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Connect Paligo to Salesforce Knowledge

Abstract

Learn how to set up Paligo's integration settings for Salesforce Knowledge.

Before you can connect Paligo to Salesforce Knowledge, make sure you have made the necessary preparation. Also make sure that you have the appropriate plans, features, and licenses. This is all explained in Preparations for Salesforce Integration.

When you have made the preparation, you can connect Paligo to Salesforce Knowledge. There are quite a number of tasks to complete, so we have divided them into 4 stages.

Stage 1: Get the User Credentials and Security Token

To connect to Salesforce, Paligo needs various details, including the user credentials and a security token. To get the credentials and security token, it can be easier to switch from Salesforce's Lightning Experience interface to the Classic interface.

Note

If you are going to publish to a Salesforce sandbox as well as a Salesforce production, you will need the username, password and security token for both areas.

Using the Classic interface:

  1. Make sure the "Permission API" is enabled in your Salesforce account. This is normally enabled by default, but if not, you can set it under Setup at Users > Profiles.

  2. Get the user credentials for Salesforce that you want to use to connect the integration.

    Note

    We recommend that you create a separate user for this purpose. This can be especially important so that you are not dependent on a single user that may leave your company.

  3. Get the security token. You may have received this when you created your Salesforce account. But if you don't have it, you can generate a new one:

    1. In Salesforce, select your profile in the top-right corner.

    2. Choose Settings.

    3. In the Quick find field, search for "token" and then select Reset Security Token. A new security token is sent to you by email.

You will need the user credentials and security token in stage 4, when you add the integration settings in Paligo.

Next, you need to set up the API field.

Stage 2: Get the Content API Field Name

You need to get an API field name as this is another setting that is needed for the Paligo-to-Salesforce integration.

  1. Go to Setup in Salesforce.

  2. Search for Object Manager in the quick find, and select it.

  3. In the Object Manager, select Knowledge.

  4. Create a Rich Text Field.

    1. Select Fields and Relationships.

    2. Select New.

    3. Select Text Area (Rich).

    4. Select Next.

    5. Fill out the fields:

      (You can choose a different name if you want to)

      richtextfield.png

      Note

      If you're going to publish large articles, increase the Length to its max value. If the length is too small, it can result in an error when you publish.

    6. Select Next.

    7. Leave the next screen as is by default. Select Next.

    8. On the next screen, uncheck all boxes. We will add this field to a new Article type/Page layout later.

    9. Select Save.

  5. If you do not have an existing Page Layout you want to publish to, you can create a new one.

    newpagelayout.png

  6. Select Save.

  7. Drag your Rich Text field to the Knowledge Detail area:

    dragrichtextfield.png
    dragrichtextfield2.png

  8. Create a new record type:

    1. Select Record Types in the left menu of the Object Manager.

    2. Select New.

    3. Fill in the fields something like below, but again you can choose your name:

      newrecordtype.png

    4. If you want to enable it for everyone, check all the boxes. You also need to make it the default record type for Paligo to be able to publish to it.

      defaultrecordtype.png

  9. Select Next.

  10. Select the Page Layout you want to use.

    selectpagelayout.png

  11. Select Save.

  12. Get the API field content for the Paligo settings:

    1. Select Fields & Relationships.

    2. Find your Rich Text field and make a note of the field name. You will need the field name when you add the integration settings in Paligo.

      copyrichtextfield.png

Next, you need to create a connected app in Salesforce.

Stage 3: Create a Connected App in Salesforce

To connect Paligo to Salesforce, you need to have a connected app in Salesforce.

  1. Go to Setup.

    setup.png

  2. Enter "oauth" in the Quick Find box and select OAuth and OpenID Connect Settings.

    Allow_Oauth_username_Password_flows_small.jpg

  3. Select the the slider Allow OAuth Username-Password Flows to enable it.

  4. Enter "app" in the Quick Find box and select App Manager.

    enter-app.png

  5. Create a New Connected App.

    new-connected-app.png

  6. Enter a name for the app, for example, Paligo. The API name is filled in automatically.

  7. Enter a contact email address.

  8. Select Enable OAuth Settings.

  9. In the Callback URL field, enter https://login.salesforce.com/services/oauth2/callback.

  10. In the list of Available OAuth Scopes, add Full Access (full) to the Selected OAuth Scopes.

    oauth-scopes.png

  11. Select Save.

    save-and-wait.png

    It takes up to 10 minutes before the app is ready to be used in Salesforce.

  12. Make a note of the Consumer Key and Consumer Secret as you will need to add these to the integration settings in Paligo.

Next, you can add the Salesforce integration details to Paligo.

Stage 4: Connect Paligo to Salesforce

When you have completed stages 1-3 inclusive in Salesforce, you can add the integration details to Paligo.

The draft articles in Salesforce will have basic formatting. To make them more visually appealing, you can set up Salesforce to publish the articles to a Salesforce Community that uses a help center theme.

Note

The " Lightning experience" view in Salesforce may be a bit inconsistent in how draft articles show or not. If you do not see them in that view, switch to "Classic mode" and choose to view draft articles.

  1. Log in to Paligo via a user account that has administrator permissions.

  2. Select the avatar in the top-right corner. User avatar. It shows the user's image and their name. Next to the name is a downward pointing arrow, which when selected, reveals a menu.

  3. Select Settings from the menu. Cog icon.

  4. Select the Integrations tab. Jigsaw piece icon.

    Paligo settings. The Integrations tab is highlighted.

  5. Select Add or Change for the Salesforce integration.

    SalesforceIntegration.jpg

  6. Add the Username and Password that you got from Salesforce.

    Salesforce_Integration.jpg

  7. Add the security Token from Salesforce.

  8. Add the Consumer Key and Consumer Secret.

  9. Add the rich text field name in the Content field API name field.

  10. Choose whether you want Paligo to publish content as Draft or Published articles in Salesforce.

    Paligo Salesforce integration. The Publish Status section has a Published radio button and a Draft radio button.

  11. Use the Custom link prefix field to customize the URLs.

    • Only use this field if your articles in Salesforce are not located directly in the root of your instance.

      For example, leave the Custom link prefix field empty if the URL for your articles is my-instance.force.com/<name of article>. Paligo will publish with this URL syntax by default.

    • For custom URLs, enter the syntax in the Custom link prefix field. Only do this if the URL for your articles has one or more extra directories between the instance and the article.

      For example, if the URL for your articles is 'my-instance.force.com/sa/<name of article>, enter my-instance.force.com/sa/ in the Custom link prefix field.

    Custom_Link_Prefix.jpg

    Note

    Paligo will use the custom link prefix automatically each time you publish from Paligo to Salesforce. But it can be overridden by another custom link prefix that you can enter in the publishing settings, see Publish to Salesforce Knowledge.

  12. Check the SEO links box to set Paligo to create URLs that are based on each topic's title. When you publish, Paligo will create article URLs in Salesforce that are more descriptive and better for SEO.

    SEO_Links.png

    If you clear the SEO links box , Paligo will generate article URLs based on the UUID of the topics. This creates a URL that contains a number and is less descriptive.

    The SEO links is a global setting that acts as the default for all content you publish to Salesforce Knowledge. But you can override it when you publish by using the SEO friendly links option on the Publish document dialog.

    SEO_friendly_Links_Publish_Salesforce.jpg

    Note

    There are certain characters that are not allowed in Salesforce URL names. If you use any of these characters, they will be filtered out when the URLs are created. Paligo will then ignore this setting and return to using default UUID.

  13. Ignore the Smart restore box. This feature is being gradually retired. Use the Match articles based on URL setting to fix broken mapping instead (see Fix Broken Mapping for Salesforce).

  14. Choose whether Paligo will update the URL fields of your articles when you publish to Salesforce:

    • Check the Always update URL Name Fields box to allow Paligo to create new URLs and change existing ones in Salesforce Knowledge. It will create URLs based on the UUID or title of mapped topics, depending on how you have set SEO links (see step 13) and SEO Friendly Links in the publishing settings (see Publish to Salesforce Knowledge).

      Paligo can only update the URLs of articles that map to topics in Paligo.

    • Clear the Always Update URL Name Fields box to prevent Paligo from changing URLs for articles. It can only generate URLs for new articles that it is publishing to Salesforce Knowledge for the first time.

  15. If you want to publish to a Salesforce Sandbox instead of your production Salesforce Knowledge.

    1. Check the Publish to sandbox box.

      Uncheck the box if you want to switch back to publishing to the production Salesforce Knowledge.

    2. Enter the connection details for the sandbox. These are the Sandbox Username, Sandbox Password, and Sandbox Token (security token).

    When the settings are in place, Paligo will publish to your sandbox if Publish to sandbox is checked. It will publish to your production Salesforce Knowledge if Publish to sandbox is unchecked .

  16. Select Save.

  17. Select the Change button for the integration.

  18. Select Test Settings to run a connection test.

    Test_Reset_Settings_Integrations_small.jpg

  19. If the settings are:

    • Correct, Paligo shows a green success notification.

    • Incorrect, Paligo shows a red failure notification.

      Check each connection setting carefully, to make sure you have not made any mistakes and try again.

      If the connection test continues to fail, contact Paligo support for assistance.

You should now be able to publish from Paligo to Salesforce Knowledge. You can use the built-in Salesforce Knowledge or Salesforce Nested Layout or you can create your own.

The two different Layouts map your Paligo content to Salesforce Knowledge differently, so we recommend that you read:

Typically, we recommend that you use a Salesforce Nested Layout as it give you more control over the organization of the articles.