Migration from Alpha to Beta
11 comments
Hi @Matthias Gaiser _K15t_
Apologies, my images did not post correctly in my previous message. Below are samples of the 3 surfaces the banner would appear. (Note the content may slightly differ)
This is, within the left navigation tab, directly when viewing a standalone database, and within the database.
As for a notice email, I will work with support to try to get a followup sent for those who opened support tickets.
I am reviewing the recipients of our original migration email notice we sent, and I unfortunately am not finding anyone with your name or email domain in the list.
I meant that the affected databases had "(Orderly database)" instead of just "(database)" added to their original names. Those names didn't have 'Orderly' in their names, so the migration script was able to make the distinction somewhere and executed differently upon that.
Yes, like you have noticed certain databases had a suffix attached to them that differed from others. Without going to deep into details, we identified the root cause of the issue, and it did relate to this. Databases created prior to a certain date had additional identifying properties added/changed. Our migration script unfortunately did not properly handle this change gracefully, resulting in the issues of entry link fields not migrating correctly for the affected databases.
How can I as a Knowledge Manager and Confluence Administrator get informed at forehand? Just to make sure that I can anticipate on the upcoming changes, inform and instruct our users and also have the option to postpone (individual) changes until we're ready to migrate at a time that's also suitable for us?
I hear your concern, we had anticipated the migration to be a fairly seamless transition for all of our customers participating in our EAP, and fortunately for the vast majority this was the case. While confluence does offer a solution like you described to our customers, this is known as "Release Tracks" , this typically doesn't apply to EAP/Beta products because of the nature of how quickly changes and improvements are shipped to customers and their "opt-in" nature.
Our original notice of the original migration was a 2 pronged approach. 1st we had a banner internally displayed on all databases, letting users know changes would be coming soon, the banner contained a link to this page with even more details. https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/changes-to-your-eap-database-experience/ I understand that the time from when the banner appeared -> actual migration taking place might have been too short and a some people may have not seen it.
Additionally, known site admins were emailed in addition to this banner, but it appears our support system for the EAP program (intercom) has not tracked emails for all sites admins properly, I apologize for this. I'll attach what the email originally looked like here.
The team is working to finalize the fix in order to get everyone re-migrated over properly, with entry links functioning as expected. In addition to the banner that will appear several days leading up to the migration for affected sites, I will try to make sure emails are sent out directly to the admin of affected sites or followed up on filed support tickets.
I understand the way things have gone have not yet been ideal, we very much appreciate everyone who has been a participant in our Early Access Program for databases. These transitionary periods are not often without hiccups, and this transition from EAP -> beta is no exception.
I'll dig into this with the team but, the banner should have appeared starting Tuesday March 26th. I apologize if did not appear as expected, but like I mentioned previously it was a 2 front approach, I am glad to hear your Site admin was able to forward you the email sent to them and you were able to be aware from that side.
"Given the 'Databases ALPHA' button is still visible and has not been replaced by 'BETA', I would like to know if the migration has been completed successfully?"
Yes, the migration has been completed successfully. The "Alpha" tab is still there for sometime, as upon clicking, it serves as a reminder to let you know your databases have moved to the content tree.
"On the first time opening a new databases, there were many links 'unnamed'. Only after selecting the link and loading the properties in the side panel were those names loaded / shown."
I appreciate the insight here, but aside from needing to "refresh" the links, they seem to have migrated over then? I understand it may not have been as seamless as you and I would have hoped.
On the topic of rollbacks, there will not be any additional rollbacks from Beta -> Alpha, if you are still seeing gaps in Databases that were migrated then "rebuilding" or fixing any other errors you might see would be my recommendation.
Again, we really appreciate the continued use of our early access features and are happy you have been able to raise your concerns directly here in the community group with us.
Hello @Matthew Machuca as Tuesday March 26th is tomorrow then it would appear 4-5 days after the actual migration...
Thanks for the clarification on choosing the label 'ALPHA' on the button and conforming a successful migration.
On the first test of the databases it seems that there're some parts missing, but we will fix them on our side. We need this Database functionality as we were using it successfully when it still was the Orderly Databases app; our Site Admin confirmed that we did not join any Alpha version or EAP program for Databases, we were simply migrated from Orderly (some traces of that did still remain in permissions etc.).
But to move on, an example of the problems we see with links 'unnamed' (or not showing up):
1) This problem occurs only in former 'Orderly' databases.
2) Text fields were correctly migrated.
3) Showing 'unnamed' links on page load (I also think some missing links).
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1) After clicking an 'unnamed' link all correct names do show up.
2) Also the correct properties are shown / cross-links are loaded.
3) Related information / multiple links do show up, too.
4) The other department as shown in the properties pane.
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1) The properties / cross-links are correctly loaded.
2) Clicking a 'process name' loads the correct information, too.
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As the problems do't occur on all databases, we're moving on and rebuilding the infected ones. Hopefully that will solve these kind of problems.
@Divya Sriram please add Confluence Admins to your recipients list, too. Because only informing Site Admins is a bit too limited. Or at least give the customer (in your view probably the Site Admin) the option to add other employees. In my opinion, this way you avoid this kind of confusion in your well-intentioned and clear communication.
Regards,
Maik