Confluence functionality can be extended by installing plugins. Plugins, like any software, can become outdated as bugs are fixed and new improvements are added and it's advisable to keep your plugins up-to-date wherever possible.
 | Before updating any plug-ins you will need to be logged into your confluence installation as a user with Confluence-Administrator permissions. Also, we strongly recommend testing plugins and upgrades in a staging environment or on a development server prior to making changes to your live or production environment. |
Updating via the Plugin Repository
Developed by Adaptavist, the plugin repository is designed to make installing and upgrading plugins a trivial task.
To access the plugin repository, go in to the Confluence "Administration" area and choose "Plugin Repository" from the menu on the left as illustrated below:
Any outdated plugins will be clearly marked as illustrated below:
To upgrade an outdated plugin, click the "Upgrade" link that appears next to the yellow "Outdated" panel. A progress indicator will appear at the top of the page (you might not see it if you've scrolled down the page) to show progress of the download and install process:
After the upgrade, the plugin will be shown as "Installed" as illustrated below:
Note: When upgrading large plugins, you may need to restart Confluence to free up RAM that was used by the outdated version of the plugin.
Updating plugins manually
Plugins can be uploaded manually either via the plugin manager or the plugin repository. Manual uploads are sometimes required if a plugin or new version of a plugin isn't yet in the plugin repository. For example, you may have received a patched version of a plugin from Customer Support in order to fix a bug you've encountered.
Before manually installing a plugin, ensure that any old versions have been uninstalled first.
We recommend downloading the plugin to your desktop in advance of installing it.
If you download a plugin using Internet Explorer, make sure it's extension hasn't been renamed to ".zip" – if it has, change it's extension to ".jar".
Manual installing using the Plugin Respository
To access the plugin repository, go in to the Confluence "Administration" area and choose "Plugin Repository" from the menu on the left as illustrated below:
Next, click on the "Upload" tab, wait for the page to fully load, and then click the "Browse" button to locate the plugin, then click the "Upload" button to install it.
A message will be shown if the plugin has been successfully installed:
The plugin will also be shown as "Installed" on the "Available Plugins" tab as illustrated below:
Manual installation via the Plugin Manager
To access the plugin manager, go in to the Confluence "Administration" area and choose "Plugins" from the menu on the left as illustrated below:
Click the "Browse" button to locate the plugin, then click the "Upload" button to install it.
Once the plug-in has been installed it will be listed, like so:
You can click on any plug-in in the list to find out what version you have installed. To work out if a plugin is out of date, we recommend using the Plugin Repository as described earlier in this tutorial.
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