Allow articles to be posted to multiple sections

Planned

451 Comments

  • Permanently deleted user

    Thank you for the update.
    So that we have a realistic expectation, with Content Blocks being the first step (in EAP) and with article multi-placement being planned, does that mean we are still some time away from this feature request being fulfilled?
    It sounds as though Content Blocks are the first phase, with multi-placement articles being a later phase.

    1
  • Katarzyna Karpinska
    Zendesk Product Manager

    @... yes, we are still some time away from fulfilling this feature as we are focusing on making Content Blocks a powerful tool, but it definitely something that we want to work on in the future.

    1
  • Christian Rasmussen

    Hi Katarzyne, thank you for the info.

    However, don't think I'm the only one who feels that this is a bit of a joke. This ticket has been going on for 8 years - we are patiently waiting, and the requirements are clear. Then, you start promising us a solution and when it finally arrives it's not what we expected nor what we wanted.

    From what you're telling us now, it sounds like you've realized the entire time, that this isn't going to solve our requirements. Again, you are now promising us a feature "in the future" - what's that? 8 more years?

    I completely understand that you can't give us timelines. But when you're fully aware of the fact, that the solution you've been promising us for several years isn't going to cut it, just admit it. I'll far more respect a concise response about this issue not being given any focus for the foreseeable future. Then I at least know what's going on and what I can expect. Now, I'm just disappointed.

    5
  • Katarzyna Karpinska
    Zendesk Product Manager

    @..., looking back at this thread I understand your frustration. However, I'd like to make it clear that Content Blocks have not been designed specifically for the case described here, they are solving a different problem in the large area of reusing the content which we want to improve. We see Content Blocks as a start and we hope to follow it with the feature you are requesting. 

    1
  • Permanently deleted user

    I'm only a new customer, so I certainly don't have the same right of action as other existing customers. However, I did recently stumble on this thread because this is something which I naturally expected Zendesk to already be able to do.

    Having now been through the entire thread, it is disappointing that not only has it taken so long to get to this point, but it sounds as though it is still not even close to being delivered.

    Timeline Summary

    2012 - Original request.
    2013 - Officially added to the roadmap. (Link)
    2013 - Delayed due to other highly requested features. (Link)
    2014 - Request for use cases. (Link)
    2014 - Feature not being planned "anytime soon". (Link)
    2015 - The 'Planned' label is removed from the thread. (Link)
    2016 - First public signs of active R&D. (Link)
    2016 - Customers start becoming restless due to the lack of action.
    2017 - Feature evaluation continues. (Link)
    2018 - Target for EAP in Q1 2019. (Link)
    2018 - EAP delayed to mid 2019. (Link)
    2018 - First mention of 'Reusable Content'. And an admission that this is not quite the same as the requested feature. (Link)
    2019 - Still no ETA, but feature is being actively worked on. (Link)
    2019 - Survey for feedback and use cases. (Link)
    2020 - Suggestion that 'Content Blocks' is the official solution to the feature request. (Link)
    2020 - Confirmation the 'Content Blocks' is not the official solution. (Link)
    2020 - Confirmation that the original feature request is now planned for future development. (Link)

    14
  • Simon Bettison
    ALTER TABLE articles ADD COLUMN ptr int;

    Then add a field on edit article page that lets you point to a different article, and update render code to check it...

    def render_article(id)
      article = Article.find(id)
      return render_article(article.ptr) if article.ptr.present?

      //renders article
    end

    it's a hack, but it buys 8 years of good will back whilst you work on a proper solution?

    *shrugs*

    2
  • Sergio Seplovich

    I am with Chad on this one! This is long overdue! 

    2
  • Fiona Witham

    +1 would be great to have more flexibility to have sections show up in multiple places so the customer can easily find the info they need where it might be relevant

    2
  • Thomas SOARES

    +1

    0
  • Natalia Gonzalez

    +1

    This request was placed 8 years ago with 370 comments 

    1
  • Thomas Joussot

    +1 c'mon!!! Now 371 comments!

    0
  • Kelsey Davis

    So integral for our needs and our customer needs! Please bring this up to higher priority.

    0
  • Flo Pollock

    This would be super useful for me

    0
  • Amanda

    +1  

    0
  • Rebecca McMurry

    +1

    0
  • Lisa Grant

    Honestly shocked reading this thread. I don't understand how Zendesk STILL doesn't have this feature. As Zendesk users, we know first hand what it means to service customers. This is a basic and IMPORTANT function that is missing for your CUSTOMERS. Content Blocks don't even remotely solve the issue we are facing. And it's quite embarrassing that Zendesk still hasn't figured this out. Please save the generic reply and just add this to the product roadmap for the NEAR FUTURE. Otherwise at some point people will get tired of waiting and this thread will soon become a thread on what platforms other than Zendesk have this ability.

    4
  • Allison Sargent

    +1! Hard to keep content agile with so many duplicates!

    2
  • Flo Pollock

    This has a planned tag on it? Any indication of how much longer till this is developed? 

    1
  • Kilian

    We started with Zendesk Support with a small unit to test everything. Now we expand it to a larger team. At the same time our help center is being expanded and some articles must appear in different sections. The idea to make it possible without coding is great!

    0
  • Judith Haney

    I see that Allowing articles to be posted to multiple sections is "Planned"; is there an ETA?  thanks

    0
  • Katarzyna Karpinska
    Zendesk Product Manager

    @... We don't have an ETA for this feature just yet.

    0
  • Judith Haney

    @..., thanks for the reply. I am surprised that, given the amount of interest over such a long period of time, this feature has not been developed. If Zendesk maintains "votes" for features, please add mine to this one.  --cheers.

    0
  • Web Development

    Just out of curiosity, I see that OP initially requested this feature 7 years ago and it seems to have a ton of interest; 13 pages of comments total. Having this feature makes perfect sense for a wide range of ZenDesk users and it's something that's commonly expected within a category system. Why is it taking so long for this feature to be implemented?

    1
  • Aswin Kannan

    Because they don't care?

    0
  • Kelsey Davis

    Hi, I am hanging out for this feature, it would be great if there was even just a vague ETA or as @... asks, why is it taking so long, perhaps an understanding of this would help us? :)

    0
  • Jordan Dayton

    🤦‍♂️

    386 is a lot of comments. Customers have clearly identified their needs.  

    At least 411 people have wanted to see this happen (over the past 8 years.)

    To see a "Planned" status on this feature request seems like a misnomer, at this point.

    0
  • BurghGal4Life

    +1 here.. I saw on another post that it's apparently in the works but.. 

    "This is currently only planned for Guide Enterprise. Since this is still in EAP, nothing is concrete yet "

     

    I'm disappointed because as a small business, not everyone can afford the big packages... I use this feature on Vimeo all the time for including a tutorial on multiple showcases... Wish it was available here.. So many people are wanting it... Hopefully they'll make it available down the line.. I'm kinda frustrated with all the nickel and dime-ing .. 

    1
  • Madalyn Evans

    PLEASE MAKE THIS HAPPEN SOON! As various tech support teams chime in on this, we all know how feature requests work. It really is insane that this has gone on for over 7 years with no implementation. 

    1
  • Ryan McGrew
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hey All,

    I wanted to spend some time and update this thread and explain a bit more about what we’ve been up to and why this is still ‘planned’ and not ‘done’. 

    It’s been a journey, and I share personal frustration that we’re not there yet. But I will tell you that we have 2 engineering teams and a product manager working on a series of releases to get us there. With that, I hope to explain some of the context of what we have been focusing on for the last few years. Content reuse has been an across the board demand for a long time (as you can see in this thread). However, our underlying data model did not support the core of what needed to make this a reality. If you looked at Guide 4 years ago, the product didn’t have proper permissions, hierarchy, workflow, revisions, auditing etc. And the underlying system reflected that relative simplicity and our articles were bound to a single section in a single Help Center. Beyond that, Help Center as a product had to scale from perhaps a billion page views a year to almost a billion page views per month. That is all to say, there was a lot to improve along the way.

    Two years ago we started focusing in earnest on content reuse. We started working on what is now Content Blocks. We prioritized this feature first after interviewing customers about their needs around reusing content and doing data analysis around how content is reused. We heard from customers that they need full duplication of content, but that being able to reuse portion of content would unlock even more functionality for them. Content Blocks and the desire to place articles across multiple Help Centers and sections has meant some fundamental redesign. We’ve been rearchitecting the system behind the scenes and unwinding a lot of complexity along the way and opening up new possibilities. Right now, we’re focused on driving Content Blocks to its first full release in the next month. But we have a roadmap of planned updates throughout the year that will drive us toward placing articles across Help Centers and sections. We know we need to build this feature and we’re going to. It’s just a matter of getting there.

    I know this is little solace for those of you that really need this. I get it and I really wish we had it today. I’m sorry we’re not there yet, but we are listening and working hard to get us there and beyond. I do really believe we have great things in store and I really appreciate your (extreme) patience so far.

    13
  • Michael Collins

    Hello @...,

    I read your reply and just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to share insight into the development history and plans for the future. It's nice to have a glimpse behind the scenes, and I think we can all agree that leading the development of one of Zendesk's most critical products is bound to come with all sorts of challenges along the way. Respect to you and your entire team for championing the continued evolution of Zendesk Guide™.

    This is more of a general question. Do you happen to have a roadmap tracking URL anywhere public for review as a reference point? The Messaging product team leverages ProductBoard to share their roadmap, so I'm hoping you may have something similar for Guide. 

    Thanks!

     

    1

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