Managing Space Permission Levels

Each permission level represents a collection of specific access, including specific permissions for content types and administrative roles. The application includes several permission levels be default, and you can create your own. When you assign permissions to groups for access to a space, you generally assign levels, then customize as needed with overrides for particular users.

When working with space permissions, you might be working with two kinds of levels: those you assign for access to the space as a whole and those you assign for access to particular kinds of content.

Space permission levels capture access to space features at a high level, each bundling fine-grained access to content or administrative roles along a particular theme. The application comes with several predefined levels designed to reflect common roles, including a space administrator, a moderator, a person who can only view content, and so on. See the section on standard permission levels for more on included levels. You can also create your own levels.
Content permission levels bundle fine-grained access to a particular content type. You use content permissions when creating your own permission level or overriding permissions for a certain user. For example, you might create a custom level in which people can create new discussion posts, but only comment on documents (rather than create them).

Note: Permissions in spaces are inherited by projects created inside them. Social groups, on the other hands, are independent of spaces and projects. For more, see Managing Social Group Permissions.

Standard Permission Levels

The application includes several default space permission levels. Designed to meet common permissions needs, these are worth a look if you're starting from scratch (or even revising what you've got). As described below, you can also add your own levels.

Note: To see the list of space levels in the admin console, go to the Space Permissions Levels page, then click the Standard Levels tab.

The following table lists the default space permission levels, along with a summary of the access granted by each. See the table later in this section for details on specific permissions granted by each.

Levels Described
Space Permission Level	Access Granted
Administer	Design the space layout, read and write for all content types, assign permissions to users and user groups, delete the space.
Moderate	Read and write all content types, edit other people's content.
Create	Read and write all content types.
Contribute	Comment on commentable content types, as well as reply to discussion threads.
View	View content.
Discuss (External Only)	Read/write discussions, contribute on all other content types.
No Access	Only applicable when creating a user override. Use this to prevent access to the space and no entitlements are set.

The following table lists each default space permission level, along with the specific permissions granted by each. As described in the section below, when you create a permission level, you can choose from among these.

Access Granted for Each Level
Space Permission Level	View	Create	Reply	Comment	Attach file	Insert image	Rate	Vote	Create Project	Create Announcement	Full Control	Moderate
Administer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Moderate	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Create	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Contribute	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
View	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Discuss (external community)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No

Custom Permission Levels and User Overrides

When you create a custom permission level or a user override, you're in effect designing exceptions to existing rules. Those exceptions could replace permission levels included by default, permission levels you've created, or one-off overrides for particular users. For example, you might want to create a custom permission level for a group of people who should be the only ones to post to a space's blog. Or you might create a user override for a particular user who will be a space's administrator, managing its permissions, creating spaces beneath it, and so on.

When you create this kind of customization, your options are divided into three categories (described in detail below):

No access. Available for a user override only, this option lets you simply exclude a particular user from access to the space. This is designed as a user-by-user approach. To prevent access for a group of people instead, ensure that those people aren't included in groups that do have access. For example, to restrict access to a space that contains sensitive information, create a user group that contains people who should have access, taking care to leave out those people who shouldn't have it.
Access space. Available in custom permission levels and user overrides, this category provides fine-grained control with which you assign permissions specific to each content type. Want to create a permission level that grants access to create discussion threads but only view documents? This is what you want.
Manage space. Available in custom permission levels and user overrides, this category provides a way to create administrative roles for the space. Each space should have an administrator, even if that role is inherited from a parent space. But typically, the roles available in this category will go to very few people.

The following sections give details on the options available for each of the categories.

No Access

The user has no access to the space and won't be able to see content from it. Pretty straightforward.

Access Space

Use this category to craft custom content-specific access in the space. When you select this category while customizing, you have access to a list of the content types, each with a list of the access levels available for it. Choose an access level for each content type.

The following table lists the access levels that each content type permission level includes, along with the specific permissions each allows.

Access Granted for Each Content Type Permission Level
Content Type Permission	View	Create	Reply	Comment	Attach file	Insert image	Rate	Vote
Create	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Create (for discussions)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Contribute	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
View	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Advanced	See the specifics below.

The Advanced access level for each content type provides even finer-grained control of permissions for a content type. After you select Advanced, select check boxes for the permissions you want the customization to allow.

The following table lists what's available in the Advanced level for each content type.

Access Settings Available for Each Content Type
Content Type	View	Create	Reply	Comment/Reply	Attach file	Insert image	Rate	Vote
Document	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Discussion	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Blog Post	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Poll	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Video	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No

The following are also available as "on or off" options.

Option	Access Granted
Create Project	Create a project in the space.
Create Announcement	Create an announcement in the space.

Manage Space

Use this category to assign administrative roles that are specific to the space. The following table describes the two access levels that are available.

Option	Access Granted
Full Control	Customize the space overview page, edit space details, edit all space content, create subspaces, manage permissions for that space, delete the space, create a category, and manage the space blog.
Moderate	Moderate and edit all content in the space. Selecting this option enables the moderation queue for all content in the space.

Creating a Custom Space Permission Level

You can create a custom space permission level that you can subsequently use when assigning permissions space by space. You might want to do this, for example, if you think you're going to be using a custom set of permissions in more than one space. If you'll use the customization only once, you might instead want to create a customization that you don't save as a custom level for use in other spaces.

Admin Console: Permissions > Space Permission Levels

To create a custom space permission level:

In the admin console, go to the Space Permission Levels page.
On the Custom Levels tab, click Create new permission level.
On the Create a Custom Permission Level dialog box, enter a name and description for the permission level. These will help other administrators know the new level's purpose.
Under Access and administration, select a category for the level, then choose from among the options in the category.
Click Save.