Atlassian announced this week the launch of Confluence 3.0, the newest generation of it's Java-based enterprise wiki. This latest version builds upon the product's strengths as a platform for enterprise collaboration and content generation, and adds new social features to improve content sharing and discovery.

Confluence now offers a new point-and-click editor that makes it easy for users to build content-rich wiki pages in just seconds. The release also includes several new social features, including the ability to share status updates, follow colleagues, build richer profiles and view activity streams from your network.

"The team has put in thousands of hours of development to create the best version of Confluence yet. There are some awesome new features to help users of all skill levels contribute content, share what they're working on and connect with their coworkers," said Mike Cannon-Brookes, Atlassian CEO and co-founder.

Powerful Page-Building Made Simple
Confluence 3.0 introduces the Macro Browser, a new way for users of all experience levels to build content-rich pages in seconds. The macro browser exposes hundreds of page editing capabilities - charts, task lists, photo galleries, RSS feeds and more - through a point-and-click graphical interface.

Confluence 3.0 comes bundled with over 80 out-of-the box macros like the JIRA issues macro that lets you embed an entire list of JIRA issues into your page. It can also be extended with hundreds of other third party plugins like Balsamiq mockups or Gliffy diagrams.

An Exchange for Plugins and Extensions
Atlassian also announced the launch of the Atlassian Plugin Exchange, an online community where plugin developers can get their plugins in front of more 9,000 Confluence customers. Confluence has an extensive plugin API for extending the functionality of your Confluence site without changing the core wiki platform.

Popular plugins like Balsamiq, Gliffy and Adaptavist Theme Builder are already available on the site. More information about the Atlassian Plugin Exchange can be found at http://plugins.atlassian.com

A Social Experience
Confluence 3.0 also includes a series of new features that help people discover new colleagues and experts through the content they contribute to the wiki, and establish valuable connections and networks to coworkers. The features that improve people discovery include:

Hover Profile: hover over a users name wherever it appears in Confluence to view summary profile information, follow the user or click into his complete user profile;

Enhanced User Profiles - personal profiles now let users enter personal information like position, department and location while displaying the user's recent activity, current status and people in their network.

Redesigned Personal Spaces - Each user's personal space now includes a collapsible side panel that shows detailed profile information such as recent activity, current status and people in their network.

The features that improve people connections and relationships include:

Status Updates - post a 140-character message to share links, ask questions or simply inform coworkers on what you're working on;

Networks - follow other users to add them to your personal network and track their activity throughout your Confluence site;

Activity Streams - view an aggregated stream of all the activity recently undertaken by all the users in your network;

Customer-Focused Improvements
Confluence 3.0 also delivers a number of customer-requested improvements such as:

Upgraded PDF Export - PDF export now produces higher quality output and provides greater control through customized stylesheets, title pages, headers and footers.

Major performance improvements - Response times for clustered environments are up to 100% faster while response times for standalone environments are up to 40% faster.

More Information
You can learn more about Confluence 3.0, watch a video and download a free 30-day trial at http://atlassian.com/confluence

Last edited by atlassian (2009-06-06 01:45:23)