We have a Confluence Cloud instance that has been in use for at least 6 years. There are tons of Spaces and Pages. We want to "clean" it up and reduce outdated, inactive, unnecessary clutter. We are finding this EXTREMLEY difficult for many reasons such as: * The "last viewed" Page attribute only goes back 1 year* Anything beyond that is listed as "N/A" * Page restrictions* Unlike Jira, Confluence (as far as I'm aware) doesn't provide a way for admins to override Page restrictions to be able to "see" restricted pages via automation* I'm aware of the Admin key, but that doesn't help when performing Page branching in an automation rule * This is necessary as I'm not planning to go through the Spaces manually to perform this cleanup effort... * Lack of an "Automation for Confluence" account* Not a dealbreaker, but it would be nice if the actions performed were associated with a common account as opposed to the individual tasked with creating the automation rules * 1,000 Page limitation within automation rules* I understand there has to be limitations so an automation isn't running for several minutes or even hours, but... * We created a rule (even with the limitations provided), to label the Pages to impacted * On subsequent runs, the rule just loops through the same 1,000 Pages, so there's no way to "advance" * Inability to export impacted Pages* Confluence's search UI is ugly * That and there is no ability to export the Pages * We wanted to be able to export the Pages to be impacted by this effort to provide communication to our userbase that these are the Pages to be archived/trashed before actually performing the maintenance effort I tried looking for an add-on that could assist with this maintenance effort, but wasn't finding anything. That said, for the cost of Atlassian products, I would expect to be able to perform this level of maintenance without needing to pay extra for 3rd party tooling... Any advice would be much appreciated!

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Maintain a Confluence instance

Gary Spross

We have a Confluence Cloud instance that has been in use for at least 6 years. There are tons of Spaces and Pages. We want to "clean" it up and reduce outdated, inactive, unnecessary clutter. We are finding this EXTREMLEY difficult for many reasons such as:

The "last viewed" Page attribute only goes back 1 year
- Anything beyond that is listed as "N/A"
Page restrictions
- Unlike Jira, Confluence (as far as I'm aware) doesn't provide a way for admins to override Page restrictions to be able to "see" restricted pages via automation
  - I'm aware of the Admin key, but that doesn't help when performing Page branching in an automation rule
- This is necessary as I'm not planning to go through the Spaces manually to perform this cleanup effort...
Lack of an "Automation for Confluence" account
- Not a dealbreaker, but it would be nice if the actions performed were associated with a common account as opposed to the individual tasked with creating the automation rules
1,000 Page limitation within automation rules
- I understand there has to be limitations so an automation isn't running for several minutes or even hours, but...
- We created a rule (even with the limitations provided), to label the Pages to impacted
- On subsequent runs, the rule just loops through the same 1,000 Pages, so there's no way to "advance"
Inability to export impacted Pages
- Confluence's search UI is ugly
- That and there is no ability to export the Pages
- We wanted to be able to export the Pages to be impacted by this effort to provide communication to our userbase that these are the Pages to be archived/trashed before actually performing the maintenance effort

I tried looking for an add-on that could assist with this maintenance effort, but wasn't finding anything. That said, for the cost of Atlassian products, I would expect to be able to perform this level of maintenance without needing to pay extra for 3rd party tooling...

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Accepted answers

Jim Knepley - ReleaseTEAM

Hi @Gary Spross

I wouldn't use automation for this, I would write something by hand (probably with Python+Pandas, but whatever) that interacts with Confluence via the API. It would take some work.

If you have access to Rovo, you might be able to use it to identify clusters of pages that cover similar topics. I was able to get some sensible results with this prompt:

"You are an AI agent that analyzes Confluence pages. Using a list of page summaries, identify pages that address the same topics and list those pages."

It generated a list of page categories and the pages that fit those categories. I think that could be a useful start toward consolidating content or removing redundant pages.

(edit: you get a VERY similar response to that prompt from Atlassian Intelligence)

Kristian Klima_gtcuat

Hi @Gary Spross

Some of your issues can be dealt with by apps like Panorama by Kolekti or Pages Manager by Ricksoft. For example, Panorama will display Last Viewed data that go way back than one year and will show you what restrictions are applied on the page.

You can also archive individual pages directly from the app.

Also, Pages manager (free app) lets you bulk edit parameters and labels en masse.

I can think of a solution in which you'd identify 'old' pages, apply labels (or statuses) en masse and then use automation (or an app), to manipulate the pages.

Say that you bulk apply label Dump to specific pages - combine with an automation rule - notify owner when label Dump applied - you warn them.

Taking it to a new level Space sync for Confluence (Ricksoft) can 'sync' (copy) pages with specific status/labels to another space. So you can create a dumping space for all useless pages from multiple spaces - and you can trigger that from Pages manager by bulk changing statuses.

Then, your archive the Dumping space (automate notifcations when archiving), and then detelete it.

The idea is to create a chain of specific apps - actions they can perform (view parameters, bulk change parameters, bulk copy), and combine them with automation.

Details, of course, depend on the specifics of your setup but I think you should be able to achieve quite a lot with the aforementioned apps.

(Disclaimer - I'm not affiliated with Kolekti/Adaptavist or Ricksoft)

Levente Szabo _Midori_

@Gary Spross When it comes to maintaining Confluence and content lifecycle management specifically, Better Content Archiving and Analytics is a popular solution that checks your requirements already today. The Data Center version has been on the market since 2008. When we at Midori worked on the cloud version, we used all the knowledge we gathered from working with large enterprises with huge Confluence instances, like this well-known professional social platform or this household brand animation studio.

We also summarized our thoughts about Confluence content lifecycle management in this article. I recommend reading this to learn more about our philosophy on this subject.

1. Better Content Archiving and Analytics implements its own automation engine available for all tiers, including free. You are not restricted by any limitation of Automation for Confluence.

2. The app allows you to simply create your own statuses, up to 20 instead of the 5 built-in.

3. You can create your custom rules for what is not viewed, not updated, to review, etc status. The statuses are updating automatically or can be adjusted manually.

4. You can automate archiving or delete actions within the app that will take action based on your statuses and the schedule you specify.

5. It's not exporting, but the app delivers an advanced notification system that automatically sends emails to the designated recipients (based on roles like page owner, group membership, or individual email addresses). Note that the app also implements its own page owner concept that has advantages over the built-in one. The email content can be customized, but there are many templates built in.

6. There is also a comprehensive Confluence Analytics solution built also in the app that gives insights similar to Confluence Analytics and even more as it contains content lifecycle-related information, like statuses and status changes over time, status overview, and more. Watch this overview about the reporting dashboards available for all tiers:

I suggest you look into it and give it a try for free.

Especially if you considered Premium only for the automation and content lifecycle features, I think you may be better off staying on Standard and using Better Content Archiving and Analytics.

I'm available for a consultation anytime to look at your CLM needs and how we can address them today. Reach out to us here or shoot me an email directly at levente.szabo@midori-global.com

(I'm part of the Midori team developing Better Content Archiving and Analytics since 2008.)

All comments

Jim Knepley - ReleaseTEAM

Hi @Gary Spross

I wouldn't use automation for this, I would write something by hand (probably with Python+Pandas, but whatever) that interacts with Confluence via the API. It would take some work.

If you have access to Rovo, you might be able to use it to identify clusters of pages that cover similar topics. I was able to get some sensible results with this prompt:

"You are an AI agent that analyzes Confluence pages. Using a list of page summaries, identify pages that address the same topics and list those pages."

It generated a list of page categories and the pages that fit those categories. I think that could be a useful start toward consolidating content or removing redundant pages.

(edit: you get a VERY similar response to that prompt from Atlassian Intelligence)

Gary Spross

Thanks for the suggestions @Jim Knepley - ReleaseTEAM. I was trying to avoid having to go down the path of basically creating my own app.

We also don't have Rovo at the moment. Can't get past the cost associated with that...

Jim Knepley - ReleaseTEAM

@Gary Spross I edited my previous answer, but you likely won't be notified of the update.

You get a very similar response to that prompt from Atlassian Intelligence.

Matthew_Christiansen_Adaptavist

Good afternoon @Gary Spross

I am a marketer at Kolekti (part of Adaptavist) for a third-party app that will soon be released on the marketplace (Aiming for next week).

The main purpose of this app is to improve the efficiency of space management and eliminate the often tedious tasks of cleaning up content, including updating labels, status, etc. It also allows for a more holistic view of the content's property information.

Given your current challenge with clutter and outdated content across your instance, it sounds like this could be something our app could very much support you with.

I would be more than happy to jump on a call and demonstrate the new application to you.

Let me know, and we can set something up when it's convenient for you or your team.

Thanks