Upgrade XML space export of 3.x Confluence space to 4.x instance - how?

Question

We have some content that resides in a 3.x instance of Confluence.  We would like to take space exports from 3.x and import the content into our 4.x instance.

How do we up-migrate content from an older (wiki markup) instance to the current storage format at the space level?

Patrick Wilson · Answer

Thanks for that idea.  It would work if this was a one-time deal, but we do have the need to do this every so often - 4-7 times a year, maybe.  I'm not sure how practical it is for us to maintain a separate instance for the purpose of upgrading the occasional space.

I have been working with the CLI plugin, particularly the convertToStorageFormat parameter, but am having trouble getting from the page level to the space level.  Was hoping to write up some CLI commands, potentially, to do this for us.

https://bobswift.atlassian.net/wiki/display/CSOAP/Documentation#Documentation-convertToStorageFormat

Daniel Wester · Answer

You'll probably want to spin up a second  3.x  instance as(using the "Developer" license key) and import the space export into it. Then upgrade that instance to the 4.x version and then export from there into the 4.x instance.

The storage method changed dramatically between Confluence 3 and 4 so I don't think that you can edit the entity XML file. I believe that you might be able to import wiki markup by using the https://bobswift.atlassian.net/wiki/display/CCLI/CLI+Plugin+for+Confluence - but I suspect that you'll have a lot of extra overhead with that approach.

Patrick Wilson · Answer

Thanks for that information, but in this case, we want to keep the two instances on different versions for some time.  However, we occasionally have the need to get one space from the 3.x instance to 4.x.

Is there any other path?  Maybe using CLI?  Or editing the entity XML file?