nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Dynamic content via multiple spaces with restricted access

Maja Jacyszyn

Hello community!

I have the following question/task and need some help with it:

Let's say I have multiple spaces A to D, and, respectively, also multiple companies A to D. In space A I have my original pages and content saved; only company A has access to space A. Company A has access to all the other spaces B to D.

Now, with the other spaces, each company has access to their own space, ie. company B has access to space B, and only space B. Same goes for company C and D. Next, I want to include pages from space A to all the other spaces, the content should stay dynamic, so I can change it in space A and it automatically updates in all the other spaces. It is important that the access should stay restricted for space A for all other companies (B to D).

Is there a way to do that? I know the include page macro does not work because of its limitation in regards to space permissions and page restrictions.

Any help is much appreciated.

Accepted answers

Kristian Klima_gtcuat

Hi @Maja Jacyszyn

Late to this party but the easiest way might be using Space Sync for Confluence by Ricksoft.

You can sync content among the spaces

A -> B, C...
A <-> B
every which way

The idea is to update a page (or create a page) in A and sync it to B (you can automate the process using page statuses via app, Confluence Automation is not necessary).

You can restrict access to the app to specific users and, because, you're are dealing with TWO spaces, you can define your permissions independently without being restricted by the macros' limitations. Basically, have your cake and eat it.

If you're using inline links, the app automatically converts the links - a link from page 1 to page 2 in space A is converted to a link from page 1 to page 2 in space B.

As a bonus, you can also sync content between two Confluence SITES (not just spaces).

All comments

Rebekka Heilmann (viadee)

Hi @Maja Jacyszyn and welcome to the Community,

like you already said, the normal way to do that would be the include Macro, but that respects space and page permissions so it won't work. Same goes for embedded links.

Do you have Confluence Automation available? You could copy the page to Spaces B-D when it's updated in A. That probably results in new pages all the time though. Updating a page with specific content is probably only possible via API.

Another not too neat workaround would be to have a "public" space with that content and include the content in Space A as well as Space B-D.

Maja Jacyszyn

Hi @Rebekka Heilmann _viadee_ !

Thanks for the quick reply. I have access to Confluence Automation, but wouldn't want to have new pages all the time. I've also figured that API would be my best bet here. Any recommendation on where to start or is there a guide somewhere?

The "public" space is only an option, if I can make sure that users of each company and each space B-D cannot see each others information, when they access space A. Is that possible?

Thank you so much!

Maja Jacyszyn

Sorry, I meant to answer here

Hi @Rebekka Heilmann _viadee_ !

Alex Koxaras -Relational-

Hi @Maja Jacyszyn and welcome to the community,

It is indeed impossible to achieve this with the include macro and with all the prerequisites you have. What you could do if to turn on the public link for the specific pages you want to share with companies B,C and D and add them as iframes inside other pages on spaces B, C and D. The result would be something like the following:

confluence iframe.png

Of course, having a public link means that anyone with that link will have access to that page

Maja Jacyszyn

Thank you for the suggestion and happy to be here!

Unfortunately, the link being public is not an option, as this would likely be a security issue.

We really want to limit access for each company and its users to their own space as best as possible. Some content, however, will be updated frequently and is the same for every company, which is why I am trying to find a solution to have the original content in one space and mirrored in the other spaces.

Rebekka Heilmann (viadee)

The API Guide is your best starting point: The Confluence Cloud REST API
You usually need some scripting skills at least to make the most of it.

Regarding the public space, I was thinking of creating a NEW space, that is accessible for all companies. You put all shared contents there and use the include-Macro in all other spaces, including A.

Alex Koxaras -Relational-

@Maja Jacyszyn unfortunately you can't have all you need. You have to sacrifice something. So you either user a public space as suggested by @Rebekka Heilmann _viadee_ OR you grant access to space A, while placing restrictions to your other pages, leaving the ones to be available by that group of people.

Another solution would be to try for an app that could possibly work for you, like e.g. https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1224009/content-mirror-for-confluence?hosting=cloud&tab=overview

But again you have to see if the above works with the permission you already have on your spaces.

Maja Jacyszyn

Thank you for your help, I will check out the API Guide.

Yes, but if everyone has access to the new space, the problem would still be that they would have access to each other's user information (for instance names), or am I wrong?

Maja Jacyszyn

Thank you so much for your help, I will take a look at that!

Roma Bubyakin _Wombats Corp_

How about make a space E as a general sours, that will be available for A-D companies?

You will not publicly mention that space
Include it into A-D with include macro
Edit information only in space E and only by company A

Regards, Roman

Kristian Klima_gtcuat

Hi @Maja Jacyszyn

Late to this party but the easiest way might be using Space Sync for Confluence by Ricksoft.

You can sync content among the spaces

A -> B, C...
A <-> B
every which way

The idea is to update a page (or create a page) in A and sync it to B (you can automate the process using page statuses via app, Confluence Automation is not necessary).

If you're using inline links, the app automatically converts the links - a link from page 1 to page 2 in space A is converted to a link from page 1 to page 2 in space B.

As a bonus, you can also sync content between two Confluence SITES (not just spaces).

Maja Jacyszyn

Thank you so much! Will definitely check this out, this sounds like the perfect solution.

Maja Jacyszyn

We tried Space Sync for Confluence, but sadly the include page macro doesn't work as intended.

Guest accounts that only have access to Space A, do not see the content of pages including the macro pushed from Space B into Space A if the macro references pages of Space B. The guest accounts do not have access to Space B. The include page macro would only work (as far as I understood) if the pages included with the include page function were also pushed into Space A.

Thanks for the help!

Kristian Klima_gtcuat

Hi @Maja Jacyszyn

You did not mention Guests in the original question

On a serious note, yes, that is true but this behavior is both expected and logical - it's permissions driven.

Guests can only access one space at a time, so if you're including content from space they cannot access, they won't be able to see that. The same is true for regular users. That applies with or without Space Sync.

Space Sync will resolve inclusions from within a space (Page A1 included in Page A2 in source space A will resolve in Page B1 included in Page B2 in target space B.

Ideally, the guests would only access their respective Target spaces.

Now... there might be a solution but it would require an app (Scroll Viewport by K15t). It's an app that take Confluence content an builts a static website from it - independent of Confluence permissions. The site can be public (exhibit A - https://docs.emplifi.io/ - that's my company's doc site) or you can put it behind your SSO (or control access with tokens).

So here's how it would work.

You would build mutiple Viewport sites - one for each company - from their respective target spaces. Then, you would set up SSO/token based access for the respective companies' users.

This way, you wouldn't have to worry about inclusions and guest permissions because Viewport takes content as is* and you control access indepdently of Confluence permissions.

*there are methods to control what exactly ends up in the Viewport site.

Welcome!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Quick Links

Find more posts tagged with

confluence

cloud

confluence-cloud

restriction