How to share your content

Share entities with people and groups, publish them from the Share window, and make your whole instance public.

Prerequisites

• A logged-in Uwazi account
• The right permission level for the task you want to do

Each task on this page needs a different permission level. This table shows who can do what:

Task	Who can do it
Share an entity with a user or group	Admins and editors on any entity; collaborators only on entities shared with them as Can edit
Publish an entity to the public	Admins and editors only
Make the instance public	Admins only

note

Making the instance public and publishing an entity are two separate settings. The instance setting decides whether visitors without a login can reach your site. Each entity's published status then decides what those visitors see. For the public to see an entity, you need both: a public instance and a published entity.

Steps

Each section below stands on its own. Go to the task you need.

Share an entity with a user or group

1. Open the entity and select the Metadata tab.

2. Select Share in the footer. The Share window opens and lists who has access.

3. Under People and groups, type a full username, email, or group name. The field takes exact matches only, and it shows no suggestions.

4. Select Add. The person or group joins the list below with Can see access.

   If the field shows No user or group found, check the spelling and type the name in full.

5. On the member's row, select the pencil icon to grant write access, or the eye icon to go back to read access. Rest on either one to read its label, Can edit or Can see.

6. Repeat for other people or groups.

7. To remove someone, select the trash icon on their row.

8. Select Save changes.

A Permissions updated message confirms the change, and access takes effect right away. If you share with a group, anyone you later add to that group gets the same access with no extra step.

Publish an entity to the public

Publishing makes an entity visible to anyone who can reach your instance. You publish from the same Share window.

1. Open the entity and select the Metadata tab.
2. Select Share in the footer.
3. Under General access, select Published. A caution message reminds you that anyone will see the entity.
4. Select Save changes.

The entity is now published, and the Published count in the library filters updates to match. To make it private again, select Private and save.

General access shows for admins and editors only. If you don't see it, you can still share the entity with named people.

Once an entity is published, everyone can already read it. So the Can see button drops off each member row, and only Can edit and Remove stay.

Publishing changes every language version of an entity together, so its published status stays the same across all languages.

Share several entities at once

Use this to set access on many entities together from the library.

1. Go to the Library.
2. Select two or more entities. Hold Cmd on Mac or Ctrl on Windows and select each card, or hold Shift and select a range.
3. With two or more selected, the selection panel opens on the right.
4. Select Share in the selection panel.
5. Add users or groups and set each level.
6. To publish the whole selection, add the Public entry and set it to Can see.
7. Select Save changes.

This panel opens the older Share window, so it still lists Public as a member instead of a General access choice.

Sharing one entity replaces its whole access list. Sharing several entities at once adds your new grants, and leaves the access those entities already have.

Make the whole instance public

This lets visitors without a login reach your site and see published content.

1. Go to Settings > Collection.
2. Find the Public instance toggle.
3. Select the toggle to turn it on.
4. Select Save.

A Settings updated message confirms the change. Visitors without a login can now see your published entities.

Result

You've shared entities with the people who need them, published the entities you want the public to see, and set whether your whole instance is open to visitors.

tip

Share with groups instead of individual people where you can. When your team changes, you update one group rather than re-sharing every entity.

See also

• Permissions by role — reference for Uwazi user roles, covering what each role can and can't do across settings, users, content types, entities, and sharing
• How permissions and sharing work — the model behind roles, groups, published entities, and instance privacy in Uwazi