Why can’t I see any Pages in this Folder?

I noticed a couple of questions coming into the policyIQ Support desk this last month related to securing content in policyIQ and thought that others might have similar questions.

I’ll give you the punch-line first: Rely on Page Security to secure content and think of Folder Security as Folder “Visibility”. Let’s talk more about what I mean by this…

Use Page Security to Set Read/Write Access to Pages

Notice the “Security” tab within your Pages. It is here that Page Administrators can adjust who has read (Viewers) versus write (Editors and Administrators) access to this Page. These appointments are completely independent of where the Page resides. It is of critical importance that your Page Security be adjusted to ensure proper access to (or restriction from) the content.

Use Folder “Security” to establish who can see the Folder – More like Folder Visibility

While it is true that you can put Pages into Folders and make the various Folders visible to different audiences, this does not secure your Pages or ensure that Pages may not be otherwise located (via Search, for example).

A Folder can be viewable by a person who has not been given read or write access to the Pages that are indexed into that Folder (if they are within a Group that is added to the “Viewers” field in the Folder properties—as illustrated above). The Folder will appear empty in this scenario. Conversely, a person might not be able to see a Folder in the left navigation, but if they run a Search for Pages and the Page Security has not been properly adjusted, they might still see those Pages in the Search results.

By making a Folder “Visible” and designating different Groups in the “Viewers” field, you are really making the view of Folders in Home simpler or more complex to your policyIQ users (see examples in image below)—this does not impact the security or right to actually see content.

Did I clear anything up for anyone? Re-reading this, I wonder if it sounds like a Dr. Seuss story to someone who is not already familiar with Folder and Page behavior. Let us know! We’d be happy to walk through your site and content with you and to help ensure that you are sharing (and hiding) content as you intended.