Audiences vs Permissions

[JBKerr]

Hello, is it now necessary to give end-users permissions to view app content twice, once in a report's permissions in the Workspace screen and then a second time in this new Audience thing? Or is it meant to be, do only one or the other? Or are giving permissions in the Workspace screen going to be phased out, so we do all user admin in the Audiences?

I am currently following both processes for all users because after the update I - the administrator - couldn't see some of my own reports in the app.

(Overall I have found this Audiences update confusing, unnecessary for our purposes and a time-waster.)

[MarkPalmberg]

TIL that if I copy a url to a report section that's in an audience I have access to and share that URL with someone who does not have workspace access and also is not a member of the audience where the report section resides, that person can see the report section. And I don't know now how to revoke that access? I mean, if the person I sent the link to keeps that link, I assume they can access the report page whenever they want, regardless whether they're ever added to the workspace or the app audience.

[ahassan]

@edhans  I ran into a problem with audiences, can you help explain what's going on?

I am an audience member of an app, and I can't see one of the visuals. We found that its because that visual is from a copied report from another workspace. I was then added as an admin to the original workspace and I still couldn't see the copied visual on the original app. Then I was added as an audience member to the second app (I thought this would work), but still didn't have access.  It wasn't until I was made a viewer on the second workspace that I could see the visual on the original app.

[edhans]

No. As a rule, do not allow ANYONE access to the workspace unless they are a report publisher. Only give them access to the App for the workspace.

The new audience feature now allows you to create multiple "apps" for a single workspace by simply desigining a different set of reports for different audiences. I agree if you have no need of it, it is a bit of extra work on your part, but as soon as you have the need to restrict some reports to specific users, this will make it a snap compared to the old process of setting up a new workspace, creating thin reports, and a 2nd app.

[JBKerr]

Thank you @edhans 

The Workspace itself has not been shared: I meant that the way I have assigned view permissions for a Report was to open a Report's admin menu in the Workspace's Content tab, and select Manage Permissions. From there I would add individual users (or Outlook distribution lists) for those I wanted to see the report.

Is this unnecessary from now on?

Or is it necessary to still do this and then also add the user/distribution list in the Audience settings too?

[edhans · Accepted solution]

That was always unnecessary. You add the share permissions to users in the app which is now on the "Manage Audience Access" section.

So if everyone should be the same, just add the groups (or emails - bad idea as it is an administrative nightmare to keep up with, but you can do it) to the access settings, then check other optional settings (sharing, build, etc)

Note that anyone with permissions to the workspace will override this. So if Joe is a contributor and can share a report and dataset for his reports, it will override for Joe the fact that it is unchecked in the dialog box above.

If you have some users you want to be able to share and others you don't, that is where this new feature shines. You simply create a new sharing audience with share permissions in the app, and deny share permissions to the rest in the other audience.

[Magnolia]

I have a follow up question. If my app and all of the reports in it is generall shared with a specific set of people (groups) and I wanted to share one of these reports with an "entire organization" through audiences - would that be it? Do they need to recieve access somewhere else as well? 

[edhans]

That would do it. An Audience that everyone is in. They just need the proper licensing (Free for Premium, or PPU or Pro for PPU/Pro workspaces respectively.)

[JBKerr]

I see now, thank you, this was very clear 👍