Summary

After connecting Service Management to Confluence and setting up a knowledge based in a project in Project Settings > Knowledge base, customers can search for Confluence articles from the Customer Portal, and should be able to view knowledge base article seamlessly:

However, depending on the Jira Service Management version that is used and on how the permissions are configured on Confluence application side, users might be required to log into Confluence after clicking on any KB article from the Customer Portal:

Environment

• Any Jira Service Management Server/Data Center version lower than 4.6.0, configured with an application link to any Confluence Server/Data Center version
• Or any Jira Service Management Server/Data Center (any version from 4.12.0) with Confluence Cloud

Cause

Root Cause 1 - Case where Confluence Server/Data Center is used as a knowledge base

Up to the Service Management version 4.5.x, the customer portal required users to log into Confluence. This behavior was coming from the fact that KB articles are rendered in an iframe which opens a whole page from the Confluence URL/domain, and therefore requires the creation of a Confluence session, which is not accomplished in Service Desk Management. The only situation where customers don't have to log into Confluence to view a KB article is when Confluence is configured with anonymous (public) access (in such case, customers don't need to be authenticated against the Confluence application).

This behavior was tracked in the 2 feature request listed below:

• JSDSERVER-1551 - Getting issue details... STATUS
• JSDSERVER-3751 - Getting issue details... STATUS

This behavior has been changed in Service Management 4.6.0: customers no longer need to log into Confluence to be able to view knowledge base articles from the Customer Portal.

Root Cause 2 - Case where Confluence Cloud is used as a knowledge base

Since Jira Service Management 4.12.0, it is now possible to configure projects with a Knowledge Base space coming from Confluence Cloud, as explained in Set up a knowledge base with Confluence Cloud.

If the Confluence application (and/or the Confluence space used for the KB integration) is not configured with Anonymous Access, then customers will be required to log into Confluence to view any KB article. This behavior is intended by design (due to how the Confluence Cloud login page works), is a suggestion ticket to improve this behavior is tracked in  JSDSERVER-7175 - Getting issue details... STATUS .

Diagnosis

Diagnosis for Root Cause 1 (integration with Confluence Server/Data Center)

• Jira Service Management is on any version lower than 4.6.0
• The Confluence application is not configured with Anonymous access (via the page ⚙ > Global Permissions):
  

Diagnosis for Root Cause 2 (integration with Confluence Cloud)

If the 3 following conditions are verified, then this root cause is relevant:

• the knowledge base space is coming from Confluence Cloud (instead of Server/Data Center)
• the Confluence Cloud application (and/or the Confluence space) is not configured with Anonymous access
• if the user who is trying to view the KB article has not logged into Confluence Cloud yet

Solution

Solution for Root Cause 1 (integration with Confluence Server/Data Center)

Option 1

Upgrade the Service Management application to 4.6.0 or any higher version

Option 2

If upgrading is not an option, then the only solution to prevent users from having to log into Confluence is to configure Confluence with anonymous (public) access.

Solution for Root Cause 2 (integration with Confluence Cloud)

Configure the Confluence Cloud instance with anonymous access, as per Setting Up Public Access.

In addition to this, also configure the Confluence Cloud KB Space with anonymous access:

With such configuration, Service Desk customers will no longer have to be logged into Confluence Cloud to view any KB article, and the KB article will be displayed in the iFrame.