Skip to content

ConnectionsLogo HCL Connections External Users

External Users in your organisation can participate fully in things they are directly involved with, such as a file they've created or that someone has shared with them.

If you have experience from Connections on-premises you will see that The experience is similar, but not identical.

Adding external users

If you like to add an external user to your Community you need to contact your company Administrator who can create them for you. Then you can add them to your Community.

External users - what they CAN do

  • Collaborate fully as members in Communities they are added to
  • Follow these things: Standalone Files that they uploaded, or that were shared with them These Community apps: Files and Folders, Forums and Forum Topics, Activities, and Wikis/Wiki pages
  • View and download files that are shared with them
  • Edit files in HCL Docs
  • See activity stream content to which they have access
  • Recent Updates (and Status Updates if they are @mentioned) in Communities they are members of
  • On homepage for content they follow, content in Communities they are members of, or posts they are @mentioned in
  • "Like" content
  • Edit their profile by clicking their picture and selecting My Profile
  • View abbreviated business cards of people that share content with them (cards don't contain clickable links for employee names)
  • Share files with people
  • See status updates if they are @mentioned in them

External users - what they CAN NOT do

  • Invite people to their network, or Follow people
  • @mention people
  • Post status on their homepage or Profile page
  • Follow blogs/ideation blogs (and for this release, communities--planned for future)
  • Create a Community, or be a Community owner
  • See public microblogs
  • See public or moderated Communities, or restricted Communities that they are not a member of
  • See public files
  • See or search the company directory (including using type-ahead) to find people
  • See recommended content or people (Recommendations widget still displays, but with message that there are none )
  • Access the Profiles menu
  • Access other user profiles
  • See Community metrics

Although they could in IBM Cloud, a person from one organisation cannot join or be added to a Community from another organisation. If a Community that was migrated from IBM Cloud previously had such a member, their community status updates are preserved, but any files from their organisation linked to in the updates are NOT available, and those links are broken.