Is there a Read-Only role that can be add to a group that is not a user and is not Anonymous Access?

[John Parente]

All,

I am designing a client-facing wiki using confluence and I've run into a snag. Is possible to create a role for an external client that is not included in the Can Use global permission (and thus does not suck up a User seat) but can be included in specific Groups?

I know that was confusing so I'll try and explain my problem in detail. I produce technical (API) documentation that is written for clients who develop their applications on different platforms (e.g. Java, .NET, C, etc). The design that I came up with for the client-facing wiki uses a combination of the Include+ macro, the Show If macro, Groups, Permissions, and Restrictions to hide pages and blocks of text in the wiki so the client only sees the information that is pertinent to their own use case. For example, a client that writes programs using Java does not need to see information related to the .NET and C programming languages, so that client is currently set up as a user and is added to a group that can view the Java specific information and nothing else (keep in mind I'm over simplyfying the model the reader's sake).

The problem is that every time we bring on a new client, we will need to burn another User seat. I would be okay with that if the client was going to use Confluence to its fullest potential, but the client only needs Read-Only access to Confluence. I can't just utilize the Anonymous Access role because I need to hide information from client to client based on use case. If anyone has a viable solution, I would love to hear about it.

Thanks,

John

[John Parente · Accepted solution]

There is no apparent way to accomplish what I want to do using Confluence. Each unique user is tied to a User License. There is no way to give a unique user read-only access to Confluence without using up a User License.

[David at David Simpson Apps]

Hmm. It sounds like you want to create a fully fledged Confluence user, but without exceeding your licensed number of users.

There are likely 2 choices here:

• Swallow the extra cost of a bigger license
• Remove old clients from the can use global permissions

If one doesnt work, you'll have to try the other.