Can I give different customers different permissions within the portal?

[Brooke Hulteen]

I have our project set up where our customers have access to our knowledge base and our issue creation portal. I am hoping to allow access only to the knowledge base for some customers, not the issue portal. Is this possible?

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Brooke Hulteen 

Does the Knowledge Base require a login? If not, could you leave this as an open area, but require a login for the portal?

Otherwise, you can restrict Customers' access to JSM Projects:

1. Go to your Project, then select Project Settings
2. Select Customer permissions from the left-hand menu
3. Set "Channel access" to Restricted

^ This should only allow users who are added to the Project to see it in the Help Portal.

You will need to add Customers to it though so they can see it, if it was open before.

See more information on this help page: https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/limit-jira-service-management-visibility-to-customers-on-portal-779160886.html

Ste

[Brooke Hulteen]

Thanks for this suggestion! Unfortunately, we already have access restricted. Both knowledge base and portal already require login for information security. Do you know if there's a way to break down customer permissions within an already-restricted space?

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Brooke Hulteen 

Are these Customers internal (employees) or external customers?

Ste

[Brooke Hulteen]

They're external customers. I just want to have some be able to create and view tickets and others only be able to view the knowledge base.

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Brooke Hulteen 

@Joseph Chung Yin is correct then I believe, external users need access to at least one Project in the Portal to view KB articles.

This is because external users can only view KB articles through the portal, unless the Confluence instance is publicly available (i.e anonymous access).

You could try...

• Creating one open Project, with limited options (eg. one request type, to update an article)
• Allow access to all KB articles through it
• Restrict all other Projects

...and see if this is a suitable workaround?

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Alternatively, you might want to consider if an App can assist with this, which might have the ability to show KB articles in this manner, or provide a more private version of anonymous access.

I'd check out Apps such as...

• JSM...
  • Refined for Jira Service Management Cloud 
  • Theme Extension for Jira Service Management 
• Confluence...
  • Scroll Viewport for Confluence 
  • Refined for Confluence Cloud
  • Karma - Confluence Page Builder 
  • External Share for Confluence
• ...or another App from the Marketplace

You'll need to review if their features meet your needs - or, contact the vendor and ask them. You can see their contact details within each listing's support tab.

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Let us know if this helps!

Ste

[Joseph Chung Yin]

@Brooke Hulteen -

To supplement @Ste Wright suggested, keep in mind access to KB via the JSM HELP Portal is controlled based on each project's Project settings.  So if you want to allow customers to access KB only but not the JSM portal UI, then you need to open up your KB application to the them and not through the JSM Help portal in my opinion.

His suggestion of controlling visibility of projects hosted in the JSM Help portal UI is one of our standards that we implemented in our env.  Again, only customers who can see the project first, then he/she will have access to the KB articles called out in the projects.

Hope this also helps.

Best, Joseph Chung Yin

Jira/JSM Functional Lead, Global Technology Applications Team

Viasat Inc.