How to give external users access to part of our content

[Tom Mensink]

We just started using Confluence for content and files. We would like some users of another company to view some of our documents/content in Confluence. What would be the best way to approach this?

What I did thus far: Added external users to Users. Made them part of a specific Group under user management. Created a specific Space for exchange. Added this external group with view rights only. Is this the way to go? Do I really need to add them as a Confluence user, with access to the whole Space, or can I use the Share button on a specific page too?

[Ed Letifov _TechTime - New Zealand_ · Accepted solution]

Hello, Tom.

Unless you want to open up at least part of your Confluence to anonymous users (i.e. make it completely public), yes you will have to add them as users, add a group, add this group to the space as viewers...  Share button will only share content to users who are allowed to access it in the first place.

The group you've created must be allowed to access Confluence in Confluence Global Permissions.

Most importantly, you will need to make sure that these users are not classified as "trusted" and are not members of any other group in user management. 

This locks the users down – they are members of group XYZ, they can access Confluence because this group is allowed to use Confluence, they can see that ABC space because the group has view permissions, they can't see any other space – because the group doesn't have any permissions to other spaces and they are not members of any other group.

This last bit – test that other spaces are not leaking info due to incorrect permission setup there, by creating a test user and logging in and verifying that the only space you see is the one you want them to see.

[Tom Mensink]

Thank you very much Ed. Testing it with another email address is also a good advice!

[Arthur Mack]

Here is a way to do it and NOT use up any Atlassian accounts:

External Share for Confluence

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1220562/external-share-for-confluence?hosting=cloud&tab=overview&_ga=2.182427751.1968512986.1592912174-2064055574.1592435392

Works like a charm and very easy to setup, we have been using it and its JIRA counterpart since it came out. You can share whole spaces or just select  pages.

[tommensink]

Great, but this is a payed service.