Preparation guide

Before starting your actual migration, we recommend the following:

Step 1. Learn the differences between Server/Data Center and Cloud

Refined Sites for Confluence Cloud combines key features from Refined for Server/Data Center (DC) with the convenience of the cloud. However, there are also some notable differences between the two products. Read this page to know what to expect when migrating

Step 2. Consider overhauling your setup

Migrating to a new platform can be a great opportunity to rethink your Confluence and Refined 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.

For insights into the possibilities and best practices, have a look at these in-depth get-started guides:

• Build a help & support site

• Build an intranet

• Build a documentation site/knowledge base

Step 3. Prepare your base Confluence spaces (and JSM projects)

Once you have an idea of your sites' general structure, prepare your Confluence spaces – and your JSM projects too, if you plan to integrate those into your sites. Generally, we recommend to ask yourself the following questions:

• Should I restructure my spaces/projects? In other words: which content can be merged and what can be split into separate spaces/projects?

• Which spaces/projects should I introduce?

• Which spaces/projects can I refresh?

• Which spaces/projects can I slim down?

• Which macros am I using on my Confluence pages and how will they work on Cloud? Steps 3 and 4 of this guide will help you prepare your macros for migration.

On Cloud, all spaces need to have a home page. Otherwise, your Refined sites can’t show the page tree menu that is located on the left hand side of all Confluence pages. If some of your spaces don’t have home pages yet, we recommend you to set up home pages already before migration:

1. Use Atlassian’s Cloud Migration Assistant. In the App Vendor checks, you’ll get a notification if you have spaces without home pages.

2. Download the report.

3. Add a home page to each of the spaces in the list.

4. Re-run the app vendor check to make sure all spaces are set up properly.

Step 4. Prepare for migrating your Confluence/third party macros

Click here for an overview of formatting and macros that are supported on Refined sites. 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. Therefore, Refined Sites doesn’t impact third party apps that provide functionalities in native Confluence such as apps for document management.

If a macro you use on Server/DC is not supported on Cloud, remove it from your pages and find a workaround. If you use a critical third party macro that we don’t support on Cloud, please reach out to us: migration assistance.

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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.

Step 6. Prepare for migrating your Refined 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. 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 6a. 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 6b. 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 6c. 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 for Confluence Server/DC macros you can keep using if you get Refined Toolkit on Cloud.

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

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

Step 6d. Un-nest macros to prepare for the new Confluence editor

When you migrate to Cloud, you edit your pages in Confluence Cloud’s legacy editor. This editor is similar to the one you're used to from Server/DC. While Atlassian recommends you to convert your pages to the new editor, this may pose problems with some of your migrated macros.

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 macros: for example, you place content in a Step macro within a Step Container macro.

Due to a Confluence Cloud limitation, it is not possible to nest bodied macros in the new editor on Cloud. So when you convert a page with a nested bodied macro from the legacy editor to the new editor, the macro becomes uneditable.

To prevent this, we recommend un-nesting bodied macro content before migrating:

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.

If you have many nested macros, it’s understandable that you might not have the time to un-nest them all before your migration. In that case, a temporary solution is to migrate as-is, stay in the legacy editor at first, and gradually convert pages to the new editor as needed:

1. On the published page, copy the content from the macros.

2. Go into editing mode and convert the page to the new editor.

3. In the new editor, paste the content back in where the macro used to be.

We're aware that neither option is ideal, and we're in contact with Atlassian to solve this. Note that we do recommend you to move to the new editor over time, despite the hassle of manual work. Although migrated macros usually show on the legacy editor pages at first (if you have Refined Toolkit installed), they may still break eventually if Atlassian makes changes to the legacy editor.

If this issues affects you, please vote or comment on this ticket.