Permissions for subpages

[Jan]

Hello everyone, I have the following problem and hope that there is a solution or workaround.

We have the case that we use Confluence for documentation purposes with internal and external users. Since we don't want to create multiple areas and our structure shouldn't get too confusing, we run into the problem that permissions are always inherited. This becomes a problem when colleagues are not allowed to see area 1.1, but should have access to 1.1.1. Confluence does not allow exceptions in the permissions. Is there a solution for this case?

I absolutely cannot understand why this is not possible without further ado.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

You will need to restructure pages so that the pages you want to share are no longer beneath restricted pages.

The reason it is not possible is because you absolutely do not want a complete free-for-all on visibility.  If a page is restricted, it is restricted for a reason, and you always want to inherit that in pages below it.  Otherwise you have no security.

[James Conway · Accepted solution]

One way to restructure the content would be to have a tree of 'external' pages, where your 'area 1.1. pages have common content, and then a tree of 'internal' pages, which use the 'page include' macro to pull in the common content, and have the additional restricted content as required.

I would also encourage you to reconsider having separate spaces - one 'internal' and one 'external', because this will simplify the management of permissions.

Good luck!

James

[Jan]

That means I can pull the content and all changes from the not restricted page to the restricted internal page? That could help us out!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, you can use include to represent "external" pages on "internal" ones. 

Be aware that you can not go in the other direction - if someone cannot see a page, then "include" respects that - if they run into a page that includes another page that they cannot see, then they get a little placeholder saying "you have no permission to see the restricted content"

I'd strongly recommend the structure James mentions too - have separate definitions of spaces as internal or external.

[Jan]

Thanks for the quick response! The problem with the "internal" and "external" structure is that it is always content for both. I'll try the macro and see how it works for everyone.

[James Conway]

The page include macro can work across spaces, so a page in your internal space could pull content from your external space.