Getting Started with the Knowledge Base Expand

The Knowledge Base provides customers with easy access to answers about your products and services, allowing customers to find easy solutions to frequently asked questions.

Installing the Knowledge Base

To add the Knowledge Base to your Groove account, visit the Apps Menu in the top menu bar and select Knowledge Base.

In the Knowledge Base App, select Install.

Once your Knowledge Base is installed in your Groove account, you'll access it by clicking the KB link at the top of your help desk.

You can also go directly to your KB URL at: yourdomain.groovehq.com/help_center

Creating a New Article

To create your first article (and any more articles later) click on +Create New Article in the top, right corner of the page

Add the article, choose a title, and select which category you would like the article to be placed under from the drop down menu. To make the article public, select Yes under the published section in your window. Otherwise the article will remain in draft mode by default, for internal reference only.

Editing or Deleting an Article

To edit an existing article, scroll over the title of the article. A Pencil icon and a Trash icon will appear to the left of the article.

Select the pencil icon to edit the article, and the trash icon to delete the article completely. Once an article is deleted from the Knowledge Base it's gone for good and cannot be retrieved. You can always check No to Published if you'd like to take the article down temporarily.

Adding and Editing Categories

You have the option to create a new category every time you create a new article by selecting Create A New Category from the Category dropdown.

You can also add, rearrange, or edit your categories from the Knowledge Base Settings. Select the gear in the top, right corner and choose the Categories tab. Click any + to add a new category. To rename the category, just type the preferred title in existing field. Click and hold the three bars to the left of each title, or + sign, to drag and drop the articles in whatever order you'd like them to appear on your page.

You can also edit the title of a category from the Knowledge Base home page by scrolling over the title and selecting the Pencil icon.

There's no way to delete a category unless all articles from within that category are also removed.

Customizing the Knowledge Base Expand

As an extension of your website, it is important that the Knowledge Base reflects your company's brand and style, as well as your customer's needs. You can make simple adjustments like adding your company logo, changing your color scheme, copy, font, or if you're comfortable with code and want total control you can add your own HTML headers and footers to match your site, or CSS to customize your layout.

You can access your Knowledge Base settings by clicking the KB tab in your Groove helpdesk. Then on your KB page, you'll see a Settings button in the top right corner of the page.

Customizing the Knowledge Base Appearance

You can make basic changes under the Appearance tab of the Knowledge Base settings. Under Appearance you'll be able to upload your logo, a Favicon, and control basic design elements like color scheme and font.

Please note: SVG files are not supported at this time.

If you're on the code savvy side, you can add HTML headers and footers to match the design of your site under the Custom Page Content tab.

For even more control over the look and format of your Knowledge Base, you add cascading style sheets under the Custom Stylesheet Tab

Setting the Knowledge Base Language

If English is not customer's native language, you can set your Knowledge Base's language under the Appearance Tab. To set your Knowledge Bases's language, head on over to the Knowledge Base Settings.

In Settings, under the Appearance Tab, you'll see a drop-down menu under Language. Choose your language from the dropdown menu to select the language for your Knowledge Base.

Creating a custom domain

To create a custom domain, visit Settings and choose Custom Domain.

With a custom domain you can configure your domain to point to the Knowledge Base that Groove is hosting for you. As an example, you are able to configure http://help.yourdomain.com to point to http://yourdomain.groovehq.com. If you would like to use your own domain name:

Create a CNAME record within your DNS provider's administration panel and configure it to point to your Groove host. As an example, if your Knowledge Base currently resides at http://yourdomain.groovehq.com/help_center, you should create your CNAME (perhaps http://help.yourdomain.com) to point to http://yourdomain.groovehq.com.

If you are changing an existing DNS entry to direct customers to your portal, it may require significant lead time to make the switch based on your DNS TTL (Time to Live). To avoid delays in configuring your portal Groove recommends reducing your existing TTL to 15 minutes at least 24 hours before you plan to switch over to the Knowledge Base portal to minimize any delay. When you change the DNS entry to direct to the Groove portal you can return to your normal TTL.

Go to Settings section and fill in the Web Address field with your domain.

Note: Be sure to enter the address without "http://"

Creating a Custom Domain for Your KB Expand

To create a custom domain, click the "Settings" button in the top right corner of your KB page and then click Custom Domain in the popup window.

1. Create a CNAME record within your DNS provider's administration panel and configure it to point to your Groove domain. The CNAME host will be your subdomain (help.yourdomain.com) and the CNAME value will be your Groove domain, so yourdomain.groovehq.com.

Yes, that is the correct domain that you should point to, and no, it will not redirect users to your login screen. We promise that it will redirect properly to your knowledge base. :)

Once added, your record will look something like:

2. Go to your KB "Settings" section, click "Custom Domain," and fill in the field with your new custom domain.

(P.S. If you are changing an existing DNS entry to direct customers to your portal, it may require significant lead time to make the switch based on your DNS TTL (Time to Live). To avoid delays in configuring your portal Groove recommends reducing your existing TTL to 15 minutes at least 24 hours before you plan to switch over to the Knowledge Base portal to minimize any delay. When you change the DNS entry to direct to the Groove portal you can return to your normal TTL.)

Adding Images, Videos, and Gifs to your KB Articles Expand

Words aren't always enough to provide the best explanation on a topic. Images, videos, and animated gifs can illustrate ideas more effectively and help communicate a point in less time.

Images

The easiest way to upload a photo to your Knowledge Base Article is to use the Upload a Photo button in the top, right corner of the Create Article box under the title.

If the image is hosted somewhere online, you can also copy and paste images directly into the Knowledge Base after highlighting the image on the webpage it's housed on. Copy+paste does not work by copy and pasting the image URL, or right clicking the image to copy it. You need to highlight the image to pick up the HTML. The image size limit for the Knowledge Base is 5GB.

Videos and Animated Gifs

You can add videos or animated gifs if you have the HTML embed code. To embed the code in your Knowledge Base, select the HTML icon in the Rich Text Editor.

The HTML embed code is typically very easy to nab depending on where your videos are housed.

In YouTube, click Share on the video's page, then select Embed to reveal the code.

In Wistia you'll want to select the Dropdown reading Video Actions and select Embed and Share. Choose Inline Emed as your embed code.

Once you have the embed code, select the HTML icon in the Rich Text Editor and paste the code in the HTML source editor.

If you'd like to add an Animated Gif, select the HTML icon in the Rich Text Editor. Animated gifs work similarly to images, so you can include your link to the animated gif between HTML image tags in the source code like <p><img src="http://www.lovethispic.com/uploaded_images/55468-Roaring-Kitten-.gif?1" alt="" /></p> as demonstrated below.

How to Re-Order KB Articles Expand

To change the order that your articles are shown in your category, first click into the category you want to change.

On the category page, you'll see a link that says "Re-order articles" on the right side.

After you click that, you can drag your articles around to change the order.

Then when you're done, just click "Done re-ordering articles" and you'll be all set.

Creating an Internal Only Article Expand

All articles you create are in draft mode by default. They're only viewable by you and your team. When you are ready for them to be public, select 'Yes' next to the Published icon.

Using Github Gists in the Knowledge Base Expand

Using Github Gists are a great way to share code snippets with your customers through the Knowledge Base. While we allow Github Gists in the Knowledge Base, there are a few things you should know in order to properly embed them.

First, you'll want to create a public gist. If you create a private gist, and the URL begins with a letter, you won't be able to embed it in the Knowledge Base even if you make it public later. Make sure your gist begins with a number, and you'll be all good.

Once you create your public gist, copy the embed gist code:

To embed the code in your Knowledge Base, click HTML in the article editor, and copy+paste the gist code.

That should give you a nice github embedded gist code view.