Restricting Confluence access to ONLY our customers
Asked by Kimberly Onnen:

Is there a way to restrict access to our software documentation that we have in Confluence to allow only our customers to see this? Currently, once we release a new version, I change the permissions so that anonymous users can see the new version space.

We are in the process of determining how we can limit this to ONLY our customers. I guess it might be so that it is only available to someone who has the link to access this. (Similar to what Google Docs, etc., has for sharing.)

Is there a way to do this with Confluence?


Answers:
author: Kian Stack Mumo Systems
body: Kimberly,

I'm assuming based on your question that your customers are not licensed Confluence users?

If so, the only way to do this would be to have Confluence connected to a Jira Service Desk instance with your customers registered there as customers. You would need to connect the documentation as a KB and allow them to browse through JSD.

comments: author: Kimberly Onnen
body: Thank you! I did just come across this post, which I'm assuming is how we'd set this up, is that right? <https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-Cloud-questions/How-do-I-restrict-the-confluence-knowledge-base-so-only/qaq-p/1288843>


author: Kian Stack Mumo Systems
body: [@Kimberly Onnen](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1583823)the instructions on that post deal with a slightly different situation, but you basically want to turn OFF anonymous access in your Confluence instance, and then you'll connect a KB to your JSD portal. The permissions for that space should be that anyone with access to your portal can browse the content in the linked Confluence space.

Does that make sense?


author: Kimberly Onnen
body: [@Kian Stack Mumo Systems](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/853673) Thank, yes it does! :)


author: Kimberly Onnen
body: [@Kian Stack Mumo Systems](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/853673) Hi, our Jira Service Desk is the Cloud version (Service Desk is on the cloud) but our Confluence Documentation is on a server. Do you know if there is any sort of workaround that will let us connect from the Service Desk to our Confluence documentation? In the Service Desk project, we only have an option to select a space that is on the Cloud version.

I had thought maybe we could do a redirect macro, however it was pointed out that the authentication probably wouldn't follow through.

Thoughts? :)


author: Kian Stack Mumo Systems
body: [@Kimberly Onnen](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1583823)to accomplish this, you'll need to set up an [application link](https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/link-to-server-products-from-cloud-744721656.html) between your Jira Cloud and Confluence server. Once you've got it set up, you should be able to select spaces from your server instance.


author: Kimberly Onnen
body: [@Kian Stack Mumo Systems](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/853673) Hmmm... We have this connected (the status even shows "Connected" to our server) however when clicking the drop-down to select the space, it's still only showing the spaces on the cloud. Can you think of any reason why this might be? The person working on this is the same person who set this all up, so it isn't a permissions issue (he has full admin rights).


author: Kimberly Onnen
body: We are on server version 6.8.1. (In case that makes a difference.)


author: Kian Stack Mumo Systems
body: Kimberly,  

I did a little more digging on this. It looks like in the past you were able to link to a different Confluence instance/Confluence server, but cannot do so now.

<br />

I found this [blog post](https://confluence.atlassian.com/servicedeskcloud/blog/2017/12/knowledge-bases-must-be-on-the-same-domain-as-your-service-desk) from a while ago contradicting what I told you previously. Sorry to have misled you on this one! My information was out of date!

Thanks!  

Kian


author: Kimberly Onnen
body: [@Kian Stack Mumo Systems](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/853673) Rats!! I appreciate all of your help with this. :)


Tags: confluence-server

server