Overview
The knowledge base is often the most valuable part of a portal. A well-organised collection of articles helps users find answers on their own, reducing the number of support tickets your team needs to handle. This article explains how to create categories, write articles, and publish them to your portal.
How the Knowledge Base Works
Your portal's knowledge base is built from two types of record in DemandFlow:
- KB Categories — organise articles into groups (e.g. "Getting Started", "Billing", "Troubleshooting")
- Public Articles — the actual content that users read
Only articles with a status of Published and assigned to an active category will appear on the portal. Draft, In Review, and Archived articles are not visible to portal users.
Step 1: Create Categories
Categories provide the top-level navigation for your knowledge base. Each category appears as a card on the portal homepage, showing its name, icon, colour, and the number of articles it contains.
Category Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The category name displayed on the portal (e.g. "Getting Started", "Account & Billing") |
| Slug | The URL-friendly identifier, auto-generated from the name. Editing this changes the category's URL. |
| Description | A brief description of what the category covers |
| Icon | A visual icon displayed on the category card |
| Colour | The accent colour for the category card on the portal |
| Sort Order | Controls the display order on the portal. Lower numbers appear first. |
| Active | Only active categories appear on the portal. Set to inactive to hide a category without deleting it. |
Tips for Categories
- Start with 4 to 8 categories that cover your most common topics
- Use clear, user-friendly names — think about what your users would search for
- Choose distinct icons and colours so categories are easy to tell apart at a glance
- Use sort order to place the most popular categories first
Step 2: Write Articles
Each article belongs to a category and contains the information your users need. Articles are created as Public Article records in DemandFlow.
Article Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | The article headline. Be specific and descriptive (e.g. "How to Reset Your Password" rather than "Password Help"). |
| Slug | The URL path for the article, auto-generated from the title. Your article will be at /kb/{slug}. |
| Summary | A short description shown in article listings and search results. Keep it to one or two sentences. |
| Article Type | Classifies the article: How-To, Troubleshooting, FAQ, Policy, Procedure, or Reference. Displayed as a badge on the portal. |
| Category | Which category this article belongs to. |
| Status | Controls visibility: Draft (not visible), In Review (not visible), Published (visible on portal), Archived (not visible). |
| Keywords | Comma-separated search keywords to help users find the article. |
| Sort Order | Controls the display order within the category. Lower numbers appear first. When not set, articles are sorted by published date (newest first). |
| Author | The person who wrote or owns the article. |
| Content | The full article body. Written using the rich text editor with support for headings, lists, tables, images, and links. |
Writing Effective Articles
- Start with the answer — put the most important information at the top, not buried at the end
- Use headings — break content into sections so users can scan for what they need
- Include step-by-step instructions — numbered lists work well for procedures
- Add screenshots — visual guides are easier to follow than text-only instructions
- Keep it focused — each article should cover one topic. If an article is getting too long, split it into multiple articles.
- Use keywords — add relevant search terms that users might type when looking for this information
Embedding External Documents
If you have existing documentation hosted on Scribd, you can embed it directly into an article using the Scribd Embed Code field. When a Scribd embed code is provided, the embedded document is displayed instead of the article content, allowing you to reuse existing documentation without rewriting it.
Step 3: Publish
Articles are only visible on the portal when their status is set to Published. Use the status workflow to manage your content:
- Draft — write and edit the article content
- In Review — send to a colleague for review and approval
- Published — make the article visible on the portal
- Archived — remove from the portal without deleting (useful for outdated content)
The Published Date is automatically set when you change the status to Published.
Linking Between Articles
You can link from one article to another using the article's slug. Internal links use the format /kb/{slug}. For example, a link to an article with the slug "reset-password" would be /kb/reset-password. This allows you to build a connected knowledge base where related articles reference each other.
Article Analytics
Once published, the portal automatically tracks engagement for each article:
- View Count — how many times the article has been viewed
- Average Rating — the average star rating from user feedback
- Helpful Votes — how many users found the article helpful vs. not helpful
Use these analytics to identify your most popular articles, find content that needs improvement, and prioritise which new articles to write.