Managing Space Permissions

You assign space permissions to govern the kind of access the people have. Generally speaking, you assign permissions to user groups, then create exceptions as needed by overriding permissions for particular users.

Note: Before you go about assigning permissions, be sure you're familiar with permission levels and how to customize them. For more information, see Managing Space Permission Levels.

At a high level, setting space permissions typically includes these steps:

Create user groups that capture how you want to grant access to the community's features.
Set default space permissions. These should represent the access you'll most commonly want to provide for new spaces in the community.
As you add spaces, decide how to handle setting permissions for each. When someone creates a space, their options typically are:
- Inherit from the parent space.
- Start with the parent space's permissions, then customize.
- Start with the default space's permissions, then customize.
- Start from scratch (no permissions assigned), then customize.

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

Space Permission Inheritance

To make managing space permissions easier, an inheritance model provides a way to avoid (when you can) setting specific minute permissions for each new space. Spaces can inherit permissions from their parent or merely use those permissions as a starting point.

As you might expect, the inheritance relationship means that changes to the inherited space's permissions are automatically also changes to permissions in inheriting spaces. A default space is provided as starting place for new spaces regardless of where they are in the hierarchy. While not actually a space in other respects -- it can't contain content -- the default space is useful as a permissions template.

Note: The admin console will provide cues about inheritance for a particular space, such as by noting how many spaces inherit permissions from it.

Here are a few important inheritance characteristics to keep in mind when working with the permissions model:

You can customize the default space permissions to represent a permission set that will be commonly used when creating new spaces. And new space can use these, if only as a starting point.
A space can inherit its parent space's permissions, a relationship that must be broken before the sub-space's permissions can be customized. For spaces at the top level, the default space is the parent space.
At any point after a space is created, you can re-establish an inheritance relationship between it and its parent space. When you do, you remove any customizations you've made to permissions in the sub-space (and, of course, in space's that inherit from the sub-space).
A new space can begin with its parent space's permissions as a starting point only. When it does, those permissions aren't inherited, instead providing a basis for customization.
A new space can begin with the default space's permissions as a starting point, regardless of where the new space is in the hierarchy.
A new space can begin with no permissions set, a blank slate that you customize.

Using and Customizing the Default Space

The default space is designed to be a community-wide template for setting permissions in new spaces. It's a good idea to get to know how permissions in the default space are set up and to customize them if needed so that they're useful for creating new spaces in your community. When new spaces are created, they're permissions can be based on the default space's, if only as a starting point to customize.

Customizing Default Space Permissions

You can customize the default space, setting commonly-used permissions that will make sense for new spaces to have.

Admin Console: Permissions > Space Permissions

In the admin console, on the Space Permissions page, click Edit default space permissions.
On the Default Space Permissions page, follow the steps described in Setting Permissions for a Space.

Setting Permissions for a Space

You set permissions for a space by adding a user group, then assigning a permission level to the group. Users in that group will have the permissions in the level you assigned. You can edit space permissions in the admin console.

Admin Console: Permissions > Space Permissions

Before assigning permissions, be sure you're familiar with permission levels. For more information, see Managing Space Permission Levels.

To set permissions for a space:

In the admin console, go to the Space Permissions page.
Under View and edit a space's permissions, type or browse for the name of the space you want to set permission for.
On the page describing permissions for the space, assign permissions to user groups:
- To assign permissions to a group not yet listed:
  1. Click Add group.
  2. Enter the name of the group to add.
  3. Select a permission level from the dropdown.
  4. Click the Add Group button.
- To edit permissions for a group already listed:
  1. Locate the group in the list.
  2. Next to its permission level, click edit.
  3. Select a permission level from the dropdown.
  4. Click Save.