Move content from Confluence

Your Confluence content lives in Collabase Docs, in Spaces your members already know, with the page tree they are used to. Collabase has no automatic importer for whole Confluence sites: you rebuild the structure and import the content page by page. Follow the phases in order. Every phase ends with a checkpoint and a link to the next one.

At a glance


Result	Your Confluence pages exist as pages in Collabase Docs, in the right Spaces and in the right order.
Time	About one hour to prepare. The import itself takes a few minutes per page, so plan by the number of pages you move. These are estimates.
You need	A system administrator in Collabase for the Spaces and members, and someone with edit rights in each target Space for the import. In Confluence, someone who can read the source pages.
Edition	Every installation

Two ways bring the content of a page across. Choose per page in phase 1:

Confluence page import: the page body in Confluence storage format. Keeps Confluence macros such as info panels, code blocks and task lists. This is the default.
Word import: the page exported as a Word document. Use it when you cannot get the storage format.

Requirements

In Collabase

A system administrator account to create Spaces and add members.
Edit rights in each target Space for whoever imports the pages.
The document processor running. It ships with Collabase and converts the files. Without it the import fails, see Troubleshooting.

In Confluence

Read access to every page you move.
A way to save a page’s body in Confluence storage format, or to export it as a Word document. Which menu offers this depends on your Confluence version and your permissions there. Check Atlassian’s documentation for your version.

Files

Storage format files saved as .html, .xml or .txt.
Word files as .docx, at most 10 MB each.

Overview

Phase	What you do	Time
1. Plan	List the spaces and pages, map them to Collabase Spaces, choose the import way.	30 minutes
2. Set up Spaces	Create the Spaces and add the members.	15 minutes per Space
3. Rebuild the page tree	Create the pages in the order of the Confluence tree.	Depends on the number of pages
4. Import the content	Import the body of each page.	A few minutes per page
5. Repair and check	Upload images and attachments, fix links between pages.	Depends on the content

Phase 1: Plan

Phase 1 of 5, about 30 minutes. Next: Phase 2, Set up Spaces.

Map Confluence to Collabase

Confluence	Collabase	How it moves
Space		You create it, phase 2
Space permissions	Space roles and groups	You assign them, phase 2
Page and page tree	Page and page tree in Collabase Docs	You create the pages, phase 3
Page body	Page content	Imported, phase 4
Attachments and images	Page attachments	You upload them, phase 5
Links between pages	Links between pages	You set them again, phase 5
Page history, comments, likes	Not moved	Collabase history starts with the import

What the Confluence page import converts

In Confluence	In Collabase
Headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, quotes, horizontal lines	The same elements
Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, inline code, links to web addresses	The same formatting
Code block macro	Code block, with its language
Info, Note, Warning, Tip and Panel macros	Callout
Status macro	Status label with its colour
Table of contents macro	Table of contents
Expand and Excerpt macros	Toggle
Task lists	Checklist, with done items ticked
Other macros	Their text content is kept. Macros without text content are left out
Images	An image placeholder that does not show the picture. Upload the image in phase 5
Links to other Confluence pages	A link with the page title that does not open anything. Set it again in phase 5

The Word import converts headings, paragraphs and tables. It does not bring images across either.

Decide

One Collabase Space per Confluence space is the default. Merge small spaces only if the same people work in them.
Leave out pages nobody has opened for a long time. Moving fewer pages is the fastest migration.
Choose the Confluence page import for every page you can get in storage format, and the Word import for the rest.

Checkpoint. You have a list of the Confluence spaces to move, the Collabase Space each one goes to, and the pages in each, with the import way for each page. If you are unsure which pages are still used, ask the space owners before you go on.

Next: Phase 2, Set up Spaces.

Phase 2: Set up Spaces

Phase 2 of 5, about 15 minutes per Space. Previous: Phase 1. Next: Phase 3, Rebuild the page tree.

Bring people in

Make sure everyone who works in the moved content has a Collabase account. Create accounts on the Users page, or connect your directory, see Users and groups.

Create the Spaces

Create one Space for each line of your plan. Choose the visibility that matches the Confluence space. See Spaces.

Assign roles

Give the members and groups of each Space their roles, so the people who import in phase 4 have edit rights. See Permissions.

Checkpoint. Each Space from your plan exists, and the people who import can create and edit pages in it. If someone cannot create a page, check their Space role.

Next: Phase 3, Rebuild the page tree.

Phase 3: Rebuild the page tree

Phase 3 of 5. Previous: Phase 2. Next: Phase 4, Import the content.

Start at the top

In each Space, create the top-level pages first, with the titles they have in Confluence. See Pages.

Add the child pages

Create each child page under its parent, in the Confluence order. Keep the titles: they are what you search for when you fix links in phase 5.

Checkpoint. The page tree of each Space matches the Confluence tree, with empty pages. If the order is off, move the pages in the tree before you import content.

Next: Phase 4, Import the content.

Phase 4: Import the content

Phase 4 of 5, a few minutes per page. Previous: Phase 3. Next: Phase 5, Repair and check. The import is done in the page editor, one page at a time, by anyone with edit rights in the Space. It inserts the converted content at the cursor position, so start with an empty page.

Confluence page import
Word import

Save the page body

In Confluence, save the page’s body in storage format as a file ending in .html, .xml or .txt.

Open the target page

In Collabase, open the empty page in the editor and click into the page body.

Open the import

In the editor toolbar, click Import, then Import Confluence Page. The dialog Import from Confluence opens.

Choose the file

Click Browse Files and select the file.

Convert

Click Process Transformation. The button shows Transforming… while it works, and the dialog closes when the content is in the page.

Export the page

In Confluence, export the page as a Word document (.docx).

Open the target page

In Collabase, open the empty page in the editor and click into the page body.

Import

In the editor toolbar, click Import, then Import from Word, and select the file.

The message Word document imported successfully confirms the import.

Checkpoint. The page shows the Confluence content with its headings, tables and callouts. If an error appears instead, see Troubleshooting.

Next: Phase 5, Repair and check.

Phase 5: Repair and check

Phase 5 of 5. Previous: Phase 4. Next: Keep it running.

Replace the images

Delete each image placeholder and insert the image again from your Confluence export.

Upload the attachments

Add files that were attached to the Confluence page as page attachments. See Pages.

Fix links between pages

Each link to another Confluence page carries that page’s title. Point it to the Collabase page with the same title.

Ask the space owners to check

Let the owners of each moved space read their pages before you announce the move.

Checkpoint. Every moved page shows its images, attachments and working links, and the space owners have confirmed their pages. Tell your members where the content lives now.

Keep it running

Nothing in this guide expires. Two things need a decision once the move is done:

Item	What to do
The Confluence pages	Set the moved spaces to read-only in Confluence, so nobody keeps editing the old copy
Pages moved later	Use the same phases for every page that turns up after the move

Troubleshooting

In the import dialog

What you see	Cause	What to do
An unexpected error occurred during import	The document processor is not running or cannot read the file	Check that the document processor service is up, see App not responding. Then check that the file holds the page body in storage format
Failed to read file or an unknown error occurred.	The browser could not read the file	Save the file again as `.html` and retry
Word import failed. Is the document processor running?	The document processor is not running, or the Word file is larger than 10 MB	Start the document processor, or split the document
Process Transformation stays disabled	No file is selected	Click Browse Files and select a file

On the page

What you see	Cause	What to do
Images are missing	Images are not part of the page body	Insert them again, phase 5
A link opens nothing	The link pointed to another Confluence page	Point it to the Collabase page, phase 5
The content appears in the middle of the page	The import inserts at the cursor	Undo, click at the top of an empty page and import again
Import is missing from the toolbar	The page is open for reading only	Switch the page to editing, or ask for edit rights in the Space

Pages

Create pages, move them in the tree and add attachments.

Spaces

Create Spaces and choose their visibility.

Users and groups

Bring the people of your Confluence spaces into Collabase.

Move work from Jira

The matching guide for Jira projects.

​At a glance

​Requirements

​In Collabase

​In Confluence

​Files

​Overview

​Phase 1: Plan

​Map Confluence to Collabase

​What the Confluence page import converts

​Decide

​Phase 2: Set up Spaces

​Phase 3: Rebuild the page tree

​Phase 4: Import the content

​Phase 5: Repair and check

​Keep it running

​Troubleshooting

​In the import dialog

​On the page

​Related pages

Pages

Spaces

Users and groups

Move work from Jira

At a glance

Requirements

In Collabase

In Confluence

Files

Overview

Phase 1: Plan

Map Confluence to Collabase

What the Confluence page import converts

Decide

Phase 2: Set up Spaces

Phase 3: Rebuild the page tree

Phase 4: Import the content

Phase 5: Repair and check

Keep it running

Troubleshooting

In the import dialog

On the page

Related pages