The Space Privacy app, when used with Confluence, provides the best conditions for working together with external users such as customers and partners on a platform - it turns Confluence into a usable and secure extranet.

Important information can be collaborated on and shared with precisely the people who need to know. Files, instructions, schedules, dates, it all can be collected and displayed quickly and clearly on Confluence's wiki pages. Depending on your authorization scheme, both internal and external users can edit the content to keep it up to date or add new information.

Create new extranet spaces just as easily as you would the standard Confluence spaces. Alternatively, you can also convert existing Confluence spaces into extranet spaces with just a click. It's just as easy to revert extranet spaces to be normal Confluence spaces, either individually or all at once.

When you add new users to an extranet area, you can send a welcome email to them automatically. This way, your users know when they are granted access to the extranet area and can get there via a link. You can even send the mail in different languages (by default, German and English).

Communicate clearly and effectively with microblogs

The Microblogging for Confluence app enhances Space Privacy by providing an efficient and transparent communication channel. Users can exchange updates and ideas quickly and easily in the microblog timeline, just like in Facebook or other social media platforms. You can organize microblog articles by spaces and topics. With this, you can achieve a lean and effective communication channel in addition to the workspaces that are shared with external partners.

Permissions control who sees the various microblog topics and who can contribute. External users only see posts from spaces that they have authorized access to. Internal employees, on the other hand, can configure the microblog so that they can see posts from all spaces or display only posts in spaces that relevant to them. You can also easily subscribe to new messages by email. To draw the attention of certain users to a microblog post, use @-mentions just like you would in a Confluence page. A mentioned user will automatically receive a notification.

With Space Privacy 2.0, you can only mention users in a microblog post who also have permission to access the topic to which they are posting. Internal employees who have access to several customer or partner spaces cannot accidentally mention external users who do not have access to the space in which they are posting. Personal user data is therefore always secure and protected, even in the microblog.

User management and visibility

Space Privacy uses Confluence user groups by default to limit what users can see. Users assigned to extranet space A are assigned to a group (extranet space-a users) and cannot see users assigned to extranet space B (extranet space-b users). If a user is assigned to both extranet spaces (A and B) and thus in both groups, they can see the users in both spaces and be seen by the users in those spaces.

From version 2.0 onwards, you can define a group for internal users, such as your own employees, independent of the extranet spaces, whose users can always see each other, no matter in which spaces they are active (e.g. the internal users group).

User administration in the extranet is very flexible. You can use Confluence's own user directory or connect to external directories such as LDAP. Space Privacy uses Confluence user groups by default to limit the visibility of users. If your external user directory is configured to not allow Confluence groups, you can easily switch from group to individual permissions to ensure compatibility with your external user directory. An automatic check after installation will let you know whether you can use the group permissions or when you should switch to individual permissions.

Self-administration for external users

The role of an extranet user administrator lets you to transfer the management of external users in an extranet space to your customer or partner. Your customer or partner can then add new external employees or project partners to only the extranet space where they have authorization, or delete users. External users can manage themselves within their own extranet space, and you don't have to worry about the compromising the security of your internal intranet data.

Rights management in the extranet

Various user roles are available in extranet spaces. These can also be applied globally for all spaces in the administration area. By default, you can assign the following roles:

• Watcher
• Commentator
• Editor - Restricted
• Editor - Standard
• Editor - Extended
• Extranet User Administrator
• Extranet Space Administrator

In addition to the space-based user group mentioned above, which is created for each extranet space (extranet-a-user), Space Privacy creates additional groups based on user roles, called permission groups. This means: All users with the user role Watcher are added to a group (extranet-space-a-watcher). However, Space Privacy only creates groups for the user roles that you use or have activated.

These permission groups can also be used in Confluence with Space Privacy 2.0, and they can be used in other useful ways than just assigning user permissions. For example, you can mention one of these groups in a microblog, comment, or page to make sure that all users in that group receive a notification. This option can be switched on and off in the administration area.

Download Space Privacy now and test it for free

The latest version of Space Privacy is available from the Atlassian Marketplace: You can try the app for 30 days for free, no obligations. Do you have any questions or suggestions about Space Privacy? Would you like our support with licensing or integrating Space Privacy and extranets into your system? Contact us, we would love to help!

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Further information

Space Privacy - Extranets for Confluence
Space Privacy for Confluence: Secure collaboration in an extranet
Your company extranet: Collaboration with customers, partners and suppliers