Confluence 7.20 beta release notes
Development releases are not production ready. Development releases are snapshots of the ongoing Confluence development process. While we try to keep these releases stable, they have not undergone the same degree of testing as a full release, and could contain features that are incomplete or may change or be removed before the next full release.
No upgrade path. Because development releases represent work in progress, we cannot provide a supported upgrade path between development releases, or from any development release to a final release. You may not be able to migrate any data you store in a Confluence development release to a future Confluence release.
Atlassian does not provide support for development releases.
Issues with this beta?
Please raise an issue to tell us about it.
Highlights of 7.20.0-rc1
Released
- Minor bug fixes.
Highlights of 7.20.0-beta4
Released
- No significant changes in this milestone.
Highlights of 7.20.0-beta2
Released
Edit and browse pages with greater accessibility
For DATA CENTER SERVER
Jump ahead to where you need to be on your page with our new skip links feature. Instead of having to tab your way through a long list of navigation links, we’ve enabled “Skip to search”, “Skip to main content”, “Skip to edit title”, “Log in” and more across our pages, and in the editor. Take a look at the keyboard shortcuts menu to get started.
As part of this framework, app developers can also inject their own skip links to improve the navigational experience for customers using their app in Confluence.
Learn how to inject skip links for your app
Create feedback reports to troubleshoot content problems
For DATA CENTER SERVER
While investigating a number of content duplication bugs, we created a feedback tool to help our support team analyse collaborative editing problems.
We now bundle this tool with Confluence so that it can be used for any future investigations. By default, only system administrators and Confluence administrators can create feedback reports.
Some things to know:
- reports contain all page data, including version history, right down to individual keystrokes in the editor.
- reports contain user-generated content, and should not be shared unless requested by support.
- reports are stored in your home directory, and automatically deleted after 5 days.
- reports are not useful for troubleshooting problems that happen when collaborative editing is turned off.
Learn more about feedback reports
Other notable changes
- If you use Advanced Roadmaps for Jira, you can now embed it as a macro in Confluence 7.20.
- You can use JVM arguments for Synchrony to help with diagnosing problems such as usual memory usage, reduced performance and more. See Configuring Synchrony
You can enable mail debugging logs as an additional diagnostic tool to help with troubleshooting mail server configuration problems. Learn how to enable email debugging mode
- If you haven't already, make sure you migrate your Hipchat emojis to Confluence Data Center before we remove the Hipchat plugin in Confluence 8.0. Learn how to migrate Hipchat emoticons to Confluence Data Center
We have bundled Java Flight Recorder, a JVM event runtime logging tool, in Confluence Data Center and Server 7.20. It is enabled by default to provide continuous data recording as soon as you start up your instance. Learn more about Java Flight Recorder
Upgrade notes
Greater security with IMDS v2 implementation
If you run Confluence in AWS, we now enforce International Metadata Systems (IMDS) v2 for node discovery. IMDS v2 uses additional security controls.
Changes to order of items in the admin navigation
To improve the organisation and user experience of the Confluence administration sidebar, the menu items under each heading will appear in alphabetical order. Headings will remain ordered by weight variable.
Supported platforms changes
End of support for Oracle 12c
As previously announced, Oracle 12c is no longer supported.
Advanced Notice: End of support for selected databases
- Confluence 7.20.x will be the last release to support H2 database. If you currently use H2 database, make sure you've update to AMPS 8.6.0 to continue using this database or HSQL, both of which are only available for Data Center testing installations.
- Confluence 7.20.x will be the last release to support PostgreSQL 11
- Confluence 7.20.x will be the last release to support MySQL 5.7
Advanced Notice: End of support for UTF8 encoding
Confluence 7.20.x will be the last release to support UTF8 database encoding on MySQL databases. If you run Confluence with a supported MySQL database, you should use UTF8MB4 encoding.
Advanced Notice: End of support for Java 8
Confluence 7.20.x will be the last release to support Java 8.
For more information on these notices, see End of Support Announcements for Confluence.
Infrastructure changes
Confluence 7.20 contains changes that may affect apps. Head to Preparing for Confluence 7.20 to find out how these changes will impact app developers.