Manage Permissions on Datasources

Note: If you grant use access to a datasource and later revoke it, gadgets already using this datasource will continue to function, but it won’t be available for new configurations. Learn more here.

Overview

Datasources fetch and display information from external products, which on some occasions require extended permissions to access restricted or confidential data or maybe just something you want to keep for yourself. In this case, you can configure permissions, and indicate who can use and/or edit your datasources. You’ll find the following options to set up access restrictions:

"Anyone can use and edit"
"Anyone can use, some can edit"
"Only specific people can use or edit"

You can configure permissions when you create a datasource, or editing the datasource in the Manage Datasources screen.

If you haven’t done so yet, we recommend first reading Learn about Datasources

Anyone can use and edit

Open lock icon

This setting means that anyone in your Jira or Confluence instance is able to use that datasource:

Anyone can use the datasource to configure individual gadgets
Anyone can edit the datasource configuration and permissions

This restriction is recommended to access services and products where anyone is welcome to look into the information.

For those cases when you want everyone using a specific datasource, but only specific users, groups and/or projects editing it (e.g., global admins), then you have to select the next permission level Anyone can use, some can edit.

Anyone can use, some can edit

Closed lock icon

This setting means that anyone in your Jira or Confluence instance is able to use the datasource, but only some users/groups/projects can edit it:

Anyone can use the datasource to configure individual gadgets
Some users/groups/projects can edit the datasource configuration and permissions

When you select this option, you are restricting who can edit the dashboard. But still, anyone in your Jira or Confluence instance will be able to use the datasource to configure individual datasources.

If you cannot search for users/groups, remember that you need the Global permission "Browse users and groups". If a user is unable to find users, it is likely they are not part of a group with this permission. See more: Jira Cloud: Unable to Search Users in User-Picker Fields | Jira | Atlassian Documentation

Assign users/groups/projects to edit

Type a user's name, group, or project into the search bar. You can add as many people, groups, and projects as needed.
Since anyone can already use the datasource, the selected users/groups/projects display a fixed “Can edit”.
Select Add to add them to the list.
Select Save to save the changes.

To remove users/groups/projects, click Remove next to their name.

For the most restricted permission, select Only specific people can use or edit.

Only specific people can use or edit

Red lock icon

This setting means that only selected users/groups/projects in your Jira or Confluence instance are able to use and/or edit the datasource:

Some users/groups/projects can use the datasource to configure individual gadgets
Some users/groups/projects can edit the datasource configuration and permissions

This is the most restrictive setting, your datasource can be completely private or be restricted to a few selected users/groups/projects.

Assign users/groups/projects to use and/or edit

Type a user's name/group/project into the search bar. You can add as many people/groups/projects as needed.
Select the access type: Can use or Can edit
Select Add to add them to the list.
Select Save to save the changes.

To remove users/groups/projects, click Remove next to their name.

Restrict Datasource Sharing

It’s important to highlight that the sharing ability can be disabled by admins. Navigate to the app Global Settings, Datasource Restrictions and enable the toggle “Restrict Datasource Sharing“. When enabled, users won’t be able to grant permissions to others, making all datasources private and accessible only by their creators.

Important notes

Groups

If a user is in more than one group and one of those groups has access to use the datasource, then that user will be able to use the datasource.

Projects

In addition to selecting individual users or groups, you can add Jira projects to the datasource’s permission settings. Any user with “browse” access to the project will automatically have use/edit permissions for the associated datasource.

What are Project roles in Jira? Similar in concept to groups, the main difference is that group membership is global, whereas project role membership is project-specific. See Users & Permissions | Jira | Atlassian for more information.

Admins

Take into account that in the setting “Anyone can use, some can edit”, admins can still edit the content (similar to the Admin key feature in Confluence’s cloud premium). To avoid this situation, set the setting “Only specific people can use or edit”.