How do I give my contractor group access to only select pages across multiple spaces?

[Max Glover]

I have multiple pages across many different spaces that I'd like my contractor group to have access to. The contractor group cannot have access to all other pages in these spaces. These pages are updated over time so I can't simply create a copy. I am open to building out an entire space dedicated to this user group that has the selected pages embedded into the new space. However, I can't get around the permissions of the existing pages' spaces.

[Hana Kučerová · Accepted solution]

Hi,

maybe this solution would be good enough for you. Let's say you have two user groups - employees and contractors.

1. Setup space permissions - both employees and contractors will have access to the space
2. Create two main root pages
   1. Employees - setup page permissions - only for employees group
   2. Contractors - for both groups, no need to setup page permissions
3. Move all pages for employees under Employees root page
4. Move all pages for contractors under Contractors page

So, your employees will be able to see all pages, but contractors only the pages, which are under Contractors root page.

If you create another root page, you will have to setup page permissions (to remove access for contractors), so I would recommend you to have only two main root pages and create new pages under them (page permissions are by default inherited from parent page, so there is no need of additional setup).

[James Dellow]

I'd agree this is probably the easiest approach if you want to use page permission, as it keeps it simple. The only issue might be if having two groups of pages will make it difficult to navigate for the employee users.

[Max Glover]

This is a very interesting idea Hana. I'm not sure it will be worth the effort required as we would need to reformat multiple spaces... but couldve been a great design if we anticipated this when building out our Confluence.

We need our contractors to only see ~25 pages across multiple spaces (e.g. Operations, Development, Customers, Onboarding, Sol'n Architecture, etc.) and each space ranges from 20-70 pages. In addition, when a new page is added and we decide our contractor group would find value in it, I'd love to flip a switch and expose it to them.

I'd love to just draw from our existing library of content and create a curated space for just one set of users. I could see this as something that would allow companies to deliver value to external users as well.

Page-level access would be a great feature for Confluence, esp bc Sharepoint already has individual doc-level access.

[James Dellow]

Actually another way to do this in your case is to create a space for contractors.

Copy the pages you want to share into that space, but don't delete the original pages. Use the Include Page macro to mirror the content from the contractor space back to each of the the original pages - this way, your users can continue to browse the pages the same way in their original spaces.

The only consideration is that you might want to create a link between these pages for your users. On the source page, link back to the page where you have used the Include Page macro and conversely link from that page to the page in the contractor space, in case someone wants to edit it. 

[Sergey Rodin]

Thank you for this solution @James Dellow ! I decided to give this a try, however, I realized that many links become broken when moving pages to the source space. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the permission setup.

[James Dellow]

Links shouldn't break when you moved them in Confluence. Can you share a screenshot of what's happening?

[James Dellow]

Page permissions are the only way to achieve this, but as @Muhammad Ramzan(Atlassian Certified Master) points out it could be tricky to manage and you might need to be combined with the Include Page and Excerpt Include macros.

You could try Visibility for Confluence, but this will only work if they have read access and you will need to use it consistently across the space(s) where you give the contractor access.

Otherwise you are looking at needed to develop something custom to achieve this.

It might be more cost effective to address this through your contracting agreement. As part of this you could add labels to the pages they need and generate a list of pages based on that label, then tell them that's all they should look at. Combine this with analytics, as you can track what they are looking at. You could still lock down individual pages that you are particularly concerned about.

[Max Glover]

Sounds like the best way to address this specific use case is truly page-level permissions that override a space permission. I'd be curious to know if that is on Atlassian's roadmap!

[Sergey Rodin]

@Max Glover Been trying to solve the same exact problem today. So did you end up using page-level permissions? Do I understand correctly that if a group has a "view" permission on space level but you override it with a "unable to view" page-level permissions, then no one from the group will be able to view the page?

[James Dellow]

@Sergey Rodin yes, that's how it works.

You give people access to a space and then restrict pages.

Note that only view restrictions are inherited by child pages, but it means you can create a whole branch of content and limit them to certain users.

[Kris G _Alacriz_]

The best solution for you could be :

1. Create a new space

2. Create pages with Include macros so that you can include the content from the pages your users need to see in these new pages (new space). That way whenever you make changes in original pages, they are reflected in these new pages. Changes here are not allowed though. 

3. This strategy lets you have a space to which your group can be given appropriate permissions to and at the same time, it lets you have only the pages that you want the new group to see. 

4. You can build on this using other macros like excerpt/excerpt include and page properties/page properties report based on your detailed requirements. 

I hope that helps. Thanks. 

[James Dellow]

The Include Page and Excerpt Include macro still respect permissions, so this will only work if the 'contractor' user also has access to the source spaces as well. But this means they will be able to browse all the other content anyway.

[Muhammad Ramzan(Atlassian Certified Master)]

permissions are give at space level , you can play with page restrictions but it not smart work . lets see others suggestions if no one then please follow as below

In page restrictions give permission to all other users except those contractors group