Textile based alternatives to Confluence? (now that wiki editor is gone in confluence v4)

[samjones6]

I am trying to love confluence v4, but it ain't happening. I have started using notepad again for my work in progress and other working documents.

I need to go back to a wiki system, that auto saves, has revision history, and those other good things.

Any suggested "traditional wiki" tools, preferably that are textile based?

Thanks!

[samjones6 · Accepted solution]

Our favorite tool... the wiki tool from Bob Swift and this "back converter": http://www.amnet.net.au/~ghannington/confluence/wikifier/rt/

[Bob Swift OSS (Bob Swift Atlassian Apps)]

Why not continue to use wiki markup in Confluence? See Confluence Wiki Plugin .

[samjones6]

the wiki plugin... dunno... link seems dead? (or a login is reqd?)

[Bob Swift OSS (Bob Swift Atlassian Apps)]

Oops, it should have had anonymous access as well - that is fixed now. Also it is on the Plugin Exchange

[samjones6]

Bob, Thank you!

This looks very cool. However I don't think it will help me since we already did the migration from 3.x to 4.2.

I would need, minimally, a plugin that lets me tag a (say a new page) page as "wiki markup forever" so all editing would always be done in wiki markup mode for that page.

I also need the editor to be fast, and to suppress all the wizbang stuff in the 4.2 RTE.

[Deleted user]

Bob, because it's a one-way trip. Entering text in the new editor is actually OK. It's a bit odd at first, but you get used to it after awhile.

The problems are things like

• editing existing pages. Trying to fix the oddities quickly and easily.
• joining up two tables -- that used to be "delete a blank space", and now involves swiping rows with your mouse and clicking buttons
• getting a timeout while editing and not being able to save the page into notepad with all your formatting. You can keep the text, but formatting vanishes
• i'm sure there are others, but I'm clinging to wiki markup as long as my fingernails hold onto that cliff-face

Atlassian have done a sterling job with the new editor, but we love(d) Confluence because it was a plain. text. editor. Relatively simple markup.

[Bob Swift OSS (Bob Swift Atlassian Apps)]

On a new page just insert wiki and add {wiki} at the start and end. All content in between will remain as wiki markup.

[Bob Swift OSS (Bob Swift Atlassian Apps)]

Kathleen, I certainly agree with those points too and those need fixing. I also think the new editor is (mostly) very nice and accomodates wiki markup quite nicely (compatibility mode and typing). And they had to do something to avoid the round tripping problems. I would have preferred if Atlassian actively supported a hybrid scenario - page content with both wysiwyg and wiki content. They built all the capability to do so (compatibility mode - insert wiki) except they forced conversion and talk about discontinuing. Complex macro pages are more difficult to edit in wysiwyg and wysiwyg provides no value in these cases since you always have to preview anyway.

[Michael Roff]

I agree Bob. I am feeling the pain taking the large amount of complex scaffolding / reporting pages I have into Confluence 4.x. I am not looking forward to the expected pain I will be feeling converting these pages to be 4.x compatible - doing it in the new editor is also going to be a visual nightmare. All that aside ... I do believe for the general user the new editor is a BIG step forward ...

[Bob Swift OSS (Bob Swift Atlassian Apps)]

Exactly, that is why I am going to preempt that by adding {wiki} on a large number of my 3.5 instance pages that contains complex markup prior to migrating.

[Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist]]

Many things you mentioned, auto drafts, revision history etc are still available. Only thing that you are missing is wiki markup.

Confluence Source editor is the alternative for wiki markup and you might find it useful. You will surely need some time to adjust to the new XHTML syntax and will probably need some time to get over wiki markup!

[samjones6]

Jobin, Thanks! The best choice is probably for me to set up a confluence 3.5 system. However, since confluence is now a dead end for those of us who want a traditional wiki editor, I am (sadly) looking for alternatives to confluence . Let me know if you have any suggestions!

[Deleted user]

Bob, you're my hero!

(Note to self: read whole post before firing off snippy reply).

For the last 3 months I've been telling people (who've been using Confluence for a long time in a random, unstructured way and were unimpressed) just how great it *can* be. I wasn't looking forward to the backlash when all my PR work gets tainted by the interestingly wacky learning curve on the new editor. Or editing XML. This plugin will give me some control over that.

Oh, and thank you, also for the table-plus macro. It's ace. :)

Edit: Sorry, samjones -- I was just trying to reply to Bob, not burble in a non-answer to your question. But while I'm on the subject, I've heard there's a github wiki but I don't know if it's textile-based.

[Thomas Schlegel]

Isn't it some kind of "blasphemous question" to ask in an Atlassian Forum ?

LOL

Thomas

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, it's blasphemous, but sadly very valid. If the heretics don't ask, they silently go elsewhere. If they do ask, at least there's a chance to convert them back.

(And I speak as a heretic - I'm really struggling without wiki markup - it's simply not working for me)