Try the new Confluence Server Search on your site

[Simi S]

Update: Thanks for all your help with our Search UI testing - it's now come to a close. 

Hello Community 👋

This year the Confluence Server team is working on improving Search. We're currently investigating two streams of work - one is engineering improvements, and the other is UI improvements to make things easier to find in Confluence.

 

For that second part, we would love your help to see if we're moving the design of search in the right direction. Try out what the new search might look like on your own Confluence instance, so you can give us your feedback.

What's involved

If you use Confluence Server:

1. To get started, just install this Chrome extension and refresh any browser windows with Confluence open. Then use Confluence as you normally would. Whenever you go to search, the new experience should kick in.

Don't worry about the greyed icon in your browser bar - if the search field on Confluence Server pages updates to say 'Search by keyword,' it's running.

As it's a prototype, there may be some design inconsistencies or bugs - if you need to go back to the old search, you can disable the extension by going to Window > Extensions > Uncheck the Enabled box. If you're using a theming plugin, the search prototype may not work. 

Thanks for your help,

Becc and Simi
Designers at Atlassian

[Boris Berenberg - Atlas Authority]

I've been testing this and it seems like an interesting move forward. I encourage others to also try this out and provide feedback to the Atlassian team.

[Simi S]

Thanks Boris!

The latest version of the Chrome extension we're sharing now actually incorporates some of the early feedback we got :) 

[Walter Buggenhout _ACA IT_]

Are there any version requirements?

[Simi S]

Hi Walter,

We've tested the prototype with 6.7 and 6.8, but we've also had partners trying it out on earlier versions without trouble.

It hasn't worked with some theming plugins, but we also have a static prototype we can share with people who find it doesn't work with their sites.

Simi

[JanR]

Formatting didn't quite fit on 6.6 but still working...

[Walter Buggenhout _ACA IT_]

Thx @Simi S!

[JanR]

I gave some feedback already, but it might be a good idea to discuss one pretty annoying issue for me:

As soon as I click into the quicksearch field the new search opens. I would have expected the the current behaviour just displaying the last viewed pages would be preserved, but maybe with a later version it'll work like this.

[Simi S]

Hi @Jan-Peter Rusch - we heard something similar from a few people in our early feedback group, so we've changed the latest version of the Chrome extension to display your recent items when it opens.

It doesn't work quite as we intend the real thing to (for example, we'd like to show some of your recent spaces too), but if you have any thoughts on how that could work best continue to share them.

[Emmanuel Etasse]

That is really awesome : people who are trying this in our company like it very much. When do you think this could be delivered ?

Thanks !

[Ada Chen]

Hi @Emmanuel Etasse - Ada from the Confluence Product Marketing team here! As we're still in the prototype and feedback phase, it's hard to say when this feature may ship. I've bookmarked this thread and will share more details when they're available.

[Peter Reid]

I have signed up for the search early access testing pilot.

I've installed the chrome extension and I'm experiencing an error when using it on my confluence instance.

AJS.$(...).auiSelect2 is not a function 

I am running Confluence server 6.8.0 in non-prod, and 6.7.2 in prod (neither works), Chrome version Version 65.0.3325.181 (Official Build) (64-bit). No ad-blocker is enabled for my domain on my machine, and I have tried loading this in an incognito window having signed in and out of confluence and only having the extension enabled. I am using NGINX as a reverse proxy and web server

[AnnWorley]

@Simrita Shaheed Please see @Peter Reid's Question regarding the early-access search testing pilot.

[Simi S]

Hi Peter,

Sorry to hear this isn't working for you. While we investigate the problem, I've got some designs I can share with you to show the experience - expect these in your inbox today!

Simi

[Normann P_ Nielsen _Netic_]

 6.4.2 - I also get the 

AJS.$(...).auiSelect2 is not a function 

[Simi S]

Do you hit the error wherever you search from (within a space, from the dashboard, while viewing a page)?

[Normann P_ Nielsen _Netic_]

I removed the extension and added it again - now its working.

On my private site www.mos-eisley.dk Its not working with the Refined Wiki it seems (which is just FYI)

[Normann P_ Nielsen _Netic_]

Shortly that was... broken again...

[kada1987]

Some feed back I had, I could not find a space in the space filter, because apparently the space search is case sensitive and does not search Space Keys. All in All I really like it so far though and think it is a great addition!

[Debbie Nicholas]

One quick comment - when clicking an option then clicking into the search box, the first request covers/hides the search query.

To duplicate: 

1. Click Notification or Online Help, etc.

2. Then click into the search box

Note that the first request is still visible, is covering the search, and it does not appear that you are able to remove the request. Clicking into the filters does, however, remove the previous request. 

[Simi S]

Hi @Debbie Nicholas, sorry about that bug! Thanks for the feedback.

[Christoph]

Nice approach but still just UI stuff - what we really need is the following:
1. Say we use Confluence for documentation and have a bunch of spaces all beginning with the product name. How do I filter the search to include only those i.e. 10 spaces for product A and not all the others.
2. Not to mention saving such a combination as a "personal filter".
3. Say you have several pages all named similiar - like createtree / edittree / searchtree / deltree. Why does the search does NOT find these pages when you look simply for tree ???? Only pages beginning with tree are found - not those with tree somewhere in the middle !!! (The usual wildcards like * or % don't help :(:(:( )
These are the killer questions why almost all of my users say "we don't find anything in the WIKI" - they are spoiled by the usual web search engines which just do especially the third issue.
Or am I just missing something which is available and I just haven't found it ? :)

PS: Tested with our Confluence 6.5 (prod) and 6.8 (test) with Chrome 65 on Win10

[Debbie Nicholas]

Agreed!

[Simi S]

Thanks for trying out the Search UI and giving your feedback. Alongside these UI changes we're also investigating other technical issues we've heard from customers to see where else we can improve.

In terms of missing something, this page has a good summary of what is available with our current search syntax: https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/confluence-search-syntax-158720.html Would be helpful to hear if you learn anything useful for the searches you need to do there :) 

[Rafael Franco]

Will Atlassian actually implement a proper CQL search functionality? This is still so limiting on what it can do.

[Gezim Shehu [Communardo]]

I am  giving this a try, currently on 6.0.6.

Will update

[Gonchik Tsymzhitov]

Hi! 

This is really good for UI side, also small feeling it is so faster than before.

About relevant info, it will be nice for set some prio for some space or page trees.

Cheers,

Gonchik Tsymzhitov

[Emmanuel Etasse]

Would it be possible to provide a filter on Space Categories ? This is very helpful when there is 1000 spaces... 

[Gonchik Tsymzhitov]

@Simi S 

Thank you again for the post! 

May I know is it possible customize the app? Because I was wondering to provide preconfiguried search  app to our customers. 

Thanks 

Cheers,

Gonchik Tsymzhitov

[Sandi Mathers]

Hi @Simi S or anyone with Atlassian --- it looks like the beta testing for your new Search function is now over---we are very interested in the plugin or any other beta testing, can you send me the link for this new plugin so we can try it out? Also, if you would please add me to any further betas on this.

Thx so much!

- Sandi Mathers, Oracle OCI Team

[Ada Chen]

Hi @Sandi Mathers - Even though our beta is closed, you can still access the plugin on the Chrome store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/confluence-search-prototy/ifkfconngdaokkjggiidleekoicbaknc

[Sandi Mathers]

Thx, Ada! @Ada Chen --- looks like we can only access this from Chrome, will the future versions also work on Mozilla and other browsers? Also, will installing this plugin affect all my searching content, or just my Confluence searching?

[Ada Chen]

Hi @Sandi Mathers - The Chrome plugin is meant to give you an idea of the UI improvements we are making. Future UI improvements will be shipped in Confluence releases and should be compatible across modern browsers. The plugin is meant to only be used with Confluence search.

[Sandi Mathers]

Thx for the fast replies, @Ada Chen!

[Sandi Mathers]

Hi @Ada Chen or other Atlassian employee---I have 2 quick questions:

• How do we get on the list to be notified if there is another beta on the Search feature? I def want to be included and can give my my email or whatever you need.
• I got some great feedback about the Search tool---where do I send it?

[Kevin Allen]

Hi Sandi, I just reached out to you. Check email please :)

[Sandi Mathers]

Hi @Kevin Allen! I did get an email that just said what you put above! Nothing else came thru... :)

[Kevin Allen]

Can you check LinkedIn Sandi? I can't actually get your email from here so I looked you up there. Was hoping you'd get a notification from them. 

[Dennis Andersen]

Hi Atlassian and everyone. 

So we just saw that the new search functionality is bundled in the EAP for Confluence 6.13. (https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/preparing-for-confluence-6-13-958443854.html)

We're doing themes for Confluence and thus change the layout/look of confluence in such a way that the default search element ID isn't present on all pages. As such the new search won't work with our addon. Is there anywhere to find information on how the new experience is initiated? Can we override it to supply our own container/ID for example? 

Cheers! 

Dennis

[Miles B.]

Hey Dennis,

We've asked the team to reach out directly. If you haven't already, please also check out https://community.developer.atlassian.com/ - This is normally where our PMs hang out to answer more technical questions.

It's possible other developers/vendors are in a similar situation, so if you don't already see it please feel free to post your question there as well. 

Best,

Miles

[Emil Sjödin _Refined_]

Thanks Miles!

[Ada Chen]

Just closing the loop here! We shipped a new search experience in Confluence 6.14 and feedback has been positive. Thank you again for all of your help!

To take advantage of the latest and greatest Confluence features, don’t forget to upgrade to the latest version of Confluence. 

[Gonchik Tsymzhitov]

Thank for that we are already on last version and we want to have a new version with fresh lucene libs . 

What we have now on 7.1.1

atlassian-confluence-7.1.0/confluence/WEB-INF/lib/lucene-sandbox-4.4.0-atlassian-02.jar
atlassian-confluence-7.1.0/confluence/WEB-INF/lib/lucene-misc-4.4.0-atlassian-02.jar
atlassian-confluence-7.1.0/confluence/WEB-INF/lib/lucene-analyzers-common-4.4.0-atlassian-02.jar
atlassian-confluence-7.1.0/confluence/WEB-INF/lib/lucene-analyzers-stempel-4.4.0-atlassian-02.jar
atlassian-confluence-7.1.0/confluence/WEB-INF/lib/lucene-core-4.4.0-atlassian-02.jar
atlassian-confluence-7.1.0/confluence/WEB-INF/lib/lucene-queryparser-4.4.0-atlassian-02.jar
atlassian-confluence-7.1.0/confluence/WEB-INF/lib/lucene-highlighter-4.4.0-atlassian-02.jar
atlassian-confluence-7.1.0/confluence/WEB-INF/lib/lucene-memory-4.4.0-atlassian-02.jar
atlassian-confluence-7.1.0/confluence/WEB-INF/lib/lucene-queries-4.4.0-atlassian-02.jar
atlassian-confluence-7.1.0/confluence/WEB-INF/lib/lucene-analyzers-kuromoji-4.4.0-atlassian-02.jar
atlassian-confluence-7.1.0/confluence/WEB-INF/lib/lucene-upgrader-1.0-lucene36.jar
atlassian-confluence-7.1.0/confluence/WEB-INF/atlassian-bundled-plugins/confluence-dummmy-lucene-compat-plugin-7.1.0.jar

As I see you have already own 3rd party

https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.lucene/lucene-queryparser/7.3.1-atlassian-1

that will be helpful for improvements of normalisator

https://lucene.apache.org/core/7_3_1/changes/Changes.html#v7.3.0.build

I will be happy if we can test it. 

Thanks 

Cheers,

Gonchik Tsymzhitov

[rad_ricka_barclays_com]

How do we access the classic search - the new one is transient, if I'm researching things in intranet it's helpful to have search results static in a page so I can open new tabs navigate away from it and, in general, multitask. 

[Normann P_ Nielsen _Netic_]

IMHO the new search is worse than the old one, all my employees loves most of confluence, but all agrees the search part is bad.. its becomes somewhat of a laughing matter

A simple start would be that pages are the only selected type as default (or this is user customisable)

And the old searched are possible to return to with "<- back" to previous page..

@rad_ricka_barclays_com is You find back, do please inform me....

[rad_ricka_barclays_com]

Thanks Normann, interestingly that didn't work for me (back) - I can still get there from sidebar search, but not from the navbar search. We're on 7.4.4

[Normann P_ Nielsen _Netic_]

I was referring to Nav bar - most searches originates from there....