Types of Changes that Create a new Confluence Page Version

[Elizabeth Bowen]

What kinds of changes create a new, tracked version of a Confluence page?

For instance, I know that checking a checkbox will create a new version (v.2). Unchecking the same checkbox will create another version (v.3).

However, changing the restrictions to a page does not version it, nor is there a record of restrictions made to a page or WHO made them.

Thanks!

[Rodrigo Girardi Adami · Accepted solution]

Hi Elizabeth,

It seems we don't have a documentation for the page version triggering indeed. I've created a task in jira.atlassian.comfor this documentation to be made and state exactly what creates a new page version in confluence: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-33966

I recommend to vote, comment there and also ask your colleagues to vote and increase the popularity of the request.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Rodrigo

[Elizabeth Bowen]

Thank you. I'll expect attribution as well. :)

[Rodrigo Girardi Adami]

You are welcome. Any further comment you can post directly in the task report to centralize the information there.

Feel free to close this question as answered if this helped you :)

Cheers,

Rodrigo

[Rodrigo Girardi Adami]

Hi Elizabeth,

As far as I know, only page modifications on it's content and title will create a new page version. Changing the page from one place to another or modifying the restrictions would not create a new page version.

Cheers,

Rodrigo

[Elizabeth Bowen]

So we could build a list of 'Page Modifications that Create a New Page Version' to include:

• Text Change (addition/deletion)
• Text Format Change
• Addition/Deletion of Macro
• Change of options on existing macro(?)
• Addition/deletion/modification of section(s) (?)
• Checkbox check/uncheck
• Attachment added/deleted/versioned
• New label(?)
• Addition of new page listing in index (using the Page Properties Report macro) (?)

Page modifications that would NOT create a version:

• Addition/deletion/modification of page restrictions
• Page movement
• Page copying (no change on the original page)
• Page liking (?)
• Page comments (?)

Other actions that have no impact on versioning:

• Page shares
• Page views/hits
• Page watches
• Page favorites

Items with (?) are my questions to you. Also, did I miss anything?

[Rodrigo Girardi Adami]

Hi Elizabeth,

I believe your list is very good however what I know is that only when you click on edit the page and change something is that a new version is created.

Adding comments, linking, labelling a page, checkbox checks and so on should not create a new version of the page.

You can try to perform this task to double check my assumptions, however I'm almost sure this is the way it works :)

Cheers,

Rodrigo

[Elizabeth Bowen]

Here is an example of checkbox checking that does version the page:

The above is the page with the checkboxes. Simplly three checkboxes with text next to them (no @ mentions).

Here is the page history as I checked and unchecked these boxes:

As for the other items I have marked with ?s, are they accurate as well?

[Elizabeth Bowen]

I am testing my list above, and I have found three interesting situations (so far).

#1: Adding a visible and invisible macro will create a new page version. Deleting a visible macro will create a new version. Deleting an invisible macro (hidden) will NOT create a new version of the page--even though something substantial has changed behind-the-scenes affecting metadata.

#2: I added an excerpt macro to a page and typed text into the container. I saved the page as a new version. I re-entered the page editor and changed the excerpt macro parameter from 'Display in new line' to 'Display inline'. This created a new version of the page.

However, when I used the compare feature to compare this latest version with the one just past, there was no way to tell what change I had made. See the comparison screen below.

There is a new page version, but there is no visual indication of what changed.

The one below is explainable but could trip users up.

#3: I set up an index page with a Page Properties Report Macro that points to a test page that has a visible Change History macro. When I type new text on the test page, the change history macro displays a new version on the index page through the Page Properties macro. The Index page itself does NOT version because the information that is changing is not technically a part of the Index page. It is content from another page.

Index Page showing 4 versions of 'test sample page':

'test sample page' page properties macro:

I am hypothesizing that the Change History macro on the test page is what's actually changing within the Index page. Hence, no new version of the Index page.

[Rodrigo Girardi Adami]

Hi Elizabeth,

Yep, you are right, the checkbox check creates a new page version. Thanks for pointing this out. I was wrong.

I'm trying to check if I can find some documentation stating exactly the modifications and updates that would cause a trigger for a new page version. If I can't find one, I'll create a feature request for this since it would be very good to have documented that.

I'll let you know as soon as I have some information of it. :D

Cheers,

Rodrigo