Overview
With same-space publishing, each piece of content (page or blog post) can have concurrent draft and approved versions.
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.
The addition of the final=true parameter changes the behavior of Confluence to show a user 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 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.
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 will be a different version to the final state version even though the content 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 will then always be 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}
Same-space publishing
Same-space publishing is not a secure way to publish content.
It is used to differentiate content in a draft workflow state and the final state version. View-only users are directed to the latest final state version (if present).†
For these view-only users†
the workflow byline breadcrumbs are not displayed on the page
they will not be able to navigate to/view content in a draft state
In some cases
a view-only user will not be directed to the final state version
draft content can be accessed by a view-only user
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 some mobile-based browsers that can only display the latest version
† The app configuration - Workflow Activity and Drafts Visibility and Internal Page Publishing Configuration - will impact on the viewing of content with an added workflow with a final state.
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 State Status Indicator Circles.
From v5.0.8, state indicator 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) 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 will see an error like 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 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.
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
| ||