Wiki Website Security

Security on a wiki site is not much different from any other traditional website.

When the site is set up, the administrator can use passwords to customise permissions to the site as a whole or to different parts of the site, to accommodate the needs of your organisation.

Generally there are five types of permission that can be granted:

  • site administration (site setup and maintenance, behind the scenes programming: the master key to the site as a whole)
  • permission to set page and group attributes (mini-admin)
  • permission to upload files to the site, such as pictures or .pdf files
  • permission to author and edit site content, and
  • permission to read site content

The site as a whole can be edit protected, or sections of the site can have special protection. The site , sections of it or individual pages can also be read protected, so you need to log in with a password before you can read the pages or edit them. This makes it possible to use a pmwiki site for internal communication within an organisation, for project development, scheduling of events, archiving of minutes etc.

An internal site can be combined with a public site in one installation of pmwiki, as a “farm”, where each sector (“field”) has its own settings of looks, access security and other customisations. This provides an easy way to maintain the site.

It is also possible to hide the edit, history and other buttons used for collaboration that are normally visible in page headers and footers, until after login. This way, the nuts and bolts of editing work are hidden from the public, but available with a simple login password to those who have editing permission.

If you would like me to help you install or customise password privileges to your wiki site, please see Options and Pricing or contact me for further information and estimates.