There are a number of ways to add new users to Confluence:

  • By public signup: If public signup is enabled on your Confluence site, people can add themselves as users of the site. See below.
  • Via an invitation URL: Administrators with Confluence Administrator or System Administrator permissions can send people an invitation URL. See below.
  • By adding users manually: Administrators with Confluence Administrator or System Administrator permissions can add new users. See below.
  • Via an external user directory: See Configuring User Directories.

Choosing public or private signup

In Confluence 4.1.9 and later, you can set your signup mode to public or private at the same time as adding or inviting new users to the site. You need Confluence Administrator or System Administrator permissions to change the signup mode.

To choose public or private signup:

  1. Click Add Users on the dashboard.
    Or take the longer route: Choose Browse > Confluence Admin. Click Users > Add User.
  2. Choose the signup mode:
    1. Private: There will not be a 'Sign Up' link on the Confluence screens. People can sign up if an administrator sends them the Invitation URL. Administrators can add users manually too.
    2. Public: A 'Sign Up' link will appear on the Confluence screens. People can click the link to add their own usernames. In addition, people can sign up if an administrator sends them the Invitation URL, and administrators can add users manually.

On this page:

Related pages:

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sites with multiple apps. If you are using Confluence-only OnDemand, the information does apply.

Inviting people to sign up via a URL

In Confluence 4.1.9 and later, you can invite new users to the site by sending them a signup URL. This option is available in both public and private signup modes. When someone visits the URL in a browser, a Confluence signup screen will appear.

To invite people to sign up:

  1. Click Add Users on the dashboard.
    Or take the longer route: Choose Browse > Confluence Admin. Click Users > Add User.
  2. Copy the Invitation URL and paste it into an email message, or onto a page on your extranet.

Resetting the signup URL

If your signup mode is private, the invitation URL will include a security token, like this:

http://confluence.example.com/signup.action?token=d513a04456312c47

You can change the URL at any time, by clicking Reset. The previous URL will become unusable. People will no longer be able to use the previous URL to sign up. Instead, they will see an error message that the signup token has expired.

The reset option is available only in private signup mode.

Enabling and disabling notifications about user signup

By default, Confluence will send an email notification to all Confluence administrators whenever someone signs up to the Confluence site, either by clicking the 'Sign Up' link or by clicking the invitation URL sent by an administrator. The notification is enabled by default.

To disable this notification:

  1. Click Add Users on the dashboard.
    Or take the longer route: Choose Browse > Confluence Admin. Click Users > Add User.
  2. Remove the tick from Notify administrators when users sign up.

Adding users manually

The option to add users is available in Confluence 4.1.7 and earlier, as well as later versions.

To add a new user:

  1. Click Add Users on the dashboard.
    Or take the longer route: Choose Browse > Confluence Admin. Click Users > Add User.
  2. Enter the user's details: username, password, name and email address.
  3. Click Create.

Screenshot: Adding and inviting users (Confluence 4.1.9 and later)

Notes

You may define multiple user directories in Confluence, so that Confluence looks in more than one place for its users and groups. For example, you may use the default Confluence internal directory and also connect to an LDAP directory server. In such cases, you can define the directory order to determine where Confluence looks first when processing users and groups.
Here is a summary of how the directory order affects the processing:
  • The order of the directories is the order in which they will be searched for users and groups.
  • Changes to users and groups will be made only in the first directory where the application has permission to make changes.

See Managing Multiple Directories.

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