Salesforce.com reduced its prices for organizations that were internally applying the Salesforce Knowledge base. According to a press release in the winter of 2014, the company revealed that users of Salesforce and Salesforce ANT migration tools will no longer have to procure a Knowledge user license in order to access articles in the Knowledge base.
Instead, Salesforce customers are required to pay an annual subscription fee for the Knowledge User service. This is applicable for use in the creation and editing/updating of articles in the Knowledge base. With this change, it’s likely that the number of consumers who will adopt Salesforce Knowledge for internal purposes will increase, as the rules of economics dictate.
In the process, a number of users will also be exposed to the Public Knowledge Base, which is an open-source domain of information that requires no subscription for article access. If you’re interested in setting up the PKB for your organization, here are 7 useful tips to help you along:
1. Start with the implementation guide
Intuition alone won’t help you to set up the PKB properly. Set-up requires an interplay with many different Salesforce features and areas such as the Data Categories, Components, Knowledge, Sites, Custom Profile building, Static Resources, Pages and Custom Settings, among others. Read through and follow steps outlined in the App Guide.
2. Include bookmark links to important areas
To reduce time spent in navigation, create a collection of direct links to all the above-mentioned areas, either as bookmarks or in a document. You’ll need to access them multiple times and it’s easier with direct links than having to go through multiple menu lists in set up each time.
3. The site API name should not mention the word Knowledge anywhere
You should not use the word Knowledge anywhere in your site name, either on its own or as a variant. This will prevent you from publicly viewing ‘Narrow Search’ which is an essential component.
4. There isn’t a Guest User Profile in the profiles selection list
If you want to access it, you must go through ‘Public Access Settings’ which is a button found on the Site Details page. You can also have a direct URL to it, but it isn’t displayed in the profiles list.
5. Ensure your Enhanced User Profile is disabled temporarily
The reason for this is that the Enhanced profile doesn’t allow you to set permissions for Knowledge Articles. Before editing your Guest User Profile, uncheck the Enhanced Profile User Interface from Setup>>Customize>>User Interface.
6. Ensure Feeds are enabled for Article Type Objects
Your PKB will have one or more Article Types. For these objects, you can activate feed tracking through Setup>>Customize>>Chatter>>Feed Tracking. With this, your users can communicate internally regarding updates or modifications needed for Knowledge Articles.
7. Increase font sizes in the Rich Text Area of Article Type
Most likely, you will want to include a customized Rich Text Area field for your Article Type objects. As you add knowledge content, ensure your font sizes are increased from default in order to ensure customers can read content easily.
Author Bio
Sujain Thomas is a knowledgeable Salesforce ANT migration tools expert, as well as other Salesforce products. For more information, visit her site.
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