As you may have heard, OIT is transitioning from Atlassian Confluence to power our campus Wiki solution to a new product, XWiki. Our main goal is to provide a seamless migration for all spaces on Wiki.SMU. OIT is planning to migrate to XWiki on the weekend of February 23, 2024, with the new Wiki.SMU coming online on the morning of February 26, 2024.
Starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, February 23, the migration team will create a snapshot of Wiki.SMU. Any edits made after that time will have to be manually reproduced when the new Wiki launches on Monday, February 26. OIT recommends saving all edits by 5 p.m. and holding off any changes until the following Monday.
After the snapshot is made, the migration team will export all Confluence spaces and import the contents into the new XWiki platform. This is expected to take most of the weekend, and once completed, the team will confirm all permissions and spaces have migrated. The new Wiki.SMU powered by XWiki will be made available for edits and changes starting at 8 a.m. on Monday, February 26.
The confluence site will remain read-only behind the VPN for a period as needed to review content and address issues.
XWiki uses a different pathing structure for content. The migration team will put in redirects after the migration for landing pages. Any hyperlinks on www.smu.edu or in your documentation and emails should continue to work for those spaces, but it is recommended that those links are updated to the new URL at the editor’s earliest convenience. Please be aware that some content might produce a “Were you looking for one of the following pages instead?” search result with a high probability of the page the user is trying to find. For the best user experience, it is recommended that all links are reviewed after the migration is completed.
While OIT is working to make the process as seamless as possible, there are a few other things of note.
- After the migration, the page history will be reset, and XWiki will track any new changes going forward to your site.
- Any previous page revisions will not be migrated to the new site. Once on the new XWiki platform, revisions will be available from that point forward.
- By default, the page hierarchy is alphabetized. This is a feature of the XWiki solution and cannot be modified.
- OIT is continuing to make both search boxes an active search. The search box to the right of the page will be an active search should one need it.
- If any pages in the Atlassian Confluence Wiki are currently saved in draft state, it is recommended that those are published before February 23, 2024, if they are intended to be used on the new Wiki. Any drafted pages will not be carried over during the migration process.
- The migration team has worked hard to make most Macros available on the new platform. If you find an unavailable one, contact the IT Help Desk, and they will assist.
After migration, space editors may find they have some small content edits to make. If any assistance is needed, please feel free to contact the IT Help Desk for additional support.
XWiki User Guides can be found on the XWiki support site.
For any questions about the XWiki Implementation Project, please visit the project page at smu.edu/oit/governance/current-projects/xwiki or contact the Project Manager, Shanta Ball, at smball@smu.edu.
After launch, any questions or assistance with using Wiki.SMU or XWiki can be directed to the IT Help Desk at 214-768-HELP (4357) or help@smu.edu.
