Enabling item level security

Item level security is a mechanism which allows controlled and granular access to specific items in a given page or tab. Item level security authorizes item owners to grant explicit item access privileges to users and groups who would otherwise not be authorized.

By default, items inherit page or tab level security which means that only those users or groups who are authorized to access a given page or tab can access its items. If item level security is enabled for a page or tab, all items in the page or tab will initially use the security applied to the page or tab. That is, until item owners choose to grant explicit access on a given item to specific users and/or groups. For example, a user granted the View page-level (or tab-level) privilege would be authorized to edit the item if the item owner explicitly grants the Own Item or Manage Item item-level privilege to the user.

The Manage and Manage Content page-level privileges override item level security privileges. However, item level security takes precedence over other page-level privileges, such as Manage Style. If a user has the Manage Style privilege on a page, and (1) item level security is enabled for the page, and (2) item level access privileges have been defined for the items, the user can manage the items based on the item level privileges. Additionally, if a user has the View privilege on a page, all items on the page can be viewed provided that the items do not have the Own Item and Manage Item item-level privileges defined for them. In this case, the item level security privileges would take precedence over the View privilege on the page.

To enable item level security, you must have at least one of the following privileges:

Portal administrator
Manage All privileges on the page group to which the page belongs
Manage privileges on the page
Manage global privileges on All Pages

Notes:

Enabling security at the item level affects runtime performance because it disables page caching.
You can enable item level security only on Standard pages and pages of a custom type based on the Standard page type.

To enable item level security for a page:

Go to the page on which you want to work.
Switch to Edit mode.
In the toolbar at the top of the page, click Access.

Tip: You can also click Properties next to the page in the Navigator, and then click the Access tab.
Select Enable Item Level Security.
Click OK to return to the page.

This allows item creators to specify access control for individual items on the page. Item creators have the choice of inheriting access control from the page, or specifying specific access control for individual items. For more information, see What is item level security (ILS)?.

To enable item level security for a tab:

Go to the page on which you want to work.
Switch to Edit mode.
Click on the tab.
Click the Access tab.
Select Specify Access Settings.
Select Enable Item Level Security.

This allows item creators to specify access control for individual items on the tab. Item creators have the choice of inheriting access control from the tab, or specifying specific access control for individual items. For more information, see What is item level security (ILS)?.

Notes

There is no relationship between item level security and item versioning. The latter feature enables users to edit items via a check-in and check-out process, thus preventing two users from editing the same item and potentially overwriting each others changes.
Changing the access settings of a page template affects all pages based on that template. However, if the template allows page designers to use different access settings for pages based on the template, changes to the page template's access settings do not affect the pages.