I am looking for a way to test published links with my Admin account acting as an unlicensed user
Hello,
Background and Setup:
Our PMO has over 100 plans we publish and link to a dashboard for the entire company to view. Our security requires that we allow authenticated users view-only and not all users when we publish our plans. All of the plan links end up on the dashboard. This means we have a group of users who have licenses and a large audience of unlicensed users.
Here is my issue:
When we publish our plans to authenticated users, those of us in the PMO can't validate that links are behaving properly because we all have Admin access to the sheets and will always see them. Additionally, we can't set up an unlicensed user outside of the domain to test because we use google to authenticate with our corporate email. I am hoping there is a way as an Admin to test access to a sheet or published link acting as a different role, like an unlicensed user.
Thanks,
Alex
Best Answer
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Testing access to a published item is as simple as opening the published link. Published links do not care who is or is not signed in as long as they meet the requirements established when publishing.
If I own a sheet and publish it to only users who are shared to the sheet, I will see it when I open the published view.
If I then transfer ownership of the sheet to someone else and they remove my sharing from it, I will no longer be able to see anything using that same published link.
It works the same way when within your account. You aren't able to view the published link because you own the sheet. You are able to view the published link because you are part of your account.
The easiest way to test this would be to send the published link to your personal email address. You should not be able to see anything when accessing the link if your personal email address is not part of your account. Even if your personal email address is shared to the sheet, you should not be able to see anything from the published link.
Answers
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Testing access to a published item is as simple as opening the published link. Published links do not care who is or is not signed in as long as they meet the requirements established when publishing.
If I own a sheet and publish it to only users who are shared to the sheet, I will see it when I open the published view.
If I then transfer ownership of the sheet to someone else and they remove my sharing from it, I will no longer be able to see anything using that same published link.
It works the same way when within your account. You aren't able to view the published link because you own the sheet. You are able to view the published link because you are part of your account.
The easiest way to test this would be to send the published link to your personal email address. You should not be able to see anything when accessing the link if your personal email address is not part of your account. Even if your personal email address is shared to the sheet, you should not be able to see anything from the published link.
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Hey Paul! I hope you are doing well. I tested this workflow by sharing the sheet to my personal email (I was able to access the sheet). I then attempted to access the published link from my personal account and I was not able to access it. Your suggestion worked well. I appreciate the fast response. I will let the rest of our organization know this workflow. Thanks again! 🎓️
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Happy to help. 👍️
