A new feature has just dropped over at External Share for Confluence, offering a robust extra layer of security for your data.
Companies have been asking us for a way of restricting which users can see their External Share links. Before, you could create a secure link to your Confluence page and share it with a chosen person outside your instance. That link was always safe from a randomer on the internet finding it, thanks to its unguessable 16-character URL. It could be protected further by adding a password, making the Confluence page inaccessible to anyone without it.
HOWEVER, there was nothing to stop the person you share the link with from passing it on to someone else. Even if it’s password-protected, that person could just share the password and the other user would be able to get access.
This new feature stops this from happening. If you have data on a Confluence page that you want to make sure goes no further than the external user/s you’re sending it to, then you can restrict the visibility of the page to just those users.
Let’s walk through how you do this.
How to share your Confluence pages ONLY with selected users
Go to the “Selected Users” tab on the share form. Then click “Share only with the following users” as below.
This will open a box where you can enter one or more email addresses. Enter the email addresses, separated by commas, of the people you want to share your Confluence page with. Then press enter on your keyboard as below.
By default, clicking “Save” on the share form automatically sends selected external users an email notification that a Confluence page has been shared with them. Alternatively, you can click “Send via” so you can customize your email notification and send it to one or more users at a time of your choosing.
The users you select need to have an External Share for Confluence account to be able to open and view the Confluence page you’ve shared with them. If they don’t have one when you send them the link, they’ll need to register.
Once they’re logged in, they’ll be able to see a list on their account dashboard of all the External Share links that have been shared with them. They’ll also have access to our External Watch feature, which lets you subscribe for email notifications whenever someone makes a change to the page.
We’ve added this feature to enable companies to better control their data and who sees it. It’s available in the Pro version of External Share for Confluence.
If you have any feedback on the feature, or any suggestions for how it could be improved, please let us know.
Christopher is a self-confessed nerd who’d probably take the cake on Mastermind if Star Trek: Voyager was his specialist subject. He writes fiction about time travel, conspiracies and aliens; loves roller coasters, hiking and Christmas; and hates carpet, rom-coms and anything with chilli in it. He’s written extensively for technology companies and Atlassian partners and specializes in translating complicated technical concepts, specs and jargon into readable, benefits-driven copy that casual readers will understand.