Explore Confluence permissions
10 min
Advanced
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:
- Identify different types of roles and permissions in Confluence
- Describe the security implications of enabling guest and anonymous access
- Inspect permissions of other users
Confluence permissions overview
Permissions add a layer of security and control to Confluence. They do things like control access to pages and spaces and the actions users can perform.
There are three levels of permissions in Confluence: global permissions, space permissions, and page restrictions.
👇Click the tabs below to explore the different levels of permissions in Confluence.
Global permissions are broad controls for your Confluence instance. Confluence admins use global permissions to see which user groups and which types of users currently have access to their Confluence instance and make high-level decisions about what users can do on it.
Roles in Confluence
Different roles in Confluence have different permissions. Properly configured permissions enhance collaboration while protecting confidential data from unauthorized access.
👇Click the boxes below to learn about different user types in Confluence.
👇Watch this video to see the relationship between users and user groups.
Licensed user permissions
How can licensed users create spaces in Confluence?
First, you must have the correct permissions. What are the permissions to create a Confluence space?
👇Click the boxes to learn about the two permissions available to licensed users.
An app role determines how someone can interact with a specific app. It is assigned automatically, by an org admin or by a user access admin.
The space admin defines who can access a space. When a user creates a space, they automatically become a space admin for that space. They can update the space details, configure the space, as well as grant permissions to any internal licensed user or anonymous users if they have access to your Confluence site.
Space admins can add other space admins by granting a user or group the Space Admin permission.
Space administrators don't have to be Confluence admins, but Confluence admins can change space permissions in the global permissions.
👇Watch this video to learn to customize individual space permissions.
Inspect permissions
Inspect a user's permissions to see what they have access to. If you’re wondering why a user can’t view, edit, or comment on a page, you can inspect their permissions from that page. This shows you at which level of the page, space, and app hierarchy they’re denied (or allowed) permissions.
👉 For example: A page may allow a user permissions to view and edit it, but the space denies them edit permissions. Inspect permissions helps you pinpoint where you need to adjust the user’s permissions.
You can inspect the following permissions for a user:
- Can view
- Can view and edit
- Can view and comment
Here is how you can inspect permissions on any page you're viewing:
- Navigate to the page you want to inspect permissions on and click the restrictions (lock) icon at the top of the page. The Restrictions dialog appears.
- Select the Inspect permissions link.
- Type the name of the user whose permissions you want to view.
- Choose the permission you want to inspect: Can view, Can view and edit, or Can view and comment.
A report appears and shows whether the user has permission at each level of the page, space, and product hierarchy.
The report displays one of the following results for each level of the page, space, and product hierarchy.
👇Click the boxes to learn about these results.
👇Here's an example of permissions denied on one level.
To further investigate the issue:
- Select a row to expand it, view more information, or take one of the following actions:
- Select the View page, View space permissions, or View global permissions link (depending on your level). From there, you can troubleshoot the issue.
- Select the Contact page author, Contact space admins, or Contact Confluence admins link (again, depending on the level you’re at) and send them an email asking for help.
Confluence admins can view user or group access from the User access page of Confluence administration.
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next lesson
Manage global permissions in Confluence
- What are global permissions?
- Edit global permissions
- Manage space permissions
- Recover space permissions