Confluence security: how to limit users' ability to edit page, yet maintain 'Edit in Office'?
Asked by claire.simonson@ci.stpaul.mn.us:

I have tried different settings in space admin and page restrictions, also tweaking user and group permissions. It seems that ability to add a page (space admin) also controls whether the Edit in Office link appears for attachments on that page. Has anyone been able to provide editable attachments and at the same time disallow general users from editing the page layout?


Answers:
author: Renjith Pillai
body: A simple workaround will be to define the layout in one page (which has restrictions) and use the attachments from another page which general users can keep adding newer versions of attachements.

comments: author: claire.simonson@ci.stpaul.mn.us
body: Please give me an example of what you mean by "use the attachments from another page." The Attachments macro only applies to the current page. I have tried the 'include' macro to display another page's contents, but the tighter restrictions always seem to dominate --the attachment list on the included page no longer has 'Edit in Office' available when it displays in the more-restricted page. Thanks!


author: Renjith Pillai
body: What I understood was that you need to maintain the page layout by restricting the users from editing the page, at the same time allow them to upload attachments.

The solution was, let's say Page A is the restricted one and you need to use an attachment from Page B (unrestricted). The {viewfile} macro of course accepts the page name, in this case it will be Page B


author: claire.simonson@ci.stpaul.mn.us
body: That's still not what I need: it displays the contents of a single doc within another page. What I am looking for is a way to present a list of Attachments with Add Attachments, Properties and Edit in Office available as options, but disallow the Edit button that lets users edit the page layout. I want the page structure to be locked, but the attachments to be editable. I hope that's clear!


author: Renjith Pillai
body: See, it is directly not possible, as restricting the page permissions limits attachment and editing in office also. I was looking at workarounds for this.

I was of the impression that you wanted to display the documents attached and hence mentioned viewfile. If your aim is to just show the attachments, similar strategy again, show the attachments from Page B using {attachment} macro. And the gear box botton that comes in the list of attachment buttons indeed shows Edit in office.

See sample at

<https://regyinc.atlassian.net/wiki/display/TEST/Page+A>

<https://regyinc.atlassian.net/wiki/display/TEST/Page+B>


author: claire.simonson@ci.stpaul.mn.us
body: Thanks for continuing to look at this - Page A looks like it might be the answer, but my understanding of the {attachments} macro is that it only displays att's from the current page. I've experimented a bit with {include} and {excerpt include} but none of those look exactly like what you are showing. I see that Page B is less restricted and holds the attachment; Page A includes a view of Page B's attachment list (including the gear tool)

Can you send a screenshot of the page in edit/layout mode so I can see what you're using? thanks!


author: Renjith Pillai
body: No, attachments macro allows to refer to attachments from other pages as well.

Screenshot at <https://regyinc.atlassian.net/wiki/display/TEST/Screenshots>


author: claire.simonson@ci.stpaul.mn.us
body: thanks for screenshot. I don't see where to specify space or page when I select the Attachments macro from the macro browser. The "Insert 'Attachments' Macro dialog says: "Creates a list of attachments belonging to this page", then prompts for Filename Patterns / Include Old Attachment Versions / Sort by: / Allow Upload. (I wish I could send you the screen grab -- maybe I don't have the macro you're referring to--? We're on Confluence version 4.0)


author: Renjith Pillai
body: Oh yes, that's the issue. This parameter for attachment macro is new in Confluence 4.1.


Tags: permission

security