SETTING UP DATA CATEGORIES
In Salesforce Knowledge, data categories are a set of criteria organized hierarchically into category groups. Articles in the knowledge base can be classified according to multiple categories that make it easy for users to find the articles they need. For example, to classify articles by sales regions and business units, create two category groups, Sales Regions and Business Units. The Sales Regions category group could consist of a geographical hierarchy, such as All Sales Regions as the top level,
North America, Europe, and Asia at the second level, and so on up to five levels. Authors assign categories to articles. Administrators can use data categories to control access to articles.
USER PERMISSIONS
To view the Data Categories page:
•
“View Data Categories”
To create, edit, or delete data categories:
•
“Manage Data
Categories”
Overview of Data Categories
A category group is the container for a set of categories. In Salesforce Knowledge it corresponds to the name of the category drop-down menus. For example, if you use the Data Categories page in Setup, (enter
Data Category
in the
Quick Find
box, then select
Data Category Setup) to create and activate a category group called Products, a Products menu displays on the Article Management tab, the article edit page, the Articles tab in all channels, and the public knowledge base.
Implementation Tips
Consider the following information when planning and implementing data categories for your organization:
•
You can create up to three category groups with a maximum of five hierarchy levels in each group. Each category group can contain a total of 100 categories.
•
If you want to use data categories with Answers, after creating your category group you must assign it from Setup by entering
Data
Category Assignments
in the
Quick Find
box, then selecting Data Category Assignments under Answers. You can only assign one category group to an answers community. Salesforce Knowledge supports multiple category groups.
•
Even though you can create up to five hierarchy levels of categories in a category group, only the first level of categories is supported in your answers community. Child categories below the first level are not displayed in the community, and community members can't assign these child categories to questions. Salesforce Knowledge supports a hierarchy of data categories.
•
Category groups are hidden from users until they are activated. Do not activate a category group until you have finished defining its categories and their access settings, including their visibility.
•
When assigning categories to articles, you can choose up to eight categories in a category group.
•
If an article has no categories, it displays only when you choose the
No Filter
option in the category drop-down menu.
•
When searching for articles or article translations, selecting a category automatically includes the parent and children of that category and any grandparents, up to and including the top level. Sibling categories are not included. For example, if a category hierarchy has the levels All Products, Switches, Optical Networks, and Metro Core, selecting “Optical Networks” from the category drop-down menu returns articles assigned to any of the four categories. However, if the Switches category has a sibling category called Routers, selecting “Optical Networks” does not return articles classified within Routers. Category visibility settings may limit the specific articles you can find.
•
Once visibility settings have been chosen for the categories:
–
Users who are not assigned visibility can only see uncategorized articles and questions unless default category visibility has been set up.
29
Setting Up Data Categories Creating Category Groups
–
For role-based visibility, Customer Portal users and partner portal users inherit the category group visibility settings assigned to their account managers by default. You can change the category group visibility settings for each portal role.
–
If you only have access to one category in a category group, the category drop-down menu for that category group does not display on the Articles tab.
•
Deleting a category:
–
Permanently removes it. It cannot be restored. It never appears in the Recycle Bin.
–
Permanently deletes its child categories.
–
As applicable, removes the category and its children from the Answers tab, the Article Management tab, the Articles tab in all channels, and your company's public knowledge base.
–
Removes associations between the category and articles or questions. You can reassign articles and questions to another category.
–
Removes its mapping to visibility. Users lose their visibility to articles and answers associated with the deleted category.
•
Deleting a category group:
–
Moves it to the Deleted Category Groups section, which is a recycle bin. You can view items in this section but not edit them. It holds category groups for 15 days before they are permanently erased and cannot be recovered. During the 15–day holding period, you can either restore a category group, or permanently erase it immediately.
–
Deletes all categories within that group.
–
Removes all associations between the group's categories and articles or questions.
–
Removes all associations between the group's categories and visibility.
–
As applicable, removes the category drop-down menu from the Articles tab in all channels, the Article Management tab, and your company's public knowledge base.
•
You can translate the labels of categories and category groups using the Translation Workbench.
Best Practices
Consider the following tips when using data categories:
•
To quickly manage data categories, use keyboard shortcuts.
•
After creating or updating categories, set up category group visibility rules.
•
Save your changes frequently. The more actions you perform before clicking Save, the longer it takes to save.
Creating Category Groups
To create a category group:
1. From Setup, enter
Data Category
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Data Category Setup.
2. Click New in the Category Groups section.
3. Specify the Group Name. This name appears as the title of the category drop-down menu on the Article Management tab, in the article editor, in the Articles tab (all channels) and, if applicable, in the public knowledge base.
4. Optionally, modify the
Group Unique Name
. This is a unique name used to identify the category group in the SOAP API.
5. Optionally, enter a description of the category group.
6. Click Save.
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Setting Up Data Categories Adding Categories to a Category Group
Salesforce Knowledge generates a top-level category called “All name of the category group”. Optionally, double click it to rename it.
When you add a new category group, it's deactivated by default and only displays on the administrative setup pages for Data Categories,
Roles, Permission Sets, and Profiles. Keep your category groups deactivated to set up your category hierarchy and assign visibility. Until you manually activate a category group, it does not display in Salesforce Knowledge or your answers community In addition to activating the category group, for answers communities you must assign the category group to a zone before the categories are visible on the
Answers tab.
To activate a category group so it is available to users, move the mouse pointer over the name of the category group and click the
Activate Category Group
icon ( ).
Adding Categories to a Category Group
To add categories to a category group:
1. From Setup, enter
Data Category
in the
Quick Find
box, then select Data Category Setup.
2. Click the category group name.
3. Click a category that is directly above where you want to add a category (a parent), or at the same level (a sibling).
4. Click Actions, then select an action: Add Child Category or Add Sibling Category.
5. Enter a category name.
If possible, Salesforce automatically reuses the name you entered as the
Category Unique Name
, a system field which the
SOAP API requires.
6. Click Add. Alternatively, press Enter.
7. Click Save. Save your changes frequently. The more actions you perform before clicking Save, the longer it takes to save.
Tip: By default, all Salesforce Knowledge users and zone members can see all categories within an active category group. You can restrict category visibility after you have set up your data categories to ensure that users only access articles and questions that you want them to see.
When working with data categories you can also use the following shortcuts. For details about the actions listed, such as modifying or deleting categories, see the Salesforce online help.
Task
Adding a category
Modifying a category
Demoting or promoting a category
Action
Add a sibling to the selected category
Add a child to the selected category
Close the Add Category field
Save changes in the Add Category field
Open the Edit Category field for the selected category
Close the Edit Category field
Keyboard Shortcut
ENTER
ENTER+TAB
ESC
ENTER
SPACEBAR
ESC
Save changes in the Edit Category field ENTER
Demote a category down one level, as a child of the sibling currently above it
TAB
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Setting Up Data Categories Category Filtering Examples
Task
Deleting a category
Navigating in the category hierarchy
Canceling or repeating an action
Saving the changes
Action Keyboard Shortcut
Promote a category up one level, as a sibling to its current parent
SHIFT+TAB
Delete the selected category and its children
Move the focus up in the category hierarchy
DELETE
UP ARROW
Move the focus down in the category hierarchy
Collapse children in a parent category
Expand children in a parent category
Undo the last action
Redo the last action
Save the last changes in the category hierarchy
DOWN ARROW
LEFT ARROW
RIGHT ARROW
CTRL+Z
CTRL+Y
CTRL+S
Category Filtering Examples
The following table shows how categories can be used as filters to narrow article search results. The examples in the table use the category groups
Products and Geography
and three sample articles. Assume that the user performing the search has access to all categories.
If you select these category filters...
An article assigned to All
Countries AND Laptop is...
An article assigned to
Canada AND Computers is...
All Countries
AND
All Products
FOUND. Reasons:
•
All Countries is an exact match.
•
Selecting All Products automatically includes
Laptop.
FOUND. Reasons:
•
Canada is a child of All
Countries.
•
Computers is a child of All
Products.
An article assigned to
Europe only is...
NOT FOUND. Reasons:
•
Europe is a child of All
Countries, but all filter criteria must be met.
•
The article is not assigned to a Products category. To retrieve this article, choose
No Filter from the category drop-down menu.
Asia
AND
Computers
FOUND. Reasons: NOT FOUND. Reasons:
•
All Countries is the parent of
Asia.
•
Laptop is a child of
Computers.
•
Canada and Asia are not in the same parent/child hierarchy (that is, they are in different branches of the category hierarchy).
•
Computers is an exact match, but all filter criteria must be met before an article is displayed.
NOT FOUND. Reasons:
•
Europe and Asia are siblings rather than members of the same parent/child hierarchy.
•
If an article is not assigned to a category, “No Filter” must be selected in the corresponding category drop-down menu to retrieve the article.
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Setting Up Data Categories Category Filtering Examples
If you select these category filters...
An article assigned to All
Countries AND Laptop is...
An article assigned to
Canada AND Computers is...
France
AND
Enterprise Electronics
NOT FOUND. Reasons:
•
Laptop is not in a parent/child relationship with Enterprise Electronics.
•
All Countries is a parent of
France but all filter criteria must be met.
NOT FOUND. Reasons:
An article assigned to
Europe only is...
NOT FOUND. Reasons:
•
Canada and France are not members of the same parent/child hierarchy (they are cousins).
•
Computers and Enterprise
Electronics are not members of the same parent/child hierarchy (they are siblings).
•
Europe is the parent of
France but all filter criteria must be met.
•
If an article is not assigned to a category, “No Filter” must be selected in the corresponding category drop-down menu to retrieve the article.
Europe
(No other filter)
NOT FOUND. Reasons: NOT FOUND. Reasons:
•
The No Filter criteria on
Products only retrieves an article assigned to No
Categories.
•
All Countries is the grandparent of Europe, but all filter criteria must be met.
•
Europe and Canada are not in the same parent/child hierarchy.
•
The “No Filter” criteria on
Products only retrieves an article assigned to No
Categories.
FOUND. Reasons:
•
Europe is an exact match.
•
On Products, the article is assigned to No Categories and “No Filter” was chosen as a filter.
Americas
AND
Desktop
NOT FOUND. Reasons: FOUND. Reasons:
•
Laptop and Desktop are siblings rather than members of the same parent/child hierarchy.
•
All Countries is the parent of
America, but all filter criteria must be met.
•
Canada is the child of
America.
•
Computers is the parent of
Desktop.
NOT FOUND. Reasons:
•
America and Europe are siblings rather than members of the same parent/child hierarchy
•
If an article is not assigned to a category, “No Filter” must be selected in the corresponding category drop-down menu to retrieve the article.
The examples in the table use the Products and Geography category groups. These groups consist of the following hierarchies:
Products Category Group
•
All Products
–
Consumer Electronics
•
Cameras
•
Audio
•
Printers
–
Enterprise Electronics
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Setting Up Data Categories
•
Routers
•
Switches
•
PEX
–
Computers
•
Laptops
•
Desktops
•
PDAs
Geography Category Group
•
All Countries
–
Americas
•
USA
•
Canada
•
Brazil
–
Asia
•
China
•
Japan
•
India
–
Europe
•
France
•
United Kingdom
•
Poland
Category Filtering Examples
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