Sharing Knowledge Base articles with non-users

Question

I'm new to Confluence, and I think I've hit a huge pothole on my roadmap for the Knowledge Base.

Is it true that you cannot share pages with non-licensed Confluence users? (e.g. Customers in the Jira Service Management portal).

I know that they can see the KB pages if they search for relevant terms on the portal, but if they don't (or don't see the page), and submit an issue, is there no way to send them a link to the page? Or copy, other than creating a PDF and emailing that. Am I missing something?

This is in the Cloud environment, and we do *not* want to turn on anonymous access for our KB articles. The users have to sign into the portal to submit requests.

Keith Jones · Answer

Markus,

Thank you for the link. However, it looks like my options are still limited to open access to anyone on the web (not desirable) or the requirement of a confluence license (expensive - takes us from 50 users to 2500 users). Or did I read this wrong?

From the document:
These options include:

Public: Anyone on the web can find and view this space, without a Confluence license.

Private: All users with a Confluence license and access to this space can view it.

Restricted: All logged-in users of your service project can view the articles in this space, without a Confluence license.

I'm looking for a way to share (email, send a link, etc.) a KB article. I can set it up so that they see the articles in the portal, but I need a way to have the service desk send a copy to them if needed (White glove treatment). For example, articles that show how to sign up for the portal.

Markus_rixsng · Answer

Hi @Keith Jones ,

Each service desk has the ability to choose if customers require a Confluence licence to view the documentation in the Confluence Space that's linked.

The following guide will show you how to toggle this: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-service-management-cloud/docs/manage-knowledge-base-permissions-from-your-service-project/

So to answer the question, no Jira Service Management customers don't require a Confluence licence to view knowledge base articles within the Jira Service Management help center given the Service Desk has been setup to allow them.