Appfire - Comala Document Management: What are my replacement options for ignore-publishing macro

[Moriah Yorkey]

In Confluence Data Center I am using the Appfire Comala Remote Publishing and Comala Remote Publishing applications to create KB documentation. We use a template that includes the Comala Remote Publishing "ignore-publishing" macro. This macro creates a panel and any information entered into the panel is omitted from the page in our external published Confluence site. We are migrating to Confluence Cloud and Comala Remote Publishing and the ignore-publishing macro are not available for Confluence Cloud. How can I replace the ignore-publishing functionality that prevents information entered in the macro from being published to an external site?

I reached out to Appfire and they confirmed this functionality is not offered in Cloud, but were unable to provide any alternatives. This seems crazy to me. This macro is used on 40k articles. The alternatives I'm finding are 10k a year (Atlassian Marketplace) and hide the information in the panel unless you're in edit mode. 

I am looking for a macro/panel that is fully visible to internal users, but does not get published to a mirrored internal space and/or external Confluence site. 

Suggestions please!!

[Elena Cantero]

Hi @Moriah Yorkey !

My name is Elena, and I'm the Product Manager for Comala Document Management and Comala Publishing for Confluence Cloud, along with other apps at Appfire.

I'd love to learn more about your use case and specific needs, so we can better understand how to support you with this challenge — or anything else you might need.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly via my Calendly.

Thanks again!

Best regards,
Elena

[Moriah Yorkey]

Scheduled - Thank you Elena!

[Kristian Klima]

Hi @Moriah Yorkey 

Space Sync for Confluence by Ricksoft allows you to use a label of your choice to ignore page from sync (publishing). 

https://docs.ricksoft-inc.com/space-sync-for-confluence/configure-bulk-sync-settings

The app supports syncs across sites (and can be set up as bi/multidirectional).

Scroll Documents with Variants by K15t add-on support publishing from one space to another with Variants providing the 'conditional content' option.

To learn more (and learn how to get crazy with conditional content and static websites generated from Confluence ), explore this article  - https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Confluence-articles/Conditional-content-and-why-you-should-use-it/ba-p/2887765 )

Another option is Spacecraft by Seibert - you can use space publishing and if you make your published space available via Spacecraft (which is a theme app), you can set it up to ignore content with specific labels.

(I wrote about two-space approach to content in this article - maybe it inspires you to find a solution).

[Moriah Yorkey]

Hi @Kristian Klima ,

Comala does handle the space sync and pages I want to fully set to internal workflow (never to be published client facing) so I think I am good there. This is such a small piece of loss of functionality from the vendor (Appfire) with a huge impact to us! I cannot imagine that we were the only customer to use it. All the replacements I've found Variants and Appfire Visibility are very expensive because they are offered as part of a larger application. Since all I need is a single panel (which is part of our article template) on a page, wondering if using Forge to build it would be a better alternative - if that's even possible. 

Thank you Kristian - I have found your insights and Community posts immensely helpful throughout my Cloud migration journey.

[Kristian Klima]

Wow @Moriah Yorkey , thank you for the kind words.

Well, Space Sync is probably the closest. But I understand it might be tough to switch if an app is an inherent part of the workflow and/or you're on a long term billing cycle with Atlassian.

But I wonder if there might be a way to use automation in your target space to restrict, remove, archive pages with specific label.... Sync, run automation, 

BTW, I'm using Appfire's Comala Doc Approval and Publishing on Cloud, and Scroll Docs/Variants to create a public and an internal Viewport site.