Customizing Confluence User Interface Text

Customizing Confluence User Interface Text

Boilerplate text for Confluence pages is stored in a single file that can be modified. The file contains a long list of key value pairs. To determine the key value of the test you wish to change, append ?i18ntranslate=on to the page URL to see the key values displayed.

e.g. http://<host name>/dashboard.action?i18ntranslate=on

The file containing the boilerplate text is ConfluenceActionSupport.properties, and it’s packed in a jar file. To unpack the file, copy <confluence install>\confluence\WEB-INF\classes\confluence-x.x.x.jar into a different folder and run the following:

“C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_25\bin\jar” xf confluence-x.x.x.jar”

Modify the path to the JDK appropriately, as well as the name of the jar file with your particular version. This command will unpack a few thousand files in multiple subfolders into the folder where you copied the jar file. DO NOT extract the jar file in the installation directory!

Before making modifications to the default file, check to be sure there isn’t already a customized file. A customized file could have been repacked into the jar file, but it’s easier just to place the customized file in the regular file system, and it will override the version in the jar file. Look in \confluence\WEB-INF\classes\com\atlassian\confluence\core. If the core folder and ConfluenceActionSupport.properties file do not exist, the jar file is not being overridden.

Open ConfluenceActionSupport.properties in a text editor and search for the key value that you found earlier. As an example, the following change will customize the text on the login screen and the name of the dashboard.

login.name=Log in using your Active Directory credentials
title.dashboard=Confluence Portal

Once edited, place ConfluenceActionSupport.properties at the following location, which may necessitate creating the core folder:

<confluence install>\confluence\WEB-INF\classes\com\atlassian\confluence\core

This location is based on the file’s location in the packed jar file.

Note: These instructions were tested on Confluence version 5.4.2.

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