"No Access" to knowledgebase for anonymous or service desk customers

[Randy Barger]

I'm running the free version of Jira Service Manager. I've created a JSM instance using the "customer service management" template. I've linked the project to a Confluence space, and have created several KB articles. I've configured project and customer permissions to be as open as possible, as I want KB articles to be found without requiring logon.

I thought I had it working for anonymous access, but I must have inadvertently changed something, as articles can't be found. Even if I log in with a "service desk customer" account, articles can't be found. When selecting a category, or attempting to access the direct URL for a KB articles, I get the following:

The only thing I remember doing before it stopped working was deleting the pre-built how-to and troubleshooting "templates" (they were showing up in search and I didn't want them to):

So I created a brand new service management project and linked to a brand new confluence space. But those articles don't show up either.

I've not changed any of the project permission scheme settings/permissions.

[Andy Heinzer · Accepted solution]

Hi @Randy Barger 

I understand you are using free plans and trying to setup the knowledgebase integration between Confluence and Jira Service Management (JSM).  On the Free plans, there are existing limitations that might prevent this feature from working.  First off, please know that free plans do not provide anonymous access for either product.  Also making changes to permissions is also not possible in free plans. 

I expect that when you first signed up, the cloud products were not on the free plans yet, but rather you were using a 30 day trial of our standard plan.  Those trials of standard or premium plans would provide users with anonymous access, and it would let you change permissions both within the confluence space and within the customer portal of JSM. 

If you do not provide payment info after that 30 days on those trials, either the site can be deactivated, OR you may have switched the site to use the free plans, which are expected to impose these limitations.

There are more details about the limitations in JSM over in  https://confluence.atlassian.com/servicedeskcloud/limitations-in-jira-cloud-free-plans-1097175877.html

And also some good info about how Confluence changes when switched to a free plan in https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/manage-permissions-in-the-free-edition-of-confluence-cloud/

So while I don't expect anonymous access to work on free plans, users that login to the JSM customer portal should still be able to see some documents that way, provided that the permissions were configured before switching to the free plan. 

You shouldn't remove yourself from Confluence product access.  You'll need that in order to create and manage documents there.  Ideally you don't want to add unlicensed users (JSM customer role users) to Confluence, and you shouldn't have to.  Those users are only expected to have access to the customer portal as their means to interact both with JSM and Confluence.  Try having the users login to the customer portal, it should have a URL such as [yoursite].atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/

and see if they can view the knowledgebase articles that way.  That way should still work.  If you want to enable anonymous viewing of those documents, then you'll need to upgrade Confluence to a standard plan.

Andy

[Dan Breyen]

Hi @Randy Barger welcome to the community.  Take a look at this knowledge article from Atlassian.  This is what I used to get everything setup to integrate my Confluence KB with my JSM project.

There were a couple of extra things I needed to get setup in JSM so it would recognize the KB.  It worked for me when we were on the Free license as well.

Hope that helps.

[Randy Barger]

@Dan Breyen Thanks for the quick response. A couple of things I found from this...

One of the things the article mentions is to check the KB space permissions. But I can't edit the space permissions with the free edition.

"Upgrade for space permissions

You’re on the free plan, so you can’t set the default permissions for new spaces. Anyone who’s logged in can view new spaces, add content to them, and more. To set default space permissions, upgrade your plan."

The link you sent me mentions this:

"To continue using the knowledge base in Jira Service Management at no extra cost, ensure that the total number of users getting product access to Confluence is always zero."

A couple of things confuse me here:

• The free version of Confluence allows 10 users, so why should this be an issue?
• I am the admin of the Confluence site, and I'm the only user. Does this mean I should remove myself? How would I admin the space if I do that?

One final thing I realized, which I don't think matters, but is kind of a coincidence. The public accessibility quit working exactly 30 days after I created my free Confluence account. Could that have anything to do with it?

[Dan Breyen]

Hi Randy, I've requested Atlassian Support to take a look at this issue.  It would agree, it shouldn't be a number of users thing.  I don't recall having to make any configuration changes, but I think it seems there could be some clarification on this issue.