Publishing process approach

[Rhyne Armstrong]

This is going to be rather difficult to explain, but here goes:

We have created 10000 articles for our Knowledgebase, all pre-numbered so we can continue our naming/numbering scheme. These articles have no label, so are not included when we search from the front-end of the space.

When a user wants to create a new article, they are 'given' the next article in order and then changes the name and content. The link to the article adds the kbdraft label.

When the user is ready to publish, they click the publish button. This is where the problem arises.

For some reason, when we attempt to remove the kbdraft label and add the kb label through the SQL database, the system doesn't see the changes until we restart the server.

What we want to happen is:

1. The labels are changed, taking it from the draft state to the published state.

2. The publish button goes away.

3. There needs to be a system to back out, to return the page to the template state and remove all labels.

4. The people watching the space should be notified when someone publishes an article.

Any help on any of this? I have been working on this for so long that I can't keep it straight in my own head.

[Bob Swift OSS (Bob Swift Atlassian Apps) · Accepted solution]

Using SQL operations on the Confluence database is a bad idea. You should use standard Confluence interfaces for making changes. Use user macros, plugins, remote APIs, Confluence CLI or similar to make changes "legally".

[Rhyne Armstrong]

Thank you for pointing us in this direction. I think our developers are so SQL oriented that they didn't look long enough at built-in solutions to make this work. We have 85% of this working nicely.

[Matthew J. Horn]

I've found that you don't need to restart Confluence for label changes to take effect. What you DO need to do, though, is wait about 10 minutes or so. I think it has to do with caching and re-indexing. Can you run a test and change the label and then come back about 10 to 15 minutes later to see if it's updated?

[JohnA]

Hi Rhyne,

I'm not responsible for managing a knowledge base so hopefully others with more experience will share their tips for doing this, I just wanted to chip in and say that it is expected behaviour that Confluence requires a restart after changes in the database.

However, so as not to leave you a completely useless comment, have you considered using any plugins to help develop an effective workflow for this? I found the following two plugins that might be useful for you, I know that the AdHoc Canvas plugin is even used by our Technical Writers for managing and publishing documentation so it might give you some more options for achieving what you're trying to do:

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.adaptavist.confluence.labeltools

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.comalatech.adhoccanvas

All the best,
John