Introducing Comala Document Management 7 Data Center ONLY with Document Activity

Comala Document Management 7 is a Data Center Only release and in this release, Page Activity will be replaced with our all-new Document Activity capability.

Document Activity provides:

• better performance and stability

• a new Document Activity Report with improved filtering and a more intuitive layout

• new Document Activity REST API to drive your own business insights

The JAVA API has also been updated to include methods to retrieve document activity information.

To ensure a smooth upgrade, after installing Comala Document Management 7 you will need to run a pre-upgrade check using the Document Activity Upgrade console to

• validate your existing Page Activity

• estimate the time needed to upgrade your Page Activity

You can then use the Document Activity Upgrade console to upgrade your existing data to use the document activity capability on a space-by-space basis. The data upgrade process will require your data center site to be put into Read Only Mode.

Global administrator option to enable/disable workflow translator

Global admins can now choose in the global app configuration to enable/disable the workflow translator option in workflow builder visual editor for all users in the instance.

This option enables/disables the display of the workflow translator button in workflow builder in the global workflows templates dashboard; space tools document management dashboard and when using workflow builder on a page to edit a page workflow.

Workflow translator now supports translation to cloud of additional workflow elements

Workflow translator now includes translation support for

• approval parameters - minimum; credentials, assignable, user, group, selectedapprover and selectedapprovers

• state due date parameter

• workflow parameters

Workflow usage report

New global report displays workflow usage in spaces across the instance.

Space ‘Attach Activity’ option

Space document management dashboard Attach Activity utility. This is used to generate and attach a CSV file to each page in the space containing the workflow activity.

Comala Document Management 6.17.11 is a Server only release.

Comala Document Management v6.17.11 for Server is now compatible with Confluence v8.5.3

Comala Document Management 7 is coming

As part of our preparations for Comala Document Management 7, a new Document Activity Upgrade console is available to validate your existing page activity and estimate the time required to upgrade your spaces.

Translations

• Translations - Brazilian Portuguese is now supported!

We have also updated our existing languages.

One Appfire update

As part of our integration into the Appfire family, Comala Document Management is now a member of the One Appfire app offering. We have updated our app logo and related assets.

As part of our integration into the Appfire family, we have updated our EULA, copyright statements, and associated references.

New in-app Migration Process to Cloud

Migration Process to Cloud added to help support app migration.

The new migration process steps consist of

• Step One - in-app 

• Step Two - manual tasks

New Document Stats macro

New Document Stats report macro to enable users to see a count of pages in each state.

• the report has two rows and a variable number of columns
  • header row - state names
  • body row - a number count of pages in each state
• no filters, sorting or pagination required
• simple table format compatible with native Confluence chart macro - see https://wiki.comalatech.com/display/CDML/Chart+macro

New Comala Document Actions Report

• The Document Actions Report replaces the 'Document Tasks' page in your User Profile and the Dashboard component
  
  
  
  
  
  
• It allows users to filter their pending approvals or Comala Document Management tasks in their user profile report
  
  
  
• This new report has improved performance compared to the previous report and resolves some issues that users have previously experienced
• A global configuration option is provided to disable the Dashboard component if required, for example when you use a custom theme
  

New Document States Report Macro

Introducing the first of our new report macros - Document States Report Macro. Configure and display a report of the pages with workflows in your space, or your entire Instance.

The report provides the same capabilities as the existing Workflow Report macro with a new look and feel. Additionally, the Document States Report macro

• has improved configuration and filtering

• provides a user the option to choose which columns to display, and the order to display them in

The macro has improved performance compared to the workflow report macro and resolves some issues users have previously experienced with the existing Workflow Report macro

Comala Document Management Migration Assessment

Exploring migration to Confluence Cloud? Access your Comala Document Management usage data in the new Comala Document Management Migration Assessment.

To discuss cloud options with a member of our support team, please open a support ticket in our support portal. It is very helpful to include the usage data, so we can understand how you currently use Comala Document Management. Usage data is easily generated to submit with your request by using our Support Console to create a support package.

Automatically create PDFs of your Confluence pages

• A new 'pdf-export' action macro allows you to automatically create PDF of your content using K15t Scroll PDF Exporter for Confluence and attach it to the page. 
• For example, the action can be used to capture a PDF of a page the moment it is approved.  

  • {trigger:statechanged|state=Approved}
        {pdf-export}
    {trigger}
    

New layout for Import Workflows page

The 'Import Workflows' page in Confluence Administration and Space Tools has been redesigned to improve usability.

New increment-metadata macro added

A new increment-metadata macro allows you to increment a numeric metadata value, providing the ability to define custom version numbers and counters. increment-metadata supports Single and Composite versioning, here is the documentation.

Single versioning

{set-metadata:my-version}1{set-metadata}
{increment-metadata:my-version}

Composite versioning

{set-metadata:my-version}1.2.3{set-metadata}
{increment-metadata:my-version|increment=0.1.0}

E-Signatures using signing token

Approvals can now use a signing token as an alternative to a user's Confluence credentials. This method is compatible with sites that use external authentication services such as single sign on (SSO).

E-signatures are configured and managed at the global admin level. For more information, see the E-Signatures documentation

Bulk linking of global workflows to spaces

Global workflows can now be linked to all existing spaces in a space category, making it easy to setup many spaces in one go.  This complements the existing functionality that allows a global workflow to be linked to a newly created space with a given category. Please find more information in the documentation.

Global Workflow Template with Space Categories assigned:

Linking a Global Workflow Template to a Space Category:

Progress Tracker

The Document Management progress tracker has been refreshed

The tracker is visible by default, but you can choose to hide it by editing the workflow using workflow builder or the markup editor.

Global Workflow Templates

This page design has been refreshed to align the design with Document Management Dashboard. For more information see the documentation.

Document Management Space Dashboard page

The Document Management Dashboard page has been refreshed.

• Clarified the enabled/disabled state of each workflow.
• The workflow diagram can now be found by clicking on the workflow name

Read Confirmation

Comala Document Management 6.6 brings updates to the Read Confirmation feature:

Standalone Read Confirmations

Previously, Read Confirmations could only be used as a part of a page approval workflow. Now Read Confirmations can be added to any page without the need for reviews and approvals.

Setting Due Date

A due date can now be added and updated in the Read Confirmation dialog by clicking on the clock icon.

Read Confirmation request option

At final review, the reviewer can decide if read confirmations should be assigned.

New Read Confirmation Triggers

This release adds several new triggers for Read Confirmation actions:

• confirmationrequested
• confirmationdue
• confirmationcompleted
• confirmationacknowledged

This is the first release of Comala Document Management 6.5, formerly Comala Workflows. 

The new name better describes the scope and use of the app. While workflows will continue to play an important role, Comala Document Management offers much more than just approval workflows. Teams are not only using our app to add approvals, they’re using it to completely manage their documents. Comala Document Management tells a much more complete story about what our apps can do.

Read Confirmation

This release introduces improvements to our existing Read Confirmations feature:

• A workflow can now have no states and just the read-ack macro.
• New users can be added to the list of users already assigned a read confirmation.
• Send New Request button was added. This action will send a reminder when the page has been updated after being already confirmed.

Manual upgrade of Read Confirmation data

For existing users of Read Confirmation a manual step will be required when upgrading to Comala Document Management 6.5. Please see the upgrade instructions here: Upgrade from 6.4 to 6.5

Approval Roles

This release introduces a new feature that allows approvers to use the optional approval role field to record the roles that your approvers are performing. This is a more flexible method of capturing roles compared to named reviews, and allows you to easily assign ad hoc roles when necessary.

These roles can be created and shared to group other reviewers.

Suggested Contributors

Comala Workflows will suggest assignees that are specified in the user, group, selectedapprover or selectedapprovers parameter on the {approval} macro. If these parameters are not specified, recent contributors to the page will be suggested.

Require Parameters on State Transitions

This release introduces a new feature that lets teams configure workflows to require a parameter field entry when changing states.

Workflow Parameters have long provided a convenient way to configure a workflow. But, up until now users could only enter the configuration values when the workflow started, or by accessing a separate menu. With this release workflow authors can now require that a specified parameter value is entered on a transition to a new state.

Require Parameters on State Transitions

This release introduces a new feature that lets teams configure workflows to require a parameter field entry when changing states.

Workflow Parameters have long provided a convenient way to configure a workflow. But, up until now users could only enter the configuration values when the workflow started, or by accessing a separate menu. With this release workflow authors can now require that a specified parameter value is entered on a transition to a new state.

Improved Workflows Dialog Layout

The visual design of the Workflows Dialog Pop-up has been improved. It's now easier to use, and is up to date with the latest Confluence styling.

Updated minimum Confluence compatibility

Starting with Workflows version 6.1.0, the new minimum version of Confluence that the app is compatible with is Confluence 6.0.1.

Confirm Reading Approved Content

You can now use the final state in your workflow to start a Read Confirmation process. Use it to assign users to read the approved page, and get an acknowledgement from users that have read it. 

Built on the same dependable, familiar functionality of Comala Workflows, Read Confirmation helps teams keep track of who has been assigned to read documents, and who has acknowledged that they have read them. The confirmation can be assigned to multiple individual users or an entire group of users. It is integrated with the approved page workflow functionality, so people can confirm reading the existing approved version of a page while new edits are taking place. Once a new approved version is created, the Read Confirmation process will be restarted. 

New Space Workflow Report

The space level workflow report received a makeover in this release. We have completely rebuilt the front end to allow selectable columns, and the backend to improve performance and to allow for future integration extensibility.

New Onboarding for Workflows

This release adds introduction information about Comala Workflows for new users to Confluence.

For this release there is a introduction screen as well as a in page message for page authors to let them know about the new functionality.

Improvements to the Workflow Builder

The Workflow Builder now allows to switch between the Markup Editor and Workflow Builder views directly without needing to exit the Builder.

Other fixes and updates

• A new Value Reference Modifiers has been added so you can quickly turn user value references into user's full names @approvaluser > fullname@

Improvements to the Workflow Builder

We've taken the initial release of the workflow builder that was released last month and given it a new paint job and made several bug fixes and improvements that didn't quite make it in time for the first release.

Workflow Builder is now available

Workflows 5.7 now includes the first public release of the Using Workflow Builder.  You can now edit workflow states, transitions, approvals and other parameters through a graphical interface. 

Workflows support for Read Only Mode

Workflows 5.6 has been updated to support the new Confluence Data Center 6.10 Read Only Mode feature. Features that are not available in Read Only Mode will display messages to inform the user that the functionality is unavailable at the moment.  See Read Only Mode behavior for more information.

New workflow trigger events for comments

New events have been added for page and inline comments.

For pages:

• pagecommentcreated
• pagecommentupdated
• pagecommentremoved

For Inline comments:

• inlinecommentcreated
• inlinecommentresolved

More information can be found in the Events page.

Restrict who can assign approvals

New parameters have been added for Approvals: allowedassignusers and allowedassigngroups, these 2 parameters determine users and groups allowed to assign approvals. More information can be found in the approval macro page.

Attachment Version Removed Trigger

A new trigger event has been added that allows the workflow to take an action when an attachment version is removed.

Beta Workflow Builder

We are working on a new graphical way to create and edit your workflows.  Included in this release is our first iteration that will support viewing and changing some basic workflow attributes for space level workflows.  For more information on this project please see: Using Workflow Builder

We will be rolling out more updates progressively over the next few releases.

Confluence Look and feel updates

Those using recent versions of Confluence will notice that the page level Workflows elements now look like they belong a bit better with an update to the latest UI library from Atlassian.

Before: Confluence 6.6

After: Confluence 6.7+

New Workflows Picker

We completely revamped the page workflows picker to provide all the relevant information when adding a workflow to a page and let space admin users jump directly to add the workflow to the entire space.

User Tasks Report now support pagination

This improvement removes the previous limit of 20 entries, displaying now any number of items.

New Global settings for Allowing/Restricting Space and Page Workflows

Before, you just could define in which spaces workflows were allowed. Now, you can choose, either to allow, or to restrict those spaces.

Workflow Messages view and role specific

The messages displayed using the set-message macro can be now be specific to the page view and users/groups.

• Use the new group parameter to specify a message to be displayed to a group of users.
• Use the new view parameter to control if a message should be visible on the published (public) or normal view of a page.

Customizable State Colours

States can now be given their own custom colours. Using the Workflows Mark-up Editor you can set the color of your states to be nearly any shade, provided it is available as a hexadecimal value.

See the colour parameter on the state macro for more information on this new feature.

Approval Action Labels

Approvals can now be given custom action labels. Replace the standard "Approve/Reject" with custom labels such as "Agree/Disagree", "Yes/No" or any combination that fits your workflow's needs.

Refer to the approval macro and the new approvelabel and rejectlabel parameters for use in your workflow markup, they allow you to change the default labels. At this time the labels are only applied in the user interface; when you view the workflow activity reports the default action names will still be applied.