How to provide versioning with check-out & check-in for individual pages in a Confluence work space

Question

Hi,

Please let me know if there is any plugin which can be used to create versions for individual pages in a work space.

For e.g. there is a business use case document in a work space and this use case document needs to be edited by 3 separate people for 3 separate requirements. Hence the use case document should have 3 versions one for each requirement. Each person should be able to check out the document to his id and check in back with the changes for his version. Please let me know how to achieve this in Confluence.

Anusha_Raju · Answer

Hi All,

Thank you for your suggestions.

Currently we are using 'Page Branching for Confluence' which will create multiple branches of a parent page, we can work individually in each branch, merge once the edit is complete.

Thanks & Regards

Anusha

roman_l0djep · Answer

Hi Anusha.

Scroll Versions allows creating multiple space versions and editing each page in Confluence in all of versions at the same time.

You can then compare the content of the page between versions (≈30 secs video) and even merge the version you decided to keep as the main one. Alternatively, you can export the page in specific version with Scroll PDF Exporter or publish it to another space.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Cheers,
Roman.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

The short answer is "no", but sort of yes too.  Because it's simply not what Confluence is for, and the check-in/out idea is an old approach that Confluence was built to avoid.

Let's split the question in two though, as that can help explain why and what you could do.

First, Confluence does already version pages.  Every saved edit is a new version.  Versioning is not a problem here.

Second, the check-out/in method is something Confluence was deliberately built to improve on, because, in general, it's terrible.  People get in the way of other people working all the time when it's in use, and people really need something non-blocking and more collaborative.

In Confluence 5 and below, there was a form of check-in and check-out - the first person to start editing a page would own it and anyone else editing would be warned about that.  Anyone trying to save would have the changes scanned and compared to see if they could be merged automatically or not.  This is one step better than check-out/in itself as it means people can work simultaneously, and then merge, but it's only as good as the merge tool

In 6, we got collaborative editing which bypasses the whole problem.  Anyone editing can edit what they want, while seeing what other users are doing.  No need for any merging or check-out/in, it's all in front of you.

However.  I suspect you have a business process that has gates, where a document is moved from team to team for updates, and check-out/in does make sense as a solution there.  However, it's not a great solution.  A better one is to have a workflow that matches your process.

I would reach for "Comala Workflows", and set up something that says

* Original author finishes the first draft (say version 7, as they have been working on it intermittently)
* Pass it to Team 1 - only people in that group can edit it now.  When they finish at version 19, they move it to the next step
* Team 2 picks it up - now only they can edit.  When they finish at version 34, they "release" it, and the document goes public for everyone to see.  (Users won't see versions 1-33 here)
* And then you can loop back for updates - Comala lets you do more versions hidden from the users until you "release" it.