Public Access Content Verification

[ericshearer]

Hi there,
We just updated our connect/workbench to 2024.04.2 Build 764.pro (license tier enhanced). With this upgrade we've lost our ability to share interactive content (Shiny apps) with anyone on our network. I've tried updating the rstudio-connect.gcfg file to MostPermissiveAccessType = all and AdminMostPermissiveAccessType = all (using this link), but we still don't have the functionality to set sharing settings to "Anyone - no login required". Are there any other settings we need to adjust?

[Emily_C]

Hello @ericshearer

Thanks for opening a support ticket. We will respond in detail there, as that is the best place to address any licensing questions.

I'll share some background here as well. Posit Connect has historically provided an option to share published content with “Anyone - No login required”. This feature was intended for public-facing content such as open-access scientific publishing and public education use cases. This feature was not intended for use on internal servers or VMs as a means to provide content access outside of Posit’s named user licensing scheme. It was not allowed by the EULA but it wasn't yet enforced in the product.

We understand that this distinction was not clearly communicated in the product, and customers may have been using “Anyone - No login required” to distribute content or provide access to unlicensed users. We have no intention of attempting to make retroactive corrections to past licensing or user counts.

Beginning with version 2023.12, Posit Connect licensing and product behavior were updated to enforce limits on content-sharing settings. Public access content is verified via server communication to Posit beginning with the 2024.06 Posit Connect release.

The “Anyone - No login required” setting will not be selectable for any interactive content (includes applications, APIs, and documents with interactivity that requires a running R or Python process to support viewer interactions). Any existing interactive content set to this access setting will only be accessible to logged-in users. If you have an open-access science or public education use case, this can still be supported through Posit Connect Public Access licensing. For Public Access use-cases and for customers who rely on sharing applications and APIs with the “Anyone - No login required” option internally, please contact your Posit customer success and sales team to discuss your use case and potential alternatives.

The “Anyone - No login required” setting will be available and allowed for any static or rendered/scheduled content (includes any content that does not require a hosted server component for a viewer). Distributing this category of content to unlicensed users is expressly allowed by the terms of your license and “anyone - no login required” may be used at the discretion of your own organization and security policies.