Knowledge base access is restricted even though configured to be allowed

[Kate Willemain]

I have a knowledge base set up through a customer service portal.  The portal works fine.  Customers are assigned to it and can access the service portal and create issues.  In Project settings  > Knowledge base > Access > Viewing I have selected the option for "all active users and customers can access the knowledge base without a confluence license".  however, when the customer attempts to do so, the page shows the "page restricted" message and doesn't allow them access. 

There are no restrictions on the knowledge base confluence space or page itself.  How can I ensure my customers can access the knowledge base?

[Brant Schroeder · Accepted solution]

Jira Service desk will allow a service desk user to access knowledge base articles through the service desk interface without having to be logged into Confluence but they have to be logged into Jira Service Desk.  You can learn more here: https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/give-access-to-unlicensed-users-from-jira-service-desk-827106210.html

This helps protect your Confluence space from being public (Indexable on Google, etc.) and requires a user to authenticate before they can see your KB.  If you want to make the KB public so anyone want see it even unauthenticated users you can follow the steps here to make the space public: https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/make-a-space-public-827106208.html

[Kate Willemain]

The users are already logged in.  They can enter and review their support desk tickets.  But after doing so and clicking to the knowledgebase confluence page, it acts as if they are not logged in.  I do want users to log in first before seeing the KB, but unsure how the settings are incorrect.

[Brant Schroeder]

Kate,

  I would check all of your settings one more time.  One the user is logged into Jira Service Desk and you have configured your service desk to allow "all active users and customers can access the knowledge base without a confluence license" they should be able to see Confluence articles within the Jira Service Desk.  They will not be able to go directly to Confluence.  Jira Service Desk should display the KB article within the Jira Service Desk Portal. 

If you are placing a link it a comment you need to make sure it is added properly.  The easiest way to do this is to search for the KB article on the Jira issues and then click share as comment.  This will put the link in a format that will be visible in the Jira Service Desk.

[Kate Willemain]

Thanks, Brant, that did explain how it worked.  But for the record, this is what we did to provide the portal we wanted for our customers: at the customer support portal we typed in to the search box the value equal to an article in the knowledge base that we want to use as a starting point.  With that search in place, we copied the page's URL  that includes an ID of that article to use as the link we give our customers.  We could then control the HTML in that article and so better control the view the customer sees rather than having to accept the limited defaults that come with the jira service desk project.  In that article we include a link to the actual customer support portal so they can still get to it easily to enter tickets.  And from the actual customer support portal, in the announcements section, is a link to the URL that contains the article we want our users to use as a starting page.  It's a bit clunky but it does the job.