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

On this page:

To restrict who can view or edit a page or blog post:

  1. Chose the Restrictions  icon at the top of the page.
  2. Choose whether you just want to limit only who can Edit, or who can View and / or Edit
  3. 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. 
  4. 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. 

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:

Viewing this page is not restricted. Everyone can see this page (but editing may be restricted). 
 The page is restricted. Click the icon to see the list of who can view and edit this page.
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

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:

  1. On the restricted page choose Request access
  2. 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:

  1. 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
  2. Choose Grant access

 

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

This process is the same as navigating to

 > 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:

  1. The last person to edit the page
  2. All non-admin users that can set permissions on the page (given that an admin user can always set permissions)
  3. The page creator
  4. 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:

  1. Go to the space and choose Space tools > Permissions from the bottom of the sidebar

  2. Choose Restricted Pages

If your space uses the Documentation theme:

  1. Choose Browse > Space Admin from the header

    Note: The Space Admin option appears only if you have space admin permissions, or if you're part of the 'confluence-administrators' group.

  2. Choose Restricted Pages in the space administration options

Screenshot: Restricted pages in a space

  

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.

Last modified on Jun 6, 2016

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