Private Space | Axero Documentation

A private space is an unlisted and unsearchable space in the community. Non-members cannot find or view a private space or its content.

Private means members only, not signed-in people only. Being signed in to Axero gives someone nothing here; membership of this particular space is what grants access. If what you want is a space every signed-in person can read without joining it, a private space is the wrong tool. Use one of these instead:

• Make the space Public Space, and turn on the registered-members-only option under Control Panel > System > General Settings so people who are not signed in cannot reach the site at all. The space is then readable by everyone in the organization and by nobody outside it.
• Keep the space private and give it a Personas that matches everyone, which makes them members rather than working around membership.

What "Guest" means on this page. Guest is the visitor who is not signed in. It is not a role you assign to a person, and a signed-in colleague who is not a member of the space is not a guest. So the Guest permissions described below open content to anonymous visitors, and they give signed-in non-members nothing. If your site requires everyone to sign in, those permissions have no practical effect at all.

Member view

Non-member view

Note: Site administrators can prevent non-members from seeing the join space page of a private Space by setting the system property ShowPrivateSpaceJoinPage to false. This property is set to true by default. If it is set to false, then accessing a private space page will show the no permissions page.

Two things about that property are worth knowing before you rely on it, because together they account for most reports that it "does not work".

• It only applies to someone who cannot view the space at all. If you grant Guest Space > View, as described below, non-members can open the space, and this property never comes into play for the space page. The two settings pull in opposite directions, so decide which one you want.
• Turning it off does not remove the invitation to join. The no permissions page for a space still shows a join panel with a link to request membership. Setting the property to false changes where the invitation appears, not whether it appears.

Content inside the space is handled by a separate check. Someone who can enter the space but opens a file or a Page Builder page they are not permitted to see is sent to the join page, and setting this property to false sends them to the no permissions page instead. That second check does not consider whether the space is public or private, so it behaves the same either way.

Where can a private space be found?

A private space can only be formally found if a user receives an invitation to join the space. A user can find a private space if they are given a link to the space.

Who can join a private space?

Users who are invited to the space can join a private space. Users can also request to join a private space. If a space is private but has unmoderated membership in Manage Space: Settings, then anyone can join the space.

Invitation notification

Request to join moderated private space

How can non-members see content in a private space?

You can make private content accessible to non-members by checking the Guest View permission for each Content Types in Content Permissions . You must also check the Guest Space > View permission.

Once the Guest View permission is checked, a non-member can view the space's content in the following ways:

• Through a direct link
  
  

• In a Page Builder content widget
  
  

Non-member view of a private space when Guest Space > View and Blogs > View permissions are checked

What happens when a private space is converted to a public space?

When you convert a private space to a public space, the space appears in Browse Spaces and in Search. The View permission for the Guest role is also enabled for the following:

• Articles 
• Blogs 
• CMS Pages
• Discussions 
• Calendar 
• Files ("Select Directory" and the "Root" folder)
• Ideas 
• Photos 
• Polls and Surveys 
• Videos 
• Wall
• Wikis 

You can manually configure Guest permissions for Content Types in Content Permissions .

Related pages

• Public Space (the open alternative)
• Sub Space (to nest a private space inside another)
• Content Permissions (where the Guest permissions are set)
• How to Use Axero as an Intranet and Extranet (a worked example: private spaces for outside partners)