Metadata for Confluence
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Comala Publishing

Integration of Metadata and Comala Publishing

Metadata for Confluence offers a powerful integration with Comala Publishing.
With this integration, you can configure your Metadata sets and fields once in a draft space and have them published seamlessly to your target space together with your content – a must‑have synchronization for consistent metadata across spaces.

If you are interested in Comala Publishing’s additional features and configuration options, refer to their official documentation:
https://appfire.atlassian.net/wiki/x/PIS5Jg

General Prerequisites

Before using Metadata together with Comala Publishing, make sure you meet the following prerequisites:

  1. Global configuration of Comala Publishing

    The global configuration of the Comala Publishing app must contain the prefix:

    com.communardo

    in the list of content property prefixes that will be copied.

    In current versions of Comala Publishing, this configuration is set by default.
    If you have a customized configuration, verify that this prefix is present.

  2. Content Properties enabled in publishing settings

    In the publishing settings of your space, the option “Content Properties” must be enabled.

    You can find this option in:

    • Data to Include section of
      Content Options→ “Content Properties”

    Only if this option is enabled will Metadata information be copied along with the pages.

  3. Draft space must have a homepage

    The draft space has to have a space homepage.
    This is required especially when you use space Metadata in the draft space (see below).

  4. Publishing the homepage when using space Metadata

    If you use space Metadata in the draft space, the space homepage must also be published to the target space.

    To ensure this:

    • Enable “Top level pages” in the
      Space Publishing Optionssection of the Comala Publishing configuration.

Once these prerequisites are met, you are ready to use Metadata together with Comala Publishing.

We strongly recommend using global Metadata for this integration.

The integration between Metadata and Comala Publishing is designed and optimized for global Metadata.

Using space Metadata is possible, but comes with several important limitations and edge cases that you need to be aware of (see next section). To keep your configuration robust and predictable, use global Metadata wherever possible.

Benefits of using global Metadata:

  • Fewer restrictions and edge cases in synchronization

  • Cleaner administration and reuse across multiple spaces

  • Better support for cross‑department and cross‑space collaboration

Limitations When Using Space Metadata

When you choose to use space Metadata in combination with Comala Publishing, keep the following behavior and restrictions in mind.

1. Possible publication of unintended Metadata changes

If you work on multiple pages in the draft space but publish only a single page via Comala Publishing:

  • Changes in Metadata of other pages might still be published.

This can happen, for example, when:

  • The configuration of the Metadata fields and/or Metadata sets used on those pages has been changed (not just the values on one page).

In such cases, structural changes can cause additional Metadata changes to be synchronized, even if you did not explicitly publish those pages.

2. Default values from draft space are not published

If you use default values for Metadata in the draft space:

  • These default values cannot be published to the target space with Comala Publishing.

Only the explicitly stored values per page are considered; default definitions in the draft space do not propagate.

3. Not all changes to a space Metadata set are synchronized

Not every change you make to a space Metadata set in the draft space will be reflected in the target space when publishing.

The following changes might not be synchronized reliably:

  • Changing the name of the space Metadata set

  • Changing the description

  • Changing the “default for” setting

  • Reordering the fields within the set

Synchronization is typically triggered only by structural modifications to the fields, for example:

  • Changing a field’s hidden or required flag

  • Adding or removing fields

  • Changing field definitions

Without such structural changes, some Metadata set updates will not be transferred.

4. Page template assignments are not published

Assignments of page templates to a Metadata set in the draft space:

  • Cannot be published to the target space using Comala Publishing.

You will need to reconfigure these manually in the target space if required.

Summary and Best Practices

To get the best results from the integration of Metadata for Confluence and Comala Publishing:

  • ✔ Use global Metadata wherever possible

  • ✔ Ensure Comala Publishing is configured to copy content properties including com.communardo

  • ✔ Enable Content Properties in your Content Options → Data to Include

  • ✔ Make sure your draft space has a homepage

  • ✔ If you must use space Metadata, make sure the homepage is included in the publishing configuration (enable “Top level pages”)

By following these guidelines, you avoid the known limitations of space Metadata and benefit from a stable, predictable metadata synchronization across your draft and target spaces.

For more technical background and current status of known issues, see the Jira tickets:

  • .jira-issue { padding: 0 0 0 2px; line-height: 20px; } .jira-issue img { padding-right: 5px; } .jira-issue .aui-lozenge { line-height: 18px; vertical-align: top; } .jira-issue .icon { background-position: left center; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: inline-block; font-size: 0; max-height: 16px; text-align: left; text-indent: -9999em; vertical-align: text-bottom; } METADATA-2308

  • .jira-issue { padding: 0 0 0 2px; line-height: 20px; } .jira-issue img { padding-right: 5px; } .jira-issue .aui-lozenge { line-height: 18px; vertical-align: top; } .jira-issue .icon { background-position: left center; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: inline-block; font-size: 0; max-height: 16px; text-align: left; text-indent: -9999em; vertical-align: text-bottom; } METADATA-2520

  • .jira-issue { padding: 0 0 0 2px; line-height: 20px; } .jira-issue img { padding-right: 5px; } .jira-issue .aui-lozenge { line-height: 18px; vertical-align: top; } .jira-issue .icon { background-position: left center; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: inline-block; font-size: 0; max-height: 16px; text-align: left; text-indent: -9999em; vertical-align: text-bottom; } METADATA-2522

  • .jira-issue { padding: 0 0 0 2px; line-height: 20px; } .jira-issue img { padding-right: 5px; } .jira-issue .aui-lozenge { line-height: 18px; vertical-align: top; } .jira-issue .icon { background-position: left center; background-repeat: no-repeat; display: inline-block; font-size: 0; max-height: 16px; text-align: left; text-indent: -9999em; vertical-align: text-bottom; } METADATA-2521

These tickets describe the specific behaviors and edge cases in more technical detail.

Source

Integration of Metadata and Comala Publishing