Disable anonymous users for specific pages in Confluence
Asked by Dan Barrett:

Hi

I'm trying to figure out a way of having anonymous users able to access a Space in Confluence, but then disable anonymous access for specific pages in the public space. Here's the back story:

I'm a developer at a design agency and we've got a Confluence space for general WordPress support. We've also got separate client Spaces for client-specific support information. Each client Space is linked in with Service Desk so clients on their Service Desk page can search their Confluence KB/Space for answers. The public articles are labelled #public, and client-specific articles are labelled #client1public, #client2public etc. My problem is that I can't add multiple Confluence KB's to the Service Desk.

What I'd like to achieve is to allow Client 1 to be able to search #client1public pages, along with #public pages.

I noticed that in Service Desk you can limit searches to specific labels, so for Client 1 I can limit them to #client1public and #public. My thinking then moved to having 1 large Space that had #public pages that everyone can see, and then client-specific pages that are labelled per client (i.e. #client1public). My problem is then if I make the Space have anonymous access, anyone can then view all pages, #public or otherwise.

* Anonymous User: should see #public labelled Confluence pages only - no access to Service Desk
* Client 1: should see #public labelled Confluence pages only - they should only be able to search #public and #client1public labelled pages in Service Desk
* Client 2: should see #public labelled Confluence pages only - they should only be able to search #public and #client2public labelled pages in Service Desk

A possible solution I've just recently thought of is if there's a way to "symlink" or alias pages, so the source page can be in one space, but be linked to another space so any updates on the original space show up in the second space (although I found a Confluence issue with exactly my idea: <https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-25888>)

I'd really like to be able to do this without having to buy licenses for all the clients that would be potentially using these KBs - Service Desk's licensing is very attractive given that a "customer" doesn't count towards your license limit. As a small shop that's able to run on the $10 licenses, I'd like to avoid having to suddenly jump up to say a 50-user license just to implement this.

Hopefully I've made sense. Does anyone know if this is even possible?

Thanks!

**Edited 29/10 15:41 AWST:** clarified situation


Answers:
author: Gert Kuivenhoven
body: Hello Dan,

I think it is it possible to enable anonymous access to a space (i.e. Public) and create a page or root-page in that space. After creating the page you are able to restrict "Restrict viewing of this page" to a person or group.

In this case anonymous users are excluded to view the content and all pages under this page also.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Gert

comments: author: Dan Barrett
body: Hey GertThanks for your answer. I did try that, however I got stuck because as far as I can tell, it's not possible to restrict anonymous users from viewing specific pages. If that were doable, I think it would resolve my issue entirely.Part of my problem is that all our clients aren't licensed users in Confluence (because that would require a lot of user licences), only the employees here are licensed users. CheersDan.


author: Gert Kuivenhoven
body: Dan, In Space Administration \> Permission , you tell the system who may do something (create, read) in the required space.While with Restrictions specify who only may do something in the Page(s).If allow anonymous access in a Space, you can also Restrict on one or more pages a group or user to:1) View the page2) Edit the pageI have tested this and a anonymous user see a un-restricted page, but do not see a restricted page!


author: Dan Barrett
body: Hey GertThat partially resolved the problem, my final issue is that customers can't search the issues that are restricted to specific groups. I'm starting to think that what I'm hoping to do isn't possible without having customers as licensed users in Confluence --- gulp.CheersDan.


author: Gert Kuivenhoven
body: Hey Dan,To have search-able items in Confluence, you must be granted access. But if you want you can try to make a summary page, where only the title are inside (as hyperlinks), optional with labels.In this case users who are not granted to read, do know there are titles (content) to look for.Hope this helps.A work around could be to use a "Published Space", see:<https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.comalatech.publishing>


Tags: jira-service-desk