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Can I restrict access to articles?

Zendesk Team
  • Edited

Question

Can I restrict access to articles? 

Answer 

Yes, it is possible to restrict access to articles in Help Center.

You can grant access to:

  • Signed-in users
  • Agents and admins
  • Customized user segments

If you want to restrict the content to a specific group of end users, create user segments to apply to each article. If you want to create internal articles for your agents and admins, apply the Agents and admins visibility to your articles.

For more information, see the article: Creating user segments for Guide user permissions.

Tip: You can restrict all the articles within a section, to make the section itself restricted.
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16 Comments

  • Jessica Chapin

    I can't see a lock icon on our internal content in the KC app. How can I get the lock icon on internal articles?

    0
  • Marco
    Zendesk Customer Care

    Hi Jessica,

    The lock icon on the KC app would depend on the user you send the article to. The padlock shows up in the article

    1. If the article visibility is set to Signed-in users and you're creating a ticket without a requestor
    2. If the article visibility is set to Agents and managers and you're sending the article in a ticket to an end user
    3. If the article visibility is set to Custom user segment and the requestor of the ticket doesn't belong to that user segment

    For more information on this, you may check this article here:
    When does the padlock icon appear on articles in the KC app? 

    Hope this clarifies it for you. Cheers!

     

    0
  • Jeff Michaelis

    I love that I can segment my users and show articles based on those designations. I am curious if we can use the same idea for content within articles? For example, I have an article that is available to everyone, but has additional information for those who are logged in.

    0
  • Dave Dyson
    Hi Jeff –
     
    Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way to do this. If you'd like, here's the place to leave feedback on this for our product team: Feedback - Help Center (Guide). If you do post, please use our Product Feedback Post Template so we know as much as possible about why you want this. Thanks! 
    1
  • Katarzyna Karpinska
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Jeff Michaelis, 

    We have recently launched a feature that allows you to construct an article with smaller blocks of content that can be reused across all your Knowledge Base (more about Content Blocks here).

    We are considering adding visibility permissions to Content Blocks as one of the potential enhancements sometime in the future. We imagine that visibility permissions would allow you to define which segment of the customers can see which parts of the article.

    If you are curious about our roadmap for Knowledge Management in Guide, it is available here.

    2
  • Mohit Sanyal

    Hi There!

    I am doubtful about the access (Visible to) option present in the article editing settings. I recently came across an issue where if I had to cross reference an article within a BOT workflow builder for a messaging (BOT) channel, where it was required for me to remove the 'signed-in user' option from article, which means the article will now be accessible in case anyone has access to the help center link.

    Is there a way we can achieve the below two areas:

    1) Can articles links be referenced in the workflow builder even when the Visible to is set to  'Signed-in Users'? This may solve the entire purpose of restrictions.

    2) If the Visible to is set to Everyone, is there a way to restrict the KB articles to any person who is just browsing the help center without signing in?

    Thanks

     

    0
  • Jean-Charles Pascale
    Hi Mohit,
     
    Indeed, at the moment, to display an article to the end user using the Flow Builder, the article cannot be restricted to signed-in users.
    As per a restriction on articles by still keeping them "Visible to Everyone", it should be possible via Custom code, but I do not have any template/example that I can provide for this.
    I just know that they used the HelpCenter.user JavaScript object to detect if the user was logged in or not, like in this example to detect the organization of a user to hide some ticket fields in the form.
     
    Hope this helps,
     
    -JC
    0
  • Ching-Fang Wu

    Hi there,

    I'm trying to achieve the following altogether:

    1. Unlist an article: the article is still published but it won't be listed/visible in any article section and won't be searchable in our Knowledge Base
    2. Everyone with the article link only can access the article: users are not required to log in

    The user segment field doesn't quite accommodate the above. Is there a way to achieve the above? I also found a similar question to mine in this article (mentioning it's like google doc sharing: "access with link") but couldn't find the answer.

    Many thanks!

    2
  • Tipene Hughes
    Zendesk Developer Advocacy

    Hi Ching-Fang Wu,

    This is not something that is currently possible - the closest option would probably be creating a user segment and adding users on an as-needed basis, but this would still require sign-on by the user.

    I’d encourage you to create a post outlining your use case and requirements in our product feedback section for further visibility and input from other community members.

    Have a great day!

    Tipene

    0
  • Vladimir Shkuratov

    Hi Tipene Hughes and Team,

    Do you know if such feature (access with the link only) is registered and being (will be) developed at all?

    Thanks.

    0
  • Ian Brown

    Hi

    Does anyone know if it is possible to restrict access to articles, so it is only visible to Non Signed-in users and is hidden from all Signed-in users?


    Thanks, Ian

    0
  • Cheeny Aban
    Zendesk Customer Care
    Hi Ian, 

    Unfortunately, it is not yet possible. Nonetheless, I highly suggest that you create a post in our product feedback  where you can collaborate with others who may have the same and receive input from other members. 
    0
  • Aoife O'Neill

    Hello, is it possible to restrict on a more granular level, i.e. by team? 

    0
  • Francis Casino
    Zendesk Customer Care
    Hello Aoife - To control content access for a particular subset of end users, you can establish user segments and assign them to individual articles. On the other hand, if you intend to craft articles intended solely for internal use by your agents and administrators, you should designate these articles with "Agents and Admins" visibility settings. Refer to this article for more details.  
    0
  • Aoife O'Neill

    Thanks Francis, yes that much is clear. I wondered if we could further restrict within the Agents and Admin group. So, for example, all Agents can see most articles, but only higher tier Specialists can see others. 

    0
  • Francis Casino
    Zendesk Customer Care
    Hello Aoife - On the article that I have shared in my previous response, you might want to check the "Staff" option and use it to achieve the workflow where articles and contents can be restricted by tags, groups, individual users, or a combination of all three. 
    0

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