The Security Settings for your knowledge base (Settings > Security and Settings > SSO) determine the general security requirements for readers to access your knowledge base.
The files you upload to your knowledge base--PDFs, Excel sheets, screenshots, Word documents, etc.--do not automatically use this same security.
By default, even if your knowledge base requires login, the files you've uploaded do not require login. This is by design so that you can give readers the link to specific documents and they can easily download the file by clicking on that link or URL without having to log in to your knowledge base.
However, you can adjust your security settings so that readers have to be logged in to access files and images stored within your knowledge base. If you make this change, the URLs you'll see will change slightly to a different Cloudfront URL.
With authentication required, if you share a hyperlink directly to a file stored in KnowledgeOwl, anyone accessing that link will be prompted to log in to the knowledge base using the default authentication method before they'll be able to view the file.
When this secure file library setting is enabled, you'll no longer see your knowledge base's logo when you're viewing the KnowledgeOwl app dashboard (/app/switch-project). They'll only be hidden from the app switch-project view; they're still shown everywhere else!
If you would like to require that someone must log into your knowledge base before accessing files:
- Go to Settings > Security.
- In the Reader Options section, check the Image / File Resources box next to "Require authentication to view any image or file from your file library."
Check the box here to require login to view all files and images
- You'll receive a warning asking you if you're sure you want to do this. Click Cancel to keep files unauthenticated; click Proceed anyway to continue with requiring login to view files.
File authentication confirmation screen
- Be sure to Save your changes.
Once these changes are saved, we will programmatically update the URL for most of your files referenced in your knowledge base's theme, within articles, and within article thumbnails/banners and category icons. If you are using URL redirect categories or articles pointing to files stored in KnowledgeOwl, you may need to manually update those URLs.
Some customers who require file authentication have noticed some issues with their upper left logos not loading properly on initial page load. If you make this change and notice issues with your logo, please contact us and let us know you're having issues. We can move your logo file to unrestricted storage so it will load faster.
