Knowbler-Salesforce: Configuration in Knowbler

The first step to create a knowledge article with Knowbler is to link your Salesforce org to Knowbler and then map case fields to knowledge articles for auto-populating article drafts. This article covers both linking and mapping.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that each agent who is going to use Knowbler is a Knowledge User in Salesforce. Check out the official Salesforce documentation on how to become a Knowledge User: Lightning Knowledge User Access

  • Enable Lightning Knowledge. Checkout the official Salesforce documentation: Enable Lightning Knowledge.

  • Create at least one Record Type in the Knowledge object.

Add Connection

Knowbler uses a password management system to simplify authorization. The system stores the passwords linked to your Salesforce orgs. It's recommended to store the passwords first. The alternative is to take a detour during configuration.

  1. Log into Knowbler.

  2. Expand Administration, open Connection, and click Add Connection.

  3. Salesforce is selected by default in Choose Your Platform.

  4. In Connection Name, insert a descriptive label. Labels help you distinguish passwords from one another when you have stored several of them.

  5. In Client URL, select Production or Sandbox.

  6. Click Connect & Save.

  7. A pop-up is displayed. If you aren't already logged into Salesforce in another tab, you will be asked to log in. Log into your org and allow SearchUnify to connect with the org.

  8. After successful linking, a "Connection Succeeded" message is displayed. Click Next.

You can now view the saved Connection in Added Connections.

Use and in Action to edit and delete a saved credential. Editing is necessary when your login credentials change.

NOTE.

Editing impacts mapping. If you have edited a Connection, don't forget to review mapping.

Configure Service Desk and Knowledge Management Tool

Two terms have been used multiple times in this section: Service Desk and Knowledge Management Tool.

A Service Desk is where support agents work and resolve cases. In comparison, a Knowledge Management Tool is where support articles are drafted and published. Salesforce fulfills both functions, therefore it's a Service Desk and a Knowledge Management Tool.

  1. Log into Knowbler.

  2. Go to Clients, and click Add Client.

    NOTE. First time users can use Get Started.

  3. Select Salesforce.

  4. Knowbler can be configured for multiple service desks. Each service desk has a unique name inside the app. Give your service desk a descriptive label in Name.

  5. From Connection, select the Connection added in the previous section.

    NOTE. If you haven't added a Connection, click Add New and follow the instructions from the previous section.

  6. Click Next.

  7. Give your Knowledge Management System a label in Name and click Next.

    NOTE. Next remains disabled until data has been entered in both fields—Name and Connection—and a link between Knowbler and Salesforce has been established successfully.

You land on the mapping screen now. Enter knowledge__kav in Object API. Two configurations can be seen now:

  • Article Sharing Settings is used to configure public article URLs. What goes into the public URLs is configured in this section.

  • Field Mapping is used to map article fields to either a custom template or a Master template in your Salesforce org.

NOTE.

If you get an error at this stage, return to the Prerequisites section and ensure that all the conditions have been fulfilled. Especially important is to create at least one Record Type in the Knowledge object.

Article Sharing Settings

NOTE.

Without this configuration, articles cannot be shared with customers through a public URL.

Articles stored in Salesforce Knowledge have static public URLs in the format: https://example.lightning.force.com/lightning/articles/Knowledge/{{custom}}.

Through Article Sharing Settings, admins can configure the data that goes into the last part, {{custom}}.

If we assume that an admin has mapped the title field to the {{custom}} field, then the new public format is going to be https://example.lightning.force.com/lightning/articles/Knowledge/title.

Mapping is easy. To start, click Article Sharing Settings.

The first setting is Reference or Resolution (Article Type Input). It's inactive in the default state. When you turn it on, the agent composing an article in Knowbler gets a pop-up each time they share an article. The pop-up asks the agent if the article is a reference or a resolution. Turning this setting on is not compulsory.

The next configuration is Attach Only to Open Cases. In the default set-up, agents can link cases to open and closed cases. However, if you want the agents to link cases only to open cases, then check this configuration.

Create Base HREF features all the article fields in the gray box. Drag them to the white box below to create a public URL. Everything that is in the white box goes into {{custom}}. Based on the dragged fields in the next image, the URL is going to be https://example.lightning.force.com/lightning/articles/Knowledge/id-comments.

In many support teams, agents typically do not have the authority to publish knowledge articles directly. Instead, after drafting an article, they either save it as a draft or submit it for review. The responsibility for publishing lies with content reviewers. In this scenario, where agents aren't directly publishing the articles—it can be challenging for them to track the articles and attach them to relevant cases. As a result, some articles may never reach the customer because the agent, for various reasons, forgets to link the published article to the case.

The Automatically Attach Articles to Original Cases When Published feature helps prevent any gaps in the process. When enabled, agents can schedule articles for publishing, and once they are published, the articles are automatically linked to the original cases for which they were created.

NOTE.

If the Attach to Case option is inactive in the agent's Salesforce org, then the published articles are Linked as Case Comment.

If neither Attach to Case and Linked as Case Comment are active, then the published articles are shared with the customers through email.

Fig. Automatically Attach Articles to Original Cases when Published on Article Sharing Settings.

Now, proceed to click Save.

Map Fields

The key advantage of Knowbler is that it gives support agents a template for writing support articles. You can think of a template as a form where each blank is a field. The fields can be Article Title, Article Body, and Article Category. You can pull data into each article field from Salesforce. For example, Article Title can be pulled from Case Subject and Article Body from Case Description.

NOTE.

For Knowbler to function, map Title, URL and other fields essential in your org.

In Mapping, an admin creates a template, adds fields, and configures where those fields are going to get data from. Successful mapping assists agents. They get the right data to write articles. An illustration is in the next image where the case subject "Easy installation process" has been imported into the article title field.

After making changes in the mapped data fields, agents can send an article for review. A well-crafted template eases knowledge production. This section covers how to map fields from a Salesforce case into an article. Admins can create more than one template.

NOTE.

Knowbler supports custom templates in Knowledge. If you don't have a custom template in your org, then you can use the Master template. The fields mandatory fields—essential for creating an article in Knowledge—in the Master template are mapped by default. You can add new fields to it.

You can use either the Master template or custom templates from Salesforce, but not both.

  1. From Knowledge Type, select Lightning.

    NOTE. Knowbler on Classic is no longer supported.

  2. Configure visibility settings in Configure Article List View. Two options are available:

    1. All Draft Articles. All agents can view each others' drafts.

    2. Agent's Own Draft Articles. An agent can view only the articles they have drafted.

  3. Click to open the mapping screen.

  4. A window opens in which knowledge__kav fields are on the left and a section named Field Mapping is on the right. To create a template, drag knowledge__kav fields from to Field Mapping.

    Each field in the template has up to four properties: 

    1. Name, which is equivalent to the field name in Salesforce. For example, Language.

    2. Label, which is the Name that support reps see. In the image, Name and Label are the same, namely Language.

    3. Value are the fields whose data is pulled into the template. You can map more than one case fields to an article field. In the image, the value for Attachment field is kept empty because it is case-dependent. Don't enter any value for such fields. However, the value for Language is 'en_US'. It means that this isn't a multilingual database and all the Knowledge articles are in English.

    4. Section can be Create Article or Access Control and Other Settings. Select the Create Article for data fields, such as tags and descriptions, and Access Control and Other Settings for access-control fields, such as visibility permissions.

    5. Through the edit function in Action, you can configure a field. The ability to delete a field is part of Action.

    When you edit, the dialog that opens is similar to the one that opens when you drag a field. The dialog varies with the fields. Here are the dialogues for the fields URLName, Language, and Attachment.

    For the field URLName

    For the field Language.

    For the field Attachment

  5. For the subscribers on Knowbler Q3 '24 or a later release, a Include the field for AI/ML Predictions field shows up on the Map Case Fields screen for text fields. When an admin checks the field, then Convent Reviewers can see Content Health score. The score is produced after an analysis of the data stored in the checked fields.

    To show Content Health Score to the agents working in Salesforce, check Preview Article Content Health in Advanced Settings. More information is on Configure Advanced Settings in Knowbler.

  6. Drag all fields except Title and, if the Knowbler-liked LLM is active, Summary. Both are covered in the next section.

Auto-Generation and Mapping

In the Field Mapping section, the first two fields—Title and Summary—are distinct because mapping is optional for these fields.

NOTE.

  • If Knowbler is not integrated with a partner-provisioned LLM or a third-party LLM, only the Title field will have a unique appearance.

  • To learn how to connect Knowbler with an LLM, check out LLM Integrations.

Fig. A snapshot of the Title and Description fields on the Field Mapping screen.

The Title field is autogenerated by an LLM when Knowbler is connected to a third-party LLM (e.g., OpenAI) or a partner-provisioned LLM (e.g., Claude by AWS).

To autogenerate titles, drag the title field to the Title row, and complete the following steps:

  1. Search and add up to two text fields. The LLM uses data from these fields to create a title. All text fields in standard and custom Salesforce objects are supported.

  2. Specify an alternative name for the title (e.g., "Heading" or "Article Name") to ensure front-end consistency.

  3. Choose between Create Article (for fields like tags and descriptions) or Access Control and Other Settings (for access-control fields like visibility permissions).

  4. The default is 60 characters, but this can be adjusted to match your platform's limit. If no limit is set, titles may exceed the field length, leading to truncation and loss of context.

Fig. A snapshot of the Auto Generate Title screen.

Summaries are created when an LLM is connected and activated.

  • The process for generating summaries is similar to titles, with these differences:

  • Maximum Character Limit: Defaults to 250 characters. If exceeded, summaries may be truncated.

  • You can enable Generate a description in the format of a problem statement followed by resolution for structured summaries.

Fig. A snapshot of the Auto Generate Title screen.

Knowbler AI can generate Titles independently but relies on the LLM to generate Summaries. If the LLM is deactivated or inaccessible, summaries are created via traditional mapping.

To revert to traditional mapping for Title and Summary, use the Remove Auto-generation option.

Fig. A snapshot of the Field Mapping screen.

Activation

Once all the fields, including Title and Summary, have been mapped in the template, return to Map Fields to Templates, and activate the template. Then, click Complete.

Next, on Your Knowbler Clients, activate the client.

Activate Knowbler for Support Agents

After configuring Knowbler, you have done much of the heavy lifting; such as subscribing to the app, connecting the app with Salesforce, and creating at least one template that support agents can use to write articles. All this configuration is useful only when the agents can actually see Knowbler in their org. For that to happen, install Knowbler from AppExchange, create two remote sites to share data between Knowbler and SearchUnify, and ensure that both you and your agents are knowledge users because the app is visible to only knowledge user roles. Activation has been detailed in the article Install Knowbler in Salesforce.