Export Content from Confluence - Part 3

Intro

Welcome to the final tutorial of this three part series on how to extract HTML content from Confluence.

In the previous two tutorials, we explored how to export content using Confluence's native solution Export Content from Confluence - Part 1 and Export Content from Confluence - Part 2. In this tutorial, we will run through the steps to generate HTML content into a zip file from an user selected space in Confluence using Scroll's HTML Exporter plugin. The biggest difference in using this plugin versus EclipseHelp Exporter, is that plugin offers the option to generate a search index of your extract content and the wiki's space logo will be a part of the final presentation.

Setup

This document assumes that you have the Scroll HTML Exporter plugin installed and properly enabled and that your user account has the proper credentials (at least view and export permissions) for exporting and plugin usage. If it's not, contact your Confluence administrator and request it to be set up.

This process was tested on Confluence 5.6.4 and Scroll HTML Exporter version 3.5.0. Results may very with other versions.

Exporting using HTML Exporter

1. Navigate to the top most page in the space you wish to export from Confluence.
2. Go to Tools > Export HTML.
3. Click Customize Settings in lower left corner. For this tutorial, we are going to customize the content will wish to pull from Confluence.
4. In the General step, you will need to make some choices depending on the needs of how and what you want to export from Confluence:
1. In the Create drop down, you can choose between one HTML file for each Confluence page or a single large HTML file. For this tutorial, we'll be using the former option to export our content to the HTML format.
2. Since this may be our first time using this plugin, the Template drop down will just list one option, Scroll WebHelp Template. This tutorial will not cover how to create HTML templates.
3. With the Export option, we'll select This page and its children so we can collect every page starting with the current page and all of it's children.
5. In the Central Processing step, you will have several options to output a few macros with your content, exporting images with original resolution, converting labels to index terms, and merging single, first heading and page titles. For this step, only enable the Export images with original resolution. If your pages in Confluence used the other macros previously listed and you need your exported content to use them, go ahead and enable those as well. Otherwise, leave those options disabled. I have found that exporting the content in as raw form as possible works best when attempting some post processing in my documentation publication scripts.
6. In the File Naming step, we can leave the settings to their default values. These settings works very well with the vast majority of export settings and the content coming from Confluence.
7. In the Search Index step, depending on your export needs, you may want to leave this option disabled. For this tutorial, leave it disable. When enabled, the plugin will generate a full text search index and add it to the exported content. Note: if you decide to export your content into one large HTML file, this feature won't be supported.
8. Click Start Export and wait a moment or two while Confluence churns on the request. An Export in Progress window will appear informing you of the content export status (pages processed versus total number of pages in the request).
   
9. Once the request has finished, your browser will download a zip file with the name of the page you selected to start the process from followed by the version number of the page, a date stamp of when it was exported, and a time stamp (set by the server clock). For example, your zip file name may look like this: Home-v12-20170104_1435.zip. The Export Result window will present with the size and number of pages in the export and how long it took. This window will also allow you to save the export scheme you just created, collect the ReST URL, and manage export schemes. If you are going to use this export process repeatedly, you should follow these steps:
1. Click the Save Export Scheme ... button and select as new from the drop down. 
2. In the Save new Export Scheme window, decide if this scheme will be used only in the current space or in all spaces (globally). For this tutorial, select in this space.
3. Provide a good descriptive name and description in their respective fields.
4. Click the Save button.
10. Optional: back in the Export Result window, you can collect the ReST URL if you wish to automate the process in the future. Click the REST URL button and copy the URL listed in the middle of the REST URL window. Save this URL for your automation script.
11. Optional: back in the Export Result window, you can manage the export schemes in either the current space or in all spaces (globally). A new browser window will open up and present you with options to modify any export schemes you may already have. That is, if you have the proper user permissions to see or edit features in the Space Admin page of the current space.

With the completion of this tutorial, you should have an HTML copy of your selected content and an export scheme that can be used repeatedly to pull content from your desired space in Confluence into an HTML zip file without having to go through this entire process again.

For future exports, all you need to do now is go to Tools > Export to HTML and select the export scheme you created in this tutorial.

Export Content from Confluence - Part 2

This tutorial is part two in the three series of how to export content from Confluence. In the previous tutorial, we covered how to export content from Confluence using it's native solution Export Content from Confluence - Part 1.

In this post, we'll explore the process of how to export content from our favorite wiki using Scroll's EclipseHelp plugin into an HTML zip file.

Setup

This document assumes that you have the Scroll EclipseHelp plugin installed and properly enabled and that your user account has the proper credentials (at least view and export permissions) for exporting and plugin usage. If it's not, contact your Confluence administrator and request it to be set up.

This process was tested on Confluence 5.6.4 and Scroll EclipseHelp plugin version 3.5.0. Results may very with other versions.

Exporting using EclipseHelp

1. Navigate to the top most page in the space you wish to export from Confluence.
2. To start the process, go to menu for Tools > Export to EclipseHelp.
3. If this is your first time using this plugin, you may see a few global templates to choose from. This tutorial opts to create an export using custom settings so you can see what is available via this plugin. In the bottom left corner, click on the Customize Settings option.
4. From the General step, select the Default EclipseHelp Template from the Template option (selected by default).
5. From the Export option, you can select what you need to export (the current page and it's children, only the current page, or the current page and any children with an user specified label). For this tutorial, we'll use the option to export the current page and all it's children.
   
6. Click the Content Processing step next. From here, you have several options on what you want to export with your content like exporting the table of contents (toc), children, section, and numbered-headings macros, images with original resolution, and merging single, first heading and page title. To keep it simple, let's not include any of these options except for the images with the original resolution. By selecting this option, the process will download the original size of any and all images that are included on the selected wiki pages.
7. Skip down to EclipseHelp Features. In this step, you can add any additional features you would like to include in your export. The features you choose to include in your export will be up to you but if the content you are pulling from Confluence is meant to be a stand-alone doc set, I would at least include the following:
1. From the Index option, select the Create Index and Convert Labels to Index Terms. Including an index will generate additional documents called index.xml, toc.xml, and a few others associated with all your pages that you included in this export.
2. From the Compatibility option, Export to doc.zip. Once the export has finished, everything will be nicely wrapped up in a zip file called doc.zip.
8. In the File Naming step, you can define how the exported content should be handled. I normally leave this section alone as the default values work well for most common needs.
9. With you export options selected, click the Start Export button to start the export process. Depending on the size of the space or page selection you made, Confluence will churn for a moment or two. You should see an indicator window pop up telling you where you are in the export process. Once Confluence has finished with the export process, you will see your browser download a doc.zip file.
   
   
10. Upon the completion of the export, EclipseHelp will tell you the size of the content, how many pages you exported, how long the process took, and present you with a few options can you can use in the future to make this process go a little faster: Saving the export scheme, capture the ReST URL (for automation reasons), and managing the export schemes. If you know you will be exporting this space with these settings repeatedly, I recommend saving the export scheme you just created. Click the Save Export Scheme ... drop down and select as new.
11. Decide if this export scheme will be used globally throughout your Confluence instance or localized to just this particular space.
12. Provide a good name and description and click the Save button.
13. If you wish to automate the process by using the ReST URL, you will need to save the export scheme first (see steps 9 through 12 to save the scheme).
14. With the export scheme saved, you can now click the REST URL button to receive the URL you can use for automating this export process. 

With the completion of this tutorial, you should have an HTML copy of your selected content and an export scheme that can be used repeatedly to pull content from your desired space in Confluence into an HTML zip file without having to go through this entire process again.

For future exports, all you need to do now is go to Tools > Export to EclipseHelp and select the export scheme you created in this tutorial.