
        2. Find the user "Better Content Archiving" and check the Archive permission (fourth checbox in the row).
        3. Save.
        4. Repeat these steps in all spaces where you want to use auto-archiving. (Those spaces where the app doesn't have the space permission will be silently skipped by the automation.)
        Note that we plan to develop a new feature that will ease maintaining the required space permissions.
    • Free plan
      Unfortunately, manual page archiving is not made available for this plan by Confluence. Therefore, the app cannot support automatic page archiving on this plan. You can freely use "delete" type automations, but you have to disable the "archive" type ones.
      To disable "archive" type automations:
      1. Go to Settings → Better Content Archiving in the left-side bar (in the Apps section) → Automation configuration, then click the scheme named General Automation Scheme.
      2. At the first automation (where Action is set to Archive), turn off the Enabled toggle.
      3. Save.
      4. Repeat these steps if there are other automation schemes that contain "archive" type automations. (By default, there is only one scheme.)
  4. Go back to Settings → Better Content Archiving in the left-side bar (in the Apps section) → Integrity checks and confirm whether all integrity checks are green.
  5. Enjoy!

1.0.0

Early Access Program for Better Content Archiving Cloud

This version is available for EAP participants only. EAP users are Better Content Archiving customers currently on Confluence Sever or Data Center platforms or Confluence Cloud users who indicated their interest early in a professional and reliable Excel reporting and exporting app.