Enable Channel Authentication in Experience Manager

Overview

This page explains how to require authentication for CMS users previewing protected channels or pages in Experience Manager.

When to Use

Enable channel authentication when you want CMS users to authenticate before previewing channels or pages that are protected by delivery tier authorization.

Background

By default, Experience Manager allows CMS users to preview any channel without authentication, even if the channel or specific pages require authentication for site visitors. This behavior is controlled by the hst:channelmanagersiteauthenticationskipped property in the repository configuration.

You can override this default and require authentication for CMS users in preview mode. This ensures that previewing a protected channel or page in Experience Manager follows the same authentication rules as site visitors.

For more information about delivery tier authorization and authentication, see:

• Authorization configuration
• Authentication configuration
• Experience Manager overview

Prerequisites

• Access to the JCR repository configuration.
• Appropriate permissions to modify channel configuration nodes.

Implementation Steps

1. Locate the /hst:hst/hst:hosts node in the JCR repository.
2. Set the hst:channelmanagersiteauthenticationskipped property to false.

Example configuration:

/hst:hst:
  /hst:hosts:
    hst:channelmanagersiteauthenticationskipped: false
copy

Verification

After updating the configuration:

1. Log in to Experience Manager as a CMS user.
2. Attempt to preview a protected channel or page.
3. The system should now require authentication before allowing access to the preview.

Related Topics

• Grant access to one channel
• Delivery tier authorization
• Delivery tier authentication
• Experience Manager