Confluence access for service portal users
Asked by Ole Jakob T?nsberg Ryther:

We using Jira Service desk for our customers to report issues and confluence for user guides for our system. The user guide is open for anyone to see without any log in. This works fine, except for the service desk portal user. If they are logged in (as many of our customers are all the time), they are denied access to the Confluence spaces with the userguide. Looks like there is an access level below Anonymous?

How can I work around this rather silly thing?


Answers:
author: Shannon S
body: Hi there,

It's true that when you're logged in as a Jira Service Desk user, then you're no longer considered Anonymous, and then won't have access via this permission.

There is a feature request you can track to allow such access:

* [CONFSERVER-30161](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-30161)

There are 2 possible solutions listed on the bug that you can have a look at and consider for your instance:
>
> ### Suggested Solution for non-Service Desk customers {#toc-hId-1592288916}
>
> We cannot allow authenticated but unlicensed users to edit anonymously accessible content, since that would mean that admins would only have to enable anonymous access to have the equivalent of an unlimited user license.  
> Instead, we should allow authenticated but unlicensed users to get read-only access to confluence content with anonymous permissions.
>
> Such users will still be locked out from parts of the application that require a licensed user, including viewing user profiles, people directories, etc, unless anonymous has been granted permission to view user profiles.
>
> ### Solution for JIRA Service Desk customers {#toc-hId--959868045}
>
> Link JIRA Service Desk project to Confluence space to allow customers to have access to knowledge base in **Project Settings -\> Knowledge Base**.
>
> Please review that and do let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Shannon

comments: author: Ole Jakob T?nsberg Ryther
body: Still the same problem. This is not a solution?


author: Shannon S
body: Hi Ole,

These are the solutions for the Server version. Could you let me know what problem you had with the solution and if you're on Cloud instead?

Kind regards,

Shannon


author: Ole Jakob T?nsberg Ryther
body: Im on cloud, and the problem is described in my opening


author: Shannon S
body: Ole,

The issue you described originally is the exact issue in the ticket I linked you. The Cloud version is duplicated from that ticket, and you can find it here:

* [CONFCLOUD-30161](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-30161)

The workaround is the one I mentioned here:
>
> ### Solution for JIRA Service Desk customers {#toc-hId-1593069339}
>
> Link JIRA Service Desk project to Confluence space to allow customers to have access to knowledge base in **Project Settings -\> Knowledge Base**.

For more details, have a look here:

* [Serving Customers with a Knowledge Base](https://confluence.atlassian.com/servicedeskcloud/serving-customers-with-a-knowledge-base-732528995.html)

Please note that you can only link one Knowledge Base Space per project, so you will need to make sure to choose the most relevant space.

In your previous reply, you let me know it was not a solution for you but you haven't elaborated on exactly why. Can you please let me know what the issue is with the particular workaround?

Regards,

Shannon


author: Mike Solomon
body: [@Shannon S](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/510046) To pick up from here.. I believe I am experiencing the same pain point as [@Ole Jakob T?nsberg Ryther](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/334445)

I have service desk users on Cloud who we would like to link to Confluence pages in our space.

Currently, they can only view Confluence pages via the portal with URLs such as   

<https://my-instance.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/kb/view/378273829>...  

however, I would like our service desk users to be able to navigate our Confluence space so that we can link them to articles with URLs such as  

<https://my-instance.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SPACE-KEY/pages/378273829>...  

<br />

Basically, I don't want my space open to anonymous users on the internet but I want to give my Jira service desk customers access to the Confluence space with the same permissions that someone like an anonymous user would typically have.  

As I typed this I thought to myself... "what stops someone from opening a ticket, signing up as a customer, then granting themselves access to our confluence space." The answer would be "nothing." but atleast we'd see the issue come through and disable the user manually.


author: Mike Solomon
body: I voted on <https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-30161> which seems to be the answer


Tags: jira-service-desk