If you're running the Confluence 6.13 Enterprise release, a fix for this issue is now available in Confluence 6.13.6, which you can find in the Download Archives

An update for this issue is available to Server and Data Center customers in Confluence 6.15.6.
Upgrade now or check out the Release Notes to see what other issues are resolved.

We've had to withdraw 6.15.5, and will release 6.15.6 soon. We'll update this issue once the new version is available. You can find out more about the related issue here: CONFSERVER-58490

I also noticed that when the Office Connector add-on is disabled, the Import Word Document option is no longer available on pages.

I have recommended this option to my users for years, as it allows users to import requirements into a confluence page.

Oftentimes PMs that send me a word document with the 'updated requirements' without telling whet the updates are. Using Track Changes in word is nearly impossible when there are many changes.

IMO Confluence Page history is much more usable in this instance - as you can compare page history.

Companion App has increased our workload and confusion. As with other users, there is also the problem of users being able to download an exe locally. Previously our editors selected Edit in Office for multiple Excel Spreadsheets (in this case, Rosters for each state), made their changes, and saved. They could keep the file open and continue saving them throughout the day.
Now, editor can only open and edit one file at a time, save, upload, close, repeat. They are spending the whole day opening, saving, uploading and closing files. The steps for each update have doubled, and now they have to do it one at a time.
Also, I can't seem to get Companion App working with IE (in a download loop) but it works with Chrome, but we are forced to use IE. It's counter-intuitive, has made our work extremely inefficient and now we can't access previous versions of the file. So far Companion App has made our lives miserable. Sure, some people don't like change, and it can get a bit of getting used to, but downgrading functionality is not a change.

Remus, the trouble with rolling back is that the Tomcat embedded in earlier versions is deprecated, would be a security concern for most of us.

Actually, this is also a problem with recent Atlassian app releases, given how critical CVEs have aleady rendered risky or obsolete Tomcat versions that are now shipping - 8.5.32 in Jira 7.13.1, 9.0.12 in Confluence 6.15.2 - but there are not nearly as many vulnerabilities in these recent Tomcat versions as in older versions.

One could independently upgrade Tomcat with old or new app releases, but Atlassian did not test against versions of Tomcat not shipped in their products, won't support such configurations, and most organizations are not in a position to test all use cases.

We are jumping through many organizational hoops to hopefully make the Companion self-installable by some of our 10,000+ end users across many teams. We cannot realistically get it packaged into standard desktop images, nor install it for users, nor ask them to because desktop admin rights are a rarity here. Beyond getting this app authorized by company authorities, put into channels, and made available to some or all clients, we also have to modify proxy controls to allow it to talk to multiple instances of Confluence.

Anything that establishes a more traditional client/server dependency becomes something between a hassle and a nightmare for large organizations in which controls like these are managed by different groups, and in which the Companion will never be made part of the standard desktop config. It is hard enough to keep all the in-app features compatible with PAC-restricted Internet Explorer and Edge clients. Use of Chrome can solve some problems, but most of our users won't be authorized to use Chrome.

So yes, once again, this was not a welcome change.

Same here, very disappointed by the terrible architecture decision that Atlassian made. We are seriously considering a rollback to a version (6.10.x) that is Companion-free until Atlassian shows interest in addressing this issue properly.

We strongly recommend that the Office Connector is put back in work or at least let users to choose between  Companion App and Office Connector. In order to get more and more users in our organization to use Confluence as the primary collaboration platform/tool we need to offer a seamless integration between Confluence pages and Office documents. This is  is more or less bread and butter functionality for us and was working well before the introduction of the Companion App. Our operations can not get Applocker to work with Companion App on the Windows clients.

Same issue for us. 

1, We use confluence in internal network, it is not convenient to download the Companion App for everyone.

2, Most of them don't have the rights to install the Companion application to system.

So we want to keep Office Connector or let users to choose between  Companion App and Office Connector

What will happen when Microsoft releases its own new Browser based on Chromium?

A Companion App (i.e. Desktop App) which now replaces the old "edit in office" feature seems counterproductive and odd.

How long will WebDAV be supported (which is the backbone of this functionality?)

In our organization, users authorized to use Chrome (not all) can now use the Companion in a way that does not work with Internet Explorer or Edge.

The Companion appears to be somewhat portable. See https://www.howtogeek.com/290358/what-is-a-portable-app-and-why-does-it-matter. I lack admin rights to my laptop but can use the Companion with Chrome. This does not obviate restrictions otherwise imposed on other browsers via GPOs or PAC files.

Requiring local installation in any sense presents a hassle or blocker, depending on the user. Our end user computing (EUC) group must ensure that everything deployed complies with many requirements and that client devices work with 50k+ possible apps, most web-based. Expecting a company-wide exception or company-wide deployment of the Companion is unrealistic. It would have to be broad because our users span 500+ groups.

In this change, Atlassian made a web-only feature not, crippling it for possibly thousands. We have a workaround for some users, but if authorities here ever lock down Chrome in a relevant way, use of the Companion may die for us. We will not, I assume, backport the OfficeConnector jar in some unsupported way.

This should be addressed by Atlassian, which knowingly entered the messy realm of large enterprise technology. Our challenges here were foreseeable and are not unique.

Please restore, in some sense, "Edit in Office" while retaining compatibility with the Companion.

This is also a huge problem for us. If version 6.0.0 supports both options at once, why can't this version be supported. What does version OfficeConnector-7.0.7.jar give us over OfficeConnector-6.0.0.jar ?

What are the implications of using OfficeConnector-6.0.0.jar on confluecne 6.13.1 ?

We are also facing this issue. Most of our users don't have the rights to install anything on their computer and most of them use Citrix so Atlassian Companion is not a solution for us. We need to give people the choice between one or the other or to simply continuing using Edit in Office.

We are also facing the same issue. 90% of our users doesn't have the rights to install the Companion application to system, and so inline edit is now disabled for them.

Atlassian should really think about bringing back the feature of 'Edit in Office'. 

One of the biggest problems we're facing is just the feedback from our team members about the disruptive nature of the change. Team members were accustomed to having the "Edit in Office" button on the page and the experience was seamless.

Even if we have to use the Atlassian Companion, it would be great if the old links to "Edit in Office" were replaced with links to "Edit with Atlassian Companion" which would launch the Atlassian Companion app in order to route the document to the correct office product to be edited.

We faced same problem, because a lot of our users are accessing confluence from Citrix environment which has confirmed bug.

There's a workaround that hasn't been confirmed by Atlassian. Only in comment related to Companion app functionality. link here

After replacing new OfficeConnector with old one from version 6.10. ** you should be able to use both ways to Edit files from Confluence : old method (via Edit In Office) and new  method (via Companion app - Preview > Edit in Office.

Of course, please do extensive tests before switching to production.

I hope it helps.

In my case now after upgrading to Confluence 6.12 our users lost edit option for the excel sheets they included in the pages. Now there is only option to go to attachments and edit. But there were lotof other attachments also into the same page, so its confusing which excel sheet they need to edit which was included in the page earlier.

In our case we have customers who won´t have permission to install apps, and won´t have in the future either. So with the new release of confluence 6.11 they can´t edit the embedded files anymore since it requires the companion application...

Dear Atlassians,

At our company we have many Confluence users with a virtual desktop. Running another app in the background consumes precious resources, which they need for other applications. Whitelisting and packaging the Companion app MSI takes time, costs money and is yet another piece of software we have to manage. So we are not very fond of this solution. Please consider alternatives for directly editing Confluence documents in office, without the need for an additional app.

Many thanks,

Jelmer 

Hi Atlassians,

I don't actually need the Office Excel macro anymre, but what I need is a "Edit in Office" macro, which I can embed directly into a page, where clicking DIRECTLY edits my Excel file with the companion app WITHOUT having to preview it before. This is the REAL use case. You force us to at least two more clicks to edit a file compares to the previous solution. Get your UX right, please...

Best JP

Today we observe an unexpected change in Confluence.

Steps to reproduce

Attachments can be presented on a page by using (for example) Macro => Media - Office Excel.

Describe the Issue

Attached Office documents can no longer be edited directly from a Space page.
The expected link "edit document" is no longer displayed above the presentation of the macro.

Expected result

Before the upgrade, a link "edit document" was displayed above the presentation of the macro.

We expect the link presented above the office document information.

Through this link, the underlying Office document can be updated, so that the updated data immediately becomes visible on the relevant page.

This change is intended behaviour actually. Atlassian has deprecated and removed the previous edit in office feature and replaced it with a new tool that should improve this, read more here: https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/edit-office-files-170494553.htmlhttps://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/edit-office-files-170494553.html

This is not going to work for pages where we have used the Macro option to present office attachments.

1. Option 1 (Spreadsheet) : Insert files and images - Click on document icon or presented link => then the document can be edited with "Edit with"
2. Option 2 : Macro - Media - Office Excel => then the document can't be edited with "Edit with", this option is not available in this way.

We often use Option 2, because in this way, the attachment information is directly presented on a Confluence page. Option 1 doesn't present the information directy on the page.
Readers of the page do not need to open or download an attachment to read the information.

We do not understand why this link was removed by using this Macro. I don't see this as improvement. I consider it to mitigating functionality.

I'd suggest to take the same approach the currently available addOn GoEdit (https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1211160/goedit-simply-edit-attachments?hosting=cloud&tab=overview) takes: If the companion is active overlay the 'Edit in Office' Link with 'Edit in App'

that starts the companion and as soon as the office connector is gone this will be the default.

Moreover it would be nice if the migration step after installing the new version did content migration (may be optionally by a property) by replacing macro names

viewxls,viewppt and viewdoc by view-file.