Salesforce Knowledge User Guide
Below you will find brief information for Salesforce Knowledge. Salesforce Knowledge lets you create and manage your company information and securely share it when and where it is needed. Articles can include process information or frequently asked questions and are published to a range of channels.
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Complete Guide to Salesforce
Knowledge
Salesforce, Winter ’18
@salesforcedocs
Last updated: November 2, 2017
©
Copyright 2000–2017 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce is a registered trademark of salesforce.com, inc., as are other names and marks. Other marks appearing herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
CONTENTS
Set Up and Manage Your Salesforce Knowledge Base
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Salesforce Knowledge Documentation Overview
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Plan Your Knowledge Base
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Build Your Knowledge Base
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Enable Knowledge One with Permission Sets
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Enable Knowledge One with Profiles
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Example Apex for Submitting Articles from Cases
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Add Custom Fields to Article Types
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Control Data Integrity with Validation Rules
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Import Existing Information into Salesforce Knowledge
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Prepare Articles for Import to Salesforce Knowledge
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Create a .csv File for Article Import
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Create an Article .zip File for Import
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Article and Translation Import and Export Status
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Create Public Groups for Knowledge
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Assign Article Actions to Public Groups
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Define Validation Status Picklist Values
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Workflow and Approvals for Articles
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Modify Default Category Group Assignments for Articles
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Filter Articles with Data Category Mapping
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Support Articles in Multiple Languages
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Export Articles for Translation
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Improve the Article Search Experience
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Search Highlights and Snippets
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Contents
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Use More Case Keywords to Find Articles
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Set Up the Knowledge One Widget
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Compare Article Widgets for Cases at a Glance
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Work with Articles and Translations
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Search Articles and External Sources on the Knowledge Tab
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Promote Articles in Search Results
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Publish Articles and Translations
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Translate Articles Within Salesforce Knowledge
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Archive Articles and Translations
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Salesforce Knowledge Article Versions
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Delete Articles and Translations
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Index
SET UP AND MANAGE YOUR SALESFORCE KNOWLEDGE
BASE
Build your knowledge base and give your website visitors, clients, partners, and service agents the ultimate in support. Salesforce Knowledge lets you create and manage your company information and securely share it when and where it is needed.
Your Salesforce Knowledge base is built from knowledge articles, which are documents of information. Articles can include information on process, like how to reset your product to its defaults, or frequently asked questions, like how much storage your product supports.
Experienced service agents and internal writers write the articles. The articles are then published to a range of channels: Internal App, customer and partner communities, or public websites. Where and what information is published is based on the article layout profile and the field level security.
As of Spring '17, Knowledge is available in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience. Lightning
Knowledge, which is Generally Available, is recommended for orgs new to Knowledge, or for existing orgs that can easily consolidate to one article type.
Note: Enabling Lightning Knowledge changes your Org's Data Model to use Record Types rather than Article Types. Orgs with multiple articles types require data migration to consolidate article types before enabling Lightning Knowledge. IMPORTANT: After you enable Lightning
Knowledge, you can't disable it. Test in a Sandbox or Trial org before enabling in production.
Salesforce Knowledge Documentation Overview
Use these lists to find Salesforce Knowledge information in the Salesforce documentation set.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
Salesforce Knowledge Documentation Overview
Use these lists to find Salesforce Knowledge information in the Salesforce documentation set.
Overview of Salesforce Knowledge
•
Set Up and Manage Your Salesforce Knowledge Base
•
•
•
Work with Articles and Translations
•
Salesforce Knowledge Guide
Classic Knowledge
Set up Classic Knowledge
•
•
•
Import Existing Information into Salesforce Knowledge
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
1
Set Up and Manage Your Salesforce Knowledge Base Salesforce Knowledge Documentation Overview
•
•
Workflow and Approvals for Articles
Use Your Salesforce Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
•
Search Articles and External Sources on the Knowledge Tab
–
Find Knowledge Articles in a Salesforce Console in Salesforce Classic
–
How Does Search Work?
–
–
For searching and viewing Salesforce Knowledge Articles on your Android device, see Access Salesforce Knowledge Articles with Salesforce for Android (Beta) and Salesforce App Differences from the Full Salesforce Site
•
•
Publish Articles and Translations
•
Report on Salesforce Knowledge Articles
Translate Salesforce Knowledge Articles
•
Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base
•
Translate Articles Within Salesforce Knowledge
•
Export Articles for Translation
•
Lightning Knowledge
Set up Lightning Knowledge
•
Enable Lightning Knowledge
•
Set up Lightning Knowledge
•
Create Lightning Knowledge Record Types
•
Create Lightning Knowledge Home
•
Set Access for Lightning Knowledge
Use Your Salesforce Knowledge Base in Lightning Experience
•
Authoring Actions in Lightning Knowledge
•
Search Articles in the Main Search Box and the Knowledge Sidebar
•
Use the Knowledge Sidebar in the Lightning Service Console
Define Data Categories for Your Salesforce Knowledge Articles
•
Data Categories in Salesforce.com
•
Create and Modify Category Groups
•
Add Data Categories to Category Groups
Share Your Salesforce Knowledge Base
•
Find, Attach, and Email Articles with the Case Feed Articles Tool (Classic)
•
Enable Salesforce Knowledge in Your Community (Classic)
2
Set Up and Manage Your Salesforce Knowledge Base Salesforce Knowledge Documentation Overview
•
Use Knowledge with Live Agent (Classic)
•
If you want visitors to your public website to view Salesforce Knowledge articles, install the Public Knowledge Base app from the
AppExchange. To install, configure, and customize your public knowledge base with this package, see the Public Knowledge Base
AppExchange App Guide available on the AppExchange .
Knowledge and the Salesforce App
•
What’s Available in Each Version of the Salesforce App
•
Customer Service Features: What’s Not Available in the Salesforce App
Develop with Salesforce Knowledge
•
The Salesforce Knowledge Developers Guide has Salesforce Knowledge specific development information along with tutorials and examples.
•
The Force.com REST API Developer Guide has information on supporting articles with the REST API.
•
The SOAP API Developer Guide has information on theSalesforce Knowledge API:
–
Guidelines
–
Objects
–
Calls
•
The Metadata API Developers Guide has information on Salesforce Knowledge Metadata API objects.
•
The Visualforce Developers Guide has information on Salesforce Knowledge Visualforce components.
•
The Force.com Apex Code Developers Guide has information on the Apex KnowledgeArticleVersionStandardController Class.
3
PLAN YOUR KNOWLEDGE BASE
It's important that you consider your individual company’s needs while you develop a strategy for capturing and publishing your support team’s expertise. With a robust knowledge base, customers receive service faster or even solve their own problems themselves.
Setting up Salesforce Knowledge is a “choose your own adventure” procedure. There are many features and options and it’s up to you to decide which ones are right for your enterprise.
Consideration
What information do you need to publish?
Who can provide the information?
Do you need to categorize your information?
Who has access to which categories?
Further Information
Who can approve and manage the information?
Do you need workflow or approval processes to manage article creation and publication?
Workflow and Approvals for Articles
Do you have an existing Knowledge base or documentation that you need to import?
Who needs to read what information and where?
Import Existing Information into Salesforce
Create Public Groups for Knowledge ,
Assign Article Actions to Public
Data Categories in Salesforce.com
Data Category Visibility
Are you supporting more than one language?
Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base
Do you need agents to search for articles while working on a case?
Attach PDF versions of articles to case emails.View a list of suggested articles based on case information.
,
Do you need agents to follow articles in Chatter?
Feed Tracking
Do you need to share your knowledge base externally?
Public Knowledge for Mobile, Web, and Facebook
Do you need to enhance searchability?
Improve the Article Search Experience
Do you need guidelines, resources, and current discussions on the evolving world of knowledge base orientated service?
Salesforce Knowledge is "KCS Verified" by the
Consortium for Service Innovation, which recognizes best practices in customer support methodologies. By implementing
Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) features, you can create more efficient collaboration
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
4
Plan Your Knowledge Base Salesforce Knowledge Limits
Consideration Further Information
within your team and provide pertinent and accurate information to your customers.
Consider the following tips when planning and using Salesforce Knowledge:
•
letting you optimize search results.
•
Before setting up data categories, carefully plan your category groups and their hierarchies. Also, consider how your category hierarchy maps to your role hierarchy. For more information, see Data Category Visibility .
•
Create custom reports on your Salesforce Knowledge data. You can also install the Knowledge Base Dashboards and Reports app from the AppExchange to receive over two dozen helpful reports.
•
Multiple agents can edit the same article at the same time. If that occurs, your changes can be overwritten by a colleague without warning, even if you save your work frequently. To avoid accidental data loss, instruct all users who edit articles to edit only the articles they're assigned.
•
Know the maximum limits for articles , article types, and data categories.
•
Review your usage regularly to avoid storage shortages: from Setup, enter
Storage Usage
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Storage Usage.
•
Public knowledge base users cannot rate articles.
•
The File custom field type allows agents to attach documents to articles.
•
You will lose your data if you convert a custom field on an article type into any other field type. Do not convert custom fields unless no data exists for the field.
•
When renaming Salesforce Knowledge labels note that standard field names, like title and type, are fixed. These fields do not change the labels on the article create and edit pages. If the organization is set to another language, these fields remain in the fixed label for that language.
•
The Salesforce Knowledge search engine supports lemmatization, which is the process of reducing a word to its root form. With lemmatization, a search can match expanded forms of a search term. For example, a search for
running
matches items that contain run, running, and ran.
•
Make sure that you have a clear understanding of the type of articles your organization needs, and how agents interact with these article types. This determines the article type permissions and article actions that you need to assign to Salesforce Knowledge users, which you can then use to create the set of profiles or permission sets required by your organization. For more information, see
on page 44.
•
Determine if you need to create workflow rules for some of your article types. For example, you can create a rule that sends an email to an article manager when an agent creates an article upon closing a case.
•
Determine if you need to create approval processes for some of your article types. For example, if you have a type of article that must have legal and management approval before it can be published externally, create an approval process for the article type.
Limits for Salesforce Knowledge per edition.
Salesforce Knowledge Limits
Limits for Salesforce Knowledge per edition.
5
Plan Your Knowledge Base Salesforce Knowledge Limits
Salesforce Knowledge is a knowledge base for creating and managing content. If Salesforce Knowledge is enabled in Communities, customers and partners can access articles.
Note: The following limits are default limits. Some limits can be expanded. Contact Salesforce to request limit increases.
Salesforce Knowledge Limits
Maximum number of articles
Maximum number of article types
Maximum number of custom fields per article type
Details for Classic Knowledge
50,000 articles
Details for Lightning Knowledge
50,000 articles
100 article types N/A
Enterprise, Developer, and Unlimited editions: 500 custom fields per article type
Performance editions: 800 custom fields per article type
N/A
Maximum file fields
Maximum file size
5 file fields
131072 characters
N/A
File fields are counted as attachments and can be up to 25 MB.
Files can be up to 2 GB.
131072 characters Maximum rich text area size
Maximum size of all rich text area fields on an article
1638400 characters 1638400 characters
Maximum unique article references (links) in a rich text area field
You can have up to 100 links to different
Salesforce Knowledge articles in one rich text field.
You can have up to 100 links to different
Salesforce Knowledge articles in one rich text field.
Article history tracking Article events are tracked for up to 18 months.
Article events are tracked up to 18 months.
Maximum number of supported languages 16 supported languages
Article import
16 supported languages
The import .zip file must meet the following requirements:
The import .zip file must meet the following requirements:
•
There can only be one .csv file and one
.properties file.
•
The .csv file and the .properties file must be in the root directory.
•
The compression process must preserve the folder and subfolder structure.
•
There can only be one .csv file and one
.properties file.
•
The .csv file and the .properties file must be in the root directory.
•
The compression process must preserve the folder and subfolder structure.
•
The .zip file name can’t contain special characters.
•
The .zip file can’t exceed 20 MB and the individual, uncompressed, files within the zip file can’t exceed 10 MB.
•
.csv files can’t have more than 10,000 rows, including the header row.
•
The .zip file name can’t contain special characters.
•
The zip file can't exceed 20 MB and the individual, uncompressed, files within the zip file can't exceed 10 MB.
•
.csv files can't have more than 10,000 rows, including the header row.
6
Plan Your Knowledge Base Salesforce Knowledge Limits
Salesforce Knowledge Limits Details for Classic Knowledge Details for Lightning Knowledge
Therefore, you can have a maximum of
9,999 articles and translations.
•
.csv file rows can’t exceed 400,000 characters.
•
.csv file cells can’t exceed 32 KB.
•
Each article in the .csv file can’t have more than 49 translations.
Therefore, you can have a maximum of
9,999 articles and translations
•
.csv file rows can't exceed 400,000 characters
•
.csv file cells can't exceed 32 KB.
•
Each article in the .csv file can't have more than 49 translations.
Maximum number of data category groups and active data category groups
5 category groups, with 3 groups active at a time
5 category groups, with 3 groups active at a time
Maximum number of categories per data category group
100 categories in a data category group 100 categories in a data category group
Maximum number of levels in data category group hierarchy
5 levels in a data category group hierarchy 5 levels in a data category group hierarchy
Maximum number of data categories from a data category group assigned to an article
8 data categories from a data category group assigned to an article
Maximum number of promoted search terms
Maximum number of characters for
Knowledge article searches
Your organization can create a maximum of 2,000 promoted terms.
100 characters
If a user searches for more than 100 characters, results are returned, but the results only consider the first 100 characters.
8 data categories from a data category group assigned to an article
N/A
100 characters
If a user searches for more than 100 characters, results are returned, but the results only consider the first 100 characters.
Maximum number of characters from a supported object record used to suggest
Knowledge articles
255 characters
Admins choose which fields are used to suggest articles.
255 characters
Admins choose which fields are used to suggest articles.
7
BUILD YOUR KNOWLEDGE BASE
After you've assigned Knowledge User licenses (including to yourself), you're ready to build your
Knowledge base.
To ensure that your organization has Knowledge User licenses, from Setup, enter
Company
in the Quick Find box, then select Company Information. Knowledge User licenses are listed near the bottom of the page, in the Feature Licenses related list.
To ensure that you are a Salesforce Knowledge user, from your personal settings, enter
Personal
in the Quick Find box, then select Personal Information. The Knowledge User checkbox is in the second column of the User Detail section.
To enable Salesforce Knowledge, from Setup, enter
Knowledge
in the Quick Find box, then select Knowledge Settings. Confirm that you want to enable Salesforce Knowledge and click
Enable Knowledge. If your org doesn’t have an article type, a default article type is created.
Note: If you enabled Knowledge before Spring ’16 you must create an article type first. After the Spring ‘16 release, you no longer need to create an article type first.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
From the Knowledge Settings page, you can create a Knowledge Base experience for your support agents, partners, and customers.
To enable Salesforce
Knowledge:
•
Customize Application
Article types, such as FAQs and Tutorials, provide the format and structure to control how an article displays for each audience, known as a channel. For each article type you can create custom fields, customize the layout by adding or removing sections and fields, and choose a template for each channel. You can also create workflow rules and approval processes to help your organization track and manage article creation and publication.
Import Existing Information into Salesforce Knowledge
You can import your existing articles or information database into Salesforce Knowledge. This importer is for articles and translations you currently have outside Salesforce Knowledge
Specify which agents in your company are Salesforce Knowledge users and give them access to article actions. Create user profiles with the user permissions they need, and then assign them to these profiles.
Define Validation Status Picklist Values
When the
Validation Status
field is enabled on the Knowledge Settings page, you can create picklist values that show the state of the article. For example, values could be
Validated
,
Not Validated
, or
Needs Review
.
Workflow and Approvals for Articles
Ensuring that the content in your articles is accurate and helpful is foundational to getting accurate information to those who need it most. Creating processes where Knowledge experts review, validate, and approve articles for publication is critical to creating a trustworthy knowledge base. Implementing approval processes with Salesforce Knowledge gives you additional control over the content and publication of your articles.
8
Build Your Knowledge Base Enable Salesforce Knowledge
Knowledge actions are templates that link a workflow action to an article type. When knowledge actions are enabled, you can use them to link article types to specific workflow article actions, such as publishing. For example, if you want to have each FAQ published as a new version each time it completes the approval process, you can create a knowledge action that links the FAQ article type to the
Publish as New
action. Then, when you create an approval process for FAQs, select the new Knowledge Action.
Modify Default Category Group Assignments for Articles
Salesforce Knowledge uses data categories to classify articles. Data categories are organized in category group. After creating category groups, admins decide which groups to use for Salesforce Knowledge articles. For example, if your org uses both the Answers and
Salesforce Knowledge, you might want one category group to be used by the answers community and two other category groups for articles. Answers and articles can use the same category group. Authors can assign up to eight data categories from one category group to an article so that users searching for articles can find and filter by category. By default, all the category groups you create are assigned to Salesforce Knowledge
Filter Articles with Data Category Mapping
Make suggested articles more relevant when solving cases. Map case fields to data categories to filter for articles assigned to those data categories. For example, cases with a field for which product they are about can be mapped to the data category of that product.
Articles assigned that category or product, are filtered to the top of the suggested article list.
Support Articles in Multiple Languages
With multiple languages for Salesforce Knowledge, you can lower support costs by translating articles into the languages your audience prefers. After selecting your language settings, two translation methods are available: translating articles in-house using the editing tool in the knowledge base, or sending articles to a localization vendor. Different languages can use different methods.
For example, you may want to export articles to a vendor for French translations, but assign articles to an internal Knowledge user for Spanish translations.
Improve the Article Search Experience
Enable search highlights and snippets, synonyms, promoted terms, topics, and keywords from cases to improve your article search.
Set Up the Knowledge One Widget
Knowledge One is available as a widget that you can plug in to the Salesforce Console for Service or Salesforce Console for Sales. If you are using the Knowledge tab, you get the same easy-to-use interface for articles and external sources on cases and within the
Salesforce Console for Service. You can search, send, and create articles, all without leaving the case.
Enable Salesforce Knowledge
From the Knowledge Settings page, you can create a Knowledge Base experience for your support agents, partners, and customers.
To set up or edit your knowledge Base, from Setup, enter
Knowledge Settings
in the
Quick
Find
box, select Knowledge Settings, then click Edit.
Feature or Option
General Settings
Description
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
9
Build Your Knowledge Base Enable Salesforce Knowledge
Feature or Option
Allow agents to create and edit articles from the Article or
Knowledge tab
Description
Enables agents to edit articles without going to the Article
Management tab. Agents can click Edit to open the article edit page. If a published version of the article exists, they can view the published version or edit the current version. If a draft version exists, they can continue with editing the existing draft, but must carefully review the draft so that they don’t overwrite unpublished changes.
Activate Validation Status field Adds a
Validation Status on page 54 field to all Salesforce
Knowledge articles. Agents can select values to show whether the content of the article has been validated or not.
Allow agents to add external multimedia content to HTML in the standard editor
Allows <iframe> elements in the standard editor to embed multimedia content from the Dailymotion, Vimeo, and YouTube websites. Agents can simply cut and paste <iframe> HTML into the editor.
Enable Lightning Knowledge (Beta) Enables Lightning Knowledge (Beta). After you enable Lightning
Knowledge, you can’t disable it.
Article Summaries
Show article summaries in article list views For each channel, decide whether an article's summary details display beneath the article’s title in search results.
Knowledge One
Switch from the Articles tab to the Knowledge Tab
Enable Knowledge One with Profiles
Enable Knowledge One with Permission Sets
Suggest related articles on cases Search on the Knowledge tab suggests articles based on their content similarity and their links to similar cases. If no articles are linked to similar cases, suggested articles have similar titles as the case or have keywords in common with admin-selected case fields.
Suggested articles are available in the Salesforce Console for Service and your portals when viewing existing cases and creating ones.
Finally, if the suggested articles aren't suitable, the user working the case initiates a search with specific keywords, which may result in different articles.
Note: By default, the Subject field is selected. Choose up to five of the available short text fields that include a description of the issue, the affected product, or the case topic. We recommend choosing short text fields to return more relevant results. Only the first 255 characters of the content from all admin-selected fields are searched. The
Description field is always taken into account when suggesting articles for cases and does not count toward the character limit.
10
Build Your Knowledge Base
Feature or Option
Highlight relevant article text within search results
Auto-complete keyword search
Auto-complete title search
Language Settings
Default Knowledge Base Language
Single or Multiple Language
Case Settings
Allow agents to create an article from a case
11
Enable Salesforce Knowledge
Description
Search on the Knowledge tab generates a snippet of the relevant
article text with the search terms bolded. See Search Highlights and Snippets .
Search on the Knowledge tab suggests the three most popular keyword searches performed on the Knowledge tab. Suggestions are based on the channel (internal, customer, partner, or public) the reader is searching.
Note: Keyword search history is refreshed once a day.
Search on the Knowledge tab suggests up to 3 articles with matching titles.
The primary language used for writing articles. It defaults to your organization's language. We recommend that your Default
Knowledge Base Language and your organization's language are the same.
If you support more than one language, select Multiple Languages and choose the translation settings. For instructions, see
Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base .
Important: If you enable Multiple Languages, you can’t revert to a single language knowledge base. You also can’t enable and use Lightning Knowledge (Beta).
If this checkbox is selected, agents can create a draft article that is attached to the case when the article is published using one of the following options.
•
Create articles using the simple editor only when closing cases.
•
Create articles using the standard editor any time an agent creates an article. Make sure that users have “Manage Articles,”
“Read,“ and “Create” permissions. Designate the following:
–
The default article type, from the drop-down list
–
For articles created when closing a case, assign the article to a user.
–
Help agents create articles fast by Selecting an Apex class
that pre-populates any of the fields on the draft. By default, the Title field in all draft articles contains the case subject.
Note: If you enable this option, also click Layout
Properties on each case-close page layout and select “Enable submissions during case close and
Submit Articles.”
Build Your Knowledge Base Enable Salesforce Knowledge
Feature or Option
Use a profile to create article PDFs
Enable list of cases linked to an article
Description
By default, when a user creates an article PDF directly from a case , the PDF includes all the article fields visible to that user. If you want
PDFs generated according to a different profile, for example, a profile that hides certain fields from customers, select Use a profile to create customer-ready article PDFs on cases and choose the profile that determines field visibility.
Agents and Salesforce Knowledge managers can see a list of cases an article is attached to. This helps validate if the article is the right solution for a case and shows which articles are used most, without running a report. The Linked Cases related list:
•
Is visible on the detail or preview page of any article that has been published at least once.
•
Shows a maximum of 200 cases
•
Is sorted in descending order by the date the article was linked to the case. The sort order can’t be changed.
•
Doesn’t appear on archived articles or a translation’s edit and detail pages.
•
Doesn’t appear for external users such as portal or communities users or on the Salesforce app.
Share Article via URL Settings
Allow agents to share articles via public URLs You can share an article that is available on a public knowledge base with a URL. In the Available Sites list, select the sites you want to allow your agents to send URLs from and add them to the
Selected Sites list. Agents can then email customer service clients with a URL to link directly to the article in your public knowledge base.
Answers Settings
Allow agents to create an article from a reply If this checkbox is selected, members of an answers community or Chatter Answers community can convert helpful replies into articles. The article type you select determines which fields appear on the draft article. However, on all articles the Title contains the question and the Summary contains the reply. After a reply is promoted to an article, the original reply has a status message indicating its association with the draft article. When the article is published, the message on the reply includes a link to the article.
Chatter Questions Settings
Display relevant articles as users ask questions in Chatter (also applies to communities with Chatter)
Knowledge Statistics Settings
Shows similar questions and relevant Salesforce Knowledge articles when a user enters a question in the Search field.
12
Build Your Knowledge Base Enable Knowledge One with Permission Sets
Feature or Option
Enable thumbs up or down voting for article
Description
With this option, the article VoteStat report (which by default only contains totals for star ratings) includes totals for the thumbs up or down ratings.
Enable Knowledge One with Permission Sets
To switch users from the Articles tab to the Knowledge tab, add the
Knowledge One
permission to their permission sets.
Enable Knowledge One with Profiles
To switch users from the Articles tab to the Knowledge tab, add the
Knowledge One
permission to their profiles.
Example Apex for Submitting Articles from Cases
If your organization allows customer-support agents to create Salesforce Knowledge articles while closing a case, you can use Apex to pre-populate fields on draft articles. To do so, create an Apex class and assign it to the case article type using the example below as a guide.
Enable Knowledge One with Permission Sets
To switch users from the Articles tab to the Knowledge tab, add the
Knowledge One
permission to their permission sets.
To add the
Knowledge One
permission to a permission set:
1. From Setup, enter
Permission Sets
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Permission
Sets.
2. Click the permission set you want to add the Knowledge One permission to.
3. In the
Find Settings... box, enter
Knowledge
.
4. Select Knowledge One from the list of suggestions.
5. Click Edit.
6. Under
Knowledge Management
, check the Enabled check box for
Knowledge One
.
7. Click Save.
8. Ensure each user has at least a Read permission on at least one article type.
Once Knowledge One is available for your users, define your external data sources . Your external data sources appear under your articles both in the search results and the left-side panel.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create or edit permission sets:
•
Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets
To create and edit external data sources:
•
Customize Application
13
Build Your Knowledge Base Enable Knowledge One with Profiles
Enable Knowledge One with Profiles
To switch users from the Articles tab to the Knowledge tab, add the
Knowledge One
permission to their profiles.
To add the
Knowledge One
permission to a profile:
1. From Setup, enter
Profiles
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Profiles.
2. Click the profile you want to add the Knowledge One permission to.
3. In the
Find Settings... box, enter
Knowledge
.
4. Select Knowledge One from the list of suggestions.
5. Click Edit.
6. Under
Knowledge Management
, check
Knowledge One
.
7. Click Save.
8. Ensure each user has at least a Read permission on at least one article type.
Once Knowledge One is available for your users, define your external data sources . Your external data sources appear under your articles both in the search results and the left-side panel.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create or edit profiles:
•
Manage Profiles and
Permission Sets
To create and edit external data sources:
•
Customize Application
14
Build Your Knowledge Base Example Apex for Submitting Articles from Cases
Example Apex for Submitting Articles from Cases
If your organization allows customer-support agents to create Salesforce Knowledge articles while closing a case, you can use Apex to pre-populate fields on draft articles. To do so, create an Apex class and assign it to the case article type using the example below as a guide.
For more information on the syntax and use of Apex, see the
Force.com Apex Code Developer's Guide
.
Set up the example by creating the following article type, field, and data categories. Do not change the default
API Name
assigned to each new object.
1.
called
FAQ
.
2.
Create a text custom field called
Details
.
3.
Create a category group called
Geography
and assign it a category called
USA
.
4.
Create a category group called
Topics
and assign it a category called
Maintenance
.
Now, create and assign the Apex class.
5. From Setup, enter
Apex Classes
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Apex Classes and click New.
6. To specify the version of Apex and the API used with this class, click Version Settings.
If your organization has installed managed packages from the AppExchange, you can also specify which version of each managed package to use with this class. Use the default values for all versions. This associates the class with the most recent version of Apex and the API, as well as each managed package. You can specify an older version of a managed package if you want to access components or functionality that differs from the most recent package version.
You can specify an older version of Apex and the API to maintain specific behavior.
7. In the
Apex Class
text box enter the following script and click Save:
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To edit Salesforce
Knowledge settings:
•
Customize Application
To create an Apex class:
•
Author Apex public class AgentContributionArticleController {
// The constructor must take a ApexPages.KnowledgeArticleVersionStandardController
as an argument public
AgentContributionArticleController(ApexPages.KnowledgeArticleVersionStandardController
ctl) {
SObject article = ctl.getRecord(); //this is the SObject for the new article.
//It can optionally be cast to the proper article type, e.g. FAQ__kav article = (FAQ__kav) ctl.getRecord();
String sourceId = ctl.getSourceId(); //this returns the id of the case that was closed.
Case c = [select subject, description from Case where id=:sourceId]; article.put('title', 'From Case: '+c.subject); //this overrides the default behavior of pre-filling the title of the article with the subject of the closed case.
article.put('Details__c',c.description); ctl.selectDataCategory('Geography','USA'); //Only one category per category group can be specified.
ctl.selectDataCategory('Topics','Maintenance');
}
15
Build Your Knowledge Base Knowledge Article Types
8. From Setup, enter
Knowledge Settings
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Knowledge Settings and click Edit.
9. Verify the
; using our example, the Default article type should be FAQ.
10. From the Use Apex Customization menu, select AgentContributionArticleController and click Save.
As a result of this example, when agents create an article from the case-close screen:
•
The data from the
Description
field on the case appears in the
Details
field of the article.
•
The title of the article contains
From Case:
and the case subject.
•
The article is automatically assigned to the
USA
data category and the
Maintenance
data category.
Knowledge Article Types
Article types, such as FAQs and Tutorials, provide the format and structure to control how an article displays for each audience, known as a channel. For each article type you can create custom fields, customize the layout by adding or removing sections and fields, and choose a template for each channel. You can also create workflow rules and approval processes to help your organization track and manage article creation and publication.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
An article type controls how an article displays and what type of information of fields are included.
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Add Custom Fields to Article Types
Create custom fields to store information that is important to your articles. The only standard fields provided on article types are: Article Number, Summary, Title, and URL Name. At minimum, you want to create a field where authors can write the body of the article.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
Article-type layouts determine which fields agents can view and edit when entering data for an article. They also determine which sections appear when users view articles. The article-type template defines the format of the article, for example whether layout sections display as subtabs or as a single page with links. You can apply a layout per profile per article type. Therefore, you can display more sensitive fields of the same article to only those agents with the correct profile.
Control Data Integrity with Validation Rules
Ensure that your article content is compliant with your company standards. Create validation rules for each article type to check whether required fields have the appropriate values based on the article’s status.
You can track the history of certain fields in articles. If you have history tracking enabled, open an article of that type and click Version to see a version history list. You can also set tracking for the article type and track the full history of an article and its versions. Article events are tracked for up to 18 months.
Article types in Salesforce Knowledge require a template for each channel. The standard article-type templates—Tab and Table of
Contents—specify how the sections in the article-type layout appear in the published article. For example, if you choose the Tab template, the sections defined in the layout appear as tabs when users view an article. With the Table of Contents template, sections appear on a single page with hyperlinks to each section. You can also create a custom template using Visualforce. Custom templates are not associated with the article-type layout.
16
Build Your Knowledge Base Create Article Types
Deleting article types can result in errors and lost data. Read this entire topic carefully before deleting article types.
Create Article Types
An article type controls how an article displays and what type of information of fields are included.
Note:
Before agents can access article types, you must set object permissions for article types.
1. From Setup, enter
Knowledge Article Types
in the
Quick Find
box, then select
Knowledge Article Types.
2. Click New Article Type or edit an existing article type.
3. Enter the article types details
Field
Label
Plural Label
Gender
Starts with a vowel sound
Object Name
Description
Description
A name used to refer to the article type in any user interface pages.
The plural name of the object. If you create a tab for this object, this name is used for the tab.
If it is appropriate for your organization’s default language, specify the gender of the label. This field appears if the organization-wide default language expects gender. Your personal language preference setting does not affect whether the field appears. For example, if the organization’s default language is English and your personal language is French, you are not prompted for gender when creating an article type.
If it is appropriate for your organization’s default language, check if your label should be preceded by "an" instead of "a".
(Read only) A unique name used to refer to the article type when using the Force.com API.
In managed packages, this unique name prevents naming conflicts on package installations. The Object Name field can contain only underscores and alphanumeric characters. It must be unique, begin with a letter, not include spaces, not end with an underscore, and not contain two consecutive underscores.
An optional description of the article type. A meaningful description helps you remember
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create, edit, or delete article types:
•
Customize Application
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
17
Build Your Knowledge Base
Field
Track Field History
Deployment Status
Add Custom Fields to Article Types
Description
the differences between your article types when you are viewing them in a list.
Select this option to track the full history of an article and its
versions. The system records and displays field updates, publishing workflow events, and language versions for the master article and any translations.
Indicates whether the article type is visible outside Setup. In
Development means that article managers can’t choose this article type when creating articles. Only select Deployed after you are done creating the article type.
4. Click Save.
On the article type detail page,
•
In the Fields related list,
create or modify custom fields
as needed.
•
In the Fields related list,
as needed to rearrange fields and create sections.
•
In the Channel Displays related list, choose a template
for the Internal App, Partner, Customer, and Public Knowledge Base.
Add Custom Fields to Article Types
Create custom fields to store information that is important to your articles. The only standard fields provided on article types are: Article Number, Summary, Title, and URL Name. At minimum, you want to create a field where authors can write the body of the article.
Before you begin, determine the type of custom field you want to create.
Note:
Authors can view the
URL Name
when they create or edit an article. The
URL
Name
does not appear to end users viewing published articles.
1. From Setup, enter
Knowledge Article Types
in the
Quick Find
box, then select
Knowledge Article Types.
2. Select an article type.
3. Click New in the Fields related list.
4. Choose the type of field to create, and click Next.
5. Enter a field label. The field name is automatically populated based on the field label you enter.
This name can contain only underscores and alphanumeric characters, and must be unique in your org. It must begin with a letter, not include spaces, not end with an underscore, and not contain two consecutive underscores.
6. Enter any field attributes, such as
Description
, and click Next to continue.
Note:
You cannot enter a default value for any custom field.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create or change custom fields:
•
Customize Application
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
18
Build Your Knowledge Base Add Custom Fields to Article Types
Field-level security allows you to control which fields are visible in different channels.
8. If you do not want the field to be added automatically to the article-type layout, uncheck
Yes, add this custom field to the layout
.
9. Click Save to finish or Save & New to create more custom fields.
10. Optionally rearrange your custom fields on the article-type layout.
Note:
Creating fields can require changing many records at once. To process these changes efficiently, Salesforce might queue your request and send an email notification when the process has completed.
Warning:
field on an article type unless no data exists for the field.
The first step in creating a custom field for articles is choosing the field type. This table describes all available custom field types.
Field-Level Security on Articles
Field-level security lets administrators restrict readers’ access to specific fields on detail and edit pages. For example, you can make a “Comment” field in an article visible for Internal App profiles but not for public Community profiles.
Use Videos from Any Provider with a Custom Visualforce Page
Using a custom Visualforce page and the HTML editor, you can insert videos from any provider into your Salesforce Knowledge articles.
Custom Fields on Articles
The first step in creating a custom field for articles is choosing the field type. This table describes all available custom field types.
Field Type
Article Currency
Currency
Description
In a multiple currency organization, an article can have an article currency field to set the article’s currency ISO code.
Allows agents to enter a currency amount. The system automatically formats the field as a currency amount. This can be useful if you export data to a spreadsheet application. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.
Note: Salesforce uses the round-half-to-even tie-breaking rule for currency fields. For example, 23.5
becomes 24, 22.5 becomes 22, −22.5
becomes −22, and −23.5 becomes −24.
Values lose precision after 15 decimal places.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
19
Build Your Knowledge Base
Field Type
Date
Date/Time
File
20
Add Custom Fields to Article Types
Description
Allows agents to enter a date or pick a date from a popup calendar.
In reports, you can limit the data by specific dates using any custom date field. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.
Allows agents to enter a date or pick a date from a popup calendar, and enter a time of day. They can also add the current date and time by clicking the date and time link next to the field. The time of day includes AM or PM notation. In reports, you can limit the data by specific dates and times using any custom date field. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.
Allows agents to enter an email address, which is validated to ensure proper format. Character limit is 80. If this field is specified for contacts or leads, agents can choose the address when clicking
Send an Email. You can't use custom email addresses for mass emails. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.
Allows agents to upload and attach a file to an article. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article. Note the following caveats about File fields:
•
The maximum attachment size is 25 MB.
•
You can add up to 5 File fields to each article type; contact
Salesforce to increase these limits.
•
If the
Disallow HTML documents and attachments
security setting is enabled, File fields do not support HTML files.
•
Text content in a File field attachment is searchable. You can search up to 25 MB of attached files on an article. For example, if an article has six 5-MB file attachments, the first 4.16 MB of each file is searchable.
•
You cannot attach Salesforce CRM Content files using the File field.
•
The File field type is not supported in Developer edition.
•
The filename cannot exceed 40 characters.
•
You cannot convert a File field type into any other data type.
Build Your Knowledge Base
Field Type
Formula
Lookup Relationship
Number
Percent
21
Add Custom Fields to Article Types
Description
Allows agents to automatically calculate values based on other values or fields such as merge fields.
Note: Salesforce uses the round half up tie-breaking rule for numbers in formula fields. For example, 12.345 becomes
12.35 and −12.345 becomes −12.34.
In Database.com, the Formula editor does not provide a
Check Syntax button. Syntax checking occurs when the agent attempts to save the formula.
Creates a relationship between two records so you can associate them with each other. For example, opportunities have a lookup relationship with cases that lets you associate a particular case with an opportunity. A lookup relationship creates a field that allows agents to click a lookup icon and select another record from a popup window. On the associated record, you can then display a related list to show all the records that are linked to it. You can create lookup relationship fields that link to users, standard objects, or custom objects. If a lookup field references a record that has been deleted, Salesforce clears the value of the lookup field by default. Alternatively, you can choose to prevent records from being deleted if they’re in a lookup relationship. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.
Lookup relationship fields are not available in Personal Edition.
Lookup relationship fields to campaign members are not available; however, lookup relationship fields from campaign members to other objects are available.
Allows agents to enter any number. This entry is treated as a real number and any leading zeros are removed. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.
Note: Salesforce uses the round half up tie-breaking rule for number fields. For example, 12.345 becomes 12.35 and
−12.345 becomes −12.34. Salesforce rounds numbers referenced in merge fields according to the user’s locale, not the number of decimal spaces specified in the number field configuration.
Allows agents to enter a percentage number, for example, '10'.
The system automatically adds the percent sign to the number.
You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.
Build Your Knowledge Base
Field Type
Phone
Picklist
Picklist (Dependent)
Picklist (Multi-select)
Text
Text Area
Text Area (Long)
Text Area (Rich)
22
Add Custom Fields to Article Types
Description
Note: If the decimal value is greater than 15, and you add a percent sign to the number, a runtime error occurs.
Values lose precision after 15 decimal places.
Allows agents to enter any phone number. Character limit is 40.
You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.
Salesforce automatically formats it as a phone number.
Allows agents to select a value from a list you define.
Allows agents to select a value from a list dependent on the value of another field.
Allows agents to select more than one picklist value from a list you define. These fields display each value separated by a semicolon.
Allows agents to enter any combination of letters, numbers, or symbols. You can set a maximum length, up to 255 characters. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.
Allows agents to enter up to 255 characters that display on separate lines similar to a
Description
field. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.
Allows agents to enter up to 131,072 characters that display on separate lines similar to a
Description
field. You can set the length of this field type to a lower limit, if desired. Any length from
256 to 131,072 characters is allowed. The default is 32,768 characters. Every time a agents presses
Enter
within a long text area field, a line break and a return character are added, both count toward the character limit. Also, smart links add more characters than what is displayed.
Note: If you lower the character limit and you have articles that surpass the new limit. Those articles can’t be edited until the limit is reset higher than their character counts.
Allows agents to enter up to 131,072 characters of HTML-supported text including code samples (
Salesforce Knowledge articles.
There are two ways to create smart links:
between
•
•
Build Your Knowledge Base Add Custom Fields to Article Types
Field Type
URL
Description
Note:
•
You can have up to 100 links to different Salesforce
Knowledge articles in one rich text field.
•
When you convert a text area (rich) field to a text area
(long) field, links are displayed as link reference numbers, not URLs.
•
The upgraded editor doesn’t support Internet Explorer version 7 or version 8 in compatibility mode. If you are using these browsers, you use the older editor.
Allows agents to enter up to 255 characters of any valid website address. When agents click the field, the URL opens in a separate browser window. Only the first 50 characters are displayed on the record detail pages. You can make this field required so an agent must enter a value before saving an article.
Field-Level Security on Articles
Field-level security lets administrators restrict readers’ access to specific fields on detail and edit pages. For example, you can make a “Comment” field in an article visible for Internal App profiles but not for public Community profiles.
If using both
and field-level security to define field visibility, the most restrictive field access setting always applies. For example, if a field is hidden in the article-type layout, but visible in the field-level security settings, the layout overrides security settings and the field aren’t visible. Some user permissions override both page layouts and field-level security settings. For example, users with the “Edit Read Only Fields” permission can always edit read-only fields regardless of any other settings.
Important: Field-level security doesn’t prevent searching on the values in a field. When search terms match on field values protected by field-level security, the associated records are returned in the search results without the protected fields and their values.
You can define security via a permission set, profile, or field.
Define field-level security via permission sets or profiles
1. For permission sets or profiles, from Setup, either:
•
Enter
Permission Sets
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Permission Sets, or
•
Enter
Profiles
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Profiles
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
2. Select a permission set or profile.
3. Depending on which interface you're using, do one of the following:
•
Permission sets or enhanced profile user interface—In the Find Settings... box, enter the name of the object you want and select it from the list. Click Edit, then scroll to the Field Permissions section.
•
Original profile user interface—In the Field-Level Security section, click View next to the object you want to modify, and then click Edit.
23
Build Your Knowledge Base Add Custom Fields to Article Types
4. Specify the field's access level.
Note: These field access settings override any less-restrictive field access settings on the article-type layouts.
5. Click Save.
Define field-level security via fields
1. For fields, from Setup, enter
Knowledge Article Types
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Knowledge Article
Types.
2. Select the article type that contains the field to modify.
3. Select the field and click Set Field-Level Security.
4. Specify the field's access level.
Note: These field access settings override any less-restrictive field access settings on the article-type layouts.
5. Click Save.
After setting field-level security, you can
modify the article-type layouts to organize the fields on detail and edit pages.
24
Build Your Knowledge Base Add Custom Fields to Article Types
Use Videos from Any Provider with a Custom Visualforce Page
Using a custom Visualforce page and the HTML editor, you can insert videos from any provider into your Salesforce Knowledge articles.
For example, create a Visualforce page:
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create a Visualforce page
•
Customize Application
To create articles:
•
Manage Articles
AND
Read and Create on the article type
To edit draft articles:
•
Manage Articles
AND
Read and Edit on the article type
To edit published or archived articles:
•
Manage Articles
AND
Create, Read, and Edit on the article type
<apex:page showHeader="false" showChat="false" sidebar="false">
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http//myvideo.provider.com/embed/{!$CurrentPage.parameters.VideoID}" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true">
</iframe>
</apex:page>
25
Build Your Knowledge Base Article Type Page Layouts
Then, with the HTML editor, authors can reference videos using this code:
<iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://
<salesforce_instance>
/apex/Video?videoID=12345" width="560">
</iframe>
Article Type Page Layouts
Article-type layouts determine which fields agents can view and edit when entering data for an article. They also determine which sections appear when users view articles. The article-type template defines the format of the article, for example whether layout sections display as subtabs or as a single page with links. You can apply a layout per profile per article type. Therefore, you can display more sensitive fields of the same article to only those agents with the correct profile.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Tip: You can also use
to hide fields on article types. For example, if you publish the same article in the internal app and in a community, you can to use field-level security to hide a custom field such as
Internal Comments
from external community users.
1. From Setup, enter
Knowledge Article Types
in the
Quick Find
box, then select
Knowledge Article Types.
2. Click the article type.
3. Scroll down to the Page Layouts related list or click the Page Layouts link at the top of the page.
4. To create a page layout, click New and follow the prompts. To edit an existing layout, click Edit and make your changes.
Make your changes. The layout editor consists of two parts: a palette on the upper portion of the screen and the layout on the lower portion of the screen. The palette contains the available fields and a section element. The layout contains an Information section and space for you to add sections. By default, all custom fields are included in the Information section.
Important:
If you navigate away from your article-type layout before clicking save, your changes are lost.
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To customize the article-type layout:
•
Customize Application
Note: The
Article Number
,
Summary
,
Title
, and
URL Name
standard fields do not display in the layout.
Article
Number
and
Summary
appear in a read-only Properties section at the top of the published article. Also included in this header are the
First Published
,
Last Modified
, and
Last Published
fields.
Task
Add a section
Change the name of a section
Remove a field from a section
Description
Drag and drop the section element into the palette.
Click its title. You cannot rename the Information section.
Drag it to the right side of the palette or click the icon next to the field.
Remove a section from the article-type layout Click the icon next to the section name.
Save your changes and continue editing the article type layout Click Quick Save.
26
Build Your Knowledge Base Article Type Page Layouts
Tip:
•
Use the undo and redo buttons to step backwards and forwards, respectively.
•
Use the following keyboard shortcuts:
–
Undo = CTRL+Z
–
Redo = CTRL+Y
–
Quick Save = CTRL+S
•
To select multiple elements individually, use CTRL+click. To select multiple elements as a group, use SHIFT+click.
•
To quickly locate any item in the palette, use the Quick Find box. The Quick Find box is especially useful for article-type layouts that have large numbers of items available in the palette.
5. To assign various layouts to the article type based on a user profile, click Page Layout Assignments.
6. Click Edit Assignment.
7. Select the profile, or profiles (using SHIFT), you want to change and select the layout from the Page Layout To Use drop-down.
When creating multiple article type page layouts, consider the following limitations and functionality changes.
•
When creating page layouts, some fields are hidden based on the agent’s license. Out of Date, Translation Completed Date, and
Translation Exported Date are hidden from users who do not have a Knowledge User license or who are customer portal or partner portal users. In addition, Archived By and Is Latest Version are hidden from customer portal and partner portal users.
•
Before Spring ‘16, preview pages showed the Summary field in the API that contained text values, even if they were not in the page layout. To continue displaying summary fields on preview pages, manually update your page layouts to include them.
•
If you want to attach articles as PDFs to emails when solving cases, add File Attachments to the
Selected Email Tools in the Feed View for the article type layout.
•
The article edit page only shows the standard fields (Article Number, Title, URL Name, and Summary) and all the custom fields added to the layout, including the side bar fields. Other standard fields added on the page layout are ignored because they are not editable, and the custom fields are displayed in the order specified in the page layout.
•
If an article type page layout doesn’t include a field with a validation rule
, you can’t create or edit an article of that article type. Make sure all page layouts assigned to the article type by profile include all fields with validation rules.
•
The Communication channel layout doesn’t use the page layout to determine which Article fields are inserted into a case email. The fields that are inserted include the fields selected in the Communication Channel mapping.
•
You can set up a specific profile to generate a PDF file. When sending articles as PDFs, the pdf is generated based on the sender’s profile. Therefore, the receiver might get fields they are not meant to see. Use the
Use a profile to create customer-ready article PDFs on cases
setting on the Knowledge settings page so the fields in PDFs come from the page layout assigned to the configured profile. Also, Field Level Security of both the sender profile and the configured profile are applied.
•
Salesforce Mobile Classic actions and related lists are not available on article page layouts in the desktop Salesforce user interface, with the exception of actions on the article feed.
When using Knowledge One, agents can send an email with an article’s contents embedded in the body of the email.
Post Site and Community Article URLs
In the Service Console, agents can insert Site or Community URLs for articles into the case feed via the email, community, or social publishers.
27
Build Your Knowledge Base Article Type Page Layouts
Send Article Content in Email
When using Knowledge One, agents can send an email with an article’s contents embedded in the body of the email.
Agents can send article content within an email rather than just sending a URL. Your customers can access the information without going to a website. Your agents send articles that are not published publicly without rewriting or copy and pasting an internal article. Administrators can assign permission to only those agents with a good knowledge of what is acceptable for an external audience.
To enable and setup which article fields go into emails for each article type.
1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.
2. How you access the Case Feed Settings page depends on what kind of page layout you’re working with.
•
For a layout in the Case Page Layouts section, click Edit, and then click Feed View in the page layout editor.
•
For a layout in the Page Layouts for Case Feed Users section, click and choose
Edit feed view
. (This section appears only for organizations created before Spring ’14.)
If you’ve already opted to use the advanced page layout editor to configure the publisher for a layout, choose
Edit detail view
to add, change, or remove actions.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
3. Under
Articles Tool Settings
, check Enable attaching articles inline.
4. Click Save.
5. From Setup, enter
Knowledge Article Types
in the
Quick Find
box, then select
Knowledge Article Types.
6. Click the label or name of the article type you’d like to share via email.
7. Under Communication Channel Mappings, click New or Edit.
8. Enter a Label and Name.
9. Select and add
to the Selected Channels list.
10. Select and add the fields you’d like included in the body of an email.
Note: Smart links can’t be included in the email and the following fields are not supported:
•
ArticleType
•
isDeleted
•
Language
•
MultiPicklist
•
Picklist
•
Publish Status
•
Source
•
Validation Status
To administer Salesforce
Knowledge and create, edit, and delete page layouts:
•
Customize Application
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
11. Click Save.
Example: While solving customer cases, agents with the permission can insert article content into the body of an email. Anywhere agents can attach articles to cases, such as the Knowledge One sidebar in the Salesforce Console, the Articles list in the case feed,
28
Build Your Knowledge Base Article Type Page Layouts the Article widget, or the suggested articles in a Knowledge One search, they can email any article of that type within the body of an email by selecting Email article with HTML in the action drop-down. The article content is inserted at top of email thread or wherever the agent left their cursor. Once an article has been emailed, an envelope icon appears to the left of the title. When the article has files that exceed the 10-mb attachment limit, agents are asked to select which files to attach and retry sending the email.
Note: If rich text is not enabled on your case feed layout for the article type, only article text is embedded into the email and the action changes to Email article text only.
Post Site and Community Article URLs
In the Service Console, agents can insert Site or Community URLs for articles into the case feed via the email, community, or social publishers.
To post Site or Community URLs for articles into the case feed , you must have the Knowledge sidebar enabled in the Service Console and either a Force.com Site or Community setup.
1. From Setup, enter
Knowledge
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Knowledge Settings.
2. Click Edit.
3. In the
Share Article via URL Settings
section, enable Allow users to share
articles via public URLs.
4. In the
Available Sites
list, select from which sites or communities you want agents to share article URLs and add them to the
Selected Sites
list.
5. Click Save.
Your agents can now select Attach and share article link from selected sites in the Knowledge sidebar of the console. Email is the default action but agents can change to the Social or Community action in the case feed before they insert the URL.
Important:
•
Articles must be published. Draft articles don’t show the insert URL option.
•
Articles must be shared publicly, meaning their Channel must be Public Knowledge Base,
Customer, or Partner.
•
All enabled URLs show Attach and share article link, even if the article is not visible in that site or community. The agent must confirm that the article is available in the site or community before sharing it with the customer.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To administer Salesforce
Knowledge:
•
Customize Application
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
29
Build Your Knowledge Base Control Data Integrity with Validation Rules
Control Data Integrity with Validation Rules
Ensure that your article content is compliant with your company standards. Create validation rules for each article type to check whether required fields have the appropriate values based on the article’s status.
1. From Setup, enter
Article Types
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Knowledge
Article Types.
2. Click the article type.
3. Scroll down to the Validation Rules related list or click the Validation Rules link at the top of the page.
4. To create a validation rule, click New. To edit an existing rule, click Edit.
5. Name the rule.
6. Make the rule active.
7. Optionally, describe what you want to control on articles of this type.
8. Specify an error condition formula and a corresponding error message.
The error condition is written as a Boolean formula expression that returns true or false. When true, the article is not saved, and an error message displays. The author can correct the error and try again. For information on validation rules, see Define Validation Rules .
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
Note: Knowledge article errors always display at the top of the page, not next to the field. Write your errors descriptively so that authors know how to satisfy the validation rule. For example, identify which field is causing the error.
9. Click Save.
To create or edit validation rules for article types:
•
Customize Application
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
When creating validation rules on article types, consider the following limitations and functionality changes.
•
If an article type page layout doesn’t include a field with a validation rule, you can’t create or edit an article of that article type. Make
sure all page layouts assigned to the article type by profile
include all fields with validation rules.
•
The Article Currency field and the VLOOKUP function don’t support validation rules.
•
When importing articles, if the import data file has a valid article with an invalid translation, the translation is created, but its translated content isn’t imported.
•
Only the first validation rule error displays at the top of the page and in the import article log. If multiple errors exist but are not fixed, they are displayed on subsequent saves or imports.
•
In the API, KA fields, such as Case Association Count and Archived Date, don’t support validation rules. Only KAV (article version) fields are supported in validation rules.
30
Build Your Knowledge Base Article History Tracking
Article History Tracking
You can track the history of certain fields in articles. If you have history tracking enabled, open an article of that type and click Version to see a version history list. You can also set tracking for the article type and track the full history of an article and its versions. Article events are tracked for up to 18 months.
The system records and displays field updates, publishing workflow events, and language versions for the master article and any translations. When you track old and new values, the system records both values as well as the date, time, nature of the change, and the user who made the change.
When you track only the changed values, the system marks the changed field as having been edited; it doesn’t record the old and new field values. This information is available in the Version History list and the fields are available in the Article Version History report.
Article history respects field, entity, and record-level security. You must have at least “Read” permission on the article type or the field to access its history. For data category security, Salesforce determines access based on the categorization of the online version of an article. If there is no online version, then security is applied based on the archived version, followed by the security of the draft version.
1. From Setup, enter
Knowledge
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Knowledge Article
Types.
2. Create an article type or edit one from the Article Types list.
3. Click Set History Tracking.
4. Choose the fields you want to track.
Salesforce begins tracking history from that date and time. Changes made before that date and time are not tracked.
5. Click Save.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create, edit, or delete article types:
•
Customize Application
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
31
Build Your Knowledge Base Article Type Templates
Article Type Templates
Article types in Salesforce Knowledge require a template for each channel. The standard article-type templates—Tab and Table of Contents—specify how the sections in the article-type layout appear in the published article. For example, if you choose the Tab template, the sections defined in the layout appear as tabs when users view an article. With the Table of Contents template, sections appear on a single page with hyperlinks to each section. You can also create a custom template using Visualforce. Custom templates are not associated with the article-type layout.
1. From Setup, enter
Knowledge Article Types
in the
Quick Find
box, then select
Knowledge Article Types
2. Click an article type name.
•
If you are using a default template, continue with Step 12.
•
If you are creating a custom template, make note of the article type's
API Name
. You need this value when you create the Visualforce page.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
3. From Setup, enter
Visualforce Pages
in the
Quick Find
box, then select
Visualforce Pages.
4. Click New.
USER PERMISSIONS
5. In the
Name
text box, enter the text that appears in the URL as the page name.
This name can contain only underscores and alphanumeric characters, and must be unique in your org. It must begin with a letter, not include spaces, not end with an underscore, and not contain two consecutive underscores.
To create, edit, or delete article-type templates:
•
Customize Application
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
6. In the
Label
text box, enter the text that users see when choosing this template from the
Channel Displays related list on the article type detail page.
7. Add your Visualforce markup.
The only requirement for custom article-type templates is that the standard controller is equal to the
API Name
of the article type. For example, if the
API Name
of the article type is
Offer__kav
, your markup would be:
<apex:page standardController="Offer__kav">
... page content here ...
</apex:page>
Note: Click Component Reference for a list of the Visualforce components, such as
knowledge:articleRendererToolbar
and
knowledge:articleCaseToolbar
, available for use in custom article-type templates.
8. If your article type has a File field , you can allow users to download the field's content.
In the following example, the article type is
Offer
, the name of the File field is
my_file
, and the text that appears as a link is
Click me
:
<apex:outputLink value="{!URLFOR($Action.Offer__kav.FileFieldDownload,
Offer__kav.id, ['field'=$ObjectType.Offer__kav.fields.my_file__Body__s.name])}">Click me</apex:outputLink>
32
Build Your Knowledge Base Article Type Templates
Note: If the File field is empty (meaning the author didn't upload a file), the link still appears on the published article but has no function. If you do not want the link to appear when the File field is empty, replace
Click me
in the example with the name of the file. For example,
{!Offer__kav.my_file__Name__s}
.
9. Click Save.
Your custom template can now be assigned to any channel on the article type.
10. From Setup, enter
Knowledge Article Types
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Knowledge Article Types
11. Click an article type name.
12. For each channel, specify the template.
•
For Internal App, Customer and Partner, Tab is the default template.
•
For Public Knowledge Base, Table of Contents is the default template.
•
If you created a custom template for this article type, it also appears in the drop-down menu.
13. Click Save.
Example: If you choose the Tab template, the sections you defined in the layout appear as tabs when users view an article.
Published Article Using the Tab Article-Type Template
.
If you choose the Table of Contents template, the sections you defined in the layout appear on one page with hyperlinks to each section title.
Published Article Using the Table of Contents Article-Type Template
33
Build Your Knowledge Base Delete an Article Type
Delete an Article Type
Deleting article types can result in errors and lost data. Read this entire topic carefully before deleting article types.
1. From Setup, enter
Knowledge Article Types
in the
Quick Find
box, then select
Knowledge Article Types.
2. Next to the article type, click Del.
3. Confirm that you want to delete the article type.
Notes on Deleting Article Types
•
If your organization has only article type, you cannot delete it. Every Salesforce Knowledge org requires at least one deployed article type. Create an article type and then delete the old one.
•
Any articles associated with a deleted article type are automatically removed from all channels, including draft, published, and archived articles.
•
Salesforce does not display deleted article types in the Recycle Bin with other deleted records. Instead, deleted article types appear in the Deleted Article Types list on the article list view page for 15 days. During this time, you can restore the article type and its articles, or permanently erase the article type and its articles. After 15 days, the article type and its articles are permanently erased.
•
If a reader clicks a bookmark to a deleted article's URL, an Insufficient Privileges message displays.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To delete article types:
•
Customize Application
Import Existing Information into Salesforce Knowledge
You can import your existing articles or information database into Salesforce Knowledge. This importer is for articles and translations you currently have outside Salesforce Knowledge
Note: If you are looking for instructions on importing translated articles that you've sent to
a localization vendor, see Import Translated Articles on page 63.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
1.
Prepare Articles for Import to Salesforce Knowledge
Each import file must have articles of the same type and columns corresponding to the fields in the article.
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
2.
Create a .csv File for Article Import
3.
Each .csv file imports articles into one article type and maps the imported articles' content with the article type's fields. For example, a .csv file might map articles' titles with the standard field
Title
in an article type, meaning that each article's title is imported into the
Title
field.
Specify import parameters in a property file using key names and corresponding values. For example, use the key
DateFormat
to specify that a date custom field appears in the
DateFormat=dd/MM/YYYY
format or specify the character encoding to be used for the import.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
4.
Create an Article .zip File for Import
To complete your article import, create a .zip file with your
.parameters
,
.csv
, and
.html
files, and upload them into
Salesforce Knowledge.
34
Build Your Knowledge Base Prepare Articles for Import to Salesforce Knowledge
5.
Article and Translation Import and Export Status
Find the status of your article imports and exports on the Article Imports page in Setup.
Prepare Articles for Import to Salesforce Knowledge
Each import file must have articles of the same type and columns corresponding to the fields in the article.
Tip: Test your import using a small set of articles.
1. Sort your existing articles by information type.
For example: FAQ, product information, or offer.
2. Ensure that each information type has a corresponding Salesforce Knowledge article type that
matches its structure and content.
For example, if you are importing FAQs, ensure that Salesforce Knowledge has an FAQ article type with enough question and answer fields to accommodate the largest FAQ article.
If your articles contain .html files, use an article type that contains a rich text area field and ensure that the HTML is compliant with the tags and attributes supported in the rich text area field.
Note: The article importer does not support subfields. If you have fields within fields, adjust your structure and content before importing into Salesforce Knowledge.
3. Verify that the article's field-level security settings allow you to edit the fields.
For each article type, create a cvs file
to import.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To import articles:
•
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
AND
Manage Articles
AND
Manage Knowledge
Article Import/Export
AND
Read, Create, Edit, and
Delete on the article type
35
Build Your Knowledge Base Create a .csv File for Article Import
Create a .csv File for Article Import
Each .csv file imports articles into one article type and maps the imported articles' content with the article type's fields. For example, a .csv file might map articles' titles with the standard field
Title in an article type, meaning that each article's title is imported into the
Title
field.
1. Create one .csv file per article type.
•
There can only be one .csv file and one .properties file.
•
The .csv file and the .properties file must be in the root directory.
•
The compression process must preserve the folder and subfolder structure.
•
The .zip file name can’t contain special characters.
•
The .zip file can’t exceed 20 MB and the individual, uncompressed, files within the zip file can’t exceed 10 MB.
•
.csv files can’t have more than 10,000 rows, including the header row. Therefore, you can have a maximum of 9,999 articles and translations.
•
.csv file rows can’t exceed 400,000 characters.
•
.csv file cells can’t exceed 32 KB.
•
Each article in the .csv file can’t have more than 49 translations.
2. In the first row, specify the article type's fields and metadata, such as language data categories or channels.
Enter one item in each column. You can use the following fields and metadata to import content.
Field or data
isMasterLanguage
Title
Standard and custom fields
Rich text area field
File field
Description
Identifies the article as a master (1) or translation (0). Required to import articles with translations, however, it can’t be in a .csv file to import articles without translations.
Translations must follow their master articles so that they are associated with the master article preceding it
The article or translation’s title. Required for all imports.
Refer to an article type's standard fields using field names and refer to custom fields using
API names. Leaving a row cell empty may cause your articles to be skipped if the related article type field is mandatory.
custom fields to import
.html files or images. Refer to an article type's rich text area field using its API name.
Use the
file custom fields to import any file
type (.doc, .pdf, .txt, etc.). Refer to an article type's file field using its API name.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To import articles:
•
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
AND
Manage Articles
AND
Manage Knowledge
Article Import/Export
AND
Read, Create, Edit, and
Delete on the article type
36
Build Your Knowledge Base
Field or data
Data category groups
Channel
Language
Create a .csv File for Article Import
Description
To categorize the imported articles, use category groups; refer to a category group using its unique name prefixed with datacategorygroup.
. For example, use datacategorygroup.Products
to specify the category group Products.
To specify where the imported articles are available, use the keyword
Channels
.
Specify the articles' language. Required to import articles with translations. Optional to import articles without translations. If you don't include this column, the articles automatically belong to the
default knowledge base language and you can’t import
translations along with the master articles.
3. In subsequent rows, specify the articles you want to import.
Use one row per article and enter the appropriate information in each field or metadata column.
Important: All file names are case sensitive and must match what is in the .csv file exactly.
Consideration
Standard or custom fields
Rich text area field
Notes
Enter the articles' data for each field, except for rich text area fields where you must enter the relative path to the corresponding .html file in your .zip file.
Note: The article importer does not support subfields. If you have fields within fields, adjust your structure and content before importing into Salesforce Knowledge.
Always enter the .html file path relative to the location of the
.csv file. Never enter raw text. If the specified path doesn't exist, the related article isn't imported. Note the following information about importing HTML and images.
•
We recommend that you create separate folders for the .html
files (for example,
/data
) and the images (for example, data/images
).
•
To import images, include the images in an .html file using the
<img>
tag and src
attribute. Ensure that the src value is a relative path from the .html file to the image folder.
•
Images must be
.png
,
.gif
, or
.jpeg
files.
•
Each image file can’t exceed 1 MB.
•
.html files can’t exceed the maximum size for their field.
•
If a date doesn't match the date format specified in the property file, the related article isn't imported.
37
Build Your Knowledge Base
Consideration
File field
Category groups
Channels
38
Create a .csv File for Article Import
Notes
•
If an .html file references a file that isn't allowed, the related article isn't imported.
•
If an .html file references an image that's missing, the related article is imported without the image.
Enter the path relative to the file's location. If the specified path doesn't exist, the related article isn't imported. Note the following information about importing files.
•
We recommend that you create a folder for your files (for example,
/files
).
•
Each file must not exceed 5 MB.
Use category unique names to categorize articles. Use the plus symbol (
+
) to specify more than one category. For example,
Laptop+Desktop
. Note the following information about data category groups.
•
Leaving the cell row empty causes your article to be set to
No Categories.
•
If you specify a category and its parent (for example,
Europe+France) the import process skips the child category
France and keeps the parent category Europe, because application of a parent category implicitly includes the category's children.
•
When importing articles with translations and associated data categories, only the master article retains the data categories. The article translations have no associated data category upon import.
Specify articles' channels using the keywords.
•
application
for Internal App. If you don't specify a channel, application
is the default.
•
sites
for Public Knowledge Base.
•
csp
for Customer.
•
prm
for Partner.
Use the plus (
+
) symbol to specify more than one channel (for example, application+sites+csp
to make an article available in all channels).
Note: When importing articles with translations and associated channels, only the master article retains the channels. The article translations have no associated channels upon import.
Build Your Knowledge Base Create a .csv File for Article Import
Example: The following example .csv files import articles in a Product Offer article type. The first example is for imports of articles without translations. The second is for imports with translations. The .csv files contain titles, summaries, and descriptions. They also classify the articles in the category group Products and make them available for specific channels. The description__c field is a rich text area and only supports paths to .html files. The summary__c
field is a text field and only supports raw text.
The “Best Desktop Computer Deals” article has no summary; the cell is left blank because the summary__c
field is not mandatory.
Title summary__c description__c
data/freecam.html
datacategorygroup
.Products
Channels
Consumer_ Electronics application+csp Free Digital Camera
Offer
Best Desktop Computer
Deals
Free Shipping on Laptop and Desktops
Get the new Digital
Camera.
data/bestdeals.html
data/freeship.html
Desktop
Laptop+Desktops application+csp application+csp
Example articlesimport.csv
file:
Title,summary__c,description__c,datacategorygroup.Products,Channels
Free Digital Camera Offer, Get the new Digital
Camera.,data/freecam.html,Consumer_Electronics,application+csp
Best Desktop Computer Deals,,data/bestdeals.html,Desktop,application+csp
Free Shipping on Laptop and Desktops,,data/freeship.html,Laptop+Desktops,application+csp
isMaster
Language
Title
1 Free Digital Camera Offer
summary__c
0
0
Libérer l'Offre d'Appareil photo digital
Liberte Oferta Digital de
Cámara
Get the new Digital
Camera.
data/freecam.html
Obtenir le nouvel Appareil photo digital.
data/freecam/fr.html
Consiga la nueva Cámara
Digital.
description__c
data/freecam/es.html
1 data/bestdeals.html
0
Best Desktop Computer
Deals
Meilleures Affaires d'ordinateurs de bureau data/bestdeals/fr.html
0
1
0
Mejores Tratos de ordenadores
Free Shipping on Laptops and Desktops
Libérer Affranchissement sur Portables et Ordinateurs data/bestdeals/es.html
data/freeship.html
data/freeship/fr.html
datacategorygroup
.Products
Consumer_ Electronics
Desktops
Laptops+ Desktops
Channels Language
application
+csp en_US fr application
+csp application
+csp es en_US fr es en_US fr
39
Build Your Knowledge Base Create a .csv File for Article Import
isMaster
Language
Title
0 Liberte Franqueo en
Laptops y Ordenadores
summary__c description__c
data/freeship/es.html
datacategorygroup
.Products
Channels Language
es
Example articlestranslationsimport.csv
file: isMasterLanguage,Title,summary__c,description__c,datacategorygroup.Products,Channels,Language
1,Free Digital Camera Offer,Get the new Digital
Camera,data/freecam.html,Consumer_Electronics,application+csp,en
0,Libérer l'Offre d'Appareil photo digital,Obtenir le nouvel Appareil photo digital.,data/freecam/fr.html,,,fr
0,Liberte Oferta Digital de Cámara,Consiga la nueva Cámara
Digital.,data/freecam/es.html,,,es
1,Best Desktop Computer Deals,,data/bestdeals.html,Desktops,application+csp,en
0,Meilleures Affaires d'ordinateurs de bureau,,data/bestdeals/fr.html,,,fr
0,Mejores Tratos de ordenadores,,data/bestdeals/es.html,,,es
1,Free Shipping on Laptop and
Desktops,,data/freeship.html,Laptops+Desktops,application+csp,en
0,Libérer Affranchissement sur Portables et Ordinateurs,,data/freeship/fr.html,,,fr
0,Liberte Franqueo en Laptops y Ordenadores,,data/freeship/es.html,,,es
Specify your import parameters in a property file using key names and corresponding values.
40
Build Your Knowledge Base Set Article Import Parameters
Set Article Import Parameters
Specify import parameters in a property file using key names and corresponding values. For example, use the key
DateFormat
to specify that a date custom field appears in the
DateFormat=dd/MM/YYYY
format or specify the character encoding to be used for the import.
1. Create a file with required parameters, as described in this table.
Key
DateFormat
DateTimeFormat
CSVEncoding
CSVSeparator
RTAEncoding
Description Default Value
Format of the date to read in the .csv file yyyy-MM-dd
Format of the date and time to read in the .csv file yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
Character encoding used to read the .csv file
ISO8859_15_FDIS
.csv file separator ,
Default encoding used for the
HTML files (if not specified in the charset
attribute from the HTML meta
tag).
ISO8859_15_FDIS
Note: Salesforce does not support UTF-32 character encoding.
We recommend using
UTF-8. If you use specify UTF-16 character encoding, ensure that your HTML files specify the right byte-order mark.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To import articles:
•
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
AND
Manage Articles
AND
Manage Knowledge
Article Import/Export
AND
Read, Create, Edit, and
Delete on the article type
Note: Specify only Java date formats. Make sure the date format is not misleading. For example, if you choose the format yyyy-M-d, a date entered as 2011111 can be interpreted as 2011-01-11 or 2011-11-01. Specify at least:
•
Two digits for month and day format (MM, dd)
•
Four digits for year format (yyyy)
If a date in the .csv file does not match the date format specified in the property file, the related article is not imported.
2. Save the file with the
.properties
.
Example: Example offerarticlesimport.properties
property file:
DateFormat=yyyy-MM-dd
DateTimeFormat=yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
41
Build Your Knowledge Base Create an Article .zip File for Import
CSVEncoding=ISO8859_15_FDIS
CSVSeparator=,
RTAEncoding=UTF-8
Create a .zip file and import into Salesforce Knowledge.
Create an Article .zip File for Import
To complete your article import, create a .zip file with your
.parameters
,
.csv
, and
.html
files, and upload them into Salesforce Knowledge.
1. Create a .zip file containing:
•
The .csv file.
•
The folder containing the .html files to import.
•
The folder containing the image files referenced in the .html files.
•
The .properties file.
Important: The import .zip file must meet the following requirements:
•
There can only be one .csv file and one .properties file.
•
The .csv file and the .properties file must be in the root directory.
•
The compression process must preserve the folder and subfolder structure.
•
The .zip file name can’t contain special characters.
•
The .zip file can’t exceed 20 MB and the individual, uncompressed, files within the zip file can’t exceed 10 MB.
•
.csv files can’t have more than 10,000 rows, including the header row. Therefore, you can have a maximum of 9,999 articles and translations.
•
.csv file rows can’t exceed 400,000 characters.
•
.csv file cells can’t exceed 32 KB.
•
Each article in the .csv file can’t have more than 49 translations.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
2. From Setup, enter
Import Articles
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Import
Articles.
3. Select the appropriate Article Type for the imported articles.
4. To select the .zip file, click Browse, and then click OK.
5. If your import contains translations, select the
Contains translations?
checkbox.
Note: If this checkbox is selected, your .csv file must contain the isMasterLanguage, Title, and Language columns. If this checkbox is not selected, your csv file can’t contain the isMasterLanguage column but must contain the Title column. The Language column is optional for imports of articles without translations.
6. Click Import Now.
When the import is complete, you receive an email with an attached log that provides details about the import.
Check on the status of your import , on the Article Imports page.
To import articles:
•
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
AND
Manage Articles
AND
Manage Knowledge
Article Import/Export
AND
Read, Create, Edit, and
Delete on the article type
42
Build Your Knowledge Base Article and Translation Import and Export Status
Article and Translation Import and Export Status
Find the status of your article imports and exports on the Article Imports page in Setup.
To check the status of your imports and exports, from Setup, enter
Article Imports
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Article Imports. If you've enabled multiple languages for Salesforce
Knowledge, you see two tables: one for article and translation imports and another for exports for translation.
Import information includes:
•
Possible actions
•
.Zip file names
•
Who submitted it and when
•
Status
•
Started and completed dates
•
Article types
Export information includes:
•
Possible actions
•
Zip file names
•
Who submitted it and when
•
Status
•
Started and completed dates
Status descriptions are as follows:
Status
Pending
Processing
Stopping/Stopped
Aborted
Completed
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
Description
The import or export will start as soon as the previous pending import or export completes.
The import or export is processing.
Possible Action
You can click Cancel to cancel the import or export.
Salesforce Support is stopping or has already stopped the import or export.
If you want to stop the process, or if the process has been stopped, call Salesforce
Support. Salesforce may stop an import or export if a maintenance task has to be performed or the import or export exceeds one hour.
Contact Salesforce Support to restart the import or export, or click Cancel to cancel an entry.
The import or export has been canceled.
The articles that already imported or exported successfully are available in
Salesforce.
You can restart an import or export, click Del to delete an entry, or click Email Log to receive the completion email and check the details of your import or export.
The import or export is complete.
Successfully imported articles are visible on the Article Management tab on the
This status doesn't mean the import or export is successful. Click Email Log to see the log file attached to the completion email
43
Build Your Knowledge Base
Status
Knowledge User Access
Description Possible Action
Articles
subtab. Successfully imported translations are visible on the Article
Management tab on the
Translations
subtab.
and check the details of your import or export.
Click the exported .zip file name to save or open the file on your system.
Knowledge User Access
Specify which agents in your company are Salesforce Knowledge users and give them access to article actions. Create user profiles with the user permissions they need, and then assign them to these profiles.
By default all internal users can read articles. However some licenses like the Knowledge Only User licenses, require the “AllowViewKnowledge” permission on the user’s profile. To give a user the
“AllowViewKnowledge” permission on their profile, activate the permission on a cloned profile and assign the cloned profile to the user.
Note: To do more than read articles, agents need the Knowledge User license.
1. From Setup, enter
Users
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Users.
2. Click Edit next to the user's name or click New to create a user.
3. If you are creating a user, complete all the required fields.
4. Select the
Knowledge User
checkbox.
5. Click Save.
See
User permissions control access to different tasks Salesforce Knowledge. We recommend using permission sets or custom profiles to grant users the permissions they need. For example, you can create a permission set called “Article Manager” that includes the permissions to create, edit, publish, and assign articles.
Refer to this table for details on permissions associated with Salesforce Knowledge tasks.
Salesforce Knowledge Task
To create article types:
To manage article actions:
User Permissions Needed
“Manage Salesforce Knowledge” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
“Manage Salesforce Knowledge”
This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.
To create articles from cases using the simple editor:
“Read” and “Create” on the article type
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create or edit users:
•
Manage Internal Users
To create article types and article actions:
•
Customize Application
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
44
Build Your Knowledge Base Knowledge User Access
Salesforce Knowledge Task
To create articles from cases using the standard editor:
User Permissions Needed
“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read” and “Create” on the article type
To search articles from cases and attach articles to cases:
“Read” on the article type
To create articles from answers:
“Read” and “Create” on the article type
To search for and read articles from the Article or Knowledge tab:
“Read” on the article type
To create or edit articles from the Article Management tab: “Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, and “Edit” on the article type
To edit draft articles from the Article Management tab:
To delete articles from the Article Management tab:
“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read” and “Edit” on the article type
“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type
AND
A delete article action, set on the
To publish articles from the Article Management tab:
To assign articles for the Article Management tab:
“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type
AND
A publish article action, set on
“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read” and “Edit” on the article type
45
Build Your Knowledge Base
Salesforce Knowledge Task
To edit published or archived articles:
To archive articles from the Article Management tab:
To submit articles for translation:
To delete translated articles:
To publish translated articles:
To edit translated articles:
46
Knowledge User Access
User Permissions Needed
“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, and “Edit” on the article type
AND
A publish or archive article action, set on the Article Actions Setup page
“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type
AND
An archive article action, set on the
“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, and “Edit” on the article type
AND
A translate article action, set on the Article Actions Setup page
“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type
AND
A delete article action, set on the
“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type
AND
A publish article action, set on the
“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, and “Edit” on the article type
Build Your Knowledge Base Knowledge User Access
Salesforce Knowledge Task
To import articles:
To import and export translated articles:
To create data categories
User Permissions Needed
AND
A translate article action, set on the Article Actions Setup page
“Manage Salesforce Knowledge” (This permission is on by default in the System Administrator profile.)
AND
“Manage Articles”
AND
“Manage Knowledge Article Import/Export”
AND
“Read”, “Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type
“Manage Salesforce Knowledge” (This permission is on by default in the System Administrator profile.)
AND
“Manage Articles” (This permission is on by default in the System
Administrator profile.)
AND
“Manage Knowledge Article Import/Export” (This permission is on by default in the System Administrator profile.)
AND
“Read”, “Create”, “Edit”, and “Delete” on the article type
“Manage Data Categories” permission. This permission is on by default in the System Administrator profile.
To enable agents to perform their specific tasks, create
public groups for each role and assign only the necessary
to those groups.
Example: Your Salesforce Knowledge agents are a mixture of different levels of job experience and expertise in the products and services your company offers. These examples outline four basic types of users and some of the permissions they need to perform their jobs.
Scott: The Reader
Scott Jackson is relatively new to the company, so he’s a basic agent of the knowledge base. Currently, he has read-only access to articles, so he can search and view articles. Readers don’t author or publish, so he won’t belong to a public group or need to submit articles for approval. He needs the following permissions to perform his job.
Scott Permission
Salesforce Knowledge Functionality Manage Articles
Search articles from and attach articles to cases
Read
Article Type-Specific Permissions
Create Edit Delete
47
Build Your Knowledge Base Knowledge User Access
Scott Permission
Salesforce Knowledge Functionality Manage Articles
Search for and read articles from the Articles tab
Read
Article Type-Specific Permissions
Create Edit Delete
Amber: The Candidate
Amber Delaney is a candidate-level agent and can create and publish articles with statuses of either
Work in Progress or
Not Validated
. If Amber works on an article with a different validation status, she must send it to a queue for approval before it’s published.
Amber is part of the KCS Candidate public group and submits the articles she can’t publish to the Publishing External queue.
She needs the following permissions to perform her job duties.
Read
Article Type-Specific Permissions
Create Edit Delete
Amber Permission
Salesforce Knowledge Functionality Manage Articles
Search articles from and attach articles to cases
Search for and read articles from the Articles tab
Create or edit article from the Article
Management tab
Edit draft articles from the Article
Management tab
Edit published or archived articles
Anne: The Contributor
As a contributor, Anne Murphy is a more advanced Knowledge user. She understands the standards for articles in the organization and can create articles and publish articles with
Validated Internal
status. She can also work on articles authored by other users if they have either
Work in Progress
or
Not Validated
statuses, and can change them to
Validated Internal
. Since she doesn’t have permission to publish articles to an external audience, she must submit those customer-facing articles to the Publishing External queue.
Note: Article approvers require the “Manage Articles” permission and at least the “Read” permission on the article type associated with articles they review. These permissions let them access the article in a draft state. Without these permissions, approvers can reassign but not approve articles.
Anne is a member of the Contributor public group and she needs the following permissions to perform her job duties.
48
Build Your Knowledge Base Knowledge User Access
Salesforce Knowledge Functionality
Permission
Manage
Articles
Create articles from cases using the simple editor
Create articles from cases using the standard editor
Search articles from and attach articles to cases
Create articles from answers
Search for and read articles from the Articles tab
Create or edit article from the Article
Management tab
Edit draft articles from the Article
Management tab
Delete articles (version or entire) from Article
Management tab
Assign articles from Article Management tab
Edit published or archived articles
Archive articles from the Article Management tab
Read
Article Type-Specific Permissions
Create Edit Delete
Pat: The Publisher
Pat Brown is Knowledge domain expert and is responsible for reviewing and publishing articles to an external audience. He is a member of the Publisher public group. Pat also belongs to the Publishing External queue. He needs the following permissions to perform his job duties.
Salesforce Knowledge Functionality
Permission
Manage
Articles
Read
Article Type-Specific Permissions
Create Edit Delete
Create articles from cases using the simple editor
Create articles from cases using the standard editor
Search articles from and attach articles to cases
Create articles from answers
49
Build Your Knowledge Base Knowledge User Access
Salesforce Knowledge Functionality
Permission
Manage
Articles
Search for and read articles from the Articles tab
Create or edit article from the Article
Management tab
Edit draft articles from the Article
Management tab
Delete articles (version or entire) from Article
Management tab
Publish article from Article Management tab
Assign articles from Article Management tab
Edit published or archived articles
Archive articles from the Article Management tab
Read
Article Type-Specific Permissions
Create Edit Delete
How they all work together
Each user profile defines an agent's permission to perform different job duties and functions. To enable agents to perform these functions, you create
for each role and assign only the necessary article actions
to that group. The criteria you create in the
defines which validation status can be automatically approved and published and which
article must be approved and published by a domain expert.
For example, Anne, the Contributor, can create a
Validated External
article, but based on the article actions assigned to her public group, the approval process sends her article to Pat, the Publisher, to be published. Pat, as a Publisher, can publish his own articles without submitting them to a queue.
The following table lists the job functions that each role needs to perform on articles in the organization
Job Function
Create and publish
Work in
Progress
Create and publish
Not
Validated
Create and publish
Validated
Internal
Reader
No
No
No
Candidate
Automatically approved and published
Automatically approved and published
Needs approval
Contributor
Automatically approved and published
Automatically approved and published
Automatically approved and published
Publisher
Yes
Yes
Yes
50
Build Your Knowledge Base
Job Function
Create and publish
Validated
External
Update and publish
Work in
Progress
Update and publish
Not
Validated
Update and publish
Validated
Internal
Update and publish
Validated
External
Reader
No
No
No
No
No
Candidate
Needs approval
Contributor
Needs approval
Knowledge User Access
Publisher
Yes
No
No
No
No
Automatically approved and published
Automatically approved and published
Automatically approved and published
Needs approval
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Create Public Groups for Knowledge
Salesforce Knowledge uses public groups as a way to assign users to specific tasks related to articles. When you assign article actions to a public group, you can grant users in that group the ability to do things like publish articles with a specified validation status.
Public groups are also used in approval processes to manage the publishing workflow.
Assign Article Actions to Public Groups
Article actions allow agents to participate in the article publishing process. By default, all article actions are assigned to users with the “Manage Articles” user permission. Agents can complete an action as long as they have the correct article type permission. You can control article action access by assigning public groups to article actions and adding agents the relevant public groups. To further restrict actions like publishing, you can create approval processes that allow agents to publish only those articles that have specific validation statuses. For example, many contributors can write many articles but you can create an approval process so no articles are published until they are reviewed and validated by a qualified author.
51
Build Your Knowledge Base Create Public Groups for Knowledge
Create Public Groups for Knowledge
Salesforce Knowledge uses public groups as a way to assign users to specific tasks related to articles.
When you assign article actions to a public group, you can grant users in that group the ability to do things like publish articles with a specified validation status. Public groups are also used in approval processes to manage the publishing workflow.
For example, when a member of the
Candidate public group submits an article with the status
Work in Progress
for approval, it is automatically approved and published. If the same agent submits an article with
Validated Internal
status, it moves to the Publishing External queue to be reviewed before being published.
1. From Setup, enter
Public Groups
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Public Groups.
2. Click New, or click Edit next to the group you want to edit.
3. Enter the following information:
Field
Label
Description
The name used to refer to the group in any user interface pages.
Group Name
(public groups only) The unique name used by the API and managed packages.
Grant Access Using
Hierarchies
(public groups only)
Select Grant Access Using Hierarchies to allow automatic access to records using your role hierarchies.
When selected, any records shared with users in this group are also shared with users higher in the hierarchy.
Deselect Grant Access Using Hierarchies if you’re creating a public group with All Internal Users as members, which optimizes performance for sharing records with groups.
Note: If Grant Access Using Hierarchies is deselected, users that are higher in the role hierarchy don’t receive automatic access.
However, some users—such as those with the
“View All” and “Modify All” object permissions and the “View All Data” and “Modify All Data” system permissions—can still access records they don’t own.
Search
From the
Search
drop-down list, select the type of member to add. If you don’t see the member you want to add, enter keywords in the search box and click Find.
Note: For account owners to see child records owned by high-volume portal users, they must be members of any portal share groups with access to the portal users' data.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create or edit a public group:
•
Manage Users
To create or edit another user’s personal group:
•
Manage Users
52
Build Your Knowledge Base
Selected Members
Selected Delegated Groups
Assign Article Actions to Public Groups
Select members from the Available Members box, and click Add to add them to the group.
In this list, specify any delegated administration groups whose members can add or remove members from this public group. Select groups from the
Available Delegated Groups box, and then click Add. This list appears only in public groups.
4. Click Save.
Note: When you edit groups, sharing rules are automatically reevaluated to add or remove access as needed. If these changes affect too many records at once, a message appears warning that the sharing rules aren’t automatically reevaluated, and you must manually recalculate them.
your knowledge base.
Assign Article Actions to Public Groups
Article actions allow agents to participate in the article publishing process. By default, all article actions are assigned to users with the “Manage Articles” user permission. Agents can complete an action as long as they have the correct article type permission. You can control article action access by assigning public groups to article actions and adding agents the relevant public groups. To further restrict actions like publishing, you can create approval processes that allow agents to publish only those articles that have specific validation statuses. For example, many contributors can write many articles but you can create an approval process so no articles are published until they are reviewed and validated by a qualified author.
Note: Although you can add any user to a public group, only agents with the “Manage
Articles” user permission and the appropriate object permissions can perform article actions.
This table summarizes the article type permissions that are required for each article action.
Create Read Edit Delete Article Action
Publish Articles
Archive Articles
Delete Articles
Edit Published and Archived Articles
Submit Articles for Translation
Publish Translation
Edit Translation
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create public groups and assign them to article actions:
•
Customize Application
AND
Manage Users
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
1. From Setup, enter
Knowledge Article Actions
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Knowledge Article Actions.
53
Build Your Knowledge Base Define Validation Status Picklist Values
2. Click Edit.
3. For the action you want to assign, select the appropriate radio button and choose a public group.
If you don't modify an article action, all agents with the “Manage Articles” permission can perform that action.
4. Click OK and then click Save.
Note: Article action assignments are ignored when updating an article through SOQL.
Define Validation Status Picklist Values
When the
Validation Status
field is enabled on the Knowledge Settings page, you can create picklist values that show the state of the article. For example, values could be
Validated
,
Not Validated
, or
Needs Review
.
Note: In Salesforce Classic, validation status picklist values aren’t retained when you export articles for translation. Articles with picklist values can be imported, however, and their values are retained as long as the values exist in your organization.
1. From Salesforce Classic Setup, enter
Validation Statuses
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Validation Statuses.
2. On the picklist edit page, click New to add new values to the validation status field. You can also edit, delete, reorder, and replace picklist values.
When you replace a picklist value, the system replaces it in all versions of the article, including any archived versions.
3. Add one or more picklist values (one per line) in the text area.
4. To set the value as the default for the picklist, be sure to select the
Default
checkbox.
5. Click Save.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create or change validation status picklist values:
•
Customize Application
54
Build Your Knowledge Base Workflow and Approvals for Articles
Workflow and Approvals for Articles
Ensuring that the content in your articles is accurate and helpful is foundational to getting accurate information to those who need it most. Creating processes where Knowledge experts review, validate, and approve articles for publication is critical to creating a trustworthy knowledge base.
Implementing approval processes with Salesforce Knowledge gives you additional control over the content and publication of your articles.
Creating workflow rules and approval processes lets your organization automate many of the tasks involved with managing its knowledge base. When implementing Salesforce Knowledge, you can create workflow rules and approval processes for some or all the article types used by your organization.
Workflow rules let you create email alerts, update fields, or send outbound API messages when an article meets certain criteria. For example, you could create a workflow rule that sends an email alert to the article owner when a new article is created from a case. Tasks are not supported by article type workflow.
Approval processes automate the approval of articles. When implemented with Salesforce
Knowledge, approval processes give you additional control over the content of your articles and the process used to approve them. For example, you can create a process that requires legal and management teams to approve articles containing sensitive information.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
Note: Tasks aren't available for article type workflow rules. For more information about creating workflow rules, see Set the Criteria for Your Workflow Rule . For more information about creating an approval process, see Create an Approval Process with the Standard Wizard .
1. From Setup, enter
Workflow Rules
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Workflow
Rules to access the workflow rules list page.
2. On the workflow rules list page, click New Rule.
To view workflow rules and approval processes:
•
View Setup and
Configuration
To create or change workflow rules and approval processes:
•
Customize Application
3. Select the article type from the
Select object
drop-down list.
4. Click Next.
5. Enter a rule name. Optionally, enter a description for the rule.
6. Select the evaluation criteria and choose how criteria are met.
7. Enter criteria for the rule.
8. Click Save & Next.
9. Click Add Workflow Action, select the type of action for the rule, and enter the information required by the action.
10. Click Save.
11. Optionally, add a time-dependent workflow action by clicking Add Time Trigger. Provide time trigger information and then click
Save.
12. Click Done.
13. From Setup, enter
Approval Processes
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Approval Processes.
14. Choose the Approval Process Wizard.
Two wizards are available to help you through the approval setup process. Choose the one that better meets your requirements.
See Choose the Right Wizard to Create an Approval Process .
15. Provide a name, unique name, and description for the process.
55
Build Your Knowledge Base Workflow and Approvals for Articles
16. Specify criteria for entering the process.
For example, you could specify that if the article is published on a public site it requires approval:
Visible on public site equals True
.
17. Specify approvers for the process.
Let the submitter choose the approver manually. (default)
Prompts the user to select the next approver.
Automatically assign an approver using a standard or custom hierarchy field.
Assigns the approval request to the user in the field displayed next to this option. You select this field when you configure the approval process.
Automatically assign to a queue.
Available only for objects that support queues. Assigns approval requests to a queue.
Automatically assign to approver(s).
Assigns the approval request to one or more specific users, specific queues, or users related to the submitted record. You can add up to 25 per step.
18. Select the email template that the process uses to notify approvers.
When an approval process assigns an approval request to a user, Salesforce automatically sends the user an approval request email.
The email contains a link to the approval page in Salesforce, where the agent can approve or reject the request and add comments.
19. Configure the approval request page layout.
The approver approves or rejects the article from this page. You can add as many fields to this page as you think your agents need to reasonably assess an article's content. For example, you might choose to include information such as a summary of the article's content, the product discussed, and the author's name.
20. Specify which users are allowed to submit articles for approval.
For example, for articles that require editing before approval, you could create a public group containing editors, and then specify that only members of that group can submit articles for approval.
21. Activate the approval process.
Example: When an approval process is associated with an article type, agents with the “Manage Articles” permission might see both the Publish... and Submit for Approval buttons from an article's detail page. Which buttons they see is determined by both permissions and article actions. These agents can publish an article without submitting it for approval. To limit this ability to certain users, assign the “Publish Articles” article action to a select group of users instead of giving it to all users with the “Manage
Articles” permission. The ability to publish articles without prior approval is governed by an approval process that is specific to each user’s public group.
Keep the following in mind when creating approval processes for article types.
•
Adding an approval process to an article type lets your organization ensure that the required reviewers approve the article before it's published. When an approval process is enabled for an article's article type, the Approval History related list displays on the article details page.
•
When creating an approval process, change the final approval action to “Unlock the record for editing” to allow agents to publish the article.
•
Articles aren't published automatically at the end of an approval process. Agents must click Publish... to make the article available in the publishing channels.
•
When an approval process is associated with an article type, agents with the “Manage Articles” permission might see both the
Publish... and the Submit for Approval buttons on an article's detail page. (Which buttons they see is determined by both permissions and article actions). These agents can publish an article without submitting it for approval. To prevent this from affecting
56
Build Your Knowledge Base Create Knowledge Actions many users, assign the “Publish Articles” article action to a limited group of users instead of giving it to all users with the “Manage
Articles” permission. For more information, see
Assign Article Actions to Public Groups
on page 53. You still need to make sure that the users with direct publishing capability know which articles need approval before publication.
•
Article approvers require the “Manage Articles” permission and at least the “Read” permission on the article type associated with articles they review. These permissions let them access the article in a draft state. Without these permissions, approvers can reassign but not approve articles.
•
Workflow rules and approval processes apply to the “Draft to Publication” portion of the article publishing cycle. Workflow rules aren’t available for archiving. Approval processes aren’t available for translation or archiving.
Note: When an article is published from the edit page, the article is first saved and then published. Workflow rules apply to the saved draft article but not the published article.
•
A user who only has read access to an article type can publish a draft article of that type if there is an approval process associated to the article type and the approval process is complete (all the approvers have approved) but the article has not been published.
Create Knowledge Actions
Knowledge actions are templates that link a workflow action to an article type. When knowledge actions are enabled, you can use them to link article types to specific workflow article actions, such as publishing. For example, if you want to have each FAQ published as a new version each time it completes the approval process, you can create a knowledge action that links the FAQ article type to the
Publish as New
action. Then, when you create an approval process for FAQs, select the new Knowledge Action.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Important: When you create the approval process, make sure to change the final approval action to
Unlock the record for editing
to let users publish the article.
1. From Setup, enter
Knowledge Action
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Knowledge
Action.
2. Click New Knowledge Action.
3. Select the article type for the action. The workflow rules and approval process that you associate with the action must belong to the same article type.
4. Enter a unique name for the knowledge action.
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
5. Select the type of action you want to apply to the article type. For example,
Publish as
New
publishes the article as a new version.
6. Enter a description.
USER PERMISSIONS
To enable Salesforce
Knowledge Actions:
•
Customize Application 7. Click Save.
The Knowledge Action detail page appears showing you the rules and approval processes that use the knowledge action.
8. When you’re ready to use the knowledge action in an approval or workflow process, click Activate on the Knowledge Action detail page.
57
Build Your Knowledge Base Modify Default Category Group Assignments for Articles
Modify Default Category Group Assignments for Articles
Salesforce Knowledge uses data categories to classify articles. Data categories are organized in category group. After creating category groups, admins decide which groups to use for Salesforce
Knowledge articles. For example, if your org uses both the Answers and Salesforce Knowledge, you might want one category group to be used by the answers community and two other category groups for articles. Answers and articles can use the same category group. Authors can assign up to eight data categories from one category group to an article so that users searching for articles can find and filter by category. By default, all the category groups you create are assigned to
Salesforce Knowledge
1. From Setup, enter
Data Category Assignments
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Data Category Assignments under Knowledge.
A list of all category groups appears.
2. Click Edit and move any category groups that you don't want available for articles from the
Selected Category Groups list to the Available Category Groups list.
Later, you can choose to make a hidden category group visible.
Note:
The order of category groups is not preserved from the edit page to the data category assignment page.
3. Click Save.
You receive an email after the save process completes. Authors can now assign categories in the selected groups to articles on the Article Management tab. Authors can only access categories if the category group is active and the author's data category visibility settings provide access to the category.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To modify category groups assignments in Salesforce
Knowledge:
•
Customize Application
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
58
Build Your Knowledge Base Filter Articles with Data Category Mapping
Filter Articles with Data Category Mapping
Make suggested articles more relevant when solving cases. Map case fields to data categories to filter for articles assigned to those data categories. For example, cases with a field for which product they are about can be mapped to the data category of that product. Articles assigned that category or product, are filtered to the top of the suggested article list.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Important:
•
Filtering articles based on case information is only supported in text and picklist fields.
•
Filters are applied to Knowledge results after the case has been saved.
•
Filters are applied after a Knowledge search and only to the articles returned in the search.
•
Using Filters does not return a list of all articles that match the filter criteria. Instead, the filters are applied to the initial pool of article results returned.
•
Results may be filtered after a search.
•
A category group can only be used once in a data category mapping.
•
Suggested articles are returned if
Suggest articles for cases considering case content
is enabled. When suggested articles is disabled, search uses data category mappings. Case subject fields are used when there are no data category mappings.
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To implement data category mapping, select which case fields map to which data categories and set a default data category for cases that have no value for the mapped fields.
For information on data categories, see Data Categories in Salesforce.com
.
To map data category groups
•
Customize Application
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
1. From Setup, enter
Data Category Mappings
in the
Quick Find
box, then select
Data Category Mappings.
2. In the
Case Field
column, use the drop-down list to add a field.
3. In the
Data Category Group
column, use the drop-down list to map the information from the lookup field to a data category.
4. In the
Default Data Category
column, use the drop-down list to assign a data category when the field value does not match any categories from the category group.
5. Click Add.
59
Build Your Knowledge Base Support Articles in Multiple Languages
Support Articles in Multiple Languages
With multiple languages for Salesforce Knowledge, you can lower support costs by translating articles into the languages your audience prefers. After selecting your language settings, two translation methods are available: translating articles in-house using the editing tool in the knowledge base, or sending articles to a localization vendor. Different languages can use different methods.
For example, you may want to export articles to a vendor for French translations, but assign articles to an internal Knowledge user for Spanish translations.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
•
Before you add languages to your knowledge base, decide for each language whether you want to translate articles directly in Salesforce or export articles to a translation vendor.
Communicate your decision to the people involved in the translation process (authors, reviewers, translation managers, publishers).
•
When adding a language to your knowledge base, keep in mind that it can't be deleted; however, you can hide a language by making it inactive. Deactivating a language means it no longer appears as a choice in the New Article dialog or the Submit for Translation dialog. Also, if articles are already published in the language, those articles are no longer visible to readers when the language is deactivated.
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
•
You can only add languages supported by Salesforce to your knowledge base.
•
To hide translated articles for a specific language, deactivate the language by unchecking
Active
on the Settings page.
Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base
Reach a global audience by offering your knowledge base in multiple languages.
Export Articles for Translation
If your organization sends Salesforce Knowledge articles to a vendor for translation, use the Export Articles for Translation feature in
Setup.
If your organization sends Salesforce Knowledge articles to a vendor for translation, use the Import Article Translations feature in
Setup. You can only import articles that have been exported from the same Salesforce organization. For example, you can't export articles from your test or sandbox organization and import them into your production organization.
60
Build Your Knowledge Base Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base
Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base
Reach a global audience by offering your knowledge base in multiple languages.
1. In Setup, enter
Knowledge Settings
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Knowledge
Settings.
2. Click Edit.
3. Select
Multiple Languages
and add the languages you want to include in your knowledge base.
Important: You can add the languages that your instance of Salesforce supports. But you can't remove any languages that have been added to your knowledge base.
4. Choose which settings you want to apply to language.
Setting
Active
Default Assignee
Default Reviewer
Description
Active languages appear in the New Article and Submit for
Translation dialog boxes.
The active/inactive status determines whether a published article is visible. For example, if Spanish articles are published to your partner portal and then you make Spanish an inactive language, the articles no longer appear.
The default assignee is automatically assigned articles submitted for translation. The default assignee can be either an individual person or a queue.
The default reviewer is automatically assigned finished translations that are ready to be reviewed or published. The default reviewer can be either an individual person or a queue.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To set up multiple languages for Salesforce
Knowledge:
•
Customize Application
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
5. Save your changes.
6. If you want, create queues to distribute and assign articles to groups of people who can either translate them or review the finished translations. When setting up queues, use the Knowledge Article Version object.
61
Build Your Knowledge Base Export Articles for Translation
Export Articles for Translation
If your organization sends Salesforce Knowledge articles to a vendor for translation, use the Export
Articles for Translation feature in Setup.
Place the articles to be translated in a translation queue. To enable the article export feature, create one or more queues; authors and reviewers select the queue when they submit an article for translation. Make sure that they know which queue to choose for which language.
Note: You can have up to 50 exports in 24 hours and a maximum of 15 pending exports
(exports that have not entered a final state such as Completed, Failed, or Canceled).
1. Create a
with articles for translation.
2. On the Article Management tab, select the articles you want to translate, and click Submit for
Translation.
3. In the dialog box, indicate which languages to translate the articles into and assign the translations to their corresponding language translation queue.
4. From Setup, enter
Export Articles for Translation
in the
Quick Find box, then select Export Articles for Translation.
5. Select the queue that contains the articles you're exporting.
6. Select either:
•
All articles to export every article in the queue.
•
Updated articles to only export articles that have been modified or added.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
7. Click Continue.
8. Select the source and target language pairs you want to export.
Important: Salesforce creates a separate .zip file for every article type in each language pair. You must retain the .zip file structure for a successful import. For more information, see
on page 63.
To export articles:
•
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
AND
Manage Articles
AND
Manage Knowledge
Article Import/Export
To view articles:
•
Read on the article type
To create articles:
•
Read and Create on the article type
9. To have the files reviewed or published after being translated, select a user or a queue.
10. Select the file character encoding.
•
ISO-8859-1 (General US & Western European, ISO-LATIN-1)
•
Unicode
•
Unicode (UTF-8) default
•
Japanese (Windows)
•
Japanese (Shift_JIIS)
•
Chinese National Standard (GB18030)
•
Chinese Simplified (GB2312)
•
Chinese Traditional (Big5)
•
Korean
•
Unicode (UTF-16, Big Endian)
11. Select the delimiter for the .csv files.
The delimiter is the separator for columns when the file is converted to table form. Your options are tab (default) or comma.
62
Build Your Knowledge Base Import Translated Articles
12. Click Export Now.
You’re notified by email when your export is complete. You can also check the status of your export by viewing the Article Import and
Export Queue. From Setup, enter
Article Imports and Exports
in the
Quick Find box, then select Article Imports
and Exports.
Unzip the exported files, but retain the file structure for a successful import.
Import Translated Articles
If your organization sends Salesforce Knowledge articles to a vendor for translation, use the Import
Article Translations feature in Setup. You can only import articles that have been exported from the same Salesforce organization. For example, you can't export articles from your test or sandbox organization and import them into your production organization.
1. From Setup, enter
Import Article Translations
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Import Article Translations.
2. Choose how Salesforce handles translations after they're imported.
Option Description
Review imported translations on the Article Management tab before publishing
Add imported translations to a queue from which agents can review them.
Publish translations immediately on import
Publish imported translations without reviews.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
3. Select the language of the articles you're importing.
4. If you chose to have articles reviewed before publishing, select to send the files to a user or a queue.
5. Click Browse, choose the translation .zip file to upload, and click Open.
You must place all the translation files (meaning, those exported from Salesforce and translated by your vendor) in a folder whose name is the same as the language code. For example, put
French articles in an
fr
folder. Zip up this folder to create your import file.
Important: To import translated articles successfully, verify that the file structure and their extensions match the file structure and extensions of files exported from Salesforce
Knowledge for translation. For example, if the target language is French, the file structure begins as follows: import.properties
-fr
--articletypearticlename_kav
---articlename.csv
---[Article collateral, html, images, etc.]
6. Click Import Now.
If you have more translated articles to upload, repeat steps four through six.
USER PERMISSIONS
To export articles:
•
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
AND
Manage Articles
AND
Manage Knowledge
Article Import/Export
To view articles:
•
Read on the article type
To create articles:
•
Read and Create on the article type
63
Build Your Knowledge Base Improve the Article Search Experience
7. Click Finish.
An email notification is sent to you when your import finishes. You can view the status of your import from Setup by entering
Article
Imports and Exports
in the
Quick Find
box, then selecting Article Imports and Exports.
Improve the Article Search Experience
Enable search highlights and snippets, synonyms, promoted terms, topics, and keywords from cases to improve your article search.
EDITIONS
Search Highlights and Snippets
Quickly identify the best article and see how articles match your search terms with relevant text and highlighted search terms in the search results.
Create synonyms so words or phrases are treated as equivalents in searches. When searching
Salesforce Knowledge articles, users can enter search terms that don’t match any terms in those items but are synonymous with the terms.
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
From a single page, view, edit, and delete all the promoted search terms that are associated with Salesforce Knowledge articles.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
With topics on articles, you can classify and search articles by assigning topics. Topics can be added from the article view and detail pages. Suggested topics, which are only supported in English, are terms extracted from the article, so that they are more concrete and precise than a data category assignment. When searching, topics can be used to index the article, so the matched articles are more relevant to keyword searches.
Use More Case Keywords to Find Articles
When searching articles from a case, by default, only the case title is used in the search. Often, you want to use information from the case for more accurate search results, or create a custom search button.
Search Highlights and Snippets
Quickly identify the best article and see how articles match your search terms with relevant text and highlighted search terms in the search results.
Search highlights and snippets give your agents and users context as to why the particular result matched their search query. The relevant text appears below the title with the search terms in bold.
You can enable search highlights and snippets on the
Salesforce Knowledge Settings page
on page
11.
Note: Search highlights and snippets are not generated for searches with wildcards.
Search highlights and snippets are generated from the following fields:
•
•
Long text area
•
Rich text area
•
Text area
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
64
Build Your Knowledge Base Search Synonyms for Articles
Search highlights and snippets aren’t generated from the following fields:
•
Checkbox
•
Currency
•
Date
•
Date Time
•
File
•
Formula
•
Lookup
•
Multi-picklist
•
Number
•
Percent
•
Phone
•
Picklist
•
URL
Note:
If a snippet is not generated, the article’s summary field is shown instead.
Search Synonyms for Articles
Create synonyms so words or phrases are treated as equivalents in searches. When searching
Salesforce Knowledge articles, users can enter search terms that don’t match any terms in those items but are synonymous with the terms.
To create a custom synonym group, from Setup, enter
Synonyms
in the Quick Find box, then select Synonyms. An org can create up to 10,000 synonym groups
A search for one term in synonym group returns results for all terms in the group. For example, if you define a synonym group with these synonyms:
CRM, customer relationship management, Salesforce then a search for
customer relationship management
Synonyms affect search behavior in the following ways:
matches articles that contain
customer relationship management and articles that contain CRM or Salesforce.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
Priority
If a search term is part of a synonym group, the search results list items that contain the search term, followed by items that contain other terms in the synonym group.
For example, if this synonym group is defined:
fruit, oranges
Then a search for
oranges
matches a list of items containing oranges, followed by items containing fruit.
Note:
In the Article Management tab, if you sort the list by clicking a column header, the sort order, not priority, persists in the current and additional searches.
Wildcards
If a wildcard is used in a search, the wildcard expands the search term, but the search doesn't match any synonyms, even if the search phrase contains a defined synonym.
65
Build Your Knowledge Base Search Synonyms for Articles
For example, if these synonym groups are defined:
fruit, oranges, apples
cabbage, lettuce
Then a search for
orang* lettuce
matches items that contain orange and oranges, but doesn't match items that contain fruit,
apples, and cabbage.
Operators
If a search phrase contains an operator (
AND
/
OR
/
AND NOT
), synonym matches are returned only if the entire search phrase is a defined synonym.
For example, if these synonym groups are defined:
fruit, oranges and apples
vegetables, carrots
Then a search for
oranges and apples
returns matches for all items that contain the literal string oranges and apples and items that contain the term fruit.
However, if the search phrase is
fruit and vegetables
, which is not a defined synonym, the search matches only those items that contain both the terms, fruit and vegetables.
In this case,
AND
functions as an operator and synonym matches are not returned in the search results. In terms of this example, items that contain a synonym of either fruit or vegetables (items that contain the term carrots or the phrase oranges and apples) are not returned.
Exact phrase matches
If a defined synonym is within an exact phrase search, using quotation marks, the search doesn't treat it as a synonym.
Lemmatization
Synonyms do not under go lemmatization in search results; rather, they are matched as an exact phrase. However, the search term does under go lemmatization.
For example, if this synonym group is defined:
quench, drink orange juice
Then a search for
quench
matches items that contain quench, quenched, quenching, and drink orange juice, but doesn't match items that contain drinking orange juice.
Ignored words
Words that are normally ignored in searches, such as the, to, and for, are matched if the word is part of a defined synonym.
For example, if this synonym group is defined:
peel the orange, cut the apple
Then a search for
peel the orange
matches items that contain the exact string peel the orange.
Overlapping synonyms
If a search term consists of overlapping synonyms from different groups, the search matches synonyms in all the overlapping synonym groups.
For example, if these synonym groups are defined:
•
orange marmalade, citrus
•
marmalade recipe, sugar
Then a search for
orange marmalade recipe
matches items that contain orange marmalade, citrus, marmalade recipe, and
sugar.
66
Build Your Knowledge Base Manage Promoted Search Terms
Subsets
If one synonym group includes a synonym that is a subset of a synonym in another group, a search for the subset term doesn't match items that contain synonyms from the subset synonym group.
For example, if these synonym groups are defined:
•
orange, apple
•
orange marmalade, citrus
•
marmalade, jam
Then a search for
orange marmalade
matches items that contain orange marmalade and citrus, but doesn't match items that contain apple or jam.
Manage Promoted Search Terms
From a single page, view, edit, and delete all the promoted search terms that are associated with
Salesforce Knowledge articles.
You can add promoted search terms to articles
on the article’s detail page in the Promoted Search
Terms related list.
1. From Setup, enter
Promoted Search Terms
in the Quick Find box, then select Promoted
Search Terms.
2. To view which terms are assigned to an article, sort by the Article column.
3. To edit a term, click Edit in its row.
You can change the term only from this page, not the article it is assigned to.
4. To delete a term, click Delete in its row.
The term is deleted only from the article associated with this row, not from other articles.
5. Remember to save your changes.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create, edit, and delete promoted search terms:
•
Manage Promoted
Search Terms
67
Build Your Knowledge Base Enable Topics for Articles
Enable Topics for Articles
With topics on articles, you can classify and search articles by assigning topics. Topics can be added from the article view and detail pages. Suggested topics, which are only supported in English, are terms extracted from the article, so that they are more concrete and precise than a data category assignment. When searching, topics can be used to index the article, so the matched articles are more relevant to keyword searches.
Note: Contrary to data categories, topics added to an article are not transferred to the same article in another language.
Topics for articles are enabled for each article type.
1. From Setup, enter
Topics for Objects
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Topics
for Objects.
2. Click the article type name where you want to enable topics.
3. Check Enable topics.
4. Select which fields you want to use for suggestions.
5. Click Save.
6. Via profile or permission set, under System Permissions, define which agents can assign, create, delete, and edit topics.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To enable topics:
•
Customize Application
Use More Case Keywords to Find Articles
When searching articles from a case, by default, only the case title is used in the search. Often, you want to use information from the case for more accurate search results, or create a custom search button.
Luckily, Salesforce Knowledge search pages accept other parameters:
•
id=<case id>: The ID of the current case.
•
search=<keywords>: The keywords to be searched.
•
articleType_<article type dev name>=on: multiple parameters possible, article types to select (if no article type is selected, then all article types are selected)
•
ct_<data category group internal name>=<data category internal name>: multiple parameters possible, filter pre-selection
To take advantage of those parameters, add a custom button to the case detail page containing a few lines of javascript that extract keywords from the case and hide the default article search button.
Note: You can also create a custom article widget with support:caseArticle
.
1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Buttons, Links, and Actions.
2. Click New Button or Link.
3. Enter a unique
Label
,
Name
, and
Description
.
4. Select Detail Page Button for
Display Type
.
5. Select Execute JavaScript in the
Behavior
drop-down.
6. Select OnClick JaveScript in the
Content Source
drop-down.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create or change custom buttons or links and create a Visualforce page:
•
Customize Application
68
Build Your Knowledge Base Use More Case Keywords to Find Articles
7. Enter code for extracting case data and setting up parameters for the article search page.
For example:
// article search page URL var url = '/knowledge/knowledgeHome.apexp';
// ID of the current case url += '?id={!Case.Id}';
// use the case subject as the search keywords url += '&search={!Case.Subject}';
// read case attributes var caseType = '{!Case.Type}'; var caseProduct = '{!Case.Product__c}';
// if the case is of a certain type, select only 2 of the article types available
// in other cases, we keep the default behavior (all article types selected) if (caseType=='Problem' || caseType=='Question') { url += '&articleType_FAQ_kav=on'; url += '&articleType_How_To_kav=on';
}
// preselect a data category for search results based on the category var product = ''; if (caseProduct=='Home') product = 'Home'; if (caseProduct=='SMB') product = 'Small_and_Medium_Business'; if (caseProduct=='Large enterprise') product = 'Large_Enterprise'; if (product.length>0) url += '&ct_Products2=' + product;
// once the logic is executed, we go to the article search page window.location = url;
8. Click Save.
9. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts.
10. Click Edit next to
Case Layout
.
11. Drag your custom button for article search into the case layout.
12. Click Save.
13. Create a Visualforce page named
CaseDetailsWithoutStandardKBSearchButton
with the following code:
<apex:page standardController="Case">
<style type="text/css"> div.knowledgeBlock input {display: none}
</style>
69
Build Your Knowledge Base Set Up the Knowledge One Widget
<apex:detail/>
</apex:page>
14. Back in the Buttons, Links, and Actions area for cases, click Edit next to
View
.
15. Select Visualforce Page in
Override with
.
16. Select CaseDetailsWithoutStandardKBSearchButton from the drop-down.
17. Click Save.
Set Up the Knowledge One Widget
Knowledge One is available as a widget that you can plug in to the Salesforce Console for Service or Salesforce Console for Sales. If you are using the Knowledge tab, you get the same easy-to-use interface for articles and external sources on cases and within the Salesforce Console for Service.
You can search, send, and create articles, all without leaving the case.
Of all the Salesforce Knowledge article widgets , the Knowledge One widget lets you:
•
Attach a published Salesforce Knowledge article to the case in 1 click. In Salesforce Classic, you can attach a document from an external data source to a case if Chatter is enabled.
•
Share an article as a URL, if it is shared on a public channel.
•
Email an article as a PDF, if it is shared on a public channel.
•
Create and manage articles.
•
Make adjustments based on your window width. In the console, in windows smaller than 600 pixels, the searchable objects are displayed in a drop-down menu.
Note: The article widget in a case feed search doesn’t necessarily use the agent’s language.
If the agent’s language isn’t a Salesforce Knowledge supported language but their locale language is, the locale language is the search language. If neither the agent’s language nor local language are supported, the search language is the default Salesforce Knowledge language, which you can find and set on the Knowledge Settings page.
1. From the object management settings for cases, go to Page Layouts and open your case page layout for edit.
2. Ensure the Email quick action is in the case page layout.
Without the Email quick action, you can’t send articles via email.
a. Select Quick Actions in the left-hand menu.
b. Drag Email to the
Quick Actions in the Salesforce Classic
Publisher
line.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To administer Salesforce
Knowledge and Salesforce
Console for Service:
•
Customize Application
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
3. Disable previous article sidebar components.
•
To disable the Knowledge sidebar, click Layout Properties and ensure
Knowledge Sidebar
is unchecked.
•
To disable the case feed article tool, click Feed View and ensure
Use Case Feed Article Tool in the Console is unchecked.
4. In the page layout editor, click Custom Console Components.
5. In the sidebar where you want the Knowledge One widget, select
Knowledge One
in the Type drop down and set the sidebar parameters.
70
Build Your Knowledge Base Compare Article Widgets for Cases at a Glance
Email quick action to be added to the Case page layout in order to show up
Tip: If you can’t see the Knowledge One sidebar, increase its width to 250 (height to 150) in the page layout. These are the minimum measurements for the Knowledge One sidebar to display properly.
Compare Article Widgets for Cases at a Glance
Decide which Salesforce Knowledge article widget is best for your organization.
Compare Article Widgets for Cases at a Glance
Decide which Salesforce Knowledge article widget is best for your organization.
Does the widget...
Filter on data category
Create an article
Search an external object
Access your draft articles
Attach an article to a case
Send an article as a PDF
Share an article’s public URL
Adjust with the window size
Have more than one way to suggest articles
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
71
Build Your Knowledge Base
Article Widget
Compare Article Widgets for Cases at a Glance
Article Case Feed Widget
72
Build Your Knowledge Base
Knowledge One Widget
Compare Article Widgets for Cases at a Glance
73
WORK WITH ARTICLES AND TRANSLATIONS
The Article Management tab is your home page for working with articles throughout the publishing cycle as they are created, assigned to collaborators, translated, published, archived, and deleted.
Agent’s need the correct permissions on an article's article type and article actions to complete
some tasks. For more information see, Assign Article Actions to Public Groups
.
To specify which articles appear in the list view, use the following options in the sidebar:
•
In the View area, select Draft Articles, Published Articles, or Archived Articles. You can filter draft articles by those assigned to you or those assigned to anyone (all draft articles for your organization).
•
If applicable, click the Translations tab in the View area, and select Draft Translations or Published
Translations. You can filter draft translations by those assigned to you, those assigned to a translation queue, or those assigned to anyone (all draft translations in your organization).
•
To refine the current view, first select an article language filter and then enter a keyword or phrase in the
Find in View
field. The
Find in View
field is inactivated for archived articles.
•
In the Filter area, choose a category from a drop-down menu to filter the current view.
To modify which columns display, click Columns. The following columns are available depending on what is selected in the view area:
Action
Column
All User Ratings
Archived Date
Article Number
Article Title
Assigned to
Assignment Details
Description
Displays the actions available for the article or translation.
View
All articles and translations
Average ratings from users of your internal Salesforce organization, Customer Portal, partner portal, and your public knowledge base.
Published and archived articles and published translations
Date the article was archived.
Archived articles
Unique number automatically assigned to the article.
All articles and translations
Click to view the article.
All articles
The user who is assigned work on the article.
Draft articles and translations
Instructions for the assignment.
Draft articles and translations
Assignment Due Date
Date to complete work on the article. If the date has passed, it displays in red.
Draft articles and translations
Created Date
Date the article was written.
Draft articles and translations
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create, edit, or delete articles:
•
Manage Articles
AND
Create, Read, Edit, or
Delete on the article type
To publish or archive articles:
•
Manage Articles
AND
Create, Read, Edit, and
Delete on the article type
To submit articles for translation:
•
Manage Articles
AND
Create, Read, and Edit on the article type
To submit articles for approval:
•
Permissions vary depending on the approval process settings
74
Work with Articles and Translations
Column
Customer Ratings
Language
Last Action
Last Modified by
Last Modified Date
Most Viewed by all Users
Most Viewed by Customers
Most Viewed by Partners
Partner Ratings
Published Date
Source Article
Translated Article
Translation Status
Type
Validation Status
Version
Description View
Average ratings from users on the Customer
Portal and the public knowledge base.
Published and archived articles and published translations
The language an article is translated into.
The date and type of the last action taken on a translation.
Last person to update the article.
Draft and published translations
Draft and published translations
Last date the article was edited.
Draft articles and translations
All articles and translations
Average views from users of your internal
Salesforce organization, Customer Portal, partner portal, and your public knowledge base.
Published and archived articles and published translations
Average views from users on the Customer
Portal and the public knowledge base.
Published and archived articles and published translations
Average views from users on the partner portal and the public knowledge base.
Published and archived articles and published translations
Average ratings from users of your partner portal and public knowledge base.
Published and archived articles and published translations
Date the article was published.
Published articles and translations
The original article before translation. Click the article title to view the article.
Draft and published translations
The title of the translated article. Click the translation title to edit the translation.
Draft and published translations
Status in the translation cycle. Hover over the icon to view the status for each translation. If a translation has been published, there are separate tabs for draft and published translations.
Articles submitted for translation
The article's type, such as FAQ or Product
Description, that determines what information the article contains.
All articles
Shows whether the content of the article has been validated.
All articles and translations, when enabled
The article’s version. Hover over the version number to view details about other versions of the article.
All articles
On the Article Management tab, you can:
•
Find an article or translation by entering a search term or using the category drop-down menu.
75
Work with Articles and Translations
•
Create an article by clicking New.
•
Publish an article or translation by selecting it and clicking
. If you have the “Publish Articles” article action and an approval
process is set up for an article, you see both Publish... and Submit for Approval buttons.
•
Modify an article or translation by clicking Edit next to it.
•
See how an article or translation appears for end users by clicking Preview next to it. From the
Channel
drop-down menu you can choose any channel where an article is visible except the public knowledge base.
Note: Voting and Chatter information is not available when previewing a Knowledge article.
•
See a list of an article’s or translation’s other versions by clicking its version number.
•
Change the owner of an article or translation by selecting it and clicking Assign....
Note:
All draft articles must have an assignee.
•
Send an article or translation to the Recycle Bin by selecting it and clicking Delete.
•
Archive a published article or translation by selecting it and clicking
•
Submit articles for translation by selecting them and clicking Submit for Translation. You can set dues dates for each language and assign it to another agent or a queue for export to a translation vendor.
•
Go directly to the Setup pages for exporting and importing articles for translation with Export Articles for Translation and Import
Article Translations in the Related Links area.
Search Articles and External Sources on the Knowledge Tab
Use a single search to find all your resources at once.
You can create or edit an article from the Knowledge tab or Article Management tab. If you’re creating an article, you may need to select the article type and language. If you’re editing a published article or translation, choose whether to leave it published while you work on a draft copy, or whether to remove the original article from publication and work on it directly. If you work on a copy, publishing the copy replaces the last published version of the article. If you work on the original article, it is unavailable in the channels until you republish it.
Publish Articles and Translations
Publishing articles and translations makes them visible in all channels selected. If you publish an article that has translations, all translations of the article are published as well.
Translate Articles Within Salesforce Knowledge
If your organization translates Salesforce Knowledge articles internally, you can enter the translation from the translation detail page.
Archive Articles and Translations
Archiving removes published articles and translations that are obsolete so they no longer display to agents and customers on your organization's Salesforce Knowledge channels.
Salesforce Knowledge Article Versions
Article versions allow you to save an older version of a published article and then see which version of the article is associated with a case. To save the previous version, select the
Flag as new version
checkbox when publishing a new version. The previously published version is saved and the new version is published with the next sequential version number as an identifier.
Delete Articles and Translations
You can delete articles and translations on the Article Management tab or the detail page of the article or translation. Deleting permanently removes articles from the knowledge base. You can delete draft articles, draft translations of articles, or archived articles, but not published articles or translations.
76
Work with Articles and Translations Search Articles and External Sources on the Knowledge Tab
Find out which Salesforce Knowledge tab you are using and what you can do on each.
Search Articles and External Sources on the Knowledge Tab
USER PERMISSIONS
To view articles:
To create articles:
To edit draft articles:
To edit published or archived articles:
To delete a draft, published, or archived article:
To create and edit external data sources:
Read on the article type
Manage Articles
AND
Read and Create on the article type
Manage Articles
AND
Read and Edit on the article type
Manage Articles
AND
Create, Read, and Edit on the article type
Manage Articles
AND
Read, Edit, and Delete on the article type
Customize Application
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
Use a single search to find all your resources at once.
1. Enter your search terms in the Search box.
You can use search wildcards and operators in your search terms. If your organization has any auto-complete options enabled, you can select from the suggestions.
Note: In the auto-complete drop-down, article titles have a paper icon while the keywords have a magnifying glass icon.
2. Click the search icon or press Enter on your keyboard.
3. Optionally, select filters to refine your search results.
Depending on the source you are searching, filter by language, data category, article status, article type, and article validation. Click
Reset to return all filters to their default setting.
•
When
All
is selected, you can filter by language and data category, depending on what your organization supports.
•
When
Articles
or
My Draft
is selected you can filter by:
–
Article status: Published, Draft, and Draft Translations
–
Language: Values depend on those supported in your org
–
Data categories: Values depend on those created in your org
77
Work with Articles and Translations Search Articles and External Sources on the Knowledge Tab
–
Article type: Values depend on those created in your org
–
Validation Status: No Filter (all articles), Not Validated (articles that are not validated), Validated (validated articles), and any other values supported in your org such as in review
•
When an external source is selected, there are no filters, and the general article information displayed is controlled by your external object search layout.
4. For articles, you can sort by:
•
Published Date
•
Best Rating
•
Most Viewed
•
Title: A to Z
•
Title: Z to A
5. View information by clicking the article or external source title. Below the title you can find general article information such as: new article indication, article number, article type, validation status, last published date, article view comparison, and article rating comparison.
6. Use the drop down by each article to follow or unfollow,
an article, depending on your permissions.
Promote Articles in Search Results
Associate keywords with articles to optimize search results in Salesforce Knowledge. Users who search for these keywords see the article first in their search results. Promoted search terms are useful for promoting an article that you know is commonly used to resolve a support issue when a user’s search contains certain keywords.
How search works for articles depends on your use of search options, search terms, wildcards, and operators. Salesforce Knowledge search uses the same custom search algorithms that are available throughout Salesforce, which include mechanisms such as tokenization, lemmatization, and stopword lists, to return relevant search results.
78
Work with Articles and Translations Promote Articles in Search Results
Promote Articles in Search Results
Associate keywords with articles to optimize search results in Salesforce Knowledge. Users who search for these keywords see the article first in their search results. Promoted search terms are useful for promoting an article that you know is commonly used to resolve a support issue when a user’s search contains certain keywords.
Articles must be in published status for you to manage their promoted terms.
1. In the Article Management tab, select Published Articles in the View section, and then click the title of the published article that you want to promote for a search term.
2. In the Promoted Search Terms related list, click New Promoted Term.
3. Enter the keywords that you want to associate with the article.
•
You can associate the same term with multiple articles. If the user’s search matches the promoted term, all associated articles are promoted in search results, ordered by relevancy.
•
The maximum number of characters per promoted term is 100. For best results matching users’ search terms, limit each promoted term to a few keywords.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
4. Click Save.
Example:
For example, if an article addresses a common support issue such as login problems, you can associate the terms
password
and
password change
. Article search matches a promoted term whenever all keywords within the term occur within the user’s search terms, in any sequence. Each keyword must match exactly. For example:
•
The promoted term password matches a search for
change password
.
•
The promoted term password change matches a search for
how do I change my password
but doesn’t match
forgot password
.
•
The promoted term password doesn’t match a search for
change passwords
.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create, edit, and delete promoted search terms:
•
Manage Promoted
Search Terms
Consider these limitations and general limits when you use promoted search terms.
•
Your organization can create a maximum of 2,000 promoted terms. For best results, use them selectively, which means create a limited number of promoted terms and a limited number of promoted articles per term.
•
If your organization translates articles into multiple languages, each promoted term is associated with one article version and the article version’s language. If you need equivalent promoted terms to be associated with each translation, you must specify promoted terms for each translation. For example, associate change password with an English language article version and changer mot de passe with a French language article version.
•
The end user’s language setting determines the scope of the article search. Search results exclude article versions and any associated promoted terms that are not in the user’s language.
79
Work with Articles and Translations Article Search Results
Article Search Results
How search works for articles depends on your use of search options, search terms, wildcards, and operators. Salesforce Knowledge search uses the same custom search algorithms that are available throughout Salesforce, which include mechanisms such as tokenization, lemmatization, and stopword lists, to return relevant search results.
Many factors influence the order in which articles appear in the results list. Salesforce evaluates your search terms and your data to move more relevant matches higher in your list of results. Some of these factors include:
Operators
When you don’t specify an operator in your article search, the search engine determines the best operator to use.
Many searches use “AND” as the default operator. When you search for multiple terms, all the terms must match to generate a result. Matching on all terms tends to produce search results that are more relevant than searches using the “OR” operator, where matches on any of the search query terms appear in the results.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
If the search engine doesn’t return any results that match all the terms, it looks for matches using the “OR” operator. With the “OR” operator, the search engine boosts documents that contain more terms from the search query, so that they appear higher in the results list.
Frequency
This algorithm calculates the frequency with which a term appears within each article. The algorithm then weighs them against each other to produce the initial set of search results.
Relevancy
Articles that are frequently viewed or that are frequently attached to cases appear higher in the results. Article ownership and recent activity also boost an article in the results list.
Proximity of Terms
Articles that contain all the keywords in a search are ranked highest, followed by articles with fewer keywords, followed by articles with single keyword matches. Terms that are closer together in the matched document, with few or no intervening words, are ranked higher in the list.
Exact Matches
Matches on exact keywords are ranked higher than matches on synonyms or lemmatized terms.
Title Field
If any search terms match words in an article title, the article is boosted in the search results.
Token Sequence
If the search term is broken up into multiple tokens because it contains both letters and numbers, the system boosts results based on the same sequence of tokens. That way, exact matches are ranked higher than matches on the tokens with other tokens in between.
80
Work with Articles and Translations Create and Edit Articles
Create and Edit Articles
You can create or edit an article from the Knowledge tab or Article Management tab. If you’re creating an article, you may need to select the article type and language. If you’re editing a published article or translation, choose whether to leave it published while you work on a draft copy, or whether to remove the original article from publication and work on it directly. If you work on a copy, publishing the copy replaces the last published version of the article. If you work on the original article, it is unavailable in the channels until you republish it.
Note: When applying categories, choose the categories that a user would naturally look for as they navigate. Users only find an article if they select its explicitly applied category, the parent of that category, or a child of that category.
Once your article is complete, you can assign it to another agent to edit or review the article,
directly, or submit the article for approval. If you have the “Publish Articles” article action and an approval process is set up for an article, you'll see both Publish... and Submit for Approval buttons..
Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles
Smart linking from one article to another.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles
Smart linking from one article to another.
Smart links automatically adjust when the name or URL of an article is changed. For example, when the URL Name of an article is changed, Salesforce Knowledge automatically updates the article’s
URL based on the channel, adds the site prefix for a public knowledge base, and adds the community name for the community portal. There are two ways to create a smart link in the rich text editor to a Salesforce Knowledge article within another article:
•
•
Important: Smart links are based on the channels they are in. Therefore, you can’t add a smart link to an article in another channel. For example, an article on your public knowledge base can’t link to an article only published in your internal channel.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles Through Search
Smart linking from one article to another using the Link Article dialog in the rich text editor.
Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles with URLs
Smart linking from one Salesforce Knowledge article to another by manually entering the article
URL in the rich text editor.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create articles:
•
Manage Articles
AND
Read and Create on the article type
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Work with Articles and Translations Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles
Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles Through Search
Smart linking from one article to another using the Link Article dialog in the rich text editor.
When creating or editing an article, you can use a keyword search to create a smart link in a rich text area field.
1. Place your cursor where you’d like to place the link.
2.
Click the link icon,
The Link Article dialog appears.
.
3. Optionally, select which language to search.
If no language is selected, Salesforce Knowledge returns those articles in your knowledge base’s default language that are related to your keyword search.
4. Optionally, select the publish status type to search.
•
Online (default if no publish status is selected)
•
Draft
•
Draft translations (if your knowledge base supports multiple languages)
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
5. Enter article keywords into the search bar.
6. Click the search icon at the end of the search bar.
The top 20 related articles display.
7. Select the article to reference in a smart link from the article list.
Important: Smart links are based on the channels they are in. Therefore, you can’t add a smart link to an article in another channel. For example, an article on your public knowledge base can’t link to an article only published in your internal channel.
To create articles:
•
Manage Articles
AND
Read and Create on the article type
8. Optionally, click Go to Article to view the article in another window and ensure that it is the correct reference.
9. Optionally, click the Target tab and select where the referenced article displays.
•
Not Set: Opens the linked article in the same frame as it was clicked.
•
Frame: Opens the linked article in a designated frame.
•
New Window (_blank): Opens the linked article in a new window or tab.
•
Topmost Window (_top): Opens the linked article in the full body of the window.
•
Same Window (_self): Opens the linked article in the same frame as it was clicked.
•
Parent Window (_parent): Opens the linked article in the parent frame.
10. Click OK.
Note: Smart links add more characters than what is displayed. If you see an error that you have surpassed the character limit, have your administrator increase the limit.
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Work with Articles and Translations Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles
Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles with URLs
Smart linking from one Salesforce Knowledge article to another by manually entering the article
URL in the rich text editor.
When creating or editing an article, you can manually create a smart link in a rich text area field.
1. Highlight the content or place your cursor where you’d like to place the link.
2.
Click the link icon, .
3. Select Link Type URL.
4. Select Protocol <other>.
5. Enter the article URL as:
/articles/[language]/[articleType]/[URLName]
.
For example, for an English article in a multiple language knowledge base, of article type FAQ, with a URL Name of About-Passwords the article URL is:
/articles/en_US/FAQ/About-Passwords
. Add a language only if your Salesforce
Knowledge base supports multiple languages.
Important: Smart links are based on the channels they are in. Therefore, you can’t add a smart link to an article in another channel. For example, an article on your public knowledge base can’t link to an article only published in your internal channel.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
6. Optionally, click the Target tab and select where the referenced article displays.
•
Not Set: Opens the linked article in the same frame as it was clicked.
•
Frame: Opens the linked article in a designated frame.
•
New Window (_blank): Opens the linked article in a new window or tab.
•
Topmost Window (_top): Opens the linked article in the full body of the window.
•
Same Window (_self): Opens the linked article in the same frame as it was clicked.
•
Parent Window (_parent): Opens the linked article in the parent frame.
To create articles:
•
Manage Articles
AND
Read and Create on the article type
7. Click OK.
Note: Smart links add more characters than what is displayed. If you see an error that you have surpassed the character limit, have your administrator increase the limit.
83
Work with Articles and Translations Publish Articles and Translations
Publish Articles and Translations
Publishing articles and translations makes them visible in all channels selected. If you publish an article that has translations, all translations of the article are published as well.
EDITIONS
You can publish an article or translation from the Article Management tab or the article’s or translation’s detail page. To publish, you need the publish permission on an article's article type and the “Publish Articles” or “Publish Translated Articles” article action to publish an article or translation.
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
When publishing articles keep the following in mind.
•
You can choose to publish directly or schedule publishing for a future date. Articles you scheduled for publication later continue to appear in the Draft Articles filter, now with the pending icon ( ) next to the article title. To see the publication date, hover over the icon.
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Tip:
To cancel a scheduled publication, click Cancel Publication on the article or translation detail or edit page.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
•
If your organization has implemented approval processes, you need the same permissions and actions to publish an article after it has been approved. Approval processes aren't available for translations.
•
An article in an approval process might be sent to a queue to be published even if it is scheduled to publish immediately. This happens when the article is very large, there are many active languages, or there are many other articles to publish at that time. To mitigate performance issues, the article is sent to a queue until it can be published successfully, usually within minutes. Also, note that the
Last Modified By
field shows Automated Process as the last user to modify the article.
•
If the draft being published is a working copy of a currently published article, it is published as a new version of the original.
•
For articles and translations that have already been published, select the
Flag as new version
checkbox to make the new article icon ( ) display next to your article in the selected channels. Readers from these channels can see that this article has been modified since the last time they’ve read it. This checkbox is not available when you publish an article for the first time, as the icon displays by default for new articles.
•
If you assign an article that is scheduled for publication, you also cancel the scheduled publication.
•
Scheduling a publication removes any assignment information. The user who scheduled the publication is assigned to the article.
•
Conflicts might occur when different agents perform actions on the same articles simultaneously. Depending on who performs the action first, the articles will not be available for subsequent users though the articles still display momentarily in the articles list.
Performing an action on these articles results in a conflict error.
•
If you have the “Publish Articles” article action and an approval process is set up for an article, you see both Publish... and Submit
for Approval buttons.
84
Work with Articles and Translations Translate Articles Within Salesforce Knowledge
Translate Articles Within Salesforce Knowledge
If your organization translates Salesforce Knowledge articles internally, you can enter the translation from the translation detail page.
Depending on the status of your translation and the article actions assigned to you
, you can do the following from the translation detail page.
Action
Archive
Assign...
Delete
Edit
Preview
Publish...
Description Article Status
removes published translations that are obsolete so they no longer display to agents and customers on your organization's Salesforce
Knowledge channels.
To archive a translation, archive its master article.
Assigning changes the owner of the translation.
Draft translations
Deleting a translation permanently removes it from the knowledge base.
Draft translations
Note: You can't undelete a draft translation.
Editing modifies the translation's content or properties.
Previewing shows how the translation appears to end users.
Note: Voting and
Chatter information is not available when previewing a
Knowledge article.
Draft and published translations
Draft and published translations
Publishing translations makes them visible in all channels selected.
Draft translations
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
USER PERMISSIONS
To work with translated articles:
•
Manage Articles
AND
Create, Read, Edit, or
Delete on the article type
(depending on the action)
1. Click the Article Management tab and select Translations in the View area.
2. Select Draft Translations.
Note: You can also edit a published translation. It reverts to draft status until you republish it, although you can choose to keep the existing version published while you update it.
85
Work with Articles and Translations Archive Articles and Translations
3. Optionally, change the
Assigned To
filter to view articles that are not assigned to you for translation.
For example, you might want to view articles assigned to a translation queue.
4. Click Edit next to the article and language you want to translate.
5. Enter your translation.
6. Click Save.
Archive Articles and Translations
Archiving removes published articles and translations that are obsolete so they no longer display to agents and customers on your organization's Salesforce Knowledge channels.
You can archive published articles and translations on the Article Management tab. You can choose to archive either real time (now) or schedule the archival.
Articles you're archiving now move directly to the Archived Articles view. Articles you scheduled for archiving later continue to display on the Published Articles view, now with the pending icon
( ). Hover over the icon to see the archive date. On the archive date, the article automatically moves to the Archived Articles view.
Note:
•
Conflicts might occur when different agents perform actions on the same articles simultaneously. Depending on who performs the action first, the articles will not be available for subsequent users though the articles still display momentarily in the articles list. Performing an action on these articles results in a conflict error.
•
If you edit a published article that is scheduled for archiving, you also cancel the archiving.
•
If an article has a published translation with a draft version, on archive, the draft version is deleted. Published translations are archived along with the article.
Tip: To cancel a scheduled archive, click Cancel Archive on the article detail page.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
86
Work with Articles and Translations Salesforce Knowledge Article Versions
Salesforce Knowledge Article Versions
Article versions allow you to save an older version of a published article and then see which version of the article is associated with a case. To save the previous version, select the
Flag as new version
checkbox when publishing a new version. The previously published version is saved and the new version is published with the next sequential version number as an identifier.
When an article is attached to a case and a new version of the article is published, the version attached to the case as being outdated. For example, if Version 2 is attached to a case and a third version is published, the article attached to the case becomes Version 2 (outdated). This notation ensures that there is a permanent record of which content was associated with the case.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
When you click the version number in the Article View, and the Article or Translation Detail pages, you see the Version History list. In this list you can:
•
View the list of archived versions.
•
To view a version, click its title.
•
Expand the version to view its field change history (if you have history tracking enabled for the article type and for fields).
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
By default, the system stores up to ten versions of an article, plus any versions that are attached to cases.
When several versions of an article exist, you can restore an older version and republish it. Click
Revert to Draft Version
to copy the archived version’s content into a draft article, then republish it as a new version. You can also restore the older version of any associated translations at the same time.
Note: When there is an existing draft for the article, the option to revert isn’t available.
You can delete an older, outdated version of a published article by selecting
Delete This Version
from the article detail page.
If you delete an article version associated to a case, it is no longer be attached to the case. Translated article versions depend on the master language article. If the master language version is deleted, the translated versions are also deleted.
Versions also appear in custom reports, allowing you to find and read the article version attached to a case.
Delete Articles and Translations
You can delete articles and translations on the Article Management tab or the detail page of the article or translation. Deleting permanently removes articles from the knowledge base. You can delete draft articles, draft translations of articles, or archived articles, but not published articles or translations.
Note:
•
To delete published article and translations, first remove them from publication by choosing edit or archive.
•
When a user without delete access cancels the editing on published article, the newly created article draft is not deleted automatically.
Deleting articles moves them to the Recycle Bin, where you can undelete them if you change your mind. If you delete an article with translations, the translations are also moved to the Recycle Bin.
However, if you delete a single translation, you can't undelete it. Deleting an article or translation
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
87
Work with Articles and Translations Articles or Knowledge Tab may fail if another user or the system simultaneously modifies it while the deletion is being processed. You receive an error message when this occurs.
Note:
•
Conflicts might occur when different agents perform actions on the same articles simultaneously. Depending on who performs the action first, the articles will not be available for subsequent users though the articles still display momentarily in the articles list. Performing an action on these articles results in a conflict error.
•
If you delete a draft article that is a working copy of a currently published article, the original published version is not affected but the draft version is permanently removed. It does not go to the Recycle Bin. You can edit the published version to work again on a draft copy.
•
When a user without delete access cancels editing a published article, the newly created article draft is not deleted automatically.
Articles or Knowledge Tab
Find out which Salesforce Knowledge tab you are using and what you can do on each.
There are two tabs for searching Salesforce Knowledge articles: the Knowledge
tab or the
tab. The one you use depends on when your organization started using Salesforce Knowledge or if it adopted the Knowledge tab.
The Knowledge tab
If the search bar is at the top of the main frame of the page you are using the Knowledge One on the Knowledge tab.
EDITIONS
Available in: Salesforce
Classic, Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is available in Performance and Developer Editions and in Unlimited Edition with the
Service Cloud.
Salesforce Knowledge is available for an additional cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
The Knowledge tab merges functionality of the old Articles tab and the Article Management tab and uses federated search to search all your resources at once. On the Knowledge tab, you can:
•
®
SharePoint
®
.
•
articles by language and data categories.
•
Sort articles by published date, rating, most viewed, and title.
•
Use the Create Article drop-down to select an article type and
.
•
Use the drop-down by each article to follow or unfollow,
,
, and
delete an article, depending on your permissions.
Note:
For information on article permissions see Knowledge User Access on page 44.
88
Work with Articles and Translations Articles or Knowledge Tab
Also, when you use case feed, the Knowledge tab layout is applied to the article sidebar.
Note: Community members without the Knowledge One permission cannot access Knowledge through Communities. They also can’t access Knowledge in communities via Salesforce mobile web, Salesforce for Android, or Salesforce for iOS.
To switch to the Knowledge One and the Knowledge tab, have your administrator add the
Knowledge One
permission to your
or
.
The Articles tab
If the search bar is in the left-side panel of the page you are using the Articles tab.
The Articles tab presents a list of your Salesforce Knowledge published articles. On the Articles tab, you can:
•
Search for published articles
•
View published articles
•
•
Customize how the article information is displayed
89
INDEX
A
Archive articles
Archiving article versions
articles
Article Translations import
Article types adding sections to layout
assigning templates to channels
creating
creating fields
custom templates
delete
field-level security
managing
rearranging fields on layout
Articles archive
archived versions
create
CSV file for importing to Salesforce Knowledge
deleting
edit
export status
history
import status
importing
importing parameters for Salesforce Knowledge
manage
modify
preparing articles for import to Salesforce Knowledge
publish
search
See also Article types
See also Salesforce Knowledge
,
topics
track changes
translate
validation status
versions
zip file for importing
C
Cases search Salesforce Knowledge articles
creating KCS groups
Custom fields
File field
Salesforce Knowledge
D
Documentation
Salesforce Knowledge
E
Export articles
Exporting
Salesforce Knowledge status
External sources search
F
Field-level security in Article Types
Fields audit
history
track changes
I
Import article translations into Salesforce Knowledge
Importing articles into Salesforce Knowledge
CSV file for importing articles to Salesforce Knowledge
importing parameters for Salesforce Knowledge
preparing articles for import to Salesforce Knowledge
Salesforce Knowledge status
zip file for importing articles into Salesforce Knowledge
K
Knowledge
Knowledge actions activating
creating
90
Index
Knowledge user creating
L
Layouts
See also Article types
Lightning Knowledge
Limits
Salesforce Knowledge
P
Picklists validation status
Promoted Search Terms administer
manage
Public knowledge base prerequisites
Publish articles
translations
S
Salesforce Console for Service article widget
article widgets
Salesforce Knowledge about multiple languages
administration documentation
Apex documentation
API documentation
article widget
article widgets
Articles tab
available field types
cases documentation
choosing the channel display
create approval processes
create users
create workflow rules
creating article types
creating fields for article types
CSV file for importing
Customer Portal documentation
data categories documentation
default language
description
development documentation
export articles for translation
91
Salesforce Knowledge (continued) get started
getting started
hiding data category groups
import article translations
importing articles
importing parameters
Knowledge One
Knowledge tab
limits
limits documentation
manage documentation
metadata api documentation
modifying the article type layout
multiple languages
partner portal documentation
permissions
preparing articles for import
public article URLs
public knowledge base documentation
restrict article manager access
search articles from cases
,
search documentation
See also Article types
See also Articles
See also Data categories
See also Public knowledge base
,
send article content in email
service console documentation
set up
,
setting up
,
setup documentation
smart links
tab visibility
,
tips and tricks
,
translate articles
translation documentation
video links
view export status
view import status
zip file for importing articles
Search articles
external sources
Salesforce Knowledge
search algorithm
search highlights
smart links
Salesforce Knowledge
Index
Synonyms search behavior
T
Topics articles
,
Translate articles in Salesforce Knowledge
translations
Translations archive
Translations (continued) publish
V video links
Salesforce Knowledge
W
Workflow
Knowledge
92
Download
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The public link to your chat has been updated. You may view and manage your chat links after registration here.
Document public link
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Key features
Knowledge base creation
Article management
Secure information sharing
Multilingual support
Workflow and approvals
Data categorization
Frequently asked questions
Knowledge articles are documents of structured information that make up your Salesforce Knowledge base. Articles can include information on processes, like how to reset your product to its defaults, or frequently asked questions, like how much storage your product supports.
Experienced service agents and internal writers write the articles, and then the articles are published to a range of channels: Internal App, customer and partner communities, or public websites.
This importer is for articles and translations you currently have outside Salesforce Knowledge
