how to give site only access (without product access) to users

[Smita Garg]

I want to give some users site only access(without product access). but i m not able to do that. I can successfully invite users without any product access, but they are not able to log in to my site without any product access.
please let me know what is wrong. i want to limit the no. of licences as some users only need read only access.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Product access is site access.  An Atlassian site is made up of one or more products.  There isn't a site outside them.

If you were to separate the site access from the product access, you'd find people with site access have nothing to look at.

What are you looking for people with "site access only" to be able to do?

[Smita Garg]

I want people to be able to view projects with issues. only read only access. There are many project permissions like "Browse Project permission" that do not need product access and may be granted to anyone logged in to your Jira site. as per this below link 

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/permissions-for-company-managed-projects/

Also, if I give users access to the site with product access then they become licensed users, and I don't want to pay for the users who have only read only access.

[Dirk Ronsmans]

I can't really find where on that link it says that you don't need product access for the "browse project" permission.

We might not want to pay for the license but if the user needs access to the project with any permission and view/use the features of the product they will need a license.

(only exception here is JSM which has a free customer user who has limited access thru the portal)

[Smita Garg]

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/permissions-for-company-managed-projects/

Please read under Browse project permission under the blue bar. below is the quoted sentence .

"This permission doesn’t depend on specific product access to be useful. You may grant this permission to anyone logged in to your Jira site."

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

There's nothing in those docs about "site access" beyond saying "you can give access to people you want to use your site (i.e. the products that form the site)"

I think you are misreading what "site admin" means, not site access.  A site admin can grant people permission to use the products and the permissions within them without the site admin having product access themselves.

What are you looking for people with "site access only" to be able to do?

[Aki Martiskainen]

EDIT: Ugh I was supposed to post in this thread to catch Nic's attention but obviously missed... Can't delete my last comment either (or don't know how) so I'm posting here again. Sorry for the spam.

Hey I will jump into this conversation because I'm surprised to hear it's not possible to browse any project without product access.

Talking about Team-managed projects your documentation about roles says:

• Administrator. Admins can do most things, like update settings and add other admins to the project. They can manage features, customize issue types, and add rules on the board. Admins need product access to Jira Software to get the full benefit of this role.

• Member. Members are a part of the team. They can create issues, edit them, comment on them, move them into different statuses, and generally collaborate on your project's work. Members need product access to Jira Software to get the full benefit of this role.

• Viewer. Viewers can search through and view issues in your project, but not much else. You can give any registered user on your Jira site this role without extra product access.

So Admins and Members do need Jira Software product access, but Viewers don't? So maybe viewing is possible without product access?

As it happens I'm just in the process of training for a few Jira certifications and I've come up with a training question 02.2385 that's related to this thread:

"DAPPS is a team-managed project where Project access is set to Private.

Belle Sebastian is a Scrum Master for the team. She can access the project and confirms that se can view issues and edit them.

The team need her to help manage sprints for their board, but she cannot see or access the board.

What must you do to fix this?"

Correct answer according to the test is:

"Request a change to her product access." 

With details: "People in the Members Role can already Manage sprints but it requires product access to Jira Software. Granting her Jira Software product access will fix the problem."

Now the description clearly says that she already has access to the project and can view and edit issues, which indicates that she has Member role at least and it's confirmed in the answer. But then the proposed solution says that she needs Jira Software Product access to be able to manage sprints?

Maybe I just don't understand this correctly but to me there's a discrepancy in the given situation and the solution.

So can this situation even be possible? She can edit issues but has no Product access.

I tested in my own demo environment and wasn't able to replicate the situation as my demo user without any product access is only directed to customer portal.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

>So maybe viewing is possible without product access?

No, the user needs some product access.  Whether it is to Jira Work Management, Jira Software, or Jira Service Management does not matter.

In your test question, the problem is that the user, while they have a JWM or JSM account so they can get in to see and use projects, they do not have Jira Software.  You need to have access to Jira Software in order to use its functions (boards, sprints, etc)

[Aki Martiskainen]

Ok let me get this straight.

A user doesn't specifically need a Jira Software Product Access to be able to browse and edit issues in a Private Team-managed Software project. If they have JSM Product Access, they are able to browse a Software project if they have the needed Project Role i.e. Member.

Fine. I've just tested this as I typed and really seems to be the case. While my test user only had JSM product access, they could see and edit the tickets assigned to them. After granting Jira Software product access they can see the board as well.

Well I have to say it was unexpected that I can browse and edit issues in a Software project without Jira Software product access and that's what really threw me off the scent with the test question as well. Tricky.

The same seems to be correct for the Company-managed Software projects as well. At least now that I tried to browse the board on my other Scrum project (Company-managed) I wasn't able to. I can still see my assigned issues though. My user has Manager role and JSM product access. After only switching JSM to Software product access I'm able to see the board as well.

Live and learn.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yep, you've understood it fine.  It's not as intuitive as it should be, but it does make sense when you see what Atlassian are doing with the applications.

The project type does not matter, because the access is not about the projects.

All users of Jira that have access to one of the products can use any project (assuming the project permissions allow for it as well).

To use Jira Software functions layered on top of a project, you have to have product access to Software.  Similarly, to act as an Agent in a Jira Service Management project, you need to have product access to JSM.

Access to any one of the products gives you access to all the project and issue data, the access is not about projects and issues, it's about the functionality.

[Dirk Ronsmans]

Hey @Smita Garg and welcome to the community!

As far as I know that's not gonna be possible.

Whether someone can read-only or edit is a permission based thing. If they need access to a project (read-only/write/admin/..) they will still need access to the product itself and then not have edit permissions on that project.

A read-only license is not a thing that I've heard of..

[Smita Garg]

I read at many blogs and other sites, where people were talking about site only access in JIRA , for giving read only access to some users to save licences.

Is it the old feature that has been removed now?

[Dirk Ronsmans]

I can't speak to old features.
As long as i've work with Jira this has been like this. (granted it's only a few years)

[Smita Garg]

Please read the below link where people are talking about site access only. This is what I am talking about.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Atlassian-Account-questions/Whats-the-meaning-of-site-access-without-any-product-access/qaq-p/1278123