Same-space publishing
- Robert Alexander Marshall
Overview
With same-space publishing, each piece of content (page or blog post) can have concurrent draft and approved versions.
One state in your workflow must be set as a published state.
If the content is in one of the other workflow states, the workflow will see this as a draft state.
In a draft state a byline link to the latest approved version is displayed if the content has previously been in the published state.
Choosing the byline link displays the last approved content.
The last approved content version is displayed with a byline displaying the approved content workflow state name and a link to the latest draft content.
By default, users with Confluence view-only permission for the content only see this last approved content version. No workflow byline or breadcrumbs will be visible.
Only a user with edit or admin permission is able to view the draft content and view and access the workflow byline breadcrumbs and workflow popup.
The same-space publishing capability is aimed at organisations using Confluence internally. It can also be used in conjunction with other apps to manage publishing to a different space or a remote space.
If there is a formal requirement (compliance; organizational policy) that draft updates are not visible to some users we recommend using Different-space publishing where Confluence permissions can hide the draft space content entirely.
Activating same-space publishing
To use same-space publishing, just add the final=true parameter to one of the state macros in your workflow – this marks it as the published state.
Edit the state in workflow builder to make it the final state in the workflow.
The addition of the final=true parameter changes the behavior of the workflow to show a user different page version depending on the Confluence permissions of the user.
The workflow published version of the content is the version created when a transition to the final state takes place. This is the final state version.
editing content in the final state will create a new version but the final state version will remain as the version created on transition into the final state
This is why it is good practice to transition out of the final state if the content is changed, for example by adding an updated transition to the final state.
Differentiating draft and published content
Same-space publishing is used to differentiate content in a draft workflow state and the final state version.
Same-space publishing is not a secure way to publish content.
View-only users are directed to the latest final state version (if present)†
the workflow byline breadcrumbs are not displayed on this content
they will not be able to navigate to, or view content in a draft state
Whilst view-only users default† to seeing the approved content (the latest final state version) the most up to date content will still be visible
through the page history or search index
in the mobile view (rather than desktop view) and in some apps that can only display the latest version
In these cases a view-only user will not be directed to the final state version and draft content can be accessed by a view-only user.
† The app global configuration and space configuration - Workflow Activity and Drafts Visibility and Internal Page Publishing Configuration - will impact users' ability to view content with an applied workflow with a final state.
Subsequent drafts
The final state version is created on a transition into the final state.
The updated parameter can be added to a final state to ensure that any subsequent edits are pushed to a draft state.
In the example workflow below, editing the content when it is in the final state causes a transition to the Editing state. The content in the final state Published will then always be the final state version.
{workflow:name=In-space Publishing}
{state:Editing|submit=Review}
{state}
{state:Review|approved=Published|rejected=Editing}
{approval:Review|assignable=true}
{state}
{state:Published|final=true|updated=Editing}
{state}
{workflow}State colours
By default, draft (unpublished) states will have an orange circle and published (final=true) state will have a green circle.
For more information, see State Status Indicator Circles.
Permissions
If a workflow has a published (final=true) state, then all other states in that workflow will be considered draft (unpublished) states. For example in a three state workflow with the following states:
Editing – draft
Review – draft
Published – published (final=true) state
By default, users who only have view content permission can only see the most recently published version of each page or blog post. If they try to view draft (unpublished) versions, they will see an error similar to this
The default app configuration allows users with edit and/or admin permission to view all versions of content, and they can switch between the latest draft and published versions via the workflow status bar.
Notifications
The set-message macro can differentiate between draft and published versions of content.
PDF and Word export
When exporting content as PDF or Word using native Confluence features, either as individual pages or an entire space, the distinction between the published content vs. the draft content will be respected.
If the final state content is edited but there is no transition
the content version in the final state will change
the workflow published content will remain as the version created when the last transition to the final state occurred
To ensure that the current content in the final state is the workflow published version you should include an updated transition in the final state.
For more information, see: Confluence PDF and Word Export.
App configuration
Where | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
Workflow Activity and Drafts Visibility | Determines which users can access the workflow information and tools on a page. If using same space publishing the users not in this group will see the approved version of the content by default. | |
Default View | Determines whether Published content is seen by default. | |
Published View Macro Transform | Determines whether
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