Is there anyway to turn on a notification to request access to a page if a user is mentioned on a page that they don't have access to?

[Jessica Witt]

We have many restricted user spaces but members of the space aren't aware who is/isn't in the space and use the mention feature frequently.   It is not intuitive that the user doesn't have access since confluence helps pre-populate username when mentioning.  I would like to be able to notify users if they are mentioned so they can request access to restricted page.  Is this possible?

[Rob Woodgate · Accepted solution]

Hi Jessica,

Short answer: No, it's not possible.

Longer answer: By default every space and page is visible and editable by every user, because Confluence is designed to be a knowledge and sharing hub.  When you add view restrictions to a whole space or individual pages, you're telling Confluence that the space or page shouldn't be seen by any users except for the ones who've got access.  Therefore Confluence does a "blanket ban" on communications about the space/page with users who don't have view rights and tries to do it's very best to act as if that space/page doesn't exist for users who don't have access.

This leads to certain quirks, including the one you've discovered where the mentions show every user, no matter if they have access to the space/page or not.  This may be deliberate or it may be an oversight (there are sensible arguments both for showing and for not showing all users in mentions if they don't have view permissions) but ultimately it doesn't matter: this is the way it works.

I'm afraid that it'll be an entirely manual process for page editors/space admins/site admins to ensure that mentioned people have access.