Do I have to upgrade to make my Confluence knowledge base publicly accessible?
Asked by Weiting:

I am starting to build a Knowledge Base inside Confluence.

Based on the articles that I've read, it looks like I can do it for free.

What I read:

1. How to set up: <https://support.atlassian.com/jira-service-management-cloud/docs/set-up-your-knowledge-base-with-confluence/>

2. How to give public access: <https://support.atlassian.com/jira-service-management-cloud/docs/configure-public-access-to-spaces-on-linked-confluence-site/>

However, when I click into the pages, it looks like I have to upgrade to a "standard plan". When I read the "standard plan" options, it doesn't talk about knowledge bases being public as a feature.

![Screen Shot 2024-07-27 at 7.41.24 PM.png](/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/338362iD098D48C9785CE1B/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2024-07-27 at 7.41.24 PM.png")

Has Atlassian put this behind a paywall now?

I'm stuck and need some help! Thanks community!


Answers:
author: Kristian Klima
body: HI [@Weiting](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5537840)

As you are on a Free plan, there are two ways how to make your knowledge base available to public.

1. Upgrade to Standard Confluence and adjust your space permissions to allow Anonymous Access. This is not possible on a Free plan.
2. Install [Scroll Viewport](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1211636/scroll-viewport-for-confluence?hosting=cloud&tab=overview) app from the Marketplace.  
   This app creates a dedicated static website from your Confluence content - even if your Confluence space is not public (no anonymous access) and it works on a Free plan too.

As a content person, I prefer the second option because it gives you control over WHEN you make you content public. You rebuild your KB when all of your content is ready. With the anonymous access, the moment you publish/save a page, it's live.

So the second option gives you the option to work on pages in multiple iterations.

comments: author: Weiting
body: Kristian, I didn't end up trying Scroll Viewport but it looks promising.

At the moment, I don't want to use Scroll Viewport to build ontop of Confluence Knowledge Base. There's too much reliance and software to pay for.

I was really hoping I could figure it out with the PAID STANDARD Version of this per your suggestion. After upgrading, I still couldn't figure it out. I got to "We couldn't load the table" when I tried to give VIEW \> ALL access.

![Screen Shot 2024-07-30 at 11.51.44 AM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/338900i12A70529825ED634/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2024-07-30 at 11.51.44 AM.png")

I've given up now. I'm going to try a startup product that is built for knowledge bases.


author: Kristian Klima
body: [@Weiting](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5537840)

Don't give up.

Enabling anonymous viewing is a global setting that opens up the option to set up permissions per space.

Space settings \> Space permissions\> Anonymous access

![2024-07-31_09-00-43.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/339033i9890396CA19468BA/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "2024-07-31_09-00-43.png")


author: Weiting
body: Hi everyone, thank you for your help. I've tried to click around on everything you've suggested at the top and I couldn't figure it out.

I honestly gave up.

I spent the last hour upgrading to Standard to get the public links editable. I was so happy for a second.

I wanted to edit the **Anonymous Access** and it constantly gave me an error of **"We couldn't load the table"** when I tried to select **ALL \> VIEW.**

![Screen Shot 2024-07-30 at 11.51.44 AM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/338899i6CFC11F6B32CBD65/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2024-07-30 at 11.51.44 AM.png")

As I go ask for Confluence support to file a ticket, I wrote about all the things I tried, linked pages, and added screenshots; there was an option that popped up to "**Get live support**" or "submit a ticket". I thought getting live support would be awesome.

To my surprise, my entire submission got deleted and I had to rewrite from scratch in order to talk to support. I can't lie, I had to leave my seat to get a breather.

At this point, I'm out of breath as I spent the entire last 2 weeks trying to figure this out.

I've used Atlassian products my entire decade of product career and I'm so disappointed at myself for not being able to figure this out. It should be so easy but it's just not working for me.   

Thanks Atlassian community for helping.


author: Emily _ DevSamurai
body: Hi [@Weiting](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5537840) , as far as I understand, you can set up the Knowledge Base via Jira Service Management, and set the space as **Anyone** for public access, without logging into it.

In your JSM project, go to **Project Settings** \> **Knowledge Base** \> Edit space permission.

I hope this helps!


author: shib saha
body: Hi [@Weiting](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5537840) ,

Making your knowledge base public

A public knowledge base enables anyone online to view your knowledge base articles. You may want to do this for a service desk that shares how-to and troubleshooting articles with your external customers. To do this, you need to configure both Confluence and Jira Service Management.

In Confluence

Preview unavailable

1. As a Confluence admin, set the global anonymous Use Confluence permission to ON.
2. As a space admin, set the knowledge base space anonymous View permission to ON.

Preview unavailable

In Jira Service Management

1. Confirm that the JSM knowledge base viewing permission is set to Anyone, which should happen automatically when you set the Confluence space to public.
2. As a project admin, set Service project access to Anyone on the web.
3. As a Jira admin, set global portal-only customer access to allow customer access and send requests without logging in.

Answer --

To make a Confluence knowledge base public, you need to configure **all** of these settings:

* Confluence global permission for anonymous access
* Confluence space permission for anonymous access
* Jira Service Management project customer permissions
* Jira global portal-only customer access

Please let me know if you have any query.  

Thanks  
Shib


author: Dan Breyen
body: Hi [@Weiting](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5537840) I could be wrong, but I think you are looking at the articles for setting up a Knowledge Base through Jira Service Management. I was able to set that up per instructions using the Free License. Could you possibly clarify your question?

comments: author: Weiting
body: Hi Dan, thanks for looking at my question. I'm trying to have a public-facing Knowledge Base page where my customers can access my HOW-TO / HELP articles without having to log in. I want them to read and self-serve.

Should I be using Jira Service Management or something else?

Perhaps I'm not doing it right!


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud