Maintain Can Read but Block Contributor Access to a Knowledge Base

[Coralyn Notting]

I'm trying to figure out a way to maintain Can Read access to a Knowledge Base for all end users (on the portal) but block all but a small group from contributing to the base using Can Contribute and a criteria. During my testing, I found out that end users could not see the new articles that I created with the message: "You do not have sufficient privileges to access this knowledge item."

Am I missing something? Do I need to use the Cannot Contribute feature instead?

[Eoghan Sinnott · Accepted solution]

Hi Coralyn, 

On the Knowledge Base level, leaving the 'Can Read' as empty will ensure that it is open to all end users. 

You should be able to then create a Can Contribute group with the small amount of users that need to have publish access. 

If some users are still getting the "You do not have sufficient privileges to access this knowledge item." error then make sure that the article in a published state (not in draft or review) and that it also has a Valid To date set to a future date.

If you are still facing issues I would recommend using the 'User Criteria Diagnostics" tool and search a specific user who cannot see a specific article. 

[jtshone]

Hi Eoghan
That is not quite right:

"On the Knowledge Base level, leaving the 'Can Read' as empty will ensure that it is open to all end users. "

If you don't specify the  Cannot read user criteria, you will potentially expose your knowledge to guest users, ie external users who guess the URL path to your knowledge, quite simple I expect if you check a permalink = instance url\KB+numeric sequence number

[Eoghan Sinnott]

I believe that would depend on how your instance is configured. If you use any sort of SSO or any other login credentials then it would not be open to external users. Even if they guess a correct URL they would be prompted to sign in.

[Coralyn Notting]

Thank you for answering my question. I did confirm that the article is currently published. Any ideas as to why I am still receiving this message?