Archive space for inactive users through REST API

David Angelovich

Support suggested a way to export the user list (which I can filter in code to the inactive users):

To generate a list of inactive users, you can go to the User Management and click on Export Users in the top right corner, that will generate a CSV file with the users.

Then suggested the REST API to archive the spaces:

It is not possible to bulk archive Spaces, however, you could check our public Confluence Rest API page and see if you come up with something, as this would involve custom development.

The API doc isn't clear on how this could be achieved or even if it can be... I can't find anything that definitively suggests it's possible to set the status of a space, though it does seem like https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/confluence/rest/#api-space-spaceKey-property-key-put would possibly allow this by setting the key "status" to the value "archived" - like this:

curl --request PUT \
  --url 'https://your-domain.atlassian.net/wiki/rest/api/space/{spaceKey}/property/status' \
  --user 'email@example.com:' \
  --header 'Accept: application/json' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
  "value": "archived",
  "version": {
    "number": 197,
    "minorEdit": true
  }
}'

Am I on the right track here? This is the first API task I've had to do with Confluence Cloud.

Is there a better way to achieve what I'm after (which is to have inactive users' spaces not appear in search/browsing)?

Stephen Sifers

Hello David,

What you have is excellent as far as the references you followed along with an example snippet of the curl call you’re wanting to make. From reviewing your JSON everything looks as though it should archive the space you’re targeting. To give an example of a GET, PUT then GET of what it will look like before during and after please see the following:

Here is GET call for the space I want to archive:
GET /wiki/rest/api/content

curl --request GET \
 --url 'https://your-domain.atlassian.net/wiki/rest/api/space/{spaceKey}' \
 --user 'email@example.com:' \
 --header 'Accept: application/json'

JSON response:

{"id":123456,"key":"SPACEID","name":"Stephen Sifers Space","type":"global","status":"current","_expandable":{"settings":"/rest/api/space/SPACEOD/settings","metadata":"","operations":"","lookAndFeel":"/rest/api/settings/lookandfeel?spaceKey=SPACEID","permissions":"","icon":"","description":"","theme":"/rest/api/space/SPACEID/theme","history":"","homepage":"/rest/api/content/654321"},"_links":{"context":"/wiki","self":"https://site.atlassian.net/wiki/rest/api/space/SPACEID","collection":"/rest/api/space","webui":"/spaces/SPACEID","base":"https://site.atlassian.net/wiki"}}

And the PUT call to set the space to archived:

PUT /wiki/rest/api/content/{id}

curl --request PUT \
 --url 'https://your-domain.atlassian.net/wiki/rest/api/space/{spaceKey}' \
 --user 'email@example.com:' \
 --header 'Accept: application/json' \
 --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
 --data '{"status": "archived"}'

And another GET call to verify:

GET /wiki/rest/api/content

curl --request GET \
 --url 'https://your-domain.atlassian.net/wiki/rest/api/space/{spaceKey}' \
 --user 'email@example.com:' \
 --header 'Accept: application/json'

JSON response:

{"id":123456,"key":"SPACEID","name":"Stephen Sifers Space","type":"global","status":"archived","_expandable":{"settings":"/rest/api/space/SPACEOD/settings","metadata":"","operations":"","lookAndFeel":"/rest/api/settings/lookandfeel?spaceKey=SPACEID","permissions":"","icon":"","description":"","theme":"/rest/api/space/SPACEID/theme","history":"","homepage":"/rest/api/content/654321"},"_links":{"context":"/wiki","self":"https://site.atlassian.net/wiki/rest/api/space/SPACEID","collection":"/rest/api/space","webui":"/spaces/SPACEID","base":"https://site.atlassian.net/wiki"}}

To answer your question about the best method, this is the best available method using the REST API to set a space to current or archived.

I hope this proves helpful and you’re able to manage your removed user's spaces without issue.

Regards,
Stephen Sifers