Permissions and Groups

Each space in Confluence has its own set of permissions, which can be granted and revoked by a space administrator. The user that requests a space is automatically made an administrator of that space, and they can add other space admins if they want to by adding the Space Admin permission to another user or group.

If you're a Space Admin, you can assign permissions for the space to individual users, groups, or anonymous users. To change permissions for a space, choose Space tools > Permissions from the bottom of the sidebar, then choose Edit Permissions to change permission settings.

This page is about Space Permissions. Space Permissions apply to the space as a whole. Confluence also lets you set Permissions Page Restrictions, which allow you to subtract permissions from a specific page or page tree. Please keep in mind that you will not be able to grant permissions to a single page via Page Restrictions which only allow you to remove existing permissions granted at the space level.

Group Permissions

A popular way to manage permissions for your spaces is to create groups using the CSUM Users & Groups plugin, assign specific permissions to each of those groups, and then add users to those groups to pass the permissions on to them. You can think of these groups as specific access roles for your space. By default, we create three groups for each space: SPACEKEY-admins, SPACEKEY-editors, and SPACEKEY-readonly, where "SPACEKEY" is replaced by your spacekey. You can adjust the specific permissions of these three groups in the Space tools > Permissions page.

Group Management

You can add or remove groups from your space by going to Space tools > CSUM Users & Groups. For example, you might have a space where you only have 10 users and all 10 need the same admin access. In that case, you can delete all groups except for SPACEKEY-admins and simply add these users to that group.

To add users to a group or remove users from a group, simply go to Space tools > CSUM Users & Groups, select the group you want to manage, and add or remove users from the list that appears.

Warning

Please note that you will not be able to add users to your group until they have a Confluence account created by the Academic Services team. If you are unsure whether a user has access to Confluence, you can attempt to add them to your group. If you get an error that the user is not found, you can email us at confluence-admins@columbia.edu with the user's UNI, Full Name, and email address as well as the group(s) they should be added to.

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Permissions Summary

The following permissions can be assigned for each space:

Permission	Applies to
View	This lets a user view all the content in your space.
Add	This lets a user add and edit pages, blogs, comments and attachments.
Restrict	This lets a user restrict others from viewing or editing a page.
Delete own	This lets a user delete any pages, blogs and attachments they originally created (regardless of whether other users have subsequently edited the content).
Delete	This can be used to let a user delete pages, comments, attachments and imported mail items from Mail Archives.
Export	This lets a user export the whole space. This is different to page exports - anyone who can view a page can also export it.
Admin	This lets a user administer the space, including the ability to pass on admin permissions to other users.

See Files for more information on the space permissions required to upload and delete attached files.

Space permissions are additive

Space permissions are additive. If a user is granted permissions as an individual or as a member of one or more groups, Confluence will combine these permissions together.

Example:

Sasha is a member of the confluence-users group and the developers group. The confluence-users group has 'export' permission, but does not have 'restrict' permission. The developers group has 'restrict' permission but does not have 'export' permission.

By being a member of these two groups, Sasha can restrict and export content. The permissions do not conflict, they combine to determine what Sasha is allowed to do in this space.

Page Restrictions

Page restrictions allow you to control who can view and/or edit individual pages in a space. So, if you're working on a page that shouldn't be viewed by just anybody, it's easy to lock it down to the people who need to know. You can add restrictions for individuals or for Confluence groups.

To add or remove page restrictions, you'll need to have permissions to edit the page and 'Restrict' or 'Admin' permission in the space.

Restrict a page or blog post

Image RemovedTo restrict who can view or edit a page or blog post:

Chose the Restrictions Image Removed icon at the top of the page.
Choose whether you just want to limit only who can Edit, or who can View and / or Edit.
Enter users or groups then click Add to add them to the list.
If you chose Viewing and Editing restricted you can further specify for each person or group whether they can edit or just view the page.
Apply the restrictions.

You can add as many users and/or groups as you need.

In this example, some users and groups can view only, others can also edit, plus there are inherited restrictions that might impact who can view the page.

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Who is 'everyone'?

When we say "everyone can view this page" everyone means all the people who can view the page by default. There's two things that can affect who can view a page - the space permissions, and view restrictions on any parent pages that are being inherited.

Restrictions don't override a person's space permission. For example, if you say a person 'can view' in the restrictions dialog and they don't have 'view' permissions for the space, they won't be able to see the page.

How do inherited restrictions work?

View restrictions are inherited, which means a restriction applied to one page will cascade down to any child pages. Edit restrictions are not inherited, which means pages need to be restricted individually.

The restrictions dialog will tell you when there are inherited restrictions that might affect who can view your page.

Here's the basics:

If you restrict viewing to a person or group, only they will be able to see that page and all its child pages (unless there are further restrictions on the child pages).
If you restrict editing to a person or group, they'll be able to see and edit that page, plus see its child pages.
Parent pages (higher up in the page hierarchy) can have their own view restrictions that may prevent people from viewing your page.

If the person you've listed as a viewer or editor can't see the page, check to make sure:

they have View space permission for that

space

, or

there's no view restriction on a page higher up the page hierarchy that prevents them seeing any children of that page.

View current page restrictions

The restrictions icon at the top of the page gives you a clue that the page has restrictions:

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Viewing this page is not restricted. Everyone can see this page (but editing may be restricted).

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The page is restricted. Click the icon to see the list of who can view and edit this page.

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The page is inheriting restrictions from another page. Click the icon then choose Inherited Restrictions to see a list of pages this page is inheriting restrictions from.

Remove restrictions from a page

Removing restrictions is easy. Choose No restrictions to remove all restrictions, or click Remove next to each person or group in the list if you want to change who can view or edit the page.

Request and grant access to view a restricted page

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If you navigate to a page that you're not able to view because it has page restrictions applied (for example from a link or page URL) you may be able to request access to the page.

To request access to a restricted page:

On the restricted page choose Request access.
Wait for an email confirming that access has been granted.

If the request access message doesn't appear, you're not able to request access for that particular page. This usually is because the page has inherited view restrictions from a parent page, or you may not have adequate space permissions.

To grant access to a restricted page:

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In the request access email, choose Grant access
You'll be taken to the restricted page, and a dialog will appear with the access request.
Choose Grant access.

The user will receive an email confirming that access has been granted.

This process is the same as navigating to
Image Removed > Restrictions

and adding a 'View' restriction for the user.

Who can grant access?

To grant access to a restricted page you will need to have permission to edit that page, and have the 'Restrict' or 'Admin' permission for the space.

Confluence will send an email to a user who can grant permissions. The sequence that Confluence will use to search for the appropriate user is:

The last person to edit the page.
All non-admin users that can set permissions on the page (given that an admin user can always set permissions).
The page creator.
All the space administrators.

Confluence will try each of these roles in turn, emailing the first user that has appropriate permissions.

View all restricted pages in a space

You need space admin permissions to view the list of restricted pages in a space.

To view restricted pages:

Go to the space and choose Space tools > Permissions from the bottom of the sidebar
Choose Restricted Pages.

Screenshot: Restricted pages in a space

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Notes

You can't exclude yourself
When you apply a restriction, Confluence will automatically add you to the list. You can't remove yourself from this list.

Space Admin and System Administrator access to restricted pages
Users with 'Admin' permissions in a space, or users with the System Administrator global permission can remove restrictions from pages, even if the page restriction prevents them from viewing the page. Go to Space Administration > Restricted Pages

.

Versions Compared

Old Version 5

New Version 6

Key

Permissions and Groups

Group Permissions

Group Management