Overview
With same-space publishing, each piece of content (page or blog post) can have concurrent draft and approved versions.
One state in your workflow must be set as a published state.
If the content is in one of the other workflow states, the workflow will see this as a draft state.
In a draft state a byline link to the latest approved version is displayed if the content has previously been in the published state.
Choosing the byline link displays the last approved content.
The last approved content version is displayed with a byline displaying the approved content workflow state name and a link to the latest draft content.
By default, users with Confluence view only permission for the content will only see this last approved content version. No workflow byline or breadcrumbs will be visible.
Only a user with edit or admin permission will be able to view the draft content and view and access the workflow byline breadcrumbs and workflow popup.
The same-space publishing capability is aimed at organisations using Confluence internally.
The same-space publishing feature can also be used in conjunction with other apps to manage publishing to a different space or a remote space.
If there is a formal requirement (compliance; organizational policy) that draft updates are not visible to some users we recommend using Different-space publishing where Confluence permissions can hide the draft space content entirely.
Activating same-space publishing
To use same-space publishing, just add the final=true parameter to one of the state macros in your workflow – this marks it as the published state.
Edit the state in workflow builder to make it the final state in the workflow.
The addition of the final=true parameter changes the behavior of the workflow, showing a different page version depending on the Confluence permissions of the user.
The workflow published version of the content is the version created when a transition to the final state takes place. This is the final state version.
- editing of content in the final state will create a new version but the final state version will remain as the version created on transition into the final state
This is why it is good practice to transition out of the final state if the content is changed, for example by adding an updated transition to the final state.
{workflow:name=In-space Publishing}
{state:Editing|submit=Review}
{state}
{state:Review|approved=Published|rejected=Editing}
{approval:Review|assignable=true}
{state}
{state:Published|final=true|updated=Editing}
{state}
{workflow}
State colours
By default, draft (unpublished) states will have an 
orange circle and published (final=true) state will have a 
green circle.
For more information, see Status Indicator Circles.
Colors can be customized on state-by-state basis using workflow builder or via the editing the markup color parameter on the state macro.
Permissions
If a workflow has a published (final=true) state, then all other states in that workflow will be considered draft (unpublished) states.
Editing – draft
Review – draft
Published – published (final=true)
By default, users who only have View content permission can only see the most recently published version of each page or blog post. If they try to view draft (unpublished) versions, they will see an error like this
The default app configuration allows users with Edit and Admin permissions can see all versions of content, and can switch between the latest draft and published versions via the Workflow Status Bar.
Note that the URL for the published content in a final state will be different to the URL for the content in the draft state (by including /public in the URL address).
Notifications
The set-message macro can differentiate between draft and published versions of content.
PDF and Word export
When exporting content as PDF or Word using native Confluence features, either as individual pages or an entire space, the distinction between the published content vs. the draft content will be respected.
If the final state content is edited but there is no transition
- the content version in the final state will change
- the workflow published content will remain as the version created when the last transition to the final state occurred
To ensure that the current content in the final state is the workflow published version you should include an updated transition in the final state.
For more information, see: Confluence PDF and Word Export.
App configuration
| Setting | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Workflow Activity and Drafts Visibility | Determines which users can access the workflow information and tools on a page. If using same space publishing the users not in this group will see the approved version of the content by default. | |
| Default View | Determines whether Published content is seen by default. | |
| Published View Macro Transform | Determines whether | |
* When using other macros including third party apps
| ||
Other publishing options
