Same-space publishing
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 final (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 document has previously been in the final 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 see only the last approved version. No workflow byline or breadcrumbs are visible.
Only a user with edit or admin permission is able to view the draft content and view and access the workflow byline breadcrumbs and workflow state dialog box.
The same-space publishing capability is aimed at organisations using Confluence internally. It 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 final (published) state.
Edit the state in the workflow builder to make it the final state in the workflow.
The addition of the final=true parameter changes the behavior of the workflow. A different page version is displayed to a viewer depending on the Confluence permissions of the user.
The workflow's 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 content in the final state creates a new version, but
The final state version remains 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.
Differentiating draft and published content
Same-space publishing is used to differentiate content in a draft workflow state and the final state version.
Same-space publishing is not a secure way to publish content.
View-only users are directed to the latest final state version (if present)†
The workflow byline breadcrumbs are not displayed on this content
They are not able to navigate to or view content in a draft state
Whilst view-only users default† to seeing the approved content (the latest final state version), the most up-to-date content is still visible:
Through the page history or search index
In the mobile view (rather than the desktop view), for some apps that can only display the latest version
In these cases, a view-only user is not directed to the final state version, and draft content can be accessed by a view-only user.
† The app global configuration and space configuration - Workflow Activity and Drafts Visibility and Internal Page Publishing Configuration - impacts the users' ability to view content with an applied workflow with a final state.
Subsequent drafts
The final state version is created on a transition into the final state.
If the final workflow state content is edited and no transition occurs (for example, there is no updated transition present in the state), the content in the final state is a different version from the final state version, even though it remains in the final workflow state.
The updated parameter can be added to a final state to ensure that any subsequent edits are pushed to a draft state.
In the example workflow below, editing the content when it is in the final state causes a transition to the Editing state. The content in the final state Published is always the final state version.
{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 have an orange circle
The Published (
final=true) state has a green circle
For more information, see State status indicator circles.
State indicator colors can be customized state-by-state using the workflow builder or by editing the 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.
For example, in a three-state workflow with the following states:
Editing – draft
Review – draft
Published – published (final=true) state
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 see an error similar to this
The default app configuration allows users with edit and/or admin permission to view all versions of content, and they can switch between the latest draft and published versions using the workflow status bar.
The URL for the last published content version is different to the URL for the content in a draft state.
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 versus the draft content is respected.
If the final state content is edited, but there is no transition, then the
Content version in the final state changes
Workflow published content remains as the version created when the last transition to the final state occurred
You should include an updated transition in the final state to ensure that the current content is the workflow published version.
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