Create a public space not visible in confluence navigation

[Louise MacBean]

I've been asked to create a space in Confluence which is public, but only to those who have the URL, i.e. it should not be searchable via our usual Confluence pages, nor should it appear in any navigation menus.

Is this even possible? The 'Create a space' help page shows an option to 'make space private', but this option did not appear when I tried to create my space. 

[Alana Fernando]

hi @Louise MacBean, hope below info helps you. you should add the users who should be able to search the space under privileges. so that none of the other users will be able to view the space from anywhere. but defined users can view the space. 

• Assign Space Permissions
• Space Permissions Overview
• How do I make a space private : slimier community question

[Louise MacBean]

Not really, I'm afraid.

I understand how the permissions work, I don't understand how to hide a space from users, while still keeping it public (so no one needs to log in, they just need to access the URL).

[Alana Fernando]

in this case i guess you can't hid a public space from certain group of people. some how they can access the space. I guess that is the whole point of making a space public. 

[Louise MacBean]

I need everyone (public/anonymous etc) to be able to access the space when we provide them with the direct URL to that space.

But the space CANNOT be visible on the navigation menu for our site. How do I ensure no one can see it unless they follow the direct link (which will be via a help button in our software, not in Confluence).

How do I define that everyone can access the space, but cannot see it in navigation?

[Louise MacBean]

I don't want to hide it, I just don't want it to be accessed via our menu. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

There's no way to do this with plain Confluence.  If you can see a space, it appears in the navigation elements because you're supposed to be able to see it.

[Alana Fernando]

Louise I just found another answer for a slimier community question. seems like it is impossible. 

Hiding Confluence Spaces

Nic explained it as below. 

The reason they can see a space is that they have "browse" rights to see it.

Restrictions only work at a page level (and cascade) so although you can hide all the content from a space, you still have the space exposed to them.

You need to work out a way of removing their "can browse this space" rights. Then the space will disappear from the list. (The approach is likely to be "remove everyone's browse rights, then add back only the people/groups that should see it)

[Louise MacBean]

That's very frustrating. It seems like my predecessor somehow did this before (I have a link to a space in Confluence which doesn't appear anywhere else), but no one remembers how! Seems like maybe it can't be done any more.

Thank you for your help, we'll try to figure out something else.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Probably some nasty unsupportable javascript hack.  Have a look at the global header to see if they've bodged something in there you can re-use.

[Jan-Peter Rusch]

Are you using an addon for your navigation or just the default space directory? 

[Louise MacBean]

Just the default directory. I've recently come across another space which isn't visible from the general navigation, but is public. Not sure what's going on!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Again, it's either a hack, or as @Jan-Peter Rusch rightly points out, a navigation or theme add-on (I completely forget that add-ons that modify themes can be more clever about space view)