I am new to Confluence, are there any tools to assist with help authoring?

[Kelly_Marshall]

Hi,

I know I can send a user an article in confluence, but what about developing a whole section where they don't have to log in, can access a directory of articles, search and see items?

Ideally, I would like to see this as a specific url that can be added as a 'help' link and be used essentially by anyone who knows the url.

Thanks in advance,

Kelly

[roman · Accepted solution]

Hi @Kelly_Marshall,

am I correct that you would like to share a page with a reader that can only view without adding a separate user for him? Would you like some sort of "reader mode" for ready-to-be-shared-pages?

Roman.

[Kelly_Marshall]

Hi @roman,

Thanks for asking, I'm looking more for like a main page (which I think is called a 'space' plus connected pages (with some sort of index/search) function available as read-only without any login required.  I found some info on making confluence pages public - which might be enough, but I don't have all the rights yet to do it. 

Do you have other thoughts on how this could be done effectively?  I don't think we want to invest in some sort of help authoring software like RoboHelp...which is basically what I'm looking to have as an end result - a help application site for our users only.

Thanks again,

Kelly

[roman]

@Kelly_Marshall,

I think what you want to achieve can be achieved with the app we develop — Scroll Viewport. 

It creates a second view for a space in Confluence that is read-only. If the space is configured to be a public space, log in is not required. Atlassian is using Viewport for documentation for all of their apps.

Here is the documentation for Confluence, which is actually a Viewport on top of a Confluence space: https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/confluence-server-documentation-135922.html.

Our help website is also Viewport with content taken from Confluence pages: https://help.k15t.com.

Does it look like something that would work for your use-case?

Roman.

[Kelly_Marshall]

Hi Roman,

Yes, it is very nice!  I will let my manager know about it.  How does the licensing work if the space is public and anonymous, does the server pricing reflect the number of users who use confluence now (not including the public spaces) or would it be based on the number of people (either logged in or anonymous) looking at the space at one time?

Thank you!

Kelly

[roman]

Kelly,

licensing is not dependant on the app’s usage. The model is used for all apps sold on the Marketplace: the app’s license count has to match the license count of Confluence it is going to be installed on. 

If you have a 2000 users Confluence license, you would need to purchase a 2000 users license for third-party apps. Even if only 10 users would be using them. This is a rule from Atlassian.

Roman.

[Kelly_Marshall]

@romanthat sounds good.  Wasn't sure what it was based on.  I'll definitely present this to my manager.  Thanks!!