Smart Questions and Answers Migration Guide

Owned by Andreas Purde
Last updated: Oct 17, 2024
5 min read

Please consider opening a support ticket prior to migration so that we can assists you.

Scope

This guidance explains the migration from Smart Questions and Answers Server/Data Center to Cloud.

Feature differences

Due to technical limitations the Cloud version of Smart Questions and Answers has some notable differences to the Server/DC version:

Element

Major differences

Element

Major differences

Global and space settings

The cloud version does not have such settings.

Question symbol in the side-bar

In the Server/DC version the question icon in the sidebar brings you to the defined global or space topic. In the cloud version you will see a list of all topics in the current space and on your instance.

Question overview (topic)

The cloud version does not support the old table format. The rest of the UI is very similar.

Question page and answers

The question is also a Confluence page - therefore the same differences apply as for Confluence pages in Server and Cloud. The answers in the cloud version however are not enhanced comments like in the server version but a custom content. The editor used to enter responses is different from the Confluence editor and has some limitations like embedding of macros etc.

Smart QA Topic List macro

The cloud version does not have this macro.

When clicking on the Smart Questions and Answer icon in the sidebar you see a list of all topics on the space and the instance.

Smart QA Collection macro

The cloud version does not have this macro.

When clicking on Smart Questions and Answer icon in the sidebar and then “All questions” you see all question of the instance.

Smart QA Side Content macro

The cloud version does not have this macro.

Due to the imitations all apps in Confluence Cloud have, a proper migration was not possible. We therefore decided not to port this macro.

Smart QA Statistics Macro

The cloud version does not have this macro. The functionality is however integrated into the Smart QA Overview macro.

The statistics for a single topic can be activated in each topic.

Special features

The cloud version does not support the special features of the server version.

Anonymous access

The cloud version does not support anonymous access.

REST interface

The cloud version does not have a REST interface.

Status after using Atlassian’s migration assistant

As Smart Questions and Answers uses pages as questions and comments as answers you see the questions and their answers (or comments) without performing any further action of this guidance after a successful migration using Atlassian’s migration assistant.

As Smart Questions and Answers however does not not hook into the migration assistant you will find the following information missing:

  • The overview does not detect the questions.

  • The answers and comments are just comments - you can’t distinguish between an answer or a comment.

  • You don’t know whether an answer has been accepted.

  • You don’t know the votes of an answer.

  • The side container (link back to the overview and similar questions) are not shown on question pages.

  • You will see a yellow box indicating an unknown macro.

Things to know before you start further migration

Please consider the following things before you start further migration steps:

  • The migration must still be considered beta and it is a little complex. We therefore recommend that you open a support ticket prior to migration so that we can assists you.

  • You can’t migrate all content or information. The currently known limitations are:

    • The vote count of an answer is migrated but not who voted.

    • Only answers and direct comments to answers are migrated. Deeper levels of comments are not migrated.

    • Not all content in answers can be migrated. We support the migration of rich text, lists, tables (limited), code macros, mentions, images, web links and links to attachments, attachment views. The following things however are not migrated: emojis, other macros.

    • Topic settings are not migrated.

  • Only an admin can perform the below migration steps. As the apps also re-creates answers and comments to answers on behalf of the users who originally created them you must ensure that those users can create answers and comments to answers.

  • We only a support a migration topic by topic.

  • The migration functions below need an up-to-date Confluence index. Based on our experience this is not the case right after a migration. You might need to wait a while.

  • Questions with edit limitations to the author will not be fully functional in cloud.

Migration step by step

Step

Description

Image

Step

Description

Image

1

Perform a regular migration using Atlassian’s migration assistant.

 

2

On your Server/DC instance

Either export a single topic using the /export2 REST endpoint on your Server / Data Center instance as described here (please expand “Using the REST interface”) or export all topics using the /exportAll endpoint.

Example:

https://yourcompany.com/rest/simpleqa/1.0/exportAll

Both endpoints deliver an url and a download link first. When you click the download link you will either get a message that the export has not been finished yet (ready : false) or the browser downloads the file already. In case the export has not been finished yet, reload the page e.g. every 10 seconds until you get the download.

 

3

On your Cloud instance

Based on the latest experience we had with a customer it might take a while after migration before the Confluence Cloud index picks up the migrated pages - our migration functions however need an up-to-date index. It might therefore be necessary to wait until the index is current.

First navigate to:

<<your_url>>/plugins/servlet/ac/de.edrup.confluence.plugins.simple-qa/simple-qa-migration

Example:

https://example.atlasstian.net/wiki/plugins/servlet/ac/de.edrup.confluence.plugins.simple-qa/simple-qa-migration

Once the page has been loaded you can configure the migration:

  1. Overwrite responses already imported: when selected answers will be re-imported and eventual changes after the first migration will be overridden

  2. Delete comments after migration (do NOT use before you checked the migration results): when selected the comments which are the basis for the migration of answers will be deleted. You should only use this option once you are sure the migration works well for you.

  3. Space key: defining a space key is only needed in case you are using data collected from the /export or /export2 endpoint of the Server/DC app below version 3.11.3. Below the mentioned version the exported data did not contain the space key. Therefore you can only import topic by topic always defining the space key here.

 

4

Select the file you have exported under step #2 and run the migration