Gilly and EduBrite

Gilly is a training and assessment plugin created by EduBrite Systems. This plugin works in conjunction with an EduBrite microsite. Administrators create content on the microsite, and users access that content from Confluence or the microsite.

Adding and Configuring

1. Use the Universal Plugin Manager to install Gilly on Confluence.
2. Access EduBrites' Pricing page to select a service and create a microsite. (NOTE: all business additions include Gilly.)


















3. During the microsite configuration, a Getting Started wizard opens.
4. When the Customize - Integration Options window opens, use the Click here to open the Integration settings link to establish a connection between the microsite and Confluence.




















5. The Integration tab opens.

















6. Select the Enable API Encryption checkbox.
7. Click the Generate Api Key link.
8. From the API Access (to configure Gilly) section, save the URL, username and password.















9. Access Gilly from the Plugins page on Confluence (Browse > Confluence Admin > Plugins).
10. Select the plugin's Configure link.










11. The Gilly - Configuration page opens.
12. Enter the URL, username and password in the corresponding text fields.
13. Select the Enable Encryption checkbox.
14. Press the Submit button.
15. Click the Generate Public/Private Keys link.
16. If necessary, click the (Re)Connect link.

Cost

Gilly is free. The EduBrite service is a monthly, user-based fee. Fees range from free to $599 a month. Visit the Personal Editon and Business Edition Comparison page to view the differences between editions. A 30-day trial of the full business edition is available.

Use

The EduBrite microsite contains several features and options. The following is a high-level view of how to use the EduBrite microsite and Gilly plugin.

EduBrite Microsite

Key features for an administrator include the following.

FEATURE	DESCRIPTION	IMAGE
User accounts	add and manage users (learners, instructors, administrators) from the Users tab.
Training groups	add and manage groups from the Groups tab.
Courses	create, publish and schedule courses from the Courses tab.
Tests*	create, import and schedule tests from the Tests tab.
Exams*	create exams by going to the menu bar and selecting Exam > Create Exam.
Surveys	create surveys by going to the menu bar and selecting Exam > Create Survey.
360° feedback	create 360° feedback surveys by going to the menu bar and selecting Exam > Create 360 Degree Feedback.

* One or more tests make up an exam.

Instructors have similar privileges as administrators. However, they cannot:

• manage the microsite
• manage users
• create test centers
• schedule tests

Learners are only allowed to view, search or complete the following, provided they have permission.

• courses
• programs
• groups
• tests
• exams

Gilly

From the bottom of the Browse menu in Confluence, microsite users can access their:

• test collections and history
• personal and private exams

Additionally, Confluence administrators are able to access:

• test attempts
• Gilly settings

Users who can access the URL of an EduBrite course, can embed the course into a Confluence page. To embed the course:

1. Locate and select the course in the EduBrite microsite.



















2. Copy and save the course's URL.















3. Edit a Confluence page.
4. Select the Insert/Edit Macro icon.


















5. The Select Macro window opens.
6. Search for and select EduBrite Course Player.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Enter the course's URL in the Course Embed URL text box.
8. Set the width and height of the course using the corresponding text boxes.
9. If necessary, refresh the Preview area.
















10. Press the Insert button.
11. The wiki markup appears.














12. Press the Save button.
13. The course appears on the page.

Documentation and Support

While working in a microsite, the interface provides context-sensitive help. Video tutorials are also available, along with a knowledgbase and user community. For direct support, send an email to: support@edubrite.com. Customer support is very responsive and friendly. Manish Gupta (co-founder) responds to emails and voicemails quickly. If he cannot help, Ajay Upadhyaya (co-founder) has also been helpful.

Issues

For a list of current issues and questions, see the EduBrite Users Community page.

Conclusion

I have little experience using Gilly or EduBrite. However, I was able to quickly learn most of what I needed to use the microsite and plugin. There were a few bumps. For instance, it took me a while to figure out that I must publish a test to make it viewable in Confluence. I also had some trouble associating users with tests and exams. Most likely, I am missing a step. One negative aspect about tests and surveys is the inability to edit numbers in an ordered list.

The EduBrite interface could use the touch of a UX designer, but it does the job. Major pluses are the video tutorials, context-sensitive help and Gilly support for Confluence 4.

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Additional links of interest:

• Gilly Overview
• Getting Started Demo
• Getting Started Tutorial
• Gilly Tour
• Gilly Features
• Gilly FAQ
• Confluence Demo Site (UN: demo1 or demo2; PW: password)
• EduBrite Contact Page
• EduBrite Course Macro

Scroll Office

K15t Software, a German-based company, produces Scroll Office. With this plugin, users export Confluence content to Microsoft Word. The key to exporting documents in a Word-friendly format involves associating styled templates (.dotx files) with the wiki.

Adding and Configuring

As usual, administrators install Scroll Office using the Universal Plugin Manager (UPM).

Confluence administrators upload global templates using the Scroll Office - Global Template Management page (Browse > Confluence Admin > Scroll Office Templates).

Space administrators upload templates to a space using the Scroll Office - Space Template Management page (Browse > Space Admin > Scroll Office Templates).

Cost

The number of Scroll Office licenses must match the number of Confluence licenses. Pricing ranges from $10 to $3,600.

Use

Scroll Office works best with Word 2007 or higher. Users should have intermediate to advanced knowledge of how to style content in Word.

When preparing a template, users add placeholders for specific types of content. Placeholders include the following.

Placeholder	For	Note
$scroll.title	title of exported document	Title of parent page used, unless otherwise defined. (See Macro table below.)
$scroll.exporter.fullName	name of person exporting content	Pulls name from user's Confluence profile.
$scroll.exportdate	date of export
$scroll.content	exported content	Only one instance of placeholder recognized.

Note that images, placeholders, page breaks and text within a template keep their styles and positions during an export.

Within Confluence, users can set the following Scroll Office macros.

Macro	Description
{scroll-pagetitle}	forces the exporter to render content, surrounded by the macro, as the title of the page. (Requires the installation of a user macro.)
{scroll-portrait}	forces the exporter to render content, following the macro, in portrait mode.
{scroll-landscape}	forces the exporter to render content, following the macro, in landscape mode.
{scroll-pagebreak}	forces the exporter to create a page-break at the location of the macro.
{scroll-ignore}	forces the exporter to ignore text surrounded by the macro.
{scroll-only}	hides content surrounded by the macro from Confluence, yet allows Scroll Office to export the content.
{scroll-tablelayout:style=NAME OF WORD TABLE STYLE}	forces the exporter to style a table, following the macro, using the defined Word style.
{index-term:primary=MAIN ENTRY|secondary=SUB ENTRY|tertiary=SUB SUB ENTRY}	marks an index area and defines the index term(s).

After creating and uploading a template, users export their content by completing the following steps.

1. Open a page to export.
2. From the Tools dropdown, select Export to Word.
















3. The Export to Word window opens.















4. From the Choose a template dropdown, select a template.
5. From the Export radio buttons, select the content type:
• This page and its children
• Only this page
• This page and all children with label...
(requires a label entry)
6. Press the Start Export button.
7. Wait for the download to complete, or click the click here to download link
.

The following advanced export settings are also available.

Setting	When checked...
Process toc macros	exports a table of contents where indicated by such macro.
Process children macros	exports a list of children where indicated by such macro.
Merge single, first heading and page title	uses the top-most instance of an h1 heading as the page title. (Does nothing if the top of the page has no h1 heading.)
Filter leading and trailing linebreaks	removes linebreaks before and after paragraphs, tables, etc.
Replace thumbnails with corresponding high resolution images	exports full-size images of any/all thumbnails.
Use page labels as indexterms	adds page labels as index terms.

Documentation and Support

Documentation for this plugin is a bit sporadic. A helpful addition would be a quick reference guide describing all of the placeholders and macros. Email and forum support are available. Staff is generally helpful and prompt to reply. Note that responses may be delayed due to differences in time-zones.

Issues

Scroll Office has a JIRA site where users track staff-generated issues. As of October 24, 2011, the JIRA site showed 85% of unresolved issues as major (45 out of 53). However, only six of these issues were software bugs.

An advanced Word user had the following to say about Scroll Office 2.3.3.

• Lists that follow hanging headings also hang.
• When a Normal paragraph occurs after a list, the paragraph indents to the same position as the bullets/numbers.
• Does not support curly brackets {{ }} in headings.
• Sets its own indent for sub-lists instead of adhering to template style.
• Cannot skip heading levels. When placing an h4 after an h1, the h4 becomes an h2.
• Converts an em dash to three hyphens.
• Does not support white for a font color.
• Cannot start a numbered list with zero.
• Uses the Normal style for text in a table instead of adhering to template style.

Conclusion

This blog was a challenge because I generally avoid using Word. Not being an advanced user posed the greatest challenge with respect to creating, managing and applying styles. Collecting Scroll Office's placeholders and macros into a list helped me understand how I should form my template.

An annoying aspect was trying to remember whether to use my username or email when logging into each K15t site (documentation, forums, ...). On several occasions, I had to reset my password. Thankfully, I was able to enter a previously used password.

Overall, Scroll Office provides a better export-to-Word solution than the one packaged with Confluence. However, future releases should focus on the ease and accuracy of those exports.

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Additional links of interest:

• Atlassian site on Scroll Office
• Adding an index to a Word document
• User macro required for overwriting page titles
• How Scroll Office handles headings
• Using templates with Word macros

LucidChart for Confluence

For individuals interested in an alternative to Gliffy, LucidChart for Confluence may be the right choice. The plugin offers standard templates (flowcharts, organizational charts, network diagrams, ...) and shapes and the ability to make personal and team templates. Users can also import Visio diagrams using the .vxd format. A major feature is the ability for teams to collaborate on the same chart at the same time.

Adding and Configuring

Administrators install the LucidChart plugin in Confluence 3.5.1 or higher. Installation is simple using the Universal Plugin Manager. Once installed, the administrator creates a new admin account. (For a team of 1-5, go to: https://www.lucidchart.com/users/register/team-5.)

Here, the administrator creates a team and adds users to the team. He or she also generates a key and secret needed for configuring the plugin in Confluence.

Cost

Since LucidChart maintains user accounts on their own site instead of through Confluence, companies can select pricing options based upon a user base that may or may not match its Confluence user base. When looking for pricing, choose the Team plan.

While a trial version is available, it only lasts 14 days.

Use

Recommended browsers for this plugin are Google Chrome, Firefox then Internet Explorer. IE 9 is preferable to IE8. For users familiar with Visio and Gliffy, getting started with LucidChart is easy. Users can:

• drag and drop shapes or text to a page.
• use the toolbar near the top of the interface to manipulate shapes.











• easily create an arrow or line by clicking the cursor over a shape's edge then dragging the mouse.

















• change a page's background color.













• upload images.











• quickly change the color of a shape, line or text using the Color Palette.

Page properties are easy to manage too.

Additionally, users can:

• add a new page.
• edit master pages and convert a page to a master page.
• undo actions and view a history of actions.

Other notable features include the ability to:

• quickly change page themes/properties: (1) jumping or straight line intersections, (2) square, soft or rounded corners for shapes and (3) gradient options for shapes.











• organize charts into folders.
• retrieve deleted charts within seven days of deletion.











• access their charts/documents from the LucidChart website.
• share and publish charts.













• chat with collaborators.

Nuances

Knowing a few nuances ahead of time may help a new user. For instance, to move the text of a line or arrow, click and drag the text. To view multiple pages of a chart in Confluence, place the cursor over the chart and use the right and left arrows that appear.

When a user shares a chart with the team, members must accept the share.

(NOTE: This option may not appear until saving the chart, closing the chart then reopening the chart.)

Documentation and Support

High-level documentation is available for (1) installing the plugin, (2) adding a diagram, (3) viewing or editing a diagram and (4) moving or aligning a diagram. Additional documentation is available at the LucidChart Tutorials page. YouTube training videos are also available. Just search for "LucidChart."

To request features and report bugs, see their Forums page. So far, support has been friendly and prompt.

Issues

While most of the interface is easy to learn and use, the ability to create Team templates was a bit confusing. Documentation on the matter was sparse.

Currently, the plugin's ability to import Visio files is a beta feature. Some aggravating glitches appeared when moving and resizing shapes, lines and text. For instance, trying to align or distribute shapes did not always work properly.

A minor bug with the Chat window appears to be its inability to automatically scroll when a user sends or receives a message.

While testing the plugin on different operating systems, issues arose with various browsers. For instance, an Ubuntu 64-bit user had trouble with Firefox 3.5.9, and a Mac 10.6.8 user had trouble with Chrome 13.0.782.112. Most successful testing was completed on Windows XP using Chrome 13.0.782.112 and Firefox 5.0.

Conclusion

Overall, LucidChart provides more options and is more user-friendly/intuitive than Gliffy. I easily reoriented a Sales Process template from left -> right to top -> bottom. (Arrows/lines move smoothly with their shapes and easily/accurately snap to grid lines.) New features like the ability to automatically change a shape from a circle to a square are in the works. Another great feature would be the ability to import a chart into a blank page.

While some right-click menu options are available, they are a bit limited. However, users can easily work around this minor inconvenience. After a quick overview of the templates, they seemed useful and logical. Additionally, user documentation (though a bit sparse) is clear and easy to read. In contrast, locating answers to help questions is not as easy.

The most frustrating feature was trying to share a template with the team. LucidChart stated that this feature should be easier in its next release. One of the most exciting features is the ability to work on charts with other users at the same time. While I briefly tried this feature, the prospect of real-time collaboration was exciting. When asked what would happen if two users change the same object at the same time, LucidChart replied that the last successful change (even a millisecond later) would be the visible one.

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Additional links of interest:

• Confluence Documentation
• Report a Problem

Team Calendars

Confluence has a new calendar plugin called Team Calendars. Unlike the free Calendar plugin, this pay-version allows users to create three types of calendars:

• Events - track work-related events.
• People - track the coming's and going's of people.
• JIRA - track JIRA issues.

Being able to see these types of calendars all together can help teams better organize people, tasks and events.

Users can also subscribe to and watch calendars. (Adding another user's calendar to your calendar makes you a subscriber of that calendar.) When another user creates, edits or deletes an event, Confluence sends an email notification to the subscribers. Most important is the automatic backup/export of deleted calendars. When a user deletes a calendar, Confluence sends the exported file to all subscribers.

Other features include the ability to:

• import Outlook, Google or iCal calendars and 
• to embed calendars into Confluence pages.

Adding and Configuring

So far, adding this plugin to Confluence has been frustrating and time consuming. The old Calendar plugin must be removed for Team Calendars to work properly. For instance, having both plugins installed causes the embedding features of Team Calendars to not work. Therefore, administrators must backup this data, export it as an .ics file, then provide it to users for import.

Figure 1. Export of the Sub-calendar "Birthdays"

For the JIRA calendar option to work in Confluence, a customer's instance of JIRA must be 4.3 to 4.3.4. These versions allow for the installation of the Team Calendars for JIRA Integration plugin. Administrators must also set application links between Confluence and JIRA (within each product). Review the Configuring Application Links documentation for help. NOTE: Administrators should use the following URL patterns when configuring trusted application access:

For the Local Instance of JIRA

/plugins/servlet/streams 

/sr/jira.issueviews:searchrequest 

/secure/RunPortlet 

/rest 

/rpc/soap

For the Local Instance of Confluence

/plugins/servlet/streams 

/plugins/servlet/applinks/whoami

Cost

As usual, the number of licenses for Team Calendars must match the number of Confluence user licenses. A user-base of 10 costs $10 while 2,000 or more users costs $6,000 ($3,600 with the discount). According to Atlassian, "Software licenses entitle you to perpetual use and include 12 months maintenance of updates and support. Renewing maintenance is entirely optional." See their pricing page for additional information.

Use

When using this feature for the first time to add a new calendar:

1. Select your login name in the top-right corner of Confluence.
2. Select Calendar from the dropdown.











3. If necessary, select your time zone.
4. Choose the Create a Calendar option. (This will be an Events calendar.)











5. Fill in the appropriate fields then press OK.













6. The calendar appears to the right of the My Calendars page.
7. To add more calendars, click the Add Calendar dropdown.
8. To add events:
1. Click on a particular day in your calendar.
2. The Create Event window opens.
















3. Choose the appropriate calendar from the Calendar dropdown.
4. Fill in the appropriate fields then press OK.

Documentation and Support

Upon purchasing a licensing package, users can contact Atlassian for support. Contact is most often made in the form of a JIRA ticket. User documentation for this plugin is available at their Team Calendars Home page.

Issues

The following lists a few issues with this plugin.

• Requires JIRA 4.3 to 4.3.4 for the installation of the Team Calendars for JIRA Integration plugin.
• Must backup/download old calendars, uninstall old Calendar plugin, then import them into new calendar.
• No ability to set permissions. Calendars are visible and editable by all.

Conclusion

I am rather surprised that this plugin is not free. Organizations looking for an alternative to Outlook may find it worthwhile; however, Team Calendars provides only a few extra features when compared to the free version. The top two being the ability to add JIRA calendars and recover deleted calendars.

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Check out these links for additional information.

• 1.1 Release Notes
• Licensing and Installing
  
• JIRA ticket regarding permissions
• Atlassian Blog
• AppFusions Blog (search for "Staying-up-to-date just got easier")