Content with multiple reader groups

If an article or category has multiple reader group restrictions selected, the access behavior can get a little complicated.

You might have multiple groups selected by having:

• Multiple groups displayed in the Inherited Reader Groups section.
• Multiple checkboxes selected in the Restrict Viewing to Reader Groups section.
• One or more groups in the Inherited Reader Groups AND the Add More Restrictions section.

Reader group logic

All situations involving multiple reader groups are governed by a Reader group logic setting, which determines whether to treat multiple groups as an AND statement or as an OR statement.

The two Reader group logic settings are:

• Inclusive: Readers can see content when they belong to at least one designated group. Multiple groups are treated like an OR statement.
• Exclusive: Readers can see content when they belong to ALL groups. Multiple groups are treated like an AND statement.

View and update reader group logic

To view and update your knowledge base's reader group logic:

1. Go to Security and access > Security settings.
2. Locate the Reader group logic setting in the Reader options section.
3. Select either Inclusive or Exclusive.
4. Be sure to Save your changes.

Multiple groups in a single section

For the first two scenarios, where multiple groups are selected in either the Inherited Reader Groups section or the Restrict Viewing to Reader Groups section, the behavior depends on your knowledge base's Reader logic settings and is fairly straightforward:

Inclusive logic for multiple groups

When Inclusive reader group logic is selected, readers can see content when they belong to at least one group in the list.

For example, let's say we have an article restricted to groups "Apples" and "Bananas". With Inclusive reader group logic, this basically means that readers must belong to the Apples group OR the Bananas group:

• Reader in Apples group only: Can access the article
• Reader in Bananas group only: Can access the article
• Reader in both Apples and Bananas groups: Can access the article
• Reader in the Pineapples group: Can't access the article

Exclusive logic for multiple groups

When Exclusive reader group logic is selected, readers must belong to all groups in the list.

For example, let's say we have an article restricted to groups "Apples" and "Bananas". With Exclusive reader group logic, this basically means that readers must belong to the Apples group AND the Bananas group:

• Reader in Apples group only: Can't access the article
• Reader in Bananas group only: Can't access the article
• Reader in both Apples and Bananas groups: Can access the article
• Reader in the Pineapples group: Can't access the article

Groups in two sections

For the third scenario, in which the content has at least one group in the Inherited Reader Groups AND the Add More Restrictions section, the Inclusive/Exclusive reader group logic still applies within each of those sections, but the sections are treated as a combination: a reader must belong to at least one of the Inherited Reader Groups AND one of the Add More Restrictions groups.

For example, let's say an article has Inherited Reader Groups for the KO Authors Only group and has the Owlcademy MC Students group checked in the Add More Restrictions section:

In this case the reader group logic itself doesn't matter since there's only a single group in each list, so the access breaks down like this:

• Reader in KO Authors Only group only: Can't access the article
• Reader in Owlcademy MC Students group only: Can't access the article
• Reader in both KO Authors Only and Owlcademy MC Students groups: Can access the article
• Reader in KO Authors Only and Contractor groups: Can't access the article