Migration guide

Step 1. 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. 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 1a. 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 1b. 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 1c. 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 1d. 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.

Step 2. Migrate your Confluence instance

Use Atlassian’s Confluence Cloud Migration Assistant to migrate your Confluence Server/DC instance to Cloud.

Step 3. Install Refined apps on Cloud

Install these apps on your Atlassian Cloud instance:

Step 4. Upgrade Refined for Confluence Server/DC

Upgrade Refined 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 5. Export a site with the migration assistant

1. Go to the Refined Administration.

2. Go to the Site Builder tab.

3. Toggle on Cloud migration mode and click a site’s Cloud button.

4. Follow the steps in the dialog that opens.

Step 6. Import and set up the site on Cloud