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We’re here to help you make your migration as smooth as possible.

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Server/Data Center vs. Cloud: differences and similarities

Refined Sites for Confluence Cloud combines key features from Server/Data Center (DC) with the convenience of the cloud. However, there are also some notable differences between the two products.

Creating and editing Confluence Content

The Refined Sites apps for Server/DC and Cloud operate differently from each other, which impacts the way you create and edit content.

On Server/DC, Refined Sites is added on top of Confluence: when enabled globally, Refined Sites acts as a skin applied to native Confluence. This means that users view, create and edit Confluence spaces, pages and blogs all through Refined the sites you create.

On Cloud, Refined Sites is a site-building tool parallel to Confluence. The Refined sites that you build show Confluence content, but live outside native Confluence. This means that you create and manage the sites with Refined, and you create and edit spaces/pages/blogs in Confluence. All the updates you make in Confluence instantly show on your Refined sites too. Note that Confluence space and content permissions are always respected on Refined sites as well.

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Migrating to a new platform can be a great opportunity to rethink your Confluence and Refined Sites setup. We recommend to evaluate what was working well on the Server/DC instance - and what you can improve. You can opt to replicate your Server/DC setup on Cloud with improvements here and there, or see Cloud as a blank canvas to create a totally new setup. Whichever option you choose, ask yourself how you can leverage these key advantages of the Cloud infrastructure:

• You can create as many sites as you want. What content can you split out into multiple sites?

• You can add a space to as many sites as you want. What content can be relevant to include on multiple sites?

• It’s easy to combine both JSM portals and Confluence spaces into one Refined site, if you get both Refined Sites for Confluence Cloud and Refined Sites for Jira Service Management Cloud. Could this improve your workflow and your site’s user experience? It opens up many new ways of using Refined Sites, including:

  • Building an intranet that features Confluence pages and blogs, as well as JSM portals. For example, this makes it easy for users to explore the company’s employee handbook and directly contact HR if they have any questions.

  • Creating an external-facing help site that features not just Confluence spaces, but also help desks. This way, users can create support requests if they can’t find what they are looking for.

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Click here for an overview of formatting and macros that are supported on Refined sitesites. The overview covers macros from Refined Toolkit, Confluence, and third party Atlassian Marketplace apps.

Because Refined Sites Cloud works as a site builder parallel to native Confluence, the app doesn’t change native Confluence is not changed by Refined. Therefore, Refined Sites doesn’t impact third party apps that provide functionalities in native Confluence such as apps for document management.

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Team Calendars are not supported due to Atlassian API limitations. Click here to view the issue and vote on it.

Step 4. Prepare for migrating your Refined Sites macros

The Refined Sites for Confluence Cloud app doesn’t come bundled with Refined macros like the Server/DC app does. This is due to the technical differences between Confluence Server/DC and Confluence Cloud. Refined macros Macros are instead available in our app Refined Toolkit for Confluence Cloud.

This means that you if you use Refined Sites macros on Server/DC, you need to install Refined Toolkit on your Cloud instance. If you don’t, the migrated macros will show as Unknown macro on your Cloud pages. Depending on which macros you use, you may need to take additional steps or apply workarounds to secure that your macros will work as intended. How this preparation looks depends on your specific setup. The following guide helps you assess how to proceed in your situation.

Step 4a. Check if you’re using any Refined Sites macros

1. Go to General Configuration.

2. In the left-hand menu, find the Administration heading and click Macro usage.

3. Do you see macros listed for the apps Refined Sites for Confluence and Refined Toolkit for Confluence?

   1. No > You aren’t using Refined Sites macros, so you can move on to step 5 of this preparation guide.

   2. Yes > Follow steps 4b-4d.

Step 4b. Note down which Refined Sites macros you use

The macros are named according to their macro keys, which in most cases are self-explanatory. There are however some exceptions, in which macro keys can have two different names:

Step 4c. See which actions to take for each Refined Sites macro

Consult the tables below to see what will happen to your macros after migration and decide which actions to take. In most cases you can prevent issues by installing our app Refined Toolkit for Confluence Cloud. Note that macros on Cloud might look and work a bit differently - click the links to read the documentation.

This table shows which Refined Sites for Confluence Server/DC macros you can keep using if you get Refined Toolkit on Cloud.

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This table shows Refined Sites for Confluence Server/DC macros that aren’t supported in Cloud – neither by Refined for Confluence Sites nor by Refined Toolkit. Where applicable, we suggest workarounds for your setup.

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On Server/DC it is possible to nest macros which contain content within one another. These are called bodied macros. This is essential to the functioning of some Refined macros: for example, you place content in a Step macro within a Step Container macro.

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1. Go to General Configuration.

2. In the left-hand menu, find the Administration heading and click Macro usage.

3. In the overview, look for the apps Refined Sites for Confluence and Refined Toolkit for Confluence.

4. Click these macros to see on which pages they are located:

   • Expand Container (contains Expand macros, which contain bodied content)

   • Tab Container (contains Tab macros, which contain bodied content)

   • Step Container (contains Step macros, which contain bodied content)

5. Take out the content out of each macro and paste it directly on the page. You can re-create the setup after migration, using the Cloud equivalents of these macros.

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Step 5. Set up a rollout plan

Because Refined Sites works parallel to Confluence Cloud, your sites don’t have to be ready directly after migrating. Users can access native Confluence while you build your Refined sites. This gives you ample time to get feedback and fine-tune the sites before introducing them to your user base.

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Install these apps on your Atlassian Cloud instance:

Step 3. Upgrade Refined Sites for Confluence Server/DC

Upgrade Refined Sites for Confluence Server/DC to the latest available version. How to upgrade depends on which version you currently use. To check your current version, go to the Confluence Administration > Manage apps.

Step 4. Export a site with the migration assistant

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Rw ui tabs macro

Rw tab title Start While you follow these steps to migrate the site, don’t make changes to the site and its settings. Info We’ll notify you in the last step of the migration process if someone made changes to the site or settings since you started the migration. If this happens, we recommend closing the dialog and starting the migration process again, to ensure all choices you make are based on the latest version of the site and its settings. Rw tab title Set up links If elements on your site such as modules contain links to pages, you can update them in this step. Create rules to update multiple links at a time, or enter new links manually. Rw tab title Configure Configure how you’d like these features to be handled on Cloud. The migration assistant will only show the features that apply to your site. Layout modules Some modules aren’t available on Cloud. They can be replaced with similar modules: The My Work module will be replaced with an Activity Stream module. It’ll have CQL set up to show Confluence pages the user has worked on. The Search module will be replaced with a Search Highlight module. User Details, Users in Category, and Users modules will be removed. You can create similar user overviews manually with Image and Text modules. The Confluence Content module will be removed. Option Description Replace unavailable modules when possible Unsupported modules that don’t have a viable alternative on Cloud will still be removed. Exclude all unavailable modules The unavailable modules will be removed and left empty in the Cloud layout on Cloud. Info To get more granular control over the modules, you can always migrate layouts individually. Read how to do this under “Migrate single layouts” further down on this page. View permissions on categories and links If your site includes categories or links with manual view permissions, you’ll see a list. You can download the list as .CSV file, to keep it for future reference. Option Description Keep manual view permissions The same users or user groups needs to exist on Cloud. If they don’t, those specific permissions won’t be included in the export: standard Atlassian permissions apply to the category or link. Remove manual view permissions Standard Atlassian permissions will apply. Uncategorized spaces If your site contains uncategorized spaces, you’ll see a list. You can download the list as .CSV file, to keep it for future reference. Option Description Include uncategorized spaces in menu folder Menu folders function similarly to a category. The menu folder will be hidden from the site's navigation menu, but users can still access the spaces through search functionalities and with a direct URL. Exclude uncategorized spaces The uncategorized spaces will still be available in your Confluence instance, but they aren’t included in this Refined site. Archived spaces If your site contains uncategorized spaces, you’ll see a list. You can download the list as .CSV file, to keep it for future reference. Option Description Exclude archived spaces The archived spaces will still be available in your Confluence instance, but not included in this Refined site. Include archived spaces The archived spaces are still included in the navigation menu, but users can’t find them through search functionalities. Rw tab title Assess These settings aren’t available on Cloud or need to be set up manually. Read this information carefully to assess your next steps after migration. Feature Differences between Server/DC and Cloud Single space sites On Cloud, single space sites don’t exist. All sites are full sites: you’ll see your space in the site navigation menu instead of in the Site Switcher. Site administrators For security reasons, site administrators aren’t included in the export. Reconfigure the site administrator rights on Cloud. The migration assistant will show a list of the current site administrators, which you can download as a .CSV file. Site access permissions By default, migrated sites aren’t available to anonymous users. You can change the site access permission manually on Cloud. Layout module filters The Activity Stream module’s Filter for contributor setting and News module’s Filter for author setting aren’t migrated. These filters need to be set up again on Cloud. Layout section permissions Insert excerpt Refined for Confluence Refined for Confluence$4704259345 $4704259345 name Section permissions limitation nopanel true Themes Themes can’t be migrated to Cloud, and need to be re-created manually. Cloud doesn’t support advanced theming or themes made with third party apps. Site switcher Site Switcher settings aren’t migrated. You’ll need to enable and configure it on Cloud after migration. You’ll have same site list for all sites you create. Logos Structure logos, link logos, space logos, and category logos aren’t supported on Cloud sites. The site logo in the navigation menu won’t be migrated and needs to be set up manually on Cloud. Blog spaces Blog spaces become regular spaces on Cloud. Point users to blog posts with News modules or direct links instead. Users connected to spaces On Server/DC, it’s possible to connect users to spaces. Certain macros can automatically display these users and their roles on pages, user dashboards, and space layouts. On Cloud, it’s not possible to connect users. You can still manually highlight users on landing pages instead, for example by creating an Image module per user. Category administrators Category administrators don’t exist on Cloud. If your site has category administrators, you’ll see a list which you can download as a .CSV file. Custom category modules Blog modules, HTML modules, and Confluence Questions modules don’t exist on Cloud and are therefore not migrated. Users connected to categories On Server and Data Center, it’s possible to connect users to spaces. The Users in Category module can automatically display these users and their roles on on a site or category home. On Cloud, it’s not possible to connect users. You can still manually highlight users on landing pages instead, for example by creating an Image module per user. Categories with custom URL A category with a custom URL is essentially a link with child items. On Cloud, links can’t have child items. How the category with custom URL is migrated to Cloud depends on whether it has child items: If it has child items, it will become a menu folder. The link-on-click is removed, but the child items remain grouped together. If it doesn’t have child items, it will be migrated as a link. Footer The footer won’t be migrated, your site will get the default Cloud footer instead. Rw tab title Export and import Click the Download button to export the site. See step 5 below for instructions on importing and setting up the site on Cloud.

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1. Make sure you have the following installed:

   • Refined Sites for Confluence Server/DC version 7.4 or newer (if you need to upgrade, see the version 7.4 upgrade instructions).

   • Confluence Server/DC version 7.15 or newer.

2. On your Refined site, go to a site or category home and click the … Three dots in the top right corner > Edit site/category home.

3. Click the Import/Export button > Download latest published version for use on Cloud.
   

   

4. If the layout contains modules that are unavailable on Cloud, a popup will appear. Select if you want to exclude or replace these modules in the Cloud layout. Scroll down for a module comparison.

5. When you're ready, click Download.
   

   

6. Go to the landing page on your Refined Cloud site where you want to use the layout.

7. Click the … (three dots) > Edit page to open the Page Builder.

8. Click the Three lines in the top-left > Export/Import page layout.

9. Upload the layout.

10. Make adjustments if necessary and hit Publish.

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Why not transform your Confluence instance into even more sites users love — you can create an unlimited amount of sites with your Refined Sites for Cloud subscription:

• Get started with Refined Sites for Confluence Cloud

• Build an intranet

• Build a help & support site

• Build a documentation site/knowledge base

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