How to Use Communifire as an Intranet and Extranet | Communifire Documentation

You can use Communifire as both an intranet and an extranet. Host and manage internal and external people and information in the same community.

For a thorough overview of intranets vs extranets, a rundown of their benefits, and how they work together, please read this blog post. It will give you a high level understanding and get you started down the right path for your business.

Intranet Spaces

An intranet is a network where employees can create content, communicate, collaborate, get stuff done, and develop the company culture.

Your intranet spaces are made up of internal people and contain internal information. To safeguard internal content, make your internal spaces private.

• A Private Space is not listed in Browse Spaces page.
• Private spaces do not appear in Search for non-space members.
• Users must be invited to join the space before they can view content and engage in the space, but you can set permissions to make certain Content Types viewable by non-space members.
• Content in private spaces does not appear in Search for people that are not a member of the space.

You can automate the invitation process to private intranet spaces by using User Space Assignment Rules, which adds people to spaces based on their email address domain or system Roles that they have been granted.

Visit the Private Space page to learn more about private spaces.

Extranet Spaces

An extranet is like an intranet, but also provides controlled access to authorized customers, vendors, partners, or others outside the company.

Extranet spaces are made up of external people, outside of your organization. Based on your needs, you can make an extranet space a Public Space or a Private Space .

• A public space appears in Browse Spaces and in Search for all users while a private space does not.
• A public space's content is publicly viewable and appears in Search, but you can set permissions to make certain Content Types inaccessible by non-space members.
• Anyone can join a public space, but with member moderation, join requests must be approved by a space administrator before a person becomes a member of the space.

You can automate the invitation process to extranet spaces by using User Space Assignment Rules, which add people to spaces based on their email address domain or system Roles they have been granted.

Visit the Public Space page to learn more about public spaces.

Mixed Spaces

You can have mixed spaces that include both internal and external people. Based on your needs, these mixed spaces can be either public spaces or private spaces.

• Public mixed spaces are publicly viewable and publicly searchable, but member moderation can help you control the membership of a public mixed space.
• Private mixed spaces are not publicly viewable or publicly searchable.

You can fine-tune  to make content in mixed spaces accessible or inaccessible to non-space members, regardless of the space's visibility. As with intranet spaces and extranet spaces, you can use User Space Assignment Rules to automate the invitation process to mixed spaces.

Points to Think About

• If you want thorough control over access over who can access your spaces, then it's best to create private spaces.
• If you have sensitive data to share with a select group of people, then create a private space.
• If you want some spaces to be accessible to everyone in the platform, then add these as public spaces.