Use of confluence for document management & knowledge base

[Tanya Roitman]

Hi,

I'm the computational design lead at an architecture firm (buildings not software ;)) so I'm sorry if my terminology is incorrect or the questions seems basic or difficult to understand.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

I'm trying to modernize our work methodology & tools and considering confluence as part of our non existent stack (some people here use Monday for project management and that's basically it).

We have a server that stores all of our data, it can be accessed through VPN and the management are reluctant to switch to cloud based storage.

What I'm looking for is a tool that can be used both for an office wiki for onboarding, training & management and also used to easily search and sort the data on our server as well as "connecting" wiki pages to locations on our server.

Can I use confluence for both purposes and if so, how? 

Thank you :)

[Irina Sanikovich _StiltSoft_]

Hi @Tanya Roitman !

You can check this blog post that highlights the way you can create effective training courses and manage learning or educational materials with ease, having file storage right in Confluence.

Feel free to ping me if you have any questions.

Irina

[James Dellow]

@Tanya Roitman if you are happy using Monday, then I can't see how using Confluence Cloud would be an issue. It would work for tutorials, onboarding, etc - better than SharePoint, which works better as a traditional CMS than a wiki.

However, there are some blockers for then using Confluence Cloud as a way to find and access data on your server.

You will have problems creating links to local files in the editor.

There is also nothing off the shelf that will let you use Confluence Cloud as an enterprise search solution.

Having worked with architects in the past, the size and volume of data on your server might also be a problem if you were to sync this data using the API (unless you are on a premium plan, there are storage limits, but also attachment size limits). However, this approach would in effect duplicate all your data into the cloud, which would appear to go against the wishes of your firm?

With the above in mind, how would I suggest you solve this using Confluence?

I would run a simple web server in your local environment, to make it easier to link to files.

I would then look at a way of creating a "stub" in Confluence, to act as a searchable index. It wouldn't be a full-text search, but you would then be able to categorise, summarise, and allow people to provide feedback about the content. Creating the stub could be automated, using the API.

If you would like to contact me directly, I'd be happy to discuss how this might work.

[marc -Collabello--Phase Locked-]

@Tanya RoitmanAtlassian has discontinued their on-premise Confluence server offering.  That means smaller customers must either use cloud or the more expensive Data Center offering.

From a technical requirements point of view, it seems Confluence Cloud would not be a good solution for you.

[Tanya Roitman]

@marc -Collabello--Phase Locked-  Thank you for your answer :)

I'd love to hear your opinion on why not?

I've actually been looking into this and talking to people on Reddit and it seemed to me that it could be used in the way I want... I'm mostly concerned with the ability to "sync" existing local folders to Confluence so I can search through them easily and link them to pages etc. but still have the ability to use them normally - from each desktop without downloading them (our work files are used in dedicated software on each desktop).

From my understanding I could connect our internal network using WebDav like in this article: https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/configuring-a-webdav-client-for-confluence-148044.html

Though it explains how to create a Confluence network drive on our network and not the other way around...

[marc -Collabello--Phase Locked-]

@Tanya Roitmanthe link you provide is for the discontinued server product and Data Center.  It does not work for Confluence Cloud.

Confluence Cloud has no ability to search through attachments build in.

[Tanya Roitman]

I see... that's unfortunate :(

Is there any way around this? perhaps an Integration with another tool?

I was really leaning towards the use of Confluence over SharePoint, but the lack of this functionality is a deal breaker...

[Tanya Roitman]

It would be great to get someone else's input on this and if there is a way to create the functionality I'm looking for...

Mainly that other than creating tutorials, onboarding and such I would like to be able to access files that are on my local network using confluence, search through them and connect them to tutorials etc. (whether it's linking to pages or some other method)

Thank you!