Salesforce Knowledge Developer Guide

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Salesforce Knowledge
Developer Guide
Version 39.0, Spring ’17

@salesforcedocs
Last updated: April 13, 2017

© Copyright 2000–2017 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce is a registered trademark of salesforce.com, inc.,

as are other names and marks. Other marks appearing herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Develop with Salesforce Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Set Up a Knowledge Development Organization .
Enable Salesforce Knowledge . . . . . . . . . .
Edit the Default Article Type . . . . . . . . . . . .
Create an Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Publish an Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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3
3
4
6
6

Chapter 2: Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Knowledge Object Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Data Categories and Knowledge with SOAP API Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Knowledge SOAP API Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Article Type__DataCategorySelection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Article Type__Feed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
KnowledgeArticle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
KnowledgeArticleVersion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
KnowledgeArticleVersionHistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
KnowledgeArticleViewStat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
KnowledgeArticleVoteStat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
CaseArticle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
LinkedArticle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
LinkedArticleFeed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
LinkedArticleHistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
NewsFeed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
RecentlyViewed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
ReportFeed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
SearchPromotionRule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
TopicAssignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
UserProfileFeed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Knowledge SOAP API Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
describeKnowledge()Call Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
describeDataCategoryGroups() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
describeDataCategoryGroupStructures() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
search() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Chapter 3: Salesforce Knowledge REST APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Manage Knowledge with REST APIs . . . . . . .
Archive the Master Version of an Article .
Assign a Task Related to a Master Article
Assign a Task Related to a Translation . .

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83
84
85
86

Contents

Delete a Master Version of an Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Delete a Translated Version of an Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Edit an Online Version of a Master Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Publish the Master Version of an Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Restore an Archived Version of an Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Retrieve Article Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Retrieve Knowledge Language Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Retrieve a Version of an Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Search for Metadata Elements of a Master Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Search for Metadata Elements of a Translated Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Set a Translated Article Version to Complete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Set a Translated Article Version to Incomplete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Submit an Article for Translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Unpublish the Master Version of an Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Unpublish the Online Version of a Translated Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Parameterized Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Search Scope and Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Search Result Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Search Suggested Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Search Suggested Article Title Matches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Search Suggested Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Support Knowledge with REST API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Data Category Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Data Category Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Articles List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Articles Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Chapter 4: Salesforce Knowledge Metadata API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
ArticleType . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
ArticleType Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
ChannelLayout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
ArticleType CustomField . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
KnowledgeSettings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
DataCategoryGroup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
SearchSettings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
SearchLayouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
SynonymDictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
ExternalDataSource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Chapter 5: Salesforce Knowledge with SOQL and SOSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Update an Article’s Keyword Tracking with SOQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Update an Article Viewstat with SOQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
WITH filteringExpression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Contents

WITH DATA CATEGORY filteringExpression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Using Relationship Queries with Data Category Selection Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
About SOSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Update an Article’s Keyword Tracking with SOSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Update an Article’s Viewstat with SOSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
WITH DATA CATEGORY DataCategorySpec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
WITH SNIPPET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Chapter 6: Salesforce Knowledge, Apex, and Visualforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
PublishingService Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
PublishingService Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

CHAPTER 1
In this chapter ...
•

Set Up a Knowledge
Development
Organization

Develop with Salesforce Knowledge
Salesforce Knowledge gives your website visitors, clients, partners, and service agents the ultimate in
support. You can create and manage your company information and securely share it when and where
it is needed. Most features are declarative and let you point-and-click your way to a successful
implementation. However, with the Force.com platform, you can also code your way to case deflection,
happier customers, and more productive support agents.
Articles capture information about your company's products and services that you want to make available
in your knowledge base. Articles in the knowledge base can be classified by using one or more data
categories to make it easy for users to find the articles they need. Administrators can use data categories
to control access to articles.
Articles are based on article types, which rely on:
• Article-type layouts to organize the content in sections.
• Article-type templates to render articles.
Every article is managed in a publishing cycle.
Article Type
All articles in Salesforce Knowledge are assigned to an article type. An article's type determines the
type of content it contains, its appearance, and which users can access it. For example, a simple FAQ
article type might have two custom fields, Question and Answer, where article managers enter
data when creating or updating FAQ articles. A more complex article type may require dozens of
fields organized into several sections. Using layouts and templates, administrators can structure the
article type in the most effective way for its particular content. User access to article types is controlled
by permissions. For each article type, an administrator can grant “Create,” “Read,” “Edit,” or “Delete”
permissions to users. For example, the article manager might want to allow internal users to read,
create, and edit FAQ article types, but let partner users only read FAQs.
Article-Type Layout
An article-type layout enables administrators to create sections that organize the fields on an article,
as well as choose which fields users can view and edit. One layout is available per article type.
Administrators modify the layout from the article-type detail page.
Article-Type Template
An article-type template specifies how the sections in the article-type layout are rendered. An article
type can have a different template for each of its four channels. For example, if the Customer Portal
channel on the FAQ article-type is assigned to the Tab template, the sections in the FAQ's layout
appear as tabs when customers view an FAQ article. For the Table of Contents template, the sections
defined in the layout appear on a single page (with hyperlinks) when the article is viewed. Salesforce
provides two standard article-type templates, Tab and Table of Contents. Custom templates can be
created with Visualforce.
Channel
A channel refers to the medium by which an article is available. Salesforce Knowledge offers four
channels where you can make articles available.
• Internal App: Salesforce users can access articles in the Articles tab depending on their role
visibility.

1

Develop with Salesforce Knowledge

• Customer: Customers can access articles if the Articles tab is available in a community or Customer
Portal. Customer users inherit the role visibility of the manager on the account. In a community,
the article is only available to users with Customer Community or Customer Community Plus
licenses.
• Partner: Partners can access articles if the Articles tab is available in a community or partner
portal. Partner users inherit the role visibility of the manager on the account. In a community,
the article is only available to users with Partner Community licenses.
• Public Knowledge Base: Articles can be made available to anonymous users by creating a public
knowledge base using the Sample Public Knowledge Base for Salesforce Knowledge app from the
AppExchange. Creating a public knowledge base requires Sites and Visualforce.
Publishing Cycle
Salesforce Knowledge Articles move through a publishing cycle from their creation to their deletion.
The publishing cycle includes three different statuses: Draft is the stage when a new article is
being created or an existing one is being updated. Articles with the Online status are draft articles
that have been published and are now available to their different channels. Eventually, when a
published article is at the end of its life, it can be moved to the Archived status or sent back to
Draft to be updated in a subsequent version.

2

Develop with Salesforce Knowledge

Set Up a Knowledge Development Organization

Set Up a Knowledge Development Organization
To develop with Salesforce Knowledge, first enable Knowledge in your development organization.
To build a Knowledge base, you can follow the steps in this guide or get a badge while you’re at it with the Knowledge Basics Trailhead
module.
IN THIS SECTION:
Enable Salesforce Knowledge
Get Knowledge turned on in your development organization.
Edit the Default Article Type
Article types, such as FAQs and procedures, provide a format, or structure, for agents to compose quality articles. An article-type is
created for you to get started, but it has no fields for content. Add a custom field to the default article type.
Create an Article
Create articles from the Knowledge tab to build your knowledge base.
Publish an Article
Create articles from the Knowledge tab to build your knowledge base.

Enable Salesforce Knowledge
Get Knowledge turned on in your development organization.
1. From Setup, click Manage Users > Users.
2. Click Edit next to your name.
3. Select the Knowledge User checkbox.

4. Click Save.
Assigning a Knowledge User license makes the Knowledge pages show up in Setup.

5. From Setup, type Knowledge into the Quick Find box.

3

Develop with Salesforce Knowledge

Edit the Default Article Type

6. Click Knowledge Settings.

7. Read the information on enabling Salesforce Knowledge in your org.
8. Check Yes, I understand the impact of enabling Salesforce Knowledge.
9. Click Enable Salesforce Knowledge.

Edit the Default Article Type
Article types, such as FAQs and procedures, provide a format, or structure, for agents to compose quality articles. An article-type is created
for you to get started, but it has no fields for content. Add a custom field to the default article type.
1. From Setup, type Knowledge into the Quick Find box.
2. Click Knowledge Article Types.
3. Click Knowledge in the Label column.
4. Click New in the Fields section.

5. Select Text Area (Rich).
6. Click Next.

4

Develop with Salesforce Knowledge

Edit the Default Article Type

7. Name your new field ArticleBody.
8. Click Next.

9. Here’s where you can hide this field from user profiles to add more security. Since your profile is System Administrator, the field is
visible to you by default. For now, let’s leave the default settings and click Next.

10. You must connect the article-type to a page layout. By default, the field is added as the last field in the first section, the information
section. Let’s again go with the default settings and click Save.

The new field, ArticleBody, is added alphabetically to the article type detail page in the Fields section.

5

Develop with Salesforce Knowledge

Create an Article

Create an Article
Create articles from the Knowledge tab to build your knowledge base.
The more articles you have the more realistic your development knowledge base. You can import multiple articles with .csv files; one
for each article type. For information on importing articles, see
https://help.salesforce.com/HTViewHelpDoc?id=knowledge_article_importer.htm.
1. Click the Knowledge tab.
Note: You may need to click the plus sign at the end of your tabs and find the Knowledge tab in the list of all tabs available.
You can add the Knowledge and Article Management tabs to an app.
2. Click Create Article.
3. Select the Knowledge article type.

4. Create a title for your article, such as “Our company address.”
5. Write a description, this goes under the title in the search results.
6. Put your company address in the rich text area field you created in the last unit. Notice that the article is available by default to your
internal users.
7. Click Save.

Publish an Article
Create articles from the Knowledge tab to build your knowledge base.
You must publish the articles after creation or import. Non-published articles do not display on your public channels: customer and
partner communities or public websites.
1. If you’ve navigated away from the article you created, you can find it in either tab, Knowledge or Article Management, under My
Drafts.

6

Develop with Salesforce Knowledge

Publish an Article

2. Click the Our company address draft. Notice that the article now has an article number and a publishing status.
3. Click Publish.

4. Determine if you want to publish now or at a scheduled time in the future. Let’s stick with the default once again and publish now.
5. Click OK.

Salesforce Knowledge takes you back to the Knowledge tab and your article is at the top of the list!

7

CHAPTER 2 Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API
In this chapter ...
•

Knowledge Object
Diagram

•

Data Categories and
Knowledge with
SOAP API Objects

•

Knowledge SOAP API
Objects

•

Knowledge SOAP API
Calls

Articles are available through the KnowledgeArticleVersion and KnowledgeArticle objects in SOAP API.
They both represent an article but provide different capabilities.
KnowledgeArticleVersion
Every new draft article in Salesforce Knowledge has a version number. When an article is published
and you want to update it, you can create a new Draft with a distinct version number. Each
version has its own ID. Once the updated version is ready to be published, it replaces the former one
and updates the version number. You can access the content of an article version using the
KnowledgeArticleVersion object and filter on its Draft or Online status. For example, the following
query returns the title of the Draft version of all the articles across all article types in United States
English:
SELECT Title
FROM KnowledgeArticleVersion
WHERE PublishStatus='Draft'
AND language ='en_US'

You can change the language to return any other language your knowledge base supports, see
“Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base” in the Salesforce online help.
Articles are also auto-assigned an Article Number, which is not a unique identifier to an individual
article, but an identifier to a master article and all of its available translations.
Note: Both the master version (the Knowledge article with IsMasterLanguage = 1) and the
translations are KnowledgeArticleVersion objects.
KnowledgeArticle
Unlike KnowledgeArticleVersion, the ID of a KnowledgeArticle record is identical irrespective of the
article's version (status). Where the KnowledgeArticleVersion object provides API access to an article's
custom field values, the KnowledgeArticle object provides API access to an article's metadata fields.
The article record is the parent container of all versions of an article, whatever the publishing status (draft,
published, archived) and the language. While KnowledgeArticle and KnowledgeArticleVersion represent
any article in the Knowledge Base, __ka and __kav are the concrete
representation of respectively KnowledgeArticle (“__ka” suffix) and KnowledgeArticleVersion (“__kav”
suffix) for a specific article type. For example, Offer__kav gives access to every Offer articles.
KnowledgeArticle and __ka give access to an article independent of its version.
KnowledgeArticleVersion and __kav enables you to retrieve a specific article version and
all its standard (KnowledgeArticleVersion) and custom (__kav) fields. The following query
returns the title for all the published offers in United States English:
SELECT Title
FROM Offer__kav
WHERE PublishStatus='online'
AND language ='en_US'

8

Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Knowledge Object Diagram

Knowledge Object Diagram
This entity relationship diagram (ERD) illustrates relationships between the Salesforce Knowledge objects.

9

Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Data Categories and Knowledge with SOAP API Objects

Data Categories and Knowledge with SOAP API Objects
Salesforce Knowledge uses data categories to support successful article search.
Data categories are organized by category group and let:
• Users classify and find records.
• Administrators control access to records.
Data categories can be used by Salesforce Knowledge (articles) and answers communities (questions).
Data Categories and Articles
Salesforce Knowledge uses data categories to classify articles and make them easier to find. For example, to classify articles by sales
regions and products, create two category groups: Sales Regions and Products. The Sales Regions category group could consist of
a geographical hierarchy, such as All Sales Regions as the top level and North America, Europe, and Asia at the second level. The
Products group could have All Products as the top level and Phones, Computers, and Printers at the second.
Data Category Limits

Details

Maximum number of data category groups 5 category groups, with 3 groups active at 5 category groups, with 3 groups active at
and active data category groups
a time
a time
Maximum number of categories per data 100 categories in a data category group
category group
Maximum number of levels in data
category group hierarchy

100 categories in a data category group

5 levels in a data category group hierarchy 5 levels in a data category group hierarchy

Maximum number of data categories from 8 data categories from a data category
a data category group assigned to an
group assigned to an article
article

8 data categories from a data category
group assigned to an article

Data Categories and Answers
In an answers zone, data categories help organize questions for easy browsing. Each answers zone supports one category group.
For example, if you're a computer manufacturer you might create a Products category group that has four sibling categories:
Performance Laptops, Portable Laptops, Gaming Desktops, and Enterprise Desktops. On the Answers tab, zone members can assign
one of the four categories to each question and then browse these categories for answers to specific questions.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Knowledge SOAP API Objects

Knowledge SOAP API Objects
SOAP API object resources for working with Salesforce Knowledge.
IN THIS SECTION:
Article Type__DataCategorySelection
A data category selection represents a data category that classifies an article. This object is available in API version 19.0 and later.
Article Type__Feed
Represents a single feed item in the feed displayed on the detail page for an article. This object is available in API version 20.0 and
later.
KnowledgeArticle
Provides read-only access to an article and the ability to delete the master article. This object is available in API version 19.0 and later.
KnowledgeArticleVersion
Provides a global view of standard article fields across all article types depending on their version. This object is available in API
version 18.0 and later.
KnowledgeArticleVersionHistory
Enables read-only access to the full history of an article. This object is available in API version 25.0 and later.
KnowledgeArticleViewStat
Provides statistics on the number of views for the specified article across all article types. This object is read-only and available in API
version 20 and later.
KnowledgeArticleVoteStat
Provides the weighted rating for the specified article on a scale of 1 to 5 across all article types. This object is read-only and available
in API version 20 and later.
CaseArticle
Represents the association between a Case and a KnowledgeArticle. This object is available in API version 20.0 and later.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Article Type__DataCategorySelection

LinkedArticle
Represents a Knowledge article that is attached to a record. This object is available in API version 37.0 and later.
LinkedArticleFeed
Represents a single feed item on a linked Knowledge article attached to a record. This object is available in API version 37.0 and later.
LinkedArticleHistory
Represents the history of changes made to tracked fields on a linked article. This object is available in API version 37.0 and later.
NewsFeed
Represents a single feed item on a user's home tab. A Chatter feed shows recent changes to records that the user is following.
RecentlyViewed
Represents records that the current user has recently viewed or referenced (by viewing a related record).
ReportFeed
Represents a single feed item in the feed displayed on a report. This object is available in API version 20.0 and later.
SearchPromotionRule
Represents a promoted search term, which is one or more keywords that you associate with a Salesforce Knowledge article. When
a user’s search query includes these keywords, the associated article is returned first in search results. This object is available in API
version 31.0 and later.
TopicAssignment
Represents the assignment of a topic to a specific feed item, record, or file. This object is available in API version 28.0 and later.
UserProfileFeed
Represents a user profile feed, which tracks all actions by a user on records that can be tracked in a feed. This feed is displayed on
the user profile page.

Article Type__DataCategorySelection
A data category selection represents a data category that classifies an article. This object is available in API version 19.0 and later.
This object can be used to associate an article with data categories from a data category group or to query the category selections for
an article.
The object name is variable and has a syntax of Article Type__DataCategorySelection, where Article Type is the Object
Name for the article type associated with the article. For example, Offer__DataCategorySelection represents the association
between the Offer article type and its data categories. Every article is associated with an article type.

Supported Calls
create(), delete(), describeSObjects(), query(), getDeleted(), retrieve()

Special Access Rules
Users can only access, create or delete data category selection visible to their role, permission set, or profile. If a user has partial visibility
on an article's categorization, only the visible categories are returned.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Article Type__DataCategorySelection

Fields
Field Name

Details

DataCategoryGroupName

Type
DataCategoryGroupReference
Properties
Create
Description
Unique name of the data category group which has categories associated with the article.

DataCategoryName

Type
DataCategoryGroupReference
Properties
Create
Description
Unique name of the data category associated with the article.

ParentId

Type
reference
Properties
Create, Filter
Description
ID of the article associated with the data category selection.

Usage
Every article in Salesforce Knowledge can be categorized. A data category selection represents a category that has been selected to
classify an article. You can use the Article Type__DataCategorySelection object to query and manage article categorization in
your organization. Client applications can create a categorization for an article with a Draft status. They can also delete and query article
categorizations.
Note: When using Article Type__DataCategorySelection to classify an article, you can't select both a category (for example
USA) and one of its descendants (California) or ascendant categories (North America). In this case, only the first category is selected.
Answer communities use QuestionDataCategorySelection to classify questions.

SOQL Sample
The following SOQL query returns the data category selections used to classify the article whose ID is ka0D000000005ApIAI.
SELECT Id,DataCategoryName, ParentId
FROM Offer__DataCategorySelection WHERE ParentId='ka0D000000005ApIAI'

This clause only returns category unique names. To retrieve category labels use the following clause:
SELECT Id,toLabel(DataCategoryName), ParentId
FROM Offer__DataCategorySelection WHERE ParentId='ka0D000000005ApIAI'

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Article Type__Feed

Tip: You can also use relationship queries to retrieve categorizations from an article type.

Article Type__Feed
Represents a single feed item in the feed displayed on the detail page for an article. This object is available in API version 20.0 and later.
An article feed shows recent changes to an article record for any fields that are tracked in feeds, and posts and comments about the
article. It is a useful way to stay up-to-date with changes made to articles in Salesforce Knowledge. This object is available in API version
20.0 and later. The object name is variable and uses a Article Type__Feed syntax, where Article Type is the Object
Name for the article type associated with the article. For example, Offer__Feed represents a feed item on an article based on the
Offer article type.

Supported Calls
delete(), describeSObjects(), getDeleted(), getUpdated(), query(), retrieve()

Fields
Field

Details

Body

Type
textarea
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The content of Article Type__Feed. Required when Type is TextPost. Optional
when Type is ContentPost or LinkPost. This field is the message that appears in
the feed.

CommentCount

Type
int
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The number of FeedComments associated with this feed item.
Tip: In a feed that supports pre-moderation, CommentCount isn’t updated until a
comment is published. For example, say you comment on a post that already has one
published comment and your comment triggers moderation. Now there are two
comments on the post, but the count says there's only one. In a moderated feed, your
comment isn’t counted until it's approved by an admin or a person with
“CanApproveFeedPostAndComment” or “ModifyAllData” permission.
This has implications for how you retrieve feed comments. In a moderated feed, rather
than retrieving comments by looping through CommentCount, go through pagination
until end of comments is returned.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Article Type__Feed

Field

Details

ContentData

Type
base64
Properties
Nillable
Description
Required if Type is ContentPost. Encoded file data in any format, and can’t be 0 bytes.
Setting this field automatically sets Type to ContentPost.

ContentDescription

Type
textarea
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only. The description of the file specified in
ContentData.

ContentFileName

Type
string
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
This field is required if Type is ContentPost.The name of the file uploaded to the feed.
Setting ContentFileName automatically sets Type to ContentPost.

ContentSize

Type
int
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only. The size of the file (in bytes) uploaded to the
feed. This field is read-only and is automatically determined during insert.

ContentType

Type
string
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only. The MIME type of the file uploaded to the feed.
This field is read-only and is automatically determined during insert.

CreatedDate

Type
dateTime

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

Article Type__Feed

Details
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Sort
Description
Date and time when this record was created. This field is a standard system field.
Ordering by CreatedDate DESC sorts the feed by the most recent feed item.

FeedPostId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
This field was removed in API version 22.0, and is available in earlier versions for backward
compatibility only.
ID of the associated FeedPost. A FeedPost represents the following types of changes in an
FeedItem: changes to tracked fields, text posts, link posts, and content posts.

InsertedById

Type
reference
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
ID of the user who added this object to the feed. For example, if an application migrates
posts and comments from another application into a feed, the InsertedBy value is set
to the ID of the logged-in user.

IsDeleted

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Group, Sort
Description
Standard system field. Indicates whether the record has been moved to the Recycle Bin
(true) or not (false).

IsRichText

Type
boolean
Properties
Create, Defaulted on create, Filter, Group, Sort, Update
Description
Indicates whether the feed item Body contains rich text. Set IsRichText to true if
you post a rich text feed item via SOAP API. Otherwise, the post is rendered as plain text.
Rich text supports the following HTML tags:

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

Article Type__Feed

Details
• 
Tip: Though the 
 tag isn’t supported, you can use 
 
to create lines.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
The  tag is accessible only via the API and must reference files in Salesforce
similar to this example: 
Note: In API version 35.0 and later, the system replaces special characters in rich text
with escaped HTML. In API version 34.0 and prior, all rich text appears as a plain-text
representation.

LastModifiedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Sort
Description
Date and time when a user last modified this record. This field is a standard system field.
When a feed item is created, LastModifiedDate is the same as CreatedDate. If
a FeedComment is inserted on that feed item, then LastModifiedDate becomes the
CreatedDate for that FeedComment. Deleting the FeedComment does not change the
LastModifiedDate.
Ordering by LastModifiedDate DESC sorts the feed by both the most recent feed
item or comment.

LikeCount

Type
int
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The number of FeedLikes associated with this feed item.

LinkUrl

Type
url

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

Article Type__Feed

Details
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The URL of a LinkPost.

ParentId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
ID of the article that is tracked in the feed. The feed is displayed on the detail page for this
record.

RelatedRecordId

Type
reference
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
ID of the ContentVersion object associated with a ContentPost. This field is null for all
posts except ContentPost.

Title

Type
string
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The title of the feed item. When the Type is LinkPost, the LinkUrl is the URL and
this field is the link name.

Type

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
The type of feed item:
• ActivityEvent—indirectly generated event when a user or the API adds a Task
associated with a feed-enabled parent record (excluding email tasks on cases). Also
occurs when a user or the API adds or updates a Task or Event associated with a case
record (excluding email and call logging).
For a recurring Task with CaseFeed disabled, one event is generated for the series only.
For a recurring Task with CaseFeed enabled, events are generated for the series and each
occurrence.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

Article Type__Feed

Details
• AdvancedTextPost—created when a user posts a group announcement.
• AnnouncementPost—Not used.
• ApprovalPost—generated when a user submits an approval.
• BasicTemplateFeedItem—Not used.
• CanvasPost—a post made by a canvas app posted on a feed.
• CollaborationGroupCreated—generated when a user creates a public group.
• CollaborationGroupUnarchived—Not used.
• ContentPost—a post with an attached file.
• CreatedRecordEvent—generated when a user creates a record from the publisher.
• DashboardComponentAlert—generated when a dashboard metric or gauge
exceeds a user-defined threshold.
• DashboardComponentSnapshot—created when a user posts a dashboard
snapshot on a feed.
• LinkPost—a post with an attached URL.
• PollPost—a poll posted on a feed.
• ProfileSkillPost—generated when a skill is added to a user’s Chatter profile.
• QuestionPost—generated when a user posts a question.
• ReplyPost—generated when Chatter Answers posts a reply.
• RypplePost—generated when a user creates a Thanks badge in Work.com.
• TextPost—a direct text entry on a feed.
• TrackedChange—a change or group of changes to a tracked field.
• UserStatus—automatically generated when a user adds a post. Deprecated.
The following values appear in the Type picklist for all feed objects but apply only to
CaseFeed:
• CaseCommentPost—generated event when a user adds a case comment for a case
object
• EmailMessageEvent—generated event when an email related to a case object is
sent or received
• CallLogPost—generated event when a user logs a call for a case through the user
interface. CTI calls also generate this event.
• ChangeStatusPost—generated event when a user changes the status of a case
• AttachArticleEvent—generated event when a user attaches an article to a case
Note: If you set Type to ContentPost, also specify ContentData and
ContentFileName.

Usage
Use this object to track changes for an article. You can only delete a feed that you created, or if you have the “Modify All Data” permission
or “Modify All” permission on the KnowledgeArticle object.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

KnowledgeArticle

KnowledgeArticle
Provides read-only access to an article and the ability to delete the master article. This object is available in API version 19.0 and later.
Unlike KnowledgeArticleVersion, the ID of a KnowledgeArticle record is identical irrespective of the article's version (status). For more
information on articles and article types, see “Work with Articles and Translations” and “Knowledge Article Types” in the Salesforce online
help.

Supported Calls
delete(), describeSObjects(), query(), retrieve()

Special Access Rules
A user must have the “View Articles” permission enabled. Salesforce Knowledge users, unlike Customer Portal and partner portal users,
must also be granted the Knowledge User feature license.

Fields
Field Name

Details

ArchivedById

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The ID of the user who archived the article.

ArchivedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Filter, Nillable, Sort
Description
The date when the article was archived.

ArticleNumber

Type
string
Properties
Autonumber, Defaulted on create, Filter, Sort
Description
The unique number automatically assigned to the article when it's created. You can't
change the format or value for this field.

CaseAssociationCount

Type
int

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field Name

KnowledgeArticle

Details
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The number of cases attached to the article.

FirstPublishedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Filter, Nillable, Sort
Description
The date when the article was first published.

LastPublishedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Filter, Nillable, Sort
Description
The date when the article was last published.

LastReferencedDate

Type
date
Properties
Filter, Nillable, Sort, Update
Description
The timestamp for when the current user last viewed a record related to this record.

LastViewedDate

Type
date
Properties
Filter, Nillable, Sort, Update
Description
The timestamp for when the current user last viewed this record. If this value is null,
this record might only have been referenced (LastReferencedDate) and not
viewed.

MasterLanguage

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Restricted picklist
Description
The article's original language. Only accessible if your knowledge base supports
multiple languages.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

KnowledgeArticleVersion

Usage
Use this object to query or retrieve articles. KnowledgeArticle can be used in a SOQL clause, but doesn’t provide access to the fields from
the article. Provides read-only access to an article and the ability to delete the master article.

KnowledgeArticleVersion
Provides a global view of standard article fields across all article types depending on their version. This object is available in API version
18.0 and later.
Use this object to:
• Query or search generically across multiple article types.
• Filter on a specific version.
• Update standard fields, those fields that are updateable, in draft versions.
When you query on the archived article, the results include both the article and the article’s archived versions.
Note: You can’t update draft translations with the API.

Supported Calls
create(), delete(), describeLayout(), describeSObjects(), query(), retrieve(), search(), and
update().

Note:
• You can only update draft versions.
• To create, update, or delete a Knowledge article version, use the call on ArticleType_kav, where ArticleType is the name of the
article’s type. For example, to delete, use ArticleType_kav.delete().

Special Access Rules
A user must have the “View Articles” permission enabled. Salesforce Knowledge users, unlike Customer Portal and partner portal users,
must also be granted the Knowledge User feature license to view and edit article versions.

Fields
Field Name

Details

ArchivedById

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Nillable
Description
The ID of the user who archived the article.

ArchivedDate

Type
dateTime

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field Name

KnowledgeArticleVersion

Details
Properties
Filter, Nillable
Description
The date when the article was archived.

ArticleNumber

Type
string
Properties
Autonumber, Defaulted on create, Filter
Description
The unique number automatically assigned to the article when it's created. You can't
change the format or value for this field.

ArticleType

Type
string
Properties
Defaulted on create,Filter
Description
Indicates the API Name of the article type. The ArticleType is assigned to the
article when it's created. You can't change the value of this field. This field is available
in API version 26.0 and later.

FirstPublishedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Filter, Nillable
Description
The date when the article was first published.

IsLatestVersion

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Group, Filter, Sort
Description
Indicates whether the article is the most current version. (true) or not (false).
This field can be true on the online or published version, a draft version in the
master language, a draft version in a translation, and the latest archived version.
However, you can’t filter by (PublishState=’Online’) and (IsLatestVersion=false) because
the online version is also the latest version. This field is available in API version 24.0
and later.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

KnowledgeArticleVersion

Field Name

Details

IsMasterLanguage

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter
Description
Indicates whether the article has one or more translations associated with it (true)
or not (false). Only accessible if your knowledge base supports multiple languages.

IsOutOfDate

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter
Description
Indicates whether the source article has been updated since this translated version
was created (true) or not (false). Only accessible if your knowledge base supports
multiple languages.

IsVisibleInApp

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter
Description
Required. Indicates whether the article is visible in the Articles tab (true) or not
(false).

IsVisibleInCsp

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter
Description
Required. Indicates whether the article is visible in the Customer Portal (true) or
not (false).

IsVisibleInPkb

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter
Description
Required. Indicates whether the article is visible in the public knowledge base (true)
or not (false).

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

KnowledgeArticleVersion

Field Name

Details

IsVisibleInPrm

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter
Description
Required. Indicates whether the article is visible in the partner portal (true) or not
(false).

KnowledgeArticleId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter
Description
The ID of the article independent from its version. The value for this field is retrieved
from the Id field of the KnowledgeArticle object.

Language

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Restricted picklist
Description
The language that the article is written in, such as French or Chinese
(Traditional).
Querying or searching articles in SOQL or SOSL requires that you specify the
Language field in the WHERE clause. The language must be the same for all article
types.

LastPublishedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Filter, Nillable
Description
The date when the article was last published.

MasterVersionId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Nillable
Description
ID of the source article, if the article is the translation of a source article. Only accessible
if your knowledge base supports multiple languages.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

KnowledgeArticleVersion

Field Name

Details

OwnerId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter
Description
The ID of the article's owner.

PublishStatus

Type
picklist
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Restricted picklist
Description
The publication status for the article:
• Draft: any draft articles.
• Online: articles published in Salesforce Knowledge.
• Archived: archived articles.
A user must have the “Manage Articles” permission enabled to use Online.
Querying or searching articles in SOQL or SOSL requires that you specify either the
PublishStatus or the Id field in the WHERE clause. You can search for only
one publication status per article type in a single SOSL query. When searching for
articles with a PublishStatus of Archived, also check that
IsLatestVersion equals false in your WHERE clause.

SourceId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Nillable
Description
ID of the source from which the article was created (Case or Reply).

Summary

Type
textarea
Properties
Filter, Nillable
Description
Summary of the article. Maximum size is 1000 characters.

Title

Type
string
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, idLookup

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field Name

KnowledgeArticleVersion

Details
Description
Required. Article's title. Maximum size is 255 characters.

TranslationCompletedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Filter, Nillable
Description
Date and time when the article was last translated. Only accessible if your knowledge
base supports multiple languages.

TranslationExportedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Filter, Nillable
Description
Date and time when the article was last exported for translation. Only accessible if
your knowledge base supports multiple languages.

TranslationImportedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Filter, Nillable
Description
Date and time when the article was last imported for translation. Only accessible if
your knowledge base supports multiple languages.

UrlName

Type
string
Properties
Filter
Description
Required. Represents the article's URL. Can contain alphanumeric characters and
hyphens but can't begin or end with a hyphen. UrlName is case-sensitive and its
maximum size is 255 characters.

ValidationStatus

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field Name

KnowledgeArticleVersion

Details
Description
Shows whether the content of the article has been validated. Default values are
Validated and Not Validated. This field is available in API version 24.0 or
later.

VersionNumber

Type
int
Properties
None
Description
The number assigned to a version of an article. This field is available in API version
24.0 and later.

Usage
Use this object to query, retrieve, or search for articles across all article types depending on their version. You can update draft master
articles. Additionally, you can delete articles that are not drafts. Client applications can use KnowledgeArticleVersion with
describeDataCategoryGroups() and describeDataCategoryGroupStructures() to return the category
groups and the category structure associated with Salesforce Knowledge.
Alternatively, client applications can use the article type API Name followed by __kav to query, retrieve, or search for articles for a
specific article type.
To access an article independent of its version, use the KnowledgeArticle object.

SOQL Samples
The following SOQL clause uses KnowledgeArticleVersion to query all published articles from all article types complying with the
classification specified in the WITH DATA CATEGORY clause:
SELECT Title, Summary
FROM KnowledgeArticleVersion
WHERE PublishStatus='Online'
AND Language = 'en_US'
WITH DATA CATEGORY Geography__c ABOVE_OR_BELOW europe__c AND Product__c BELOW All__c

The following SOQL clause uses the article type API Name to limit the query to all draft articles from the Offer__kav article type:
SELECT Id, Title
FROM Offer__kav
WHERE PublishStatus='Draft'
AND Language = 'en_US'
WITH DATA CATEGORY Geography__c AT (france__c,usa__c) AND Product__c ABOVE dsl__c

The following SOQL clause uses KnowledgeArticleVersion to query the Ids of all archived versions of a particular article:
SELECT Id
FROM KnowledgeArticleVersion
WHERE PublishStatus='Archived'

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

KnowledgeArticleVersionHistory

AND IsLatestVersion=false
AND KnowledgeArticleId='kA1D00000001PQ6KAM'

SOQL and SOSL with KnowledgeArticleVersion
• Always filter on a single value of PublishStatus unless the query filters on one or more primary key IDs. To support security,
only users with the “Manage Articles” permission see articles whose PublishStatus value is Draft.
• Archived article versions are stored in the articletype_kav object. To query archived article versions, specify the article Id and set
IsLatestVersion='0'.
• Always filter on a single value of Language. However, in SOQL, you can filter on more than one Language if there is a filter on
Id or KnowledgeArticleId.

KnowledgeArticleVersionHistory
Enables read-only access to the full history of an article. This object is available in API version 25.0 and later.

Supported Calls
describeSObjects(), getDeleted(), getUpdated(), query(), retrieve()

Special Access Rules
This object respects field, entity, and record-level security. You must have at least “Read” permission on the article type or the field to
access its history. For data category security, Salesforce determines access based on the categorization of the online version of an article.
If there is no online version, then security is applied based on the archived version, followed by the security of the draft version.

Fields
Field Name

Details

EventType

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
The type of event that is tracked in the history table.

FieldName

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
Name of the tracked field.

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KnowledgeArticleVersionHistory

Field Name

Details

Language

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
The language that the article is written in, such as French or Chinese
(Traditional). Querying or searching articles in SOQL or SOSL requires
that you specify the Language field in the WHERE clause. The language must
be the same for all article types.

NewValue

Type
anyType
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The new value of the field that was changed.

OldValue

Type
anyType
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The most recent value of the field before it was changed.

ParentId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The ID of the article.

ParentSobjectType

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
The type of object that contains the field.

VersionId

Type
reference

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

KnowledgeArticleViewStat

Field Name

Details
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The ID assigned to a version of the article.

VersionNumber

Type
int
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The number assigned to a version of an article. This field is available in API version
24.0 and later.

Usage
Use this object to query events in the history of an article. For example, you can retrieve the number of edits a particular user has made
to an article, how many times the article has been published, and so on.

KnowledgeArticleViewStat
Provides statistics on the number of views for the specified article across all article types. This object is read-only and available in API
version 20 and later.

Supported Calls
describeSObjects(), query(), retrieve()

Special Access Rules
Users must have access to the published version of an article to retrieve its views. For more information on published article version, see
the PublishStatus field in KnowledgeArticleVersion.

Fields
Field Name

Details

Channel

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Restricted picklist
Description
The channel where the article is viewed:

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field Name

KnowledgeArticleViewStat

Details
• AllChannels for article views across all channels.
• App for the internal Salesforce Knowledge application.
• Pkb for article views in public knowledge base.
• Csp for Customer Portal.
• Prm for article view in partner portal.

NormalizedScore

Type
double
Properties
Filter, Nillable
Description
Article's weighted views in the selected channel. The article with most views has a
score of 100. Other article views are then calculated relative to this highest view score.
For example, if the best read article has 2000 views and another has 1000. The first
one gets a score of 100 while the second gets 50.

ParentId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter
Description
ID of the viewed article. This corresponds to a KnowledgeArticle record.

ViewCount

Type
int
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The number of unique views an article has received in the selected channel. An article
with a high number of views may not always have a high normalized score. The
normalized score for an article is calculated based on views over time, with more
recent views earning a higher score. This field is available in API version 27.0 and later.

Usage
Use this object to query or retrieve statistics for article views.
Alternatively, client applications can use the article type API Name followed by __ViewStat to query or retrieve most viewed
articles from a specific article type.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

KnowledgeArticleVoteStat

SOQL Samples
The following SOQL clause uses KnowledgeArticleViewStat to query all the article views in Salesforce Knowledge and return the related
articles:
SELECT Id, NormalizedScore, Parent.Id
FROM KnowledgeArticleViewStat where Channel = 'App'
ORDER BY NormalizedScore

Use the following clause to restrict your query to Offer articles for the Offer article type:
SELECT Id, NormalizedScore, Parent.Id
FROM Offer__ViewStat where Channel = 'App'
ORDER BY NormalizedScore

KnowledgeArticleVoteStat
Provides the weighted rating for the specified article on a scale of 1 to 5 across all article types. This object is read-only and available in
API version 20 and later.

Supported Calls
describeSObjects(), query(), retrieve()

Special Access Rules
Users must have access to the published version of an article to retrieve its votes. For more information on published article version, see
the PublishStatus field in KnowledgeArticleVersion

Fields
Field Name

Details

Channel

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Restricted picklist
Description
The channel where the article is rated:
• AllChannels for article views across all channels.
• App for the internal Salesforce Knowledge application.
• Pkb for article views in public knowledge base.
• Csp for Customer Portal.
• Prm for article view in partner portal.

NormalizedScore

Type
double

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field Name

CaseArticle

Details
Properties
Filter, Nillable
Description
Article's weighted score on a scale of 1 to 5. A higher score means more votes. Articles
without recent votes trend towards an average rating of three stars.

ParentId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter
Description
The rated article. This corresponds to a KnowledgeArticle record.

Usage
Use this object to query or retrieve the rating for an article.
Alternatively, client applications can use the article type API Name followed by __VoteStat to query or retrieve the rating for an
article for a specific article type.

SOQL Samples
See KnowledgeArticleViewStat.

CaseArticle
Represents the association between a Case and a KnowledgeArticle. This object is available in API version 20.0 and later.

Supported Calls
create(), delete(), describeSObjects(), query(), retrieve()

Special Access Rules
Access to this object is controlled by the parent Case and KnowledgeArticle. However, when querying, access is only controlled by the
parent Case.
Customer Portal users can't access this object.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

CaseArticle

Fields
Field

Details

ArticleLanguage

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Restricted picklist
Description
The language of the article associated with the case.

ArticleVersionNumber

Type
int
Properties
Create, Group, Nillable
Description
The number assigned to a version of an article. This field is available in API version 24.0 and
later.

CaseId

Type
reference
Properties
Create, Filter, Group, Sort
Description
ID of the Case associated with the KnowledgeArticle.

IsSharedByEmail

Type
int
Properties
Create, Group, Nillable
Description
Indicates that the article has been shared with the customer through an email.

KnowledgeArticleId

Type
reference
Properties
Create, Filter, Group, Sort
Description
ID of the KnowledgeArticle associated with the Case.

35

Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

LinkedArticle

Usage
This object represents the association of a knowledge article with a Case. An article is associated with a case when it’s relevant to a
specific issue, when it helps an agent solve the case, or when the agent sends the article to a customer.
You can use this object to include case-article associations in Apex and Visualforce.
You can't update this object via the API. If you attempt to create a record that matches an existing record, the create request simply
returns the existing record.

LinkedArticle
Represents a Knowledge article that is attached to a record. This object is available in API version 37.0 and later.
As of Summer ’16, linked articles are supported only for work orders and work order line items.

Supported Calls
create(), delete(), describeLayout(), describeSObjects(), getDeleted(), getUpdated(),
query(), retrieve(), undelete(), update(), upsert()

Special Access Rules
Knowledge must be set up in your org.

Fields
Field Name

Details

CurrencyIsoCode

Type
picklist
Properties
Create, Defaulted on create, Filter, Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort, Update
Description
Available only for orgs with the multicurrency feature enabled. Contains the ISO
code for any currency allowed by the organization.

KnowledgeArticleId

Type
reference
Properties
Create, Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The ID of the Knowledge article attached to the record. The label in the user
interface is Knowledge Article ID.

KnowledgeArticleVersionId

Type
reference

36

Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field Name

LinkedArticle

Details
Properties
Create, Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The version of the Knowledge article attached to the record. This field lists the
title of the attached version and links to the version. The label in the user interface
is Article Version.
When you attach an article to a work order, that version of the article stays
associated with the work order, even if later versions are published. If needed,
you can detach and reattach an article to a work order to link the latest version.

LinkedEntityId

Type
reference
Properties
Create, Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The ID of the record that the Knowledge article is attached to. The label in the
user interface is Linked Record ID.

Name

Type
string
Properties
Create, Filter, Group, Sort, Update
Description
The title of the article. The label in the user interface is Article Title.

RecordTypeId

Type
reference
Properties
Create, Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort, Update
Description
The ID of the article’s record type, if used.

Type

Type
string
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
(Read only) The type of record that the Knowledge article is attached to. For
example, work order. The label in the user interface is Linked Object Type.

37

Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

LinkedArticleFeed

Usage
Admins can customize linked articles’ page layouts, fields, validation rules, and more from the Linked Articles node in Setup under
Knowledge.

LinkedArticleFeed
Represents a single feed item on a linked Knowledge article attached to a record. This object is available in API version 37.0 and later.
As of Summer ’16, linked articles are supported only for work orders and work order line items.

Supported Calls
delete(), describeSObjects(), getDeleted(), getUpdated(), query(), retrieve()

Special Access Rules
Knowledge must be set up in your org.

Fields
Field Name

Details

Body

Type
textarea
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The content of the feed item. Required when Type is TextPost. Optional
when Type is ContentPost or LinkPost.

CommentCount

Type
int
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The number of comments associated with the feed item.

InsertedById

Type
reference
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
ID of the user who added this object to the feed. For example, if an application
migrates posts and comments from another application into a feed, the
InsertedBy value is set to the ID of the logged-in user.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

LinkedArticleFeed

Field Name

Details

IsRichText

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Group, Sort
Description
Indicates whether the feed item Body contains rich text. Set IsRichText
to true if you post a rich text feed item via the SOAP API. Otherwise, the post
is rendered as plain text.
Rich text supports the following HTML tags.
• 
Tip: Although the 
 tag isn’t supported, you can use
  to create lines.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
The  tag is accessible only via the API and must reference files in
Salesforce similar to this example: 

LikeCount

Type
int
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The number of Likes associated with the feed item.

LinkUrl

Type
url
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The URL of a LinkPost.

NetworkScope

Type
picklist

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field Name

LinkedArticleFeed

Details
Properties
Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
Specifies whether the feed item is available in the default community, a specific
community, or all communities.

ParentId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The ID of the object type to which the feed item is related. For example, set this
field to a UserId to post to someone’s profile feed. Or set it to an AccountId
to post to a specific account.

RelatedRecordId

Type
reference
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The ID of the ContentVersion object associated with a content post. This
field is null for all posts, except ContentPost.

Title

Type
string
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The title of the feed item. When the Type is LinkPost, the LinkUrl is
the URL, and this field is the link name.

Type

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
The type of feed item.

Visibility

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort

40

Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field Name

LinkedArticleHistory

Details
Description
Specifies whether this feed item is available to all users or only internal users.

LinkedArticleHistory
Represents the history of changes made to tracked fields on a linked article. This object is available in API version 37.0 and later.
As of Summer ’16, linked articles are supported only for work orders and work order line items.

Supported Calls
describeSObjects(), getDeleted(), getUpdated(), query(), retrieve()

Special Access Rules
Knowledge must be set up in your org.

Fields
Field Name

Details

Field

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
The name of the field that was changed.

LinkedArticleId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The ID of the tracked linked article. The history is displayed on the detail page for
this record.

NewValue

Type
anyType
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The new value of the field that was changed.

41

Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

NewsFeed

Field Name

Details

OldValue

Type
anyType
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The value of the field before it was changed.

NewsFeed
Represents a single feed item on a user's home tab. A Chatter feed shows recent changes to records that the user is following.
NewsFeed is available in API version 18.0 through API version 26.0. In API version 27.0 and later, NewsFeed is no longer available in the
SOAP API. Use the Chatter REST API to access NewsFeed.

Supported Calls
delete(), describeSObjects(), getDeleted(), getUpdated(), query(), retrieve()

Fields
Field

Details

Body

Type
textarea
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The content of NewsFeed. Required when Type is TextPost. Optional when Type is
ContentPost or LinkPost. This is the message that appears in the feed.

CommentCount

Type
int
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The number of FeedComments associated with this feed item.
Tip: In a feed that supports pre-moderation, CommentCount isn’t updated until a
comment is published. For example, say you comment on a post that already has one
published comment and your comment triggers moderation. Now there are two
comments on the post, but the count says there's only one. In a moderated feed, your
comment isn’t counted until it's approved by an admin or a person with
“CanApproveFeedPostAndComment” or “ModifyAllData” permission.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

NewsFeed

Details
This has implications for how you retrieve feed comments. In a moderated feed, rather
than retrieving comments by looping through CommentCount, go through pagination
until end of comments is returned.

ConnectionId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
When a PartnerNetworkConnection makes a change to a record that is tracked, the
CreatedBy field contains the ID of the system administrator while the ConnectionId
contains the ID of the PartnerNetworkConnection that made the change. Available if Salesforce
to Salesforce is enabled for your organization.

ContentData

Type
base64
Properties
Nillable
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only.Required if Type is ContentPost. Encoded
file data in any format, and can’t be 0 bytes. Setting this field automatically sets Type to
ContentPost.

ContentDescription

Type
textarea
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only.The description of the file specified in
ContentData.

ContentFileName

Type
string
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only.This field is required if Type is ContentPost.
The name of the file uploaded to the feed. Setting ContentFileName automatically
sets Type to ContentPost.

ContentSize

Type
int

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

NewsFeed

Details
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only. The size of the file (in bytes) uploaded to the
feed. This field is read-only and is automatically determined during insert.

ContentType

Type
string
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only. The MIME type of the file uploaded to the feed.
This field is read-only and is automatically determined during insert.

CreatedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Sort
Description
Date and time when this record was created. This is a standard system field.
Ordering by CreatedDateDESC sorts the feed by the most recent feed item.

FeedPostId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
This field was removed in API version 22.0, and is available in earlier versions for backward
compatibility only.
ID of the associated FeedPost. A FeedPost represents the following types of changes in an
FeedItem: changes to tracked fields, text posts, link posts, and content posts.

InsertedById

Type
reference
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
ID of the user who added this object to the feed. For example, if an application migrates
posts and comments from another application into a feed, the InsertedBy value is set
to the ID of the logged-in user.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

NewsFeed

Field

Details

IsDeleted

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Group, Sort
Description
Standard system field. Indicates whether the record has been moved to the Recycle Bin
(true) or not (false).

LastModifiedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Sort
Description
Date and time when a user last modified this record. This field is a standard system field.
When a feed item is created, LastModifiedDate is the same as CreatedDate. If
a FeedComment is inserted on that feed item, then LastModifiedDate becomes the
CreatedDate for that FeedComment. Deleting the FeedComment does not change the
LastModifiedDate.
Ordering by LastModifiedDate DESC sorts the feed by both the most recent feed
item or comment.

LikeCount

Type
int
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The number of FeedLikes associated with this feed item.

LinkUrl

Type
url
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The URL of a LinkPost.

NetworkScope

Type
picklist
Properties
Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort

45

Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

NewsFeed

Details
Description
Specifies whether this feed item is available in the default community, a specific community,
or all communities. This field is available in API version 26.0 and later, if Salesforce Communities
is enabled for your organization.
NetworkScope can have the following values:

• NetworkId—The ID of the community in which the FeedItem is available. If left empty,
the feed item is only available in the default community.
• AllNetworks—The feed item is available in all communities.
Note the following exceptions for NetworkScope:
• Only feed items with a Group or User parent can set a NetworkId or a null value for
NetworkScope.
• For feed items with a record parent, users can set NetworkScope only to
AllNetworks.
• You can’t filter a FeedItem on the NetworkScope field.
ParentId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
ID of the newsfeed record that is tracked in the feed. The feed is displayed on the detail page
for this record.

RelatedRecordId

Type
reference
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
ID of the ContentVersion object associated with a ContentPost. This field is null for all
posts except ContentPost.

Title

Type
string
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The title of the feed item. When the Type is LinkPost, the LinkUrl is the URL and
this field is the link name.

Type

Type
picklist

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

NewsFeed

Details
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
The type of feed item:
• ActivityEvent—indirectly generated event when a user or the API adds a Task
associated with a feed-enabled parent record (excluding email tasks on cases). Also
occurs when a user or the API adds or updates a Task or Event associated with a case
record (excluding email and call logging).
For a recurring Task with CaseFeed disabled, one event is generated for the series only.
For a recurring Task with CaseFeed enabled, events are generated for the series and each
occurrence.
• AdvancedTextPost—created when a user posts a group announcement.
• AnnouncementPost—Not used.
• ApprovalPost—generated when a user submits an approval.
• BasicTemplateFeedItem—Not used.
• CanvasPost—a post made by a canvas app posted on a feed.
• CollaborationGroupCreated—generated when a user creates a public group.
• CollaborationGroupUnarchived—Not used.
• ContentPost—a post with an attached file.
• CreatedRecordEvent—generated when a user creates a record from the publisher.
• DashboardComponentAlert—generated when a dashboard metric or gauge
exceeds a user-defined threshold.
• DashboardComponentSnapshot—created when a user posts a dashboard
snapshot on a feed.
• LinkPost—a post with an attached URL.
• PollPost—a poll posted on a feed.
• ProfileSkillPost—generated when a skill is added to a user’s Chatter profile.
• QuestionPost—generated when a user posts a question.
• ReplyPost—generated when Chatter Answers posts a reply.
• RypplePost—generated when a user creates a Thanks badge in Work.com.
• TextPost—a direct text entry on a feed.
• TrackedChange—a change or group of changes to a tracked field.
• UserStatus—automatically generated when a user adds a post. Deprecated.
The following values appear in the Type picklist for all feed objects but apply only to
CaseFeed:
• CaseCommentPost—generated event when a user adds a case comment for a case
object
• EmailMessageEvent—generated event when an email related to a case object is
sent or received

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

NewsFeed

Details
• CallLogPost—generated event when a user logs a call for a case through the user
interface. This event is also generated by CTI calls.
• ChangeStatusPost—generated event when a user changes the status of a case
• AttachArticleEvent—generated event when a user attaches an article to a case
Note: If you set Type to ContentPost, you must specify ContentData
and ContentFileName.

Visibility

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
Specifies whether this feed item is available to all users or internal users only. This field is
available in API version 26.0 and later, if Salesforce Communities is enabled for your
organization.
Visibility can have the following values:

• AllUsers—The feed item is available to all users who have permission to see the
feed item.
• InternalUsers—The feed item is available to internal users only.
Note the following exceptions for Visibility:
• For record posts, Visibility is set to InternalUsers for all internal users by
default.
• External users can set Visibility only to AllUsers.
• On user and group posts, only internal users can set Visibility to
InternalUsers.

Usage
Use this object to query and retrieve record changes tracked in a news feed. Note the following when working with news feeds:
• This object is read only in the API.
• Users can only query their own news feed.
• Queries retrieve feed items that include mentions from other users.
• Use this object to query and retrieve lead feed items that were associated with a converted lead record.
Users that do not have the “View All Data” permission have the following limitations when querying records:
• Must specify a LIMIT clause and the limit must be less than or equal to 1000.
• May include a WHERE clause that references NewsFeed fields, but may not include references to fields in related objects. For example,
you can filter by CreatedDate or ParentId, but not by Parent.Name.
• May include an ORDER BY clause that references NewsFeed fields, but may not include references to fields in related objects. For
example, you can ORDER BY CreatedDate or ParentId, but not by Parent.Name.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

RecentlyViewed

Tip: To query for the most recent feed items, you should ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC, Id DESC.
Note the following SOQL restrictions.
• No SOQL limit if logged-in user has “View All Data” permission. If not, specify a LIMIT clause of 1,000 records or fewer.
• SOQL ORDER BY on fields using relationships is not available. Use ORDER BY on fields on the root object in the SOQL query.

RecentlyViewed
Represents records that the current user has recently viewed or referenced (by viewing a related record).

Supported Calls
query(), update()

Special Usage Rules
The RecentlyViewed object does not support the Report, KnowledgeArticle, and Article objects.

Fields
Field

Details

Alias

Type
string
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The alias on the record.

Email

Type
email
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The email address on the record.

FirstName

Type
string
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The first name on the record. If the recently viewed record is a user, this is the user’s first
name.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

RecentlyViewed

Field

Details

Id

Type
ID
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The ID of the recently viewed record.

IsActive

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Group, Sort
Description
Indicates whether the recently viewed record is an active user (true) or not (false). This
field contains a value only if the recently viewed record is a user.

LastName

Type
string
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The last name on the record.

LastReferencedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Filter, Nillable, Sort, Update
Description
The timestamp for when the current user last viewed a record related to this record.

LastViewedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Filter, Nillable, Sort, Update
Description
The timestamp for when the current user last viewed this record. If this value is null, this
record might only have been referenced (LastReferencedDate) and not viewed.

Name

Type
string
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort

50

Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

RecentlyViewed

Details
Description
The name on the recently viewed record. If the recently viewed record is a user, contact, or
lead, the value is a concatenation of the firstname and lastname field values.

NetworkId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
ID of the community that this group is part of. This field is available only if Salesforce
Communities is enabled in your organization.
You can add a NetworkId only when creating a group. You can’t change or add a
NetworkId for an existing group. This field is available in API version 27.0 and later.

Phone

Type
phone
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The phone number on the record.

ProfileId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
If the recently viewed record is a user, this is the user’s profile ID.

Title

Type
string
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
If the recently viewed record is a user, this is the title of the user; for example CFO or CEO.

Type

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
The sObject type for this recently viewed record. Valid values include any standard or custom
objects that RecentlyViewed supports.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

ReportFeed

Field

Details

UserRoleId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The ID of the user role associated with this object.

Usage
This object provides a heterogeneous list of different object types and consists of recently viewed records or records that were recently
referenced (a related record was viewed). A record is considered viewed when the user sees the details associated with it, but not when
the user sees it in a list with other records. Use this object to programmatically construct a list of recently viewed items specific to the
current user, for example, on a custom user interface or for search auto-complete options. You can also retrieve a filtered list of records
by object type (Type). The RecentlyViewed data is periodically truncated down to 200 records per object.
Use this query in your code to retrieve a list of all the records that were recently viewed. The results are ordered from most to least recent.
SELECT Id, Name
FROM RecentlyViewed
WHERE LastViewedDate !=null
ORDER BY LastViewedDate DESC

Use this query to retrieve data that was either viewed or referenced, but only for a limited set of objects.
SELECT Id, Name
FROM RecentlyViewed
WHERE Type IN ('Account', 'Contact', 'Plan__c')
ORDER BY LastViewedDate DESC

This query retrieves a list of all recently viewed contacts with contact-specific fields, such as the contact’s account name, and the custom
website field. Records are ordered from most to least recent.
SELECT Account.Name, Title, Email, Phone, Website__c
FROM Contact
WHERE LastViewedDate != NULL
ORDER BY LastViewedDate DESC

ReportFeed
Represents a single feed item in the feed displayed on a report. This object is available in API version 20.0 and later.

Supported Calls
delete(), describeSObjects(), getDeleted(), getUpdated(), query(), retrieve()

Special Access Rules
You can delete all feed items you created. To delete feed items you didn’t create, you must have one of these permissions:

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

ReportFeed

• “Modify All Data”
• “Moderate Chatter”
Note: Users with the “Moderate Chatter” permission can delete only the feed items and comments they see.

Fields
Field

Details

Body

Type
textarea
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The content of ReportFeed. Required when Type is TextPost. Optional when Type
is ContentPost or LinkPost. This field is the message that appears in the feed.

CommentCount

Type
int
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The number of FeedComments associated with this feed item.
Tip: In a feed that supports pre-moderation, CommentCount isn’t updated until a
comment is published. For example, say you comment on a post that already has one
published comment and your comment triggers moderation. Now there are two
comments on the post, but the count says there's only one. In a moderated feed, your
comment isn’t counted until it's approved by an admin or a person with
“CanApproveFeedPostAndComment” or “ModifyAllData” permission.
This has implications for how you retrieve feed comments. In a moderated feed, rather
than retrieving comments by looping through CommentCount, go through pagination
until end of comments is returned.

ConnectionId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
When a PartnerNetworkConnection modifies a record that is tracked, the CreatedBy field
contains the ID of the system administrator. The ConnectionId contains the ID of the
PartnerNetworkConnection. Available if Salesforce to Salesforce is enabled for your
organization.

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ReportFeed

Field

Details

ContentData

Type
base64
Properties
Nillable
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only. Required if Type is ContentPost. Encoded
file data in any format, and can’t be 0 bytes. Setting this field automatically sets Type to
ContentPost.

ContentDescription

Type
textarea
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only. The description of the file specified in
ContentData.

ContentFileName

Type
string
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only. This field is required if Type is ContentPost.
The name of the file uploaded to the feed. Setting ContentFileName automatically
sets Type to ContentPost.

ContentSize

Type
int
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only. The size of the file (in bytes) uploaded to the
feed. This field is read-only and is automatically determined during insert.

ContentType

Type
string
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only. The MIME type of the file uploaded to the feed.
This field is read-only and is automatically determined during insert.

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ReportFeed

Field

Details

CreatedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Sort
Description
Date and time when this record was created. This field is a standard system field.
Ordering by CreatedDateDESC sorts the feed by the most recent feed item.

FeedPostId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
This field was removed in API version 22.0, and is available in earlier versions for backward
compatibility only.
ID of the associated FeedPost. A FeedPost represents the following types of changes in an
FeedItem: changes to tracked fields, text posts, link posts, and content posts.

InsertedById

Type
reference
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
ID of the user who added this object to the feed. For example, if an application migrates
posts and comments from another application into a feed, the InsertedBy value is set
to the ID of the logged-in user.

IsDeleted

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Group, Sort
Description
Standard system field. Indicates whether the record has been moved to the Recycle Bin
(true) or not (false).

IsRichText

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Group, Sort
Description
Indicates whether the feed item Body contains rich text. Set IsRichText to true if
you post a rich text feed item via SOAP API. Otherwise, the post is rendered as plain text.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

ReportFeed

Details
Rich text supports the following HTML tags:
• 
Tip: Though the 
 tag isn’t supported, you can use 
 
to create lines.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
The  tag is accessible only via the API and must reference files in Salesforce
similar to this example: 
Note: In API version 35.0 and later, the system replaces special characters in rich text
with escaped HTML. In API version 34.0 and prior, all rich text appears as a plain-text
representation.

LastModifiedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Sort
Description
Date and time when a user last modified this record. This field is a standard system field.
When a feed item is created, LastModifiedDate is the same as CreatedDate. If
a FeedComment is inserted on that feed item, then LastModifiedDate becomes the
CreatedDate for that FeedComment. Deleting the FeedComment does not change the
LastModifiedDate.
Ordering by LastModifiedDate DESC sorts the feed by both the most recent feed
item or comment.

LikeCount

Type
int
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The number of FeedLikes associated with this feed item.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

ReportFeed

Field

Details

LinkUrl

Type
url
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The URL of a LinkPost.

NetworkScope

Type
picklist
Properties
Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
Specifies whether this feed item is available in the default community, a specific community,
or all communities. This field is available in API version 26.0 and later, if Salesforce Communities
is enabled for your organization.
NetworkScope can have the following values:

• NetworkId—The ID of the community in which the FeedItem is available. If left empty,
the feed item is only available in the default community.
• AllNetworks—The feed item is available in all communities.
Note the following exceptions for NetworkScope:
• Only feed items with a Group or User parent can set a NetworkId or a null value for
NetworkScope.
• For feed items with a record parent, users can set NetworkScope only to
AllNetworks.
• You can’t filter a FeedItem on the NetworkScope field.
ParentId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
ID of the account record that is tracked in the feed. The feed is displayed on the detail page
for this record.

RelatedRecordId

Type
reference
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
ID of the ContentVersion object associated with a ContentPost. This field is null for all
posts except ContentPost.

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ReportFeed

Field

Details

Title

Type
string
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The title of the report record. When the Type is LinkPost, the LinkUrl is the URL
and this field is the link name.

Type

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
The type of feed item:
• ActivityEvent—indirectly generated event when a user or the API adds a Task
associated with a feed-enabled parent record (excluding email tasks on cases). Also
occurs when a user or the API adds or updates a Task or Event associated with a case
record (excluding email and call logging).
For a recurring Task with CaseFeed disabled, one event is generated for the series only.
For a recurring Task with CaseFeed enabled, events are generated for the series and each
occurrence.
• AdvancedTextPost—created when a user posts a group announcement.
• AnnouncementPost—Not used.
• ApprovalPost—generated when a user submits an approval.
• BasicTemplateFeedItem—Not used.
• CanvasPost—a post made by a canvas app posted on a feed.
• CollaborationGroupCreated—generated when a user creates a public group.
• CollaborationGroupUnarchived—Not used.
• ContentPost—a post with an attached file.
• CreatedRecordEvent—generated when a user creates a record from the publisher.
• DashboardComponentAlert—generated when a dashboard metric or gauge
exceeds a user-defined threshold.
• DashboardComponentSnapshot—created when a user posts a dashboard
snapshot on a feed.
• LinkPost—a post with an attached URL.
• PollPost—a poll posted on a feed.
• ProfileSkillPost—generated when a skill is added to a user’s Chatter profile.
• QuestionPost—generated when a user posts a question.
• ReplyPost—generated when Chatter Answers posts a reply.
• RypplePost—generated when a user creates a Thanks badge in Work.com.

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Field

ReportFeed

Details
• TextPost—a direct text entry on a feed.
• TrackedChange—a change or group of changes to a tracked field.
• UserStatus—automatically generated when a user adds a post. Deprecated.
The following values appear in the Type picklist for all feed objects but apply only to
CaseFeed:
• CaseCommentPost—generated event when a user adds a case comment for a case
object
• EmailMessageEvent—generated event when an email related to a case object is
sent or received
• CallLogPost—generated event when a user logs a call for a case through the user
interface. CTI calls also generate this event.
• ChangeStatusPost—generated event when a user changes the status of a case
• AttachArticleEvent—generated event when a user attaches an article to a case
Note: If you set Type to ContentPost, also specify ContentData and
ContentFileName.

Visibility

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
Specifies whether this feed item is available to all users or internal users only. This field is
available in API version 26.0 and later, if Salesforce Communities is enabled for your
organization.
Visibility can have the following values:

• AllUsers—The feed item is available to all users who have permission to see the
feed item.
• InternalUsers—The feed item is available to internal users only.
Note the following exceptions for Visibility:
• For record posts, Visibility is set to InternalUsers for all internal users by
default.
• External users can set Visibility only to AllUsers.
• On user and group posts, only internal users can set Visibility to
InternalUsers.

Usage
Use this object to retrieve the current contents of the feed fields, such as type of feed or feed ID.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

SearchPromotionRule

SearchPromotionRule
Represents a promoted search term, which is one or more keywords that you associate with a Salesforce Knowledge article. When a
user’s search query includes these keywords, the associated article is returned first in search results. This object is available in API version
31.0 and later.

Supported Calls
create(),delete(),describeSObjects(),getDeleted(),getUpdated(),query(),retrieve(),undelete(),update(),upsert()

Special Access Rules
A user must have the “Manage Promoted Search Terms” permission.

Fields
Field Name

Details

PromotedEntityId

Type
reference
Properties
Create, Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort, Update
Description
The ID of the KnowledgeArticleVersion that the promoted search term is
associated with. The article must be in published status.

Query

Type
string
Properties
Create, Filter, Group, Sort, Update
Description
The text of the promoted search term. Maximum length: 100 characters.
You can associate the same promoted search term with multiple articles. If the
user’s search matches the promoted term, all associated articles are promoted
in search results, ordered by relevancy. For best results, create promoted search
terms selectively and limit the number of articles that are promoted per term.

Usage
Use this object to optimize article search results in Salesforce Knowledge.

TopicAssignment
Represents the assignment of a topic to a specific feed item, record, or file. This object is available in API version 28.0 and later.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

TopicAssignment

Administrators must enable topics for objects before users can add topics to records of that object type. Topics for most objects are
available in API version 30.0 and later. Topics for ContentDocument are available in API version 37.0 and later.

Supported Calls
create(), describeSObjects(), query(), retrieve()

Fields
Field Name

Details

EntityId

Type
reference
Properties
Create, Filter, Group, Sort
Description
Identifier of the feed item, record, or file.

EntityKeyPrefix

Type
string
Properties
Filter, Group, idLookup, Sort
Description
The first three digits of the EntityID field, which identify the object type
(account, opportunity, etc). This read-only field is available in API version 32.0
and later.
Interface label is “Record Key Prefix,” which appears only in reports.

EntityType

Type
string
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The standard name for the object type (account, opportunity, etc). This read-only
field is available in API version 33.0 and later.
Interface label is “Object Type,” which appears only in reports.
Tip: In most cases, you should use this field rather than
EntityKeyPrefix, which exists primarily to support older reports.

NetworkId

Type
reference
Properties
Create, Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field Name

UserProfileFeed

Details
Description
Identifier of the community to which the TopicAssignment belongs. This field is
available only if Salesforce Communities is enabled in your organization.

TopicId

Type
reference
Properties
Create, Filter, Group, Sort
Description
Identifier of the topic.

Usage
Use this object to query the assignments of topics to feed items, records, or files. To assign or remove topics, you must have the “Assign
Topics” permission.
In SOQL SELECT syntax, this object supports nested semi-joins, allowing queries on Knowledge articles assigned to specific topics.
For example:
SELECT parentId FROM KnowledgeArticleViewStat
WHERE parentId in (SELECT KnowledgeArticleId FROM KnowledgeArticleVersion
WHERE publishStatus = 'Online' AND language = 'en_US'
AND Id in (select EntityId from TopicAssignment where TopicId ='0T0xx0000000xxx'))

No SOQL limit if logged-in user has “View All Data” permission. If not, do one of the following:
• Specify a LIMIT clause of 1,100 records or fewer.
• Filter on Id or Entity when using a WHERE clause with "=".

UserProfileFeed
Represents a user profile feed, which tracks all actions by a user on records that can be tracked in a feed. This feed is displayed on the
user profile page.
UserProfileFeed is available in API version 18.0 through API 26.0. In API version 27.0 and later, UserProfileFeed is no longer available in
the SOAP API. Use the Chatter REST API to access UserProfileFeed.

Supported Calls
delete(), describeSObjects(), getDeleted(), getUpdated(), query(), retrieve()

Special Access Rules
You can delete all feed items you created. To delete feed items you didn’t create, you must have one of these permissions:
• “Modify All Data”
• “Moderate Chatter”

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

UserProfileFeed

Note: Users with the “Moderate Chatter” permission can delete only the feed items and comments they see.
• “Manage Unlisted Groups”
Only users with this permission can delete items in unlisted groups.

Fields
Field

Details

Body

Type
textarea
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The content of UserProfileFeed. Required when Type is TextPost. Optional when Type
is ContentPost or LinkPost. This field is the message that appears in the feed.

CommentCount

Type
int
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The number of FeedComments associated with this feed item.
Tip: In a feed that supports pre-moderation, CommentCount isn’t updated until a
comment is published. For example, say you comment on a post that already has one
published comment and your comment triggers moderation. Now there are two
comments on the post, but the count says there's only one. In a moderated feed, your
comment isn’t counted until it's approved by an admin or a person with
“CanApproveFeedPostAndComment” or “ModifyAllData” permission.
This has implications for how you retrieve feed comments. In a moderated feed, rather
than retrieving comments by looping through CommentCount, go through pagination
until end of comments is returned.

ContentData

Type
base64
Properties
Nillable
Description
Required if Type is ContentPost. Encoded file data in any format, and can’t be 0 bytes.
Setting this field automatically sets Type to ContentPost.

ContentDescription

Type
textarea

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

UserProfileFeed

Details
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The description of the file specified in ContentData.

ContentFileName

Type
string
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
This field is required if Type is ContentPost. The name of the file uploaded to the feed.
Setting ContentFileName automatically sets Type to ContentPost.

ContentSize

Type
int
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only. The size of the file (in bytes) uploaded to the
feed. This field is read-only and is automatically determined during insert.

ContentType

Type
string
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
Available in API version 36.0 and earlier only. The MIME type of the file uploaded to the feed.
This field is read-only and is automatically determined during insert.

CreatedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Sort
Description
Date and time when this record was created. This field is a standard system field.
Ordering by CreatedDateDESC sorts the feed by the most recent feed item.

FeedPostId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Sort

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

UserProfileFeed

Details
Description
This field was removed in API version 22.0, and is available in earlier versions for backward
compatibility only.
ID of the associated FeedPost. A FeedPost represents the following types of changes in an
FeedItem: changes to tracked fields, text posts, link posts, and content posts.

InsertedById

Type
reference
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
ID of the user who added this object to the feed. For example, if an application migrates
posts and comments from another application into a feed, the InsertedBy value is set
to the ID of the logged-in user.

IsDeleted

Type
boolean
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Group, Sort
Description
Standard system field. Indicates whether the record has been moved to the Recycle Bin
(true) or not (false).

LastModifiedDate

Type
dateTime
Properties
Defaulted on create, Filter, Sort
Description
Date and time when a user last modified this record. This field is a standard system field.
When a feed item is created, LastModifiedDate is the same as CreatedDate. If
a FeedComment is inserted on that feed item, then LastModifiedDate becomes the
CreatedDate for that FeedComment. Deleting the FeedComment does not change the
LastModifiedDate.
Ordering by LastModifiedDate DESC sorts the feed by both the most recent feed
item or comment.

LikeCount

Type
int
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
The number of FeedLikes associated with this feed item.

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UserProfileFeed

Field

Details

LinkUrl

Type
url
Properties
Nillable, Sort
Description
The URL of a LinkPost.

NetworkScope

Type
picklist
Properties
Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
Specifies whether this feed item is available in the default community, a specific community,
or all communities. This field is available in API version 26.0 and later, if Salesforce Communities
is enabled for your organization.
NetworkScope can have the following values:

• NetworkId—The ID of the community in which the FeedItem is available. If left empty,
the feed item is only available in the default community.
• AllNetworks—The feed item is available in all communities.
Note the following exceptions for NetworkScope:
• Only feed items with a Group or User parent can set a NetworkId or a null value for
NetworkScope.
• For feed items with a record parent, users can set NetworkScope only to
AllNetworks.
• You can’t filter a FeedItem on the NetworkScope field.
ParentId

Type
reference
Properties
Filter, Group, Sort
Description
ID of the account record that is tracked in the feed. The feed is displayed on the detail page
for this record.

RelatedRecordId

Type
reference
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
ID of the ContentVersion object associated with a ContentPost. This field is null for all
posts except ContentPost.

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UserProfileFeed

Field

Details

Title

Type
string
Properties
Group, Nillable, Sort
Description
The title of the user profile record. When the Type is LinkPost, the LinkUrl is the
URL and this field is the link name.

Type

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
The type of feed item:
• ActivityEvent—indirectly generated event when a user or the API adds a Task
associated with a feed-enabled parent record (excluding email tasks on cases). Also
occurs when a user or the API adds or updates a Task or Event associated with a case
record (excluding email and call logging).
For a recurring Task with CaseFeed disabled, one event is generated for the series only.
For a recurring Task with CaseFeed enabled, events are generated for the series and each
occurrence.
• AdvancedTextPost—created when a user posts a group announcement.
• AnnouncementPost—Not used.
• ApprovalPost—generated when a user submits an approval.
• BasicTemplateFeedItem—Not used.
• CanvasPost—a post made by a canvas app posted on a feed.
• CollaborationGroupCreated—generated when a user creates a public group.
• CollaborationGroupUnarchived—Not used.
• ContentPost—a post with an attached file.
• CreatedRecordEvent—generated when a user creates a record from the publisher.
• DashboardComponentAlert—generated when a dashboard metric or gauge
exceeds a user-defined threshold.
• DashboardComponentSnapshot—created when a user posts a dashboard
snapshot on a feed.
• LinkPost—a post with an attached URL.
• PollPost—a poll posted on a feed.
• ProfileSkillPost—generated when a skill is added to a user’s Chatter profile.
• QuestionPost—generated when a user posts a question.
• ReplyPost—generated when Chatter Answers posts a reply.
• RypplePost—generated when a user creates a Thanks badge in Work.com.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Field

UserProfileFeed

Details
• TextPost—a direct text entry on a feed.
• TrackedChange—a change or group of changes to a tracked field.
• UserStatus—automatically generated when a user adds a post. Deprecated.
The following values appear in the Type picklist for all feed objects but apply only to
CaseFeed:
• CaseCommentPost—generated event when a user adds a case comment for a case
object
• EmailMessageEvent—generated event when an email related to a case object is
sent or received
• CallLogPost—generated event when a user logs a call for a case through the user
interface. CTI calls also generate this event.
• ChangeStatusPost—generated event when a user changes the status of a case
• AttachArticleEvent—generated event when a user attaches an article to a case
Note: If you set Type to ContentPost, also specify ContentData and
ContentFileName.

Visibility

Type
picklist
Properties
Filter, Group, Nillable, Restricted picklist, Sort
Description
Specifies whether this feed item is available to all users or internal users only. This field is
available in API version 26.0 and later, if Salesforce Communities is enabled for your
organization.
Visibility can have the following values:

• AllUsers—The feed item is available to all users who have permission to see the
feed item.
• InternalUsers—The feed item is available to internal users only.
Note the following exceptions for Visibility:
• For record posts, Visibility is set to InternalUsers for all internal users by
default.
• External users can set Visibility only to AllUsers.
• On user and group posts, only internal users can set Visibility to
InternalUsers.

Usage
Use this object to query and retrieve record changes tracked in a user profile feed. Note the following when working with user profile
feeds:
• This object is read only in the API.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

Knowledge SOAP API Calls

• Queries retrieve feed items that include mentions from other users.
• Use this object to query and retrieve lead feed items that were associated with a converted lead record.
• Include a WITH clause and specify the UserId of the user whose profile you want to query. The WITH clause must come after
a WHERE clause.
Users that do not have the “View All Data” permission have the following limitations when querying records:
• Must specify a LIMIT clause and the limit must be less than or equal to 1000.
• Can include a WHERE clause that references UserProfileFeed fields, but cannot include references to fields in related objects. For
example, you can filter by CreatedDate or ParentId, but not by Parent.Name.
• Can include an ORDER BY clause that references UserProfileFeed fields, but cannot include references to fields in related objects.
For example, you can ORDER BY CreatedDate or ParentId, but not by Parent.Name.
Tip: To query for the most recent feed items, you should ORDER BY CreatedDate DESC, Id DESC.
Note the following SOQL restrictions.
• No SOQL limit if logged-in user has “View All Data” permission. If not, specify a LIMIT clause of 1,000 records or fewer.
• SOQL ORDER BY on fields using relationships is not available. Use ORDER BY on fields on the root object in the SOQL query.

Knowledge SOAP API Calls
SOAP API calls for working with Salesforce Knowledge.
IN THIS SECTION:
describeKnowledge()Call Name
Retrieves the Knowledge language settings in the organization.
describeDataCategoryGroups()
Retrieves available category groups for objects specified in the request.
describeDataCategoryGroupStructures()
Retrieves available category groups along with their data category structure for objects specified in the request.
search()
Executes a text search in your organization’s data.

describeKnowledge()Call Name
Retrieves the Knowledge language settings in the organization.

Syntax
KnowledgeSettings result = _connection.describeKnowledgeSettings();

Usage
Use this call to describe the existing Knowledge language settings, including the default Knowledge language, supported languages,
and a list of Knowledge language information. You can also use KnowledgeSettings in the Metadata API to obtain similar information.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

describeDataCategoryGroups()

Sample Code—Java
This sample shows how to retrieve the Knowledge language settings. It returns the default Knowledge language, a list of Knowledge
supported language, including the language code and whether is an active Knowledge language.
public void describeKnowledgeSettingsSampl e() {
try {
// Make the describe call for KnowledgeSettings
KnowledgeSettings result = connection.describeKnowledgeSettings();
// Get the properties of KnowledgeSettings
System.out.println("Knowledge default language: " + result.getDefaultLanguage());
for (KnowledgeLanguageItem lang : result.getLanguages()) {
System.out.println("Language: " + lang.getName());
System.out.println("Active: " + lang.isActive());
}
} catch (ConnectionException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}

Sample Code—C#
This sample shows how to retrieve the Knowledge language settings. It returns the default Knowledge language, a list of Knowledge
supported language, including the language code and whether is an active Knowledge language.
public void describeKnowledgeSettingsSampl e() {
try {
// Make the describe call for KnowledgeSettings
KnowledgeSettings result = connection.describeKnowledgeSettings();
// Get the properties of KnowledgeSettings
Console.WriteLine("Knowledge default language: " + result.getDefaultLanguage());
for (KnowledgeLanguageItem lang : result.getLanguages()) {
Console.WriteLine("Language: " + lang.getName());
Console.WriteLine("Active: " + lang.isActive());
}
} catch (SoapException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}

Response
KnowledgeSettings

describeDataCategoryGroups()
Retrieves available category groups for objects specified in the request.

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

describeDataCategoryGroups()

Syntax
DescribeDataCategoryGroupResult[] = connection.describeDataCategoryGroups()(string[]
sObjectTypes);

Usage
Use this call to describe the available category groups for the objects specified in the request. This call can be used with the
describeDataCategoryGroupStructures() call to describe all the categories available for a specific object. For additional
information about data categories, see “Data Categories in Salesforce.com” in the Salesforce online help.

Sample Code—Java
This sample shows how to retrieve the data category groups associated with:
• Salesforce Knowledge articles
• Questions from the Answers feature
It returns the name, label and description of a category group and the name of the associated sobject (article or question). It also
returns the number of data categories in the data category group.
public void describeDataCategoryGroupsSample() {
try {
// Make the describe call for data category groups
DescribeDataCategoryGroupResult[] results =
connection.describeDataCategoryGroups(new String[] {
"KnowledgeArticleVersion", "Question"});
// Get the properties of each data category group
for (int i = 0; i < results.length; i++) {
System.out.println("sObject: " +
results[i].getSobject());
System.out.println("Group name: " +
results[i].getName());
System.out.println("Group label: " +
results[i].getLabel());
System.out.println("Group description: " +
(results[i].getDescription()==null? "" :
results[i].getDescription()));
System.out.println("Number of categories: " +
results[i].getCategoryCount());
}
} catch (ConnectionException ce) {
ce.printStackTrace();
}
}

Sample Code—C#
This sample shows how to retrieve the data category groups associated with:
• Salesforce Knowledge articles
• Questions from the Answers feature

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

describeDataCategoryGroups()

It returns the name, label and description of a category group and the name of the associated sobject (article or question). It also
returns the number of data categories in the data category group.
public void describeDataCategoryGroups() {
try {
// Make the describe call for data category groups
DescribeDataCategoryGroupResult[] results =
binding.describeDataCategoryGroups(new String[] {
"KnowledgeArticleVersion", "Question"});
// Get the properties of each data category group
for (int i = 0; i < results.Length; i++) {
Console.WriteLine("sObject: " +
results[i].sobject);
Console.WriteLine("Group name: " +
results[i].name);
Console.WriteLine("Group label: " +
results[i].label);
Console.WriteLine("Group description: " +
(results[i].description==null? "" :
results[i].description));
Console.WriteLine("Number of categories: " +
results[i].categoryCount);
}
} catch (SoapException e) {
Console.WriteLine("An unexpected error has occurred: " +
e.Message + "\n" + e.StackTrace);
}
}

Arguments
Name

Type

Description

sObjectTypes

string[]

The specified value can be:
• KnowledgeArticleVersion—to retrieve category groups associated with article
types.
• Question—to retrieve category groups associated with questions.
For additional information about articles and questions, see “Work with Articles and Translations”
and “Answers Overview” in the Salesforce online help.

Response
DescribeDataCategoryGroupResult

Faults
InvalidSObjectFault
UnexpectedErrorFault

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Salesforce Knowledge SOAP API

describeDataCategoryGroupStructures()

IN THIS SECTION:
DescribeDataCategoryGroupResult
The describeDataCategoryGroups() call returns a DescribeDataCategoryGroupResult object containing the list of the category groups
associated with the specified objects.

DescribeDataCategoryGroupResult
The describeDataCategoryGroups() call returns a DescribeDataCategoryGroupResult object containing the list of the category groups
associated with the specified objects.
Name

Type

Description

categoryCount

int

The number of visible data categories in the data category group.

description

string

The description of the data category group.

label

string

Label for the data category group in the Salesforce user interface.

name

string

The unique name used for API access to the data category group .

sobject

string

The object associated with the data category group.

describeDataCategoryGroupStructures()
Retrieves available category groups along with their data category structure for objects specified in the request.

Syntax
describeDataCategoryGroupStructures()[] = connection.
describeDataCategoryGroupStructures()(DataCategoryGroupSObjectTypePair[]
pairs, boolean topCategoriesOnly)

Usage
Use this call to return the visible data category structure for the given object category group pairs. First use
describeDataCategoryGroups() to find the available category groups for the objects specified. From the returned list, choose
the object category group pairs to pass as the input in describeDataCategoryGroupStructures(). This call returns all
the visible categories and data category structure as output. For additional information about data categories and data category visibility,
see “Data Categories in Salesforce.com” and “Data Category Visibility” in the Salesforce online help.

Sample Code—Java
This sample shows how to use sObject and data category group pairs to retrieve data categories for each pair. It calls
describeDataCategoryGroupStructures() with two pairs, KnowledgeArticleVersion/Regions and Question/Regions,
and iterates through the results of this call. It gets the top categories for each result, which is “All”, and then gets the first-level child
categories. The sample requires that you set up a data category group called Regions with some child categories and associate it

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describeDataCategoryGroupStructures()

with a knowledge article and questions. Alternatively, you can replace the data category group name in the sample if you want to use
an existing data category group in your org that has a different name.
public void describeDataCateogryGroupStructuresSample() {
try {
// Create the data category pairs
DataCategoryGroupSobjectTypePair pair1 =
new DataCategoryGroupSobjectTypePair();
DataCategoryGroupSobjectTypePair pair2 =
new DataCategoryGroupSobjectTypePair();
pair1.setSobject("KnowledgeArticleVersion");
pair1.setDataCategoryGroupName("Regions");
pair2.setSobject("Question");
pair2.setDataCategoryGroupName("Regions");
DataCategoryGroupSobjectTypePair[] pairs =
new DataCategoryGroupSobjectTypePair[] {
pair1,
pair2
};
// Get the list of top level categories using the describe call
DescribeDataCategoryGroupStructureResult[] results =
connection.describeDataCategoryGroupStructures(
pairs,
false
);
// Iterate through each result and get some properties
// including top categories and child categories
for (int i = 0; i < results.length; i++) {
DescribeDataCategoryGroupStructureResult result =
results[i];
String sObject = result.getSobject();
System.out.println("sObject: " + sObject);
System.out.println("Group name: " + result.getName());
System.out.println("Group label: " + result.getLabel());
System.out.println("Group description: " +
result.getDescription());
// Get the top-level categories
DataCategory[] topCategories = result.getTopCategories();
// Iterate through the top level categories and retrieve
// some information
for (int j = 0; j < topCategories.length; j++) {
DataCategory topCategory = topCategories[j];
System.out.println("Category name: " +
topCategory.getName());
System.out.println("Category label: " +
topCategory.getLabel());
DataCategory [] childCategories =
topCategory.getChildCategories();
System.out.println("Child categories: ");
for (int k = 0; k < childCategories.length; k++) {

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describeDataCategoryGroupStructures()

System.out.println("\t" + k + ". Category name: " +
childCategories[k].getName());
System.out.println("\t" + k + ". Category label: " +
childCategories[k].getLabel());
}
}
}
} catch (ConnectionException ce) {
ce.printStackTrace();
}
}

Sample Code—C#
This sample shows how to use sObject and data category group pairs to retrieve data categories for each pair. It calls
describeDataCategoryGroupStructures() with two pairs, KnowledgeArticleVersion/Regions and Question/Regions,
and iterates through the results of this call. It gets the top categories for each result, which is “All”, and then gets the first-level child
categories. The sample requires that you set up a data category group called Regions with some child categories and associate it
with a knowledge article and questions. Alternatively, you can replace the data category group name in the sample if you want to use
an existing data category group in your org that has a different name.
public void describeDataCateogryGroupStructuresSample() {
try {
// Create the data category pairs
DataCategoryGroupSobjectTypePair pair1 =
new DataCategoryGroupSobjectTypePair();
DataCategoryGroupSobjectTypePair pair2 =
new DataCategoryGroupSobjectTypePair();
pair1.sobject = "KnowledgeArticleVersion";
//pair1.setDataCategoryGroupName("Regions");
pair1.dataCategoryGroupName = "KBArticleCategories";
pair2.sobject = "Question";
//pair2.setDataCategoryGroupName("Regions");
pair2.dataCategoryGroupName = "KBArticleCategories";
DataCategoryGroupSobjectTypePair[] pairs =
new DataCategoryGroupSobjectTypePair[] {
pair1,
pair2
};
// Get the list of top level categories using the describe call
DescribeDataCategoryGroupStructureResult[] results =
binding.describeDataCategoryGroupStructures(
pairs,
false
);
// Iterate through each result and get some properties
// including top categories and child categories
for (int i = 0; i < results.Length; i++) {
DescribeDataCategoryGroupStructureResult result =
results[i];

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String sObject = result.sobject;
Console.WriteLine("sObject: " + sObject);
Console.WriteLine("Group name: " + result.name);
Console.WriteLine("Group label: " + result.label);
Console.WriteLine("Group description: " +
result.description);
// Get the top-level categories
DataCategory[] topCategories = result.topCategories;
// Iterate through the top level categories and retrieve
// some information
for (int j = 0; j < topCategories.Length; j++) {
DataCategory topCategory = topCategories[j];
Console.WriteLine("Category name: " +
topCategory.name);
Console.WriteLine("Category label: " +
topCategory.label);
DataCategory [] childCategories =
topCategory.childCategories;
Console.WriteLine("Child categories: ");
for (int k = 0; k < childCategories.Length; k++) {
Console.WriteLine("\t" + k + ". Category name: " +
childCategories[k].name);
Console.WriteLine("\t" + k + ". Category label: " +
childCategories[k].label);
}
}
}
}
catch (SoapException e)
{
Console.WriteLine("An unexpected error has occurred: " +
e.Message + "\n" + e.StackTrace);
}
}

Arguments
Name

Type

Description

pairs

DataCategoryGroupSObjectTypePair[] Specifies a category group and an object to query. Visible data
categories are retrieved for that object.

topCategoriesOnly boolean

Indicates whether the call returns only the top (true) or all the
categories (false) visible depending on the user's data category
group visibility settings. For more information on data category group
visibility, see Data Category Visibility in the Salesforce online help.

DataCategoryGroupSObjectTypePair contains the following fields:

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Name

describeDataCategoryGroupStructures()

Type

Description

dataCategoryGroupName string
sobject

The unique name used for API access to the data category group.

string

The object associated with the data category group

Response
describeDataCategoryGroupStructures()[]

Faults
InvalidSObjectFault
UnexpectedErrorFault

IN THIS SECTION:
describeDataCategoryGroupStructures()
The describeDataCategoryGroupStructures() call returns an array of DescribeDataCategoryGroupStructureResult objects containing
the category groups and categories associated with the specified objects.

describeDataCategoryGroupStructures()
The describeDataCategoryGroupStructures() call returns an array of DescribeDataCategoryGroupStructureResult objects containing the
category groups and categories associated with the specified objects.
Name

Type

Description

description

string

The description of the data category group.

label

string

The label for the data category group in the Salesforce user interface.

name

string

The unique name used for API access to the data category group.

sobject

string

The object associated with the data category group.

topCategories

DataCategory[]

A list of top level categories visible depending on the user's data category group
visibility settings. For more information on data category group visibility, see “Data
Category Visibility” in the Salesforce online help.

DataCategory
Name

Type

Description

childDataCategories

DataCategory[]

A recursive list of visible sub categories in the data category.

label

string

The label for the data category in the Salesforce user interface.

name

string

The unique name used for API access to the data category.

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search()

search()
Executes a text search in your organization’s data.

Syntax
SearchResult = connection.search(String searchString);

Usage
Use search() to search for records based on a search string. The search() call supports searching custom objects. For an extensive
discussion about the syntax and rules used for text searches, see the Salesforce SOQL and SOSL Reference Guide.
Certain objects cannot be searched via the API, such as Attachment objects. To search an object via the search() call, the object
must be configured as searchable (isSearchable is true). To determine whether an object can be searched, your client application
can invoke the describeSObjects() call on the object and inspect its searchable property.

Sample Code—Java
This sample makes the search() call by passing it a SOSL query, which returns contacts, leads, and accounts whose phone fields
contain a specified value. Next, it gets the sObject records from the results and stores the records in arrays depending on the record
type. Finally, it writes the fields of the returned contacts, leads, and accounts to the console.
public void searchSample() {
try {
// Perform the search using the SOSL query.
SearchResult sr = connection.search(
"FIND {4159017000} IN Phone FIELDS RETURNING "
+ "Contact(Id, Phone, FirstName, LastName), "
+ "Lead(Id, Phone, FirstName, LastName), "
+ "Account(Id, Phone, Name)");
// Get the records from the search results.
SearchRecord[] records = sr.getSearchRecords();
ArrayList contacts = new ArrayList();
ArrayList leads = new ArrayList();
ArrayList accounts = new ArrayList();
// For each record returned, find out if it's a
// contact, lead, or account and add it to the
// appropriate array, then write the records
// to the console.
if (records.length > 0) {
for (int i = 0; i < records.length; i++) {
SObject record = records[i].getRecord();
if (record instanceof Contact) {
contacts.add((Contact) record);
} else if (record instanceof Lead) {
leads.add((Lead) record);
} else if (record instanceof Account) {
accounts.add((Account) record);

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search()

}
}
System.out.println("Found " + contacts.size() + " contacts.");
for (Contact c : contacts) {
System.out.println(c.getId() + ", " + c.getFirstName() + ", "
+ c.getLastName() + ", " + c.getPhone());
}
System.out.println("Found " + leads.size() + " leads.");
for (Lead d : leads) {
System.out.println(d.getId() + ", " + d.getFirstName() + ", "
+ d.getLastName() + ", " + d.getPhone());
}
System.out.println("Found " + accounts.size() + " accounts.");
for (Account a : accounts) {
System.out.println(a.getId() + ", " + a.getName() + ", "
+ a.getPhone());
}
} else {
System.out.println("No records were found for the search.");
}
} catch (Exception ce) {
ce.printStackTrace();
}
}

Sample Code—C#
This sample makes the search() call by passing it a SOSL query, which returns contacts, leads, and accounts whose phone fields
contain a specified value. Next, it gets the sObject records from the results and stores the records in arrays depending on the record
type. Finally, it writes the fields of the returned contacts, leads, and accounts to the console.
public void searchSample()
{
try
{
// Perform the search using the SOSL query.
SearchResult sr = binding.search(
"FIND {4159017000} IN Phone FIELDS RETURNING "
+ "Contact(Id, Phone, FirstName, LastName), "
+ "Lead(Id, Phone, FirstName, LastName), "
+ "Account(Id, Phone, Name)");
// Get the records from the search results.
SearchRecord[] records = sr.searchRecords;
List contacts = new List();
List leads = new List();
List accounts = new List();
//
//
//
//

For each record returned, find out if it's a
contact, lead, or account and add it to the
appropriate array, then write the records
to the console.

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search()

if (records.Length > 0)
{
for (int i = 0; i < records.Length; i++)
{
sObject record = records[i].record;
if (record is Contact)
{
contacts.Add((Contact)record);
}
else if (record is Lead)
{
leads.Add((Lead)record);
}
else if (record is Account)
{
accounts.Add((Account)record);
}
}
Console.WriteLine("Found " + contacts.Count + " contacts.");
foreach (Contact c in contacts)
{
Console.WriteLine(c.Id + ", " +
c.FirstName + ", " +
c.LastName + ", " +
c.Phone);
}
Console.WriteLine("Found " + leads.Count + " leads.");
foreach (Lead d in leads)
{
Console.WriteLine(d.Id + ", " +
d.FirstName + ", " +
d.LastName + ", " +
d.Phone);
}
Console.WriteLine("Found " + accounts.Count + " accounts.");
foreach (Account a in accounts)
{
Console.WriteLine(a.Id + ", " +
a.Name + ", " +
a.Phone);
}
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("No records were found for the search.");
}
}
catch (SoapException e)
{
Console.WriteLine("An unexpected error has occurred: " +
e.Message + "\n" + e.StackTrace);
}
}

80

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search()

Arguments
Name

Type

Description

search

string

Search string that specifies the text expression to search for, the scope of fields to search, the list of
objects and fields to retrieve, and the maximum number of records to return. For more information,
see the Salesforce SOQL and SOSL Reference Guide.

Response
SearchResult

Fault
InvalidFieldFault
InvalidSObjectFault
MalformedSearchFault
UnexpectedErrorFault

IN THIS SECTION:
SearchResult
The describeDataCategoryGroupStructures() call returns a SearchResult object, which has the following properties.

SearchResult
The describeDataCategoryGroupStructures() call returns a SearchResult object, which has the following properties.
Name

Type

Description

searchRecords

SearchRecord[]

Array of SearchRecord objects, each of which contains an sObject.

searchResultsMetadata SearchResultsMetadata
queryId

string

Metadata for searchRecords.
Unique identifier for the SOSL search.

81

CHAPTER 3 Salesforce Knowledge REST APIs
In this chapter ...

You can manage articles and get support information with REST APIs.

•

Manage Knowledge
with REST APIs

REST API uses the same underlying data model and standard objects as those in SOAP API. For generic
REST API information see the Force.com REST API Developer Guide.

•

Support Knowledge
with REST API

82

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Manage Knowledge with REST APIs

Manage Knowledge with REST APIs
REST APIs provide programmatic access to many actions you can perform on your Knowledge base, an article, and its translations.
IN THIS SECTION:
Archive the Master Version of an Article
Archives the master version of an article. The actions are defined by the field change you request on the resource. To archive the
master version, use "publishStatus":"Archived". To schedule a date for archiving, use "archiveScheduleDate"
: .
Assign a Task Related to a Master Article
Assigns a task to a user for a master article, including due date and instructions. The actions are defined by the field change you
request on the resource.
Assign a Task Related to a Translation
Assigns a task to a user for a translated article, including due date and instructions. The actions are defined by the field change you
request on the resource.
Delete a Master Version of an Article
Deletes the master version of an article.
Delete a Translated Version of an Article
Deletes a translated version of an article.
Edit an Online Version of a Master Article
Creates a draft copy of the online version of a master article. This does not unpublish the online version.
Publish the Master Version of an Article
Publishes the master version of an article.
Restore an Archived Version of an Article
Restores an archived version of the article. If versionNumber isn’t specified, restores the latest version of the archived article.
Retrieve Article Metadata
Retrieves the metadata of an article.
Retrieve Knowledge Language Settings
Returns the existing Knowledge language settings, including the default knowledge language and a list of supported Knowledge
language information.
Retrieve a Version of an Article
Retrieves the version ID of an article.
Search for Metadata Elements of a Master Version
Searches for metadata elements of the online master version of an article.
Search for Metadata Elements of a Translated Version
Searches for metadata elements of a translated version of an article.
Set a Translated Article Version to Complete
Sets a translated article version to complete.
Set a Translated Article Version to Incomplete
Sets a translated article version to incomplete.

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Archive the Master Version of an Article

Submit an Article for Translation
Submits an article for translation and keeps the online version. Copies or creates a new draft translation if there is already a translation
in the specified language. The publishing actions are defined by the field change you request on the resource.
Unpublish the Master Version of an Article
Unpublishes the online master version of an article when there isn’t an existing draft article.
Unpublish the Online Version of a Translated Article
Unpublishes the online version of a translated article.
Parameterized Search
Executes a simple RESTful search using parameters instead of a SOSL clause. Indicate parameters in a URL in the GET method. Or,
use POST for more complex JSON searches.
Search
Executes the specified SOSL search. The search string must be URL-encoded.
Search Scope and Order
Returns an ordered list of objects in the default global search scope of a logged-in user. Global search keeps track of which objects
the user interacts with and how often and arranges the search results accordingly. Objects used most frequently appear at the top
of the list.
Search Result Layouts
Returns search result layout information for the objects in the query string. For each object, this call returns the list of fields displayed
on the search results page as columns, the number of rows displayed on the first page, and the label used on the search results
page.
Search Suggested Records
Returns a list of suggested records whose names match the user’s search string. The suggestions resource provides a shortcut for
users to navigate directly to likely relevant records, before performing a full search.
Search Suggested Article Title Matches
Returns a list of Salesforce Knowledge article titles that match the user’s search query string. Provides a shortcut to navigate directly
to likely relevant articles before the user performs a search.
Search Suggested Queries
Returns a list of suggested searches based on the user’s query string text matching searches that other users have performed in
Salesforce Knowledge. Provides a way to improve search effectiveness, before the user performs a search.

Archive the Master Version of an Article
Archives the master version of an article. The actions are defined by the field change you request on the resource. To archive the master
version, use "publishStatus":"Archived". To schedule a date for archiving, use "archiveScheduleDate" :
.

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/masterVersions/

Formats
JSON, XML

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Assign a Task Related to a Master Article

HTTP Method
PATCH
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
Parameter

Description

publishStatus

Publishing status of the article. Use archived.

archiveScheduleDate

Date to archive the article.

Input:
Archive:
{
"publishStatus":"Archived"
}

Schedule for archiving (using GMT date format):
{
"archiveScheduleDate" : "2012-04-19T07:00:00.000+0000"
}

Output:
HTTP status code 204 is returned when an existing record is updated.

Assign a Task Related to a Master Article
Assigns a task to a user for a master article, including due date and instructions. The actions are defined by the field change you request
on the resource.

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/masterVersions/

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
PATCH
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
Parameter

Description

assigneeId

Assigns the master article to a user ID.

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Assign a Task Related to a Translation

Parameter

Description

dueDate

Date that the task is due.

instruction

Instructions for the task.

Input:
{
"assigneeId":"05Dxx0000dsads"
"dueDate":"2012-04-19T07:00:00.000+0000"
"instruction":"Please review."
}

Output:
HTTP status code 204 is returned when an existing record is updated.

Assign a Task Related to a Translation
Assigns a task to a user for a translated article, including due date and instructions. The actions are defined by the field change you
request on the resource.

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/translations/

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
PATCH
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
Parameter

Description

assigneeId

Assigns the master article to a user ID.

dueDate

Date that the task is due.

instruction

Instructions for the task.

Input:
{
"assigneeId":"05Dxx0000dsads"
"dueDate":"2012-04-19T07:00:00.000+0000"

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Delete a Master Version of an Article

"instruction":"Please review."
}

Output:
HTTP status code 204 is returned when an existing record is updated.

Delete a Master Version of an Article
Deletes the master version of an article.

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/masterVersions/

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
DELETE
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
None
Input:
None required
Output:
HTTP status code 204 is returned when an existing record is deleted.

Delete a Translated Version of an Article
Deletes a translated version of an article.

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/translations/

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
DELETE
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
None

87

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Edit an Online Version of a Master Article

Input
None needed
Output
HTTP status code 204 is returned when an existing record is deleted.

Edit an Online Version of a Master Article
Creates a draft copy of the online version of a master article. This does not unpublish the online version.

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/masterVersions

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
POST
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
Parameter

Description

articleId

The ID of the article.

Input:
{
"articleId":
}

Publish the Master Version of an Article
Publishes the master version of an article.
The publishing actions are defined by the field change you request on the resource. To publish a minor version, use
"publishStatus":"Online". To publish a major version, use "publishStatus":"Online" and
"versionNumber":"NextVersion". To schedule a publication date, use "publishScheduleDate" : .

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/masterVersions/

Formats
JSON, XML

88

Salesforce Knowledge REST APIs

Restore an Archived Version of an Article

HTTP Method
PATCH
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
Parameter

Description

publishStatus

Publishing status of the article. Use online.

versionNumber

Version of the article.

publishScheduleDate

Date to publish the article.

Input
Publish a minor version:
{
"publishStatus":"Online"
}

Publish a major version:
{
"publishStatus":"Online"
"versionNumber":"NextVersion"
}

Schedule for publication (using GMT date format):
{
"publishScheduleDate" : "2012-05-19T07:00:00.000+0000"
}

Output
HTTP status code 204 is returned when an existing record is updated.

Restore an Archived Version of an Article
Restores an archived version of the article. If versionNumber isn’t specified, restores the latest version of the archived article.

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/masterVersions/

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
POST

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Retrieve Article Metadata

Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
Parameter

Description

articleId

The ID of the article.

versionNumber

Version of the article. If this field is not specified, the latest version of the archived article
is restored.

Input:
{
"articleId":"",
"versionNumber": 
}

Retrieve Article Metadata
Retrieves the metadata of an article.

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articles/

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
GET
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
None
Input
None required

Retrieve Knowledge Language Settings
Returns the existing Knowledge language settings, including the default knowledge language and a list of supported Knowledge
language information.

90

Salesforce Knowledge REST APIs

Retrieve Knowledge Language Settings

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v31.0/knowledge Management/settings

Available since release
31.0
Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP methods
GET
Authentication
Authorization: Bearer token

Request body
None required
Request parameters
None

Example for Getting KnowledgeSettings
curl
https://https://yourInstance.salesforce.com/services/data/v31.0/knowledgeManagement/settings
-H "Authorization: Bearer token"

Example JSON Response Body
{
"defaultLanguage" : "en_US",
"knowledgeEnabled" : true,
"languages" : [ {
"active" : true,
"name" : "en_US"
}, {
"active" : true,
"name" : "it"
}, {
"active" : true,
"name" : "zh_CN"
}, {
"active" : true,
"name" : "fr"
} ]
}

Usage
Salesforce Knowledge must be enabled in your organization. The user must have the “Knowledge User” license on their profile. This
resource can be used in API version 31.0 and later. It retrieves the Knowledge language settings, including the default knowledge
language and a list of supported Knowledge language information.

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Retrieve a Version of an Article

Retrieve a Version of an Article
Retrieves the version ID of an article.

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleversions/masterVersions/

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
GET
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
None
Input
None required

Search for Metadata Elements of a Master Version
Searches for metadata elements of the online master version of an article.

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/masterVersions?
filterArticleId=value1&FilterPublishStatus=value2

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
GET
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Example
This example searches for the online version of the master article 'kA0x50000000jsh':
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/masterVersions?
filterArticleId=kA0x50000000jsh&filterPublishStatus=online"

Search for Metadata Elements of a Translated Version
Searches for metadata elements of a translated version of an article.

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Set a Translated Article Version to Complete

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/translations?filterArticleId=value1&
filterLanguage=value2&FilterPublishStatus=value3";

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
GET
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Example
This example searches for the German online translation of the article 'kA0x50000000jsh':
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/translations?filterArticleId=kA0x50000000jsh&
filterLanguage=de&filterPublishStatus=online"

Set a Translated Article Version to Complete
Sets a translated article version to complete.

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/translations/

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
PATCH
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
Parameter

Description

complete

Set this value to true for translations that are complete.

Input:
{
"complete":"true"
}

Output:
HTTP status code 204 is returned when an existing record is updated.

93

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Set a Translated Article Version to Incomplete

Set a Translated Article Version to Incomplete
Sets a translated article version to incomplete.

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/translations/

Formats
JSON, XML>
HTTP Method
PATCH
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
Parameter

Description

complete

Set this value to false to set a translation to incomplete.

Input:
{
"complete":"false"
}

Output:
HTTP status code 204 is returned when an existing record is updated.

Submit an Article for Translation
Submits an article for translation and keeps the online version. Copies or creates a new draft translation if there is already a translation
in the specified language. The publishing actions are defined by the field change you request on the resource.

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/translations

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
POST
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

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Unpublish the Master Version of an Article

Parameters
Parameter

Description

articleID

ID of the article

language

ISO code for the language

Input:
{
"articleId":
"language":"fr"
}

Unpublish the Master Version of an Article
Unpublishes the online master version of an article when there isn’t an existing draft article.
The publishing actions are defined by the field change you request on the resource. To unpublish the master version, use
"publishStatus":"draft".

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/masterVersions/

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
PATCH
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
Parameter

Description

publishStatus

Publishing status of the article. Use draft.

Input
{
"publishStatus":"draft"
}

Output:
HTTP status code 204 is returned when an existing record is updated.

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Unpublish the Online Version of a Translated Article

Unpublish the Online Version of a Translated Article
Unpublishes the online version of a translated article.
The publishing actions are defined by the field change you request on the resource. To edit and remove a translation from online state,
use "publishStatus":"draft".

Syntax
URI
/services/data/v25.0/knowledgeManagement/articleVersions/translations/

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
PATCH
Authentication
Authorization: OAuth accesstoken

Parameters
Parameter

Description

publishStatus

Publishing status of the article. Use draft.

Input:
{
"publishStatus":"draft"
}

Parameterized Search
Executes a simple RESTful search using parameters instead of a SOSL clause. Indicate parameters in a URL in the GET method. Or, use
POST for more complex JSON searches.

Syntax
URI
/vXX.X/parameterizedSearch/?q=search string

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
GET, POST
Authentication
Authorization: Bearer token

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Parameterized Search

Required Global Parameters
Name

Description

q

A search string that is properly URL-encoded.
Note: SOSL clauses aren’t supported.
Available in version 36.0 and later.

Optional Global Parameters
Name

Type

dataCategory string

Supported Description
Methods
GET

Single value. If an organization uses Salesforce Knowledge articles or answers,
dataCategory filters all search results based on one data category.
For example, dataCategory=GlobalCategory__c below
NorthAmerica__c.
When using dataCategories, specify a Salesforce Knowledge article or answer
type with sobject and all the required parameters.
For example:
q=tourism&sobject=KnowledgeArticleVersion&KnowledgeArticleVersion.where=
language='en_US'+and+publishStatus='online'&KnowledgeArticleVersion.fields=
id,title&dataCategory=Location__c+Below+North_America__c

If you require multiple dataCategory filters, use dataCategories with
the POST method.
dataCategories dataCategoriesFilter[] POST

If an organization uses Salesforce Knowledge articles or answers, filters all search
results based on one or more data categories.
When using dataCategories, specify a Salesforce Knowledge article or answer
type with sobjects and the required parameters.
For example:
{
"q":"Acme",
"fields":["id", "title"],
"sobjects":[{"name":"KnowledgeArticleVersion",
"where":"language='en_US' and publishstatus='draft'"}],
"dataCategories":[
{"groupName" : "location__c", "operator":"below",
"categories":["North_America__c"]}
]
}

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Name

Type

defaultLimit string

Parameterized Search

Supported Description
Methods
GET,
POST

Single value. The maximum number of results to return for each sobject (GET)
or sobjects (POST) specified.
The maximum defaultLimit is 2000.
At least one sobject must be specified.
GET example:
defaultLimit=10&sobject=Account&sobject=Contact.

When an sobject limit is specified using sobject.limit=value, such
as Account.limit=10, this parameter is ignored for that object.
division

string

GET,
POST

Single value. Filters search results based on the division field.
For example in the GET method, division=global.
Specify a division by its name rather than ID.
All searches within a specific division also include the global division.

fields

string

GET

Comma-separated list of one or more fields to return in the response for each
sobject specified. At least one sobject must be specified at the global level.
For example: fields=id&sobject=Account&sobject=Contact.
The global fields parameter is overridden when sobject are specified using
sobject.fields=field names. For example,
Contact.fields=id,FirstName,LastName would override the global
setting of just returning the id.
If unspecified, then the search results contain the IDs of records matching all fields
for the specified object.
Functions
The following optional functions can be used within the fields parameter.
• toLabel: Translates response field value into the user’s language. For example,
Lead.fields=id,toLabel(Status). This function requires extra
setup.
• convertCurrency: Converts response currency fields to the user’s currency.
For example,
Opportunity.fields=id,convertCurrency(Amount). This
function requires extra setup. Multi-currency must be enabled for your org.
• format: Applies localized formatting to standard and custom number, date,
time, and currency fields. For example,
Opportunity.fields=id,format(Amount).
Aliasing is support within fields for toLabel, convertCurrency, and
format. In addition, aliasing is required when the query includes the same field
multiple times. For example,
Opportunity.fields=id,format(Amount) AliasAmount

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Parameterized Search

Name

Type

Supported Description
Methods

fields

string[]

POST

Array of one or more fields to return in the response for each sobjects specified.
At least one sobjects must be specified at the global level.
For example:
{
"q":"Acme",
"fields":["Id", "Name", "Phone"],
"sobjects":[{"name": "Account"},
{"name": "Contact", "fields":["Id",
"FirstName", "LastName"]},
{"name": "Lead"}]
}

The global fields parameter is overridden when sobjectsFilter[]
fields are specified. Such as, in the previous example, Id, FirstName, and
LastName is returned for Contact instead of the global fields of Id, Name
and Phone.
If unspecified, then the search results contain the IDs of records matching all fields
for the specified object.
Functions
The following optional functions can be used within the fields parameter.
• toLabel: Translates response field value into the user’s language. This function
requires extra setup. For example:
{
...
"sobjects":[ {"name": "Lead", "fields":["Id",
"toLabel(Status)"]},
...
}

• convertCurrency: Converts response currency fields to the user’s currency.
This function requires extra setup. Multi-currency must be enabled in the org.
For example:
{
...
"sobjects":[ {"name": "Opportunity",
"fields":["Id", "convertCurrency(Amount)"]}]
...
}

• format: Applies localized formatting to standard and custom number, date,
time, and currency fields. For example:
{
...
"sobjects":[ {"name": "Opportunity",

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Name

Type

Parameterized Search

Supported Description
Methods
"fields":["Id", "format(Amount)"]}]
...
}

Aliasing is supported within fields for toLabel, convertCurrency,
and format. In addition, aliasing is required when the query includes the same
field multiple times. For example:
{
...
"sobjects":[ {"name": "Opportunity", "fields":["Id",
"format(Amount) AliasAmount"]}]
...
}

in

string

GET,
POST

Scope of fields to search. If you specify one or more scope values, the fields are
returned for all found objects.
Use one of the following values:
• ALL
• NAME
• EMAIL
• PHONE
• SIDEBAR
This clause doesn't apply to articles, documents, feed comments, feed items, files,
products, and solutions. If any of these objects are specified, the search is not limited
to specific fields; all fields are searched.

metadata

string

GET,
POST

Specifies if metadata should be returned in the response. No metadata is returned
by default. To include metadata in the response, use the LABELS value, which
returns the display label for the fields returned in search results. For example:
?q=Acme&metadata=LABELS

netWorkIds string

GET

Filters search results by a comma-separated list.
A network ID represents the community ID.

netWorkIds string[]

POST

Filters search results by an array.
A network ID represents the community ID.

offset

string

GET,
POST

Single value. The starting row offset into the result set returned.
The maximum offset is 2000.
Only one sobject can be specified when using this parameter.

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Name

Type

overallLimit string

Parameterized Search

Supported Description
Methods
GET,
POST

Single value. The maximum number of results to return across all sobject
parameters specified.
The maximum overallLimit is 2000.

pricebookId string

GET,
POST

Single value. Filters product search results by a price book ID for only the Product2
object. The price book ID must be associated with the product that you’re searching
for. For example,
?q=laptop&sobject=product2&pricebookId=01sxx0000002MffAAE

snippet

string

GET,
POST

The target length (maximum number of snippet characters) to return in Salesforce
Knowledge article, case, case comment, feed, feed comment, idea, and idea
comment search results. The snippet parameter displays contextual excerpts
and highlights the search term for each article in the search results. Snippet results
are used to differentiate matches to the search term in article search results. The
target length can be from 50 to 1000 characters.
Snippet and highlights are generated from email, text, and text area (long and rich)
fields. Snippets aren’t displayed for partially matching searches or if the user doesn’t
have access to the field that contains the snippet. Snippets are only displayed when
20 or fewer results are returned on a page.
At least one of the following sobject values must be specified.
• To search a specific article type, use the article type name with the suffix
__kav.
• To search all article types, use KnowledgeArticleVersion.
• To search case, case comment, feed, feed comment, idea, and idea comment
types, use Case, CaseComment, FeedItem, FeedComment, Idea,
and IdeaComment.
For example, q=tourism&sobject=Case&snippet=500.

sobject

string

GET

Objects to return in the response. Must be a valid object type.
You can use multiple sobject values, such as
sobject=Account&sobject=Contact.

If unspecified, then the search results contain the IDs of all objects.
sobjects

sobjectsFilter[]

POST

Objects to return in the response. Must contain valid object types. Use with the
required parameters.
For example:
{
"q":"Acme",
"fields":["id", "title"],
"sobjects":[{"name":"Solution__kav",
"where":"language='en_US' and publishstatus='draft'"},

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Name

Parameterized Search

Type

Supported Description
Methods
{"name":"FAQ__kav",
"where":"language='en_US' and publishstatus='draft'"}]
}

If unspecified, then the search results contain the IDs of all objects.
updateTracking string

GET,
POST

Specifies a value of true to track keywords that are used in Salesforce Knowledge
article searches only.
If unspecified, the default value of false is applied.

updateViewStat string

GET,
POST

Specifies a value of true to update an article’s view statistics. Valid only for
Salesforce Knowledge article searches.
If unspecified, the default value of false is applied.

dataCategoriesFilter[] Parameters

Parameters must be specified in the order presented in the table (groupName, operator, categories).
Name

Type

Description

groupName string

The name of the data category group to filter by.

operator string

Valid values:
• ABOVE
• ABOVE_OR_BELOW
• AT
• BELOW

categories string[]

The name of the categories to filter by.

sobjectsFilter[] Parameters (POST Method Only)

Name

Type

Description

fields

string[] Array of one or more fields to return in the response for the sobject.

limit

string

Specify the maximum number of rows that are returned for the sobject.

name

string

Name of the sobject to return in the response.

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Parameterized Search

Name

Type

Description

orderBy

string

Controls the field order of the results using the following syntax "orderBy" : "field
{ASC|DESC} [NULLS_{FIRST|LAST}]"

For example:
{
...
"sobjects":[ {"name": "Account", "fields":["Id", "name"], "orderBy":
"Name DESC Nulls_last"}]
...
}

• ASC: ascending. Default.
• DESC: descending.
• NULLS_FIRST: Null records at the beginning of the results. Default.
• NULLS_LAST: Null records at the end of the results.
where

string

Filter search results for this object by specific field values.
For example, where : conditionExpression. Here the conditionExpression of the
WHERE clause uses the following syntax: fieldExpression [logicalOperator
fieldExpression2 ... ].
Add multiple field expressions to a condition expression by using logical and comparison operators.

sobject-level Parameters (GET Method Only)

The following optional parameters can be used with the sobject parameter in a GET method to further refine search results.
These settings would override any settings specified at the global level.
The format is sobject.parameter, such as Account.fields. An sobject must be specified to use these parameters,
for example, sobject=Account&Account.fields=id,name.
Name

Type

Description

fields

string

Comma-separated list of one or more fields to return in the response.
For example, KnowledgeArticleVersion.fields=id,title.

limit

string

Specifies the maximum number of rows that are returned for the sobject.
For example, Account.limit=10.

orderBy

string

Controls the field order of the results using the following syntax orderBy = field {ASC|DESC}
[NULLS_{FIRST|LAST}]

For example: Account.orderBy=Name
• ASC: ascending. Default.
• DESC: descending.
• NULLS_FIRST: Null records at the beginning of the results. Default.
• NULLS_LAST: Null records at the end of the results.

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Search

Name

Type

Description

where

string

Filter search results for this object by specific field values.
For example, Account.where = conditionExpression. Here the conditionExpression
of the WHERE clause uses the following syntax: fieldExpression [logicalOperator
fieldExpression2 ... ].
Add multiple field expressions to a condition expression by using logical and comparison operators. For
example, KnowledgeArticleVersion.where=publishstatus='online' and
language='en_US'.

Example GET Method
.../v37.0/parameterizedSearch/?q=Acme&sobject=Account&Account.fields=id,name&Account.limit=10

Example POST Method
{
"q":"Smith",
"fields" : ["id", "firstName", "lastName"],
"sobjects":[{"fields":["id", "NumberOfEmployees"],
"name": "Account",
"limit":20},
{"name": "Contact"}],
"in":"ALL",
"overallLimit":100,
"defaultLimit":10
}

Search
Executes the specified SOSL search. The search string must be URL-encoded.
For more information on SOSL see the Force.com SOQL and SOSL Reference.

Syntax
URI
/vXX.X/search/?q=SOSL search string

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
GET
Authentication
Authorization: Bearer token

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Search Scope and Order

Parameters
Parameter

Description

q

A SOSL statement that is properly URL-encoded.

Example
See Search for a String.

Search Scope and Order
Returns an ordered list of objects in the default global search scope of a logged-in user. Global search keeps track of which objects the
user interacts with and how often and arranges the search results accordingly. Objects used most frequently appear at the top of the
list.
The returned list reflects the object order in the user’s default search scope, including any pinned objects on the user’s search results
page. This call is useful if you want to implement a custom search results page using the optimized global search scope. The search
string must be URL-encoded.

Syntax
URI
/vXX.X/search/scopeOrder

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
GET
Authentication
Authorization: Bearer token

Example
See Get the Default Search Scope and Order.

Search Result Layouts
Returns search result layout information for the objects in the query string. For each object, this call returns the list of fields displayed on
the search results page as columns, the number of rows displayed on the first page, and the label used on the search results page.
This call supports bulk fetch for up to 100 objects in a query.

Syntax
URI
/vXX.X/search/layout/?q=Comma delimited object list

Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP Method
GET

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Search Suggested Records

Authentication
Authorization: Bearer token

Example
Get Search Result Layouts for Objects

Search Suggested Records
Returns a list of suggested records whose names match the user’s search string. The suggestions resource provides a shortcut for users
to navigate directly to likely relevant records, before performing a full search.

Syntax
URI
vXX.X/search/suggestions?q=search string&sobject=object types

Available since release
32.0
Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP methods
GET
Authentication
Authorization: Bearer token

Request body
None required

Request parameters
Parameter

Description

fields

Optional. Used for creating lookup queries. Specify multiple fields using a
comma-separated list. Specifies which lookup fields to be returned in the response.

groupId

Optional. Specifies one or more unique identifiers of one or more groups that the
question to return was posted to. Specify multiple groups using a comma-separated
list. This parameter is only applicable when the parameter type equals question.
Don’t use with the userId.

ignoreUnsupportedSObjects

Optional. Specifies what to do if unsupported objects are included in the request. If
false and an unsupported object is included, an error is returned. If true and an
unsupported object is included, the object is ignored and no error is returned. See the
Unsupported Objects section for reference. The default is false.

limit

Optional. Specifies the maximum number of suggested records to return. If a limit isn’t
specified, 5 records are returned by default. If there are more suggested records than
the limit specified, the response body’s hasMoreResults property is true.

networkId

Optional. Specifies one or more unique identifiers for the community(ies) that the
question to return is associated to. Specify multiple communities using a

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Parameter

Search Suggested Records

Description
comma-separated list. This parameter is only applicable when the parameter type
equals question or parameter sobject equals user.

q

Required. The user’s search query string, properly URL-encoded. Suggestions are
returned only if the user’s query string meets the minimum length requirements: one
character for queries in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai; three characters for all
other languages. Query strings that exceed the maximum length of 255 characters (or
200 consecutive characters without a space break) return an error.

sobject

Required. The objects that the search is scoped to, such as Account or offer__c.
If the sobject value is feedItem, it is required to have the type parameter
with a value of question.
Specify up to 10 objects with a comma-separated list. For example:
sobject=Account,Contact,Lead. To take advantage of this feature, activate
the CrossObjectTypeahead permission.
To specify the specific fields to return by object, use the following syntax with multiple
fields in a comma-separated list. The sobject is lowercase.
sobject=sobject.fields=fields

For example:
&sobject=Account,Contact,Lead&account.fields=Website,Phone
&contact.fields=Phone

topicId

Optional. Specifies the unique identifier of the single topic that the question to return
was tagged as. This parameter is only applicable when the parameter type equals
question.

type

Required when the sobject value is feedItem. Including this parameter for all
other sobject values doesn’t affect the query. Specifies that the type of Feed is
questions. Valid value: question.

userId

Optional. Specifies one or more unique identifiers of one or more users who authored
the question to return. Specify multiple users using a comma-separated list. This
parameter is only applicable when the parameter type equals question. Don’t use
with the groupId.

where

Optional. A filter constraint following the same syntax as the SOQL where clause. For
example: my_field__c LIKE 'foo%' AND RecordType='bar' This
expression needs to be properly URL encoded. Can’t be used for Question object.
You can set the clause on a per-entity basis or globally for all compatible entities. An
object-specific clause example is:
account.where=name%20LIKE%20%27Smith%25%27. And the example
global clause is: where=name%20LIKE%20%27Smith%25%27. The parameter
must be lower case. Any object-specific where clauses overrides the global where
clause.

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Search Suggested Records

Parameter

Description
To specify multiple entities, see the following example. This feature is available in
version 38.0 and later.
...search/suggestions?q=Smith
&sobject=Account,Contact,KnowledgeArticleVersion,CollaborationGroup,Topic,FeedItem
// Specifies a global where clause (to filter Account and
Contact)
&where=name%20LIKE%20%27Smith%25%27
// Overrides the global where clause for Knowledge Article
(filtering by PublishStatus and Language is required for
KnowledgeArticle)
&knowledgearticleversion.where=PublishStatus='online'+and+language='en_US'
// Overrides the global where clause for Topic
&topic.where=networkid=<1234567891>
// Overrides the global where clause for
CollaborationGroup
&collaborationgroup.where=networkid=<1234567891>
// FeedItem-Question doesn't support where clauses, but
we can filter the type and networkId
&type=question
&networkId==<1234567891>

Usage
The suggestions resource returns records when the record’s name field includes the exact text in the search string. The last term in the
search string can match the beginning of a word. Records that contain the search string within a word aren’t considered a match.
Note: If the user’s search query contains quotation marks or wildcards, those symbols are automatically removed from the query
string in the URI.
Example: The text string national u is treated as national u* and returns “National Utility”, “National Urban Company”,
and “First National University”.

Suggested Records Response
The suggestions resource returns display-ready data about likely relevant records that the user can access.
The order of results is determined by a relevance algorithm.
Each suggested record in the results contains these elements:
Element

Description

Attributes

The record’s object type and the URL for accessing the record.
Also includes the requested lookup fields’ values. For example, if you requested
fields=Id,Name, the result would include the ID and name.

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Element

Description

Name (or Title)

The record’s Name field. In the absence of a standard Name field, the Title field is used
for these objects:
• Dashboard
• Idea
• IdeaTheme
• Note
• Question
In the absence of a standard Name or Title field, the main identifying field is used. For
example, in cases, the Case Number is used.

Id

The record’s unique identifier.

Example JSON Response Body
[ {
"attributes" : {
"type" : "Account",
"url" : "/services/data/v32.0/sobjects/Account/001xx000003DH6WAAW"
},
"Id" : "001xx000003DH6WAAW"
"Name" : "National Utility Service"
}, {
{
"attributes" : {
"type" : "Account",
"url" : "/services/data/v32.0/sobjects/Account/001xx000003DHJ4AAO"
},
"Id" : "001xx000003DHJ4AAO"
"Name" : "National Utility Service"
}, {
{
"attributes" : {
"type" : "Account",
"url" : "/services/data/v32.0/sobjects/Account/001xx000003DHscAAG"
},
"Id" : "001xx000003DHscAAG"
"Name" : "National Urban Technology Center"
} ]

Example JSON Response Body for a Multiple Object Request
[ {
"attributes" : {
"type" : "Account",
"url" : "/services/data/v38.0/sobjects/Account/001xx000003DMEKAA4"
},
"Id" : "001xx000003DMEKAA4"

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Search Suggested Records

"Name" : "Joe Doe Printing"
}, {
{
"attributes" : {
"type" : "Account",
"url" : "/services/data/v38.0/sobjects/Account/001xx000003DLjvAAG"
},
"Id" : "001xx000003DLjvAAGO"
"Name" : "Joe Doe Plumbing"
}, {
{
"attributes" : {
"type" : "Contact",
"url" : "/services/data/v38.0/sobjects/Contact/003xx000004U9Y9AAK"
},
"Id" : "003xx000004U9Y9AAK"
"Name" : "John Doe"
} ]

Example XML Response Body


001xx000003DH6WAAW
National Utility Service


001xx000003DHJ4AAO
National Utility Service


001xx000003DHscAAG
National Urban Technology Center

true


Unsupported Objects
The suggestions resource supports all searchable objects except the following.
• ContentNote
• Event
• FeedComment
• FeedPost
• IdeaComment
• Pricebook2

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Search Suggested Article Title Matches

• Reply
• TagDefinition
• Task

Search Suggested Article Title Matches
Returns a list of Salesforce Knowledge article titles that match the user’s search query string. Provides a shortcut to navigate directly to
likely relevant articles before the user performs a search.

Syntax
URI
/vXX.X/search/suggestTitleMatches?q=search string&language=article
language&publishStatus=article publication status

Available since release
30.0
Formats
JSON, XML
HTTP methods
GET
Authentication
Authorization: Bearer token

Request body
None required
Request parameters
Parameter

Description

articleTypes

Optional. Three-character ID prefixes indicating the desired article types. You can specify
multiple values for this parameter in a single REST call, by repeating the parameter
name for each value. For example, articleTypes=ka0&articleTypes=ka1.

categories

Optional. The name of the data category group and name of the data category for
desired articles, expressed as a JSON mapping. You can specify multiple data category
group and data category pairs in this parameter. For example,
categories={"Regions":"Asia","Products":"Laptops"}.
Characters in the URL might need to be encoded. For this example,
categories=%7B%22Regions%22%3A%22Asia
%22%2C%22Products%22%3A%22Laptops%22%7D.

channel

Optional. The channel where the matching articles are visible. Valid values:
• AllChannels–Visible in all channels the user has access to
• App–Visible in the internal Salesforce Knowledge application
• Pkb–Visible in the public knowledge base
• Csp–Visible in the Customer Portal
• Prm–Visible in the Partner Portal

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Parameter

Search Suggested Article Title Matches

Description
If channel isn’t specified, the default value is determined by the type of user.
• Pkb for a guest user
• Csp for a Customer Portal user
• Prm for a Partner Portal user
• App for any other type of user
If channel is specified, the specified value may not be the actual value requested,
because of certain requirements.
• For guest, Customer Portal, and Partner Portal users, the specified value must match
the default value for each user type. If the values don’t match or AllChannels
is specified, then App replaces the specified value.
• For all users other than guest, Customer Portal, and Partner Portal users:
– If Pkb, Csp, Prm, or App are specified, then the specified value is used.
– If AllChannels is specified, then App replaces the specified value.

language

Required. The language of the user’s query. Specifies the language that matching
articles are written in.

limit

Optional. Specifies the maximum number of articles to return. If there are more
suggested articles than the limit specified, the response body’s hasMoreResults
property is true.

publishStatus

Required. The article’s publication status. Valid values:
• Draft–Articles aren’t published in Salesforce Knowledge.
• Online–Articles are published in Salesforce Knowledge.
• Archived–Articles aren’t published and are available in Archived Articles view.

q

Required. The user’s search query string, properly URL-encoded. Suggestions are
returned only if the user’s query string meets the minimum length requirements: one
character for queries in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, and three characters for all
other languages. Query strings exceeding the maximum length of 250 characters return
an error.

topics

Optional. The topic of the returned articles. For example:
topics=outlook&topics=email.

validationStatus

Optional. The validation status of returned articles.

Example for getting suggested articles with matching titles
curl https://yourInstance.salesforce.com/services/data/v30.0/search/suggestTitleMatches?
q=orange+banana&language=en_US&publishStatus=Online -H "Authorization: Bearer token"

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Search Suggested Queries

Example JSON response body
{
"autoSuggestResults" : [ {
"attributes" : {
"type" : "KnowledgeArticleVersion",
"url" : "/services/data/v30.0/sobjects/KnowledgeArticleVersion/ka0D00000004CcQ"
},
"Id" : "ka0D00000004CcQ",
"UrlName" : "orange-banana",
"Title" : "orange banana",
"KnowledgeArticleId" : "kA0D00000004Cfz"
} ],
"hasMoreResults" : false
}

Usage
Salesforce Knowledge must be enabled in your organization. The user must have the “View Articles” permission enabled. The articles
suggested include only the articles the user can access, based on the data categories and article types the user has permissions to view.
The Suggest Article Title Matches resource is designed to return display-ready data about likely relevant articles. Articles are suggested
if their titles contain the entire query string, except stopwords, such as “a,” “for,” and “the.”
For example, a search for Backpacking for desert returns the article, “Backpacking in the desert.”
Note: Articles with titles that include stopwords from the query string, such as “Backpacking for desert survival” in this example,
appear before matching articles with titles that don’t include the stopwords.
Stopwords at the end of the query string are treated as search terms.
A wildcard is automatically appended to the last token in the query string.
Note: If the user’s search query contains quotation marks or wildcards, those symbols are automatically removed from the query
string in the URI along with any other special characters.
If the number of suggestions returned exceeds the limit specified in the request, the end of the response contains a field called
hasMoreResults. Its value is true if the suggestions returned are only a subset of the suggestions available, and false otherwise.

Search Suggested Queries
Returns a list of suggested searches based on the user’s query string text matching searches that other users have performed in Salesforce
Knowledge. Provides a way to improve search effectiveness, before the user performs a search.

Syntax
URI
vXX.X/search/suggestSearchQueries?q=search string&language=language of query

Available since release
30.0
Formats
JSON, XML

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HTTP methods
GET
Authentication
Authorization: Bearer token

Request body
None required
Request parameters
Parameter

Description

channel

Optional. Specifies the Salesforce Knowledge channel where the article can be viewed.
Valid values:
• AllChannels–Visible in all channels the user has access to
• App–Visible in the internal Salesforce Knowledge application
• Pkb–Visible in the public knowledge base
• Csp–Visible in the Customer Portal
• Prm–Visible in the Partner Portal
If channel isn’t specified, the default value is determined by the type of user.
• Pkb for a guest user
• Csp for a Customer Portal user
• Prm for a Partner Portal user
• App for any other type of user
If channel is specified, the specified value may not be the actual value requested,
because of certain requirements.
• For guest, Customer Portal, and Partner Portal users, the specified value must match
the default value for each user type. If the values don’t match or AllChannels
is specified, then App replaces the specified value.
• For all users other than guest, Customer Portal, and Partner Portal users:
– If Pkb, Csp, Prm, or App are specified, then the specified value is used.
– If AllChannels is specified, then App replaces the specified value.

language

Required. The language of the user’s query.

limit

Optional. Specifies the maximum number of suggested searches to return. If there are
more suggested queries than the limit specified, the response body’s
hasMoreResults property is true.

q

Required. The user’s search query string, properly URL-encoded. Suggestions are
returned only if the user’s query string meets the minimum length requirements: one
character for queries in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, and three characters for all
other languages. Query strings exceeding the maximum length of 250 characters return
an error.

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Support Knowledge with REST API

Example for getting suggested queries
curl https://yourInstance.salesforce.com/services/data/v30.0/search/suggestSearchQueries?
q=app&language=en_US -H "Authorization: Bearer token"

Example JSON response body
{
"autoSuggestResults" : [ {
"0" : "apple",
"1" : "apple banana",
} ],
"hasMoreResults" : false
}

Usage
Salesforce Knowledge must be enabled in your organization.
Queries are suggested if they exactly match the query string text. The text string must be a prefix within the query; it’s not considered
a match if it appears within a word. For example, the text string app would return suggested queries apple banana and banana apples
but not pineapple.
If the number of suggestions returned exceeds the limit specified in the request, the end of the response contains a field called
hasMoreResults. Its value is true if the suggestions returned are only a subset of the suggestions available, and false otherwise.
If the user’s search query contains quotation marks or wildcards, those symbols are automatically removed from the query string in the
URI.

Support Knowledge with REST API
Knowledge Support REST APIs allow both authorized and guest users to retrieve the user’s visible data categories and their associated
articles.
Authenticated users need the UserProfile.apiEnabled permission, Knowledge enabled in the organization, read rights on
the article type, and any other knowledge specific permission or preference that controls visibility to articles.
Guest users need the Guest Access to the Support API preference enabled on the relevant Site, Knowledge enabled in
the organization, and read rights on the article type and article channel that controls the visibility for guest users.

Syntax
The root endpoint for all Knowledge support APIs that can be open to guest users.
Available since release
38.0
Method
GET
Formats
JSON, XML

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Data Category Groups

Authentication
OAuth accesstoken
Endpoint
/support
HTTP headers
Accept: Optional. Can be either application/json or application/xml.
Input
None
Output
The following resources are related to Knowledge.
{
"dataCategoryGroups" : "/services/data/vxx.0/support/dataCategoryGroups",
"knowledgeArticles" : "/services/data/vxx.0/support/knowledgeArticles"
:
}

Where vxx.0 is the API version you requested.
IN THIS SECTION:
Data Category Groups
Get data category groups that are visible to the current user.
Data Category Detail
Get data category details and the child categories by a given category.
Articles List
Get a page of online articles for the given language and category through either search or query.
Articles Details
Get all article fields, accessible to the user.

Data Category Groups
Get data category groups that are visible to the current user.

Syntax
Available since release
38.0
Method
GET
Formats
JSON, XML
Authentication
OAuth accesstoken
Endpoint
[prefix]/support/dataCategoryGroups

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HTTP headers
Accept: Optional. Can be either application/json or application/xml.
Accept-language: Optional. Language to translate the categories. Any ISO-639 language abbreviation, and an ISO-3166 country
code subtag in the HTTP Accept-Language header. Only one language accepted. If no language specified, the non-translated labels
are returned.
Input:
string sObjectName: Required. KnowledgeArticleVersion only.
boolean topCategoriesOnly: Optional. Defaults to true
• True returns only the top level categories.
• False returns the entire tree.
Note: All the input parameters are case-sensitive.
Output:
A list of the active data category groups that are visible to the current user in the site context. Returns id, name, label, and their top
level categories or the entire data category group tree that are visible to the current user. The labels must be translated to the given
language if they are available.
• Data Category Group List
This payload lists the active root Data Category Groups that can be used in other requests to return the data categories and
articles related to it.
{
"categoryGroups": [ Data Category Group, ....],
}

Note: Returns only the active groups that are associated to the given entity (by sObjectName). Only
KnowledgeArticleVersion is supported.
• Data Category Group
This represents an individual data category group, and its root category.
{
"name": String, // the unique name of the category group
"label": String, // returns the translated version if it is available
"objectUsage" : String, // currently only "KnowledgeArticleVersion" is available.
"topCategories": [ Data Category Summary, ....]
}

• Data Category Summary
This provides a summary of data category information. The Summary and Detail responses share common properties, with the
goal of providing only as much information as is necessary from associated resources.
{
"name": String, // the unique name of the category
"label": String, // returns the translated version if it is available
"url": URL,
// the url points to the data category detail API
"childCategories": [ Data Category Summary, ....] // null if topCategoriesOnly is
true
}

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Data Category Detail

Note: The URL property is a pre-calculated path to the unique resource representing this data category, in this case it is
a Data Category Detail API.

Example
Input
/services/data/v38.0/support/dataCategoryGroups?sObjectName=KnowledgeArticleVersion

Output
{
"categoryGroups" : [ {
"label" : "Doc",
"name" : "Doc",
"objectUsage" : "KnowledgeArticleVersion",
"topCategories" : [ {
"childCategories" : null,
"label" : "All",
"name" : "All",
"url" :
"/services/data/v38.0/support/dataCategoryGroups/Doc/dataCategories/All?sObjectName=KnowledgeArticleVersion"
} ]
}, {
"label" : "Manual",
"name" : "Manual",
"objectUsage" : "KnowledgeArticleVersion",
"topCategories" : [ {
"childCategories" : null,
"label" : "All",
"name" : "All",
"url" :
"/services/data/v38.0/support/dataCategoryGroups/Manual/dataCategories/All?sObjectName=KnowledgeArticleVersion"
} ]
} ]
}

Usage
Salesforce Knowledge must be enabled in your organization. This resource can be used in API version 38.0 and later. Use the language
code format used in Which Languages Does Salesforce Support?.
Only the user’s visible data categories are returned. A user might be able to see several sub trees in the category group, therefore, the
top categories that are visible to the user in each group are returned.

Data Category Detail
Get data category details and the child categories by a given category.

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Data Category Detail

Syntax
Available since release
38.0
Method
GET
Formats
JSON, XML
Authentication
OAuth accesstoken
Endpoint
[prefix]/support/dataCategoryGroups/[group]/dataCategories/[category]
HTTP headers
Accept: Optional. Can be either application/json or application/xml.
Accept-language: Optional. Language to translate the categories. Any ISO-639 language abbreviation, and an ISO-3166 country
code subtag in the HTTP Accept-Language header. Only one language accepted. If no language specified, the non-translated labels
are returned.
Input:
string sObjectName: Required. KnowledgeArticleVersion only.
Output:
Details of the category and a list of child categories (name, label, etc.).
• Data Category Detail
Used for situations where the hierarchical representation of data categories is important. The child property contains a list of
child data categories.
{
"name": String, // the unique name of the category
"label": String, // returns the translated version if it is available
"url": URL,
"childCategories": [ Data Category Summary, ....],
}

Note: If the category isn’t visible to the current user the return is empty.

Example
Input
/services/data/v38.0/support/dataCategoryGroups/Doc/dataCategories/All?sObjectName=KnowledgeArticleVersion

Output
{
"childCategories" : [ {
"childCategories" : null,
"label" : "Help",
"name" : "Help",
"url" :

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Articles List

"/services/data/v38.0/support/dataCategoryGroups/Doc/dataCategories/Help?sObjectName=KnowledgeArticleVersion"
}, {
"childCategories" : null,
"label" : "QA",
"name" : "QA",
"url" :
"/services/data/v38.0/support/dataCategoryGroups/Doc/dataCategories/QA?sObjectName=KnowledgeArticleVersion"
} ],
"label" : "All",
"name" : "All",
"url" :
"/services/data/v38.0/support/dataCategoryGroups/Doc/dataCategories/All?sObjectName=KnowledgeArticleVersion"
}

Usage
Salesforce Knowledge must be enabled in your organization. This resource can be used in API version 38.0 and later. Use the language
code format used in Which Languages Does Salesforce Support?.

Articles List
Get a page of online articles for the given language and category through either search or query.

Syntax
Available since release
38.0
Method
GET
Formats
JSON, XML
Authentication
OAuth accesstoken
Endpoint
[prefix]/support/knowledgeArticles
HTTP headers
Accept: Optional. Can be either application/json or application/xml.
Accept-language: Required. The article must be an active language in the user’s organization
• If the language code isn’t valid, an error message is returned: “The language code is not valid or not supported by Knowledge.”
• If the language code is valid, but not supported by Knowledge, then an error message is returned: “Invalid language code. Check
that the language is included in your Knowledge language settings."
Input:
string q: Optional, Performs an SOSL search. If the query string is null, empty, or not given, an SOQL query runs.
string channel: Optional, defaults to user’s context. For information on channel values, see Valid channel values.

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Articles List

• App: Visible in the internal Salesforce Knowledge application
• Pkb: Visible in the public knowledge base
• Csp: Visible in the Customer Portal
• Prm: Visible in the Partner Portal
string categories in map json format {“group1”:”category1”,”group2”:”category2”,...} )
Optional, defaults to None. Category group must be unique in each group:category pair, otherwise you get
ARGUMENT_OBJECT_PARSE_ERROR.
string queryMethod values are: AT, BELOW, ABOVE, ABOVE_OR_BELOW. Only valid when categories are specified,
defaults to ABOVE_OR_BELOW.
string sort: Optional, a sortable field name LastPublishedDate, CreatedDate, Title, ViewScore. Defaults
to LastPublishedDate for query and relevance for search.
Note: When sorting on ViewScore it is only available for query, not search, and no pagination is supported. You only get
one page of results.
string order: Optional, either ASC or DESC, defaults to DESC. Valid only when sort is valid.
integer pageSize: Optional, defaults to 20. Valid range 1 to 100.
integer pageNumber : Optional, defaults to 1.
Output:
A page of online articles in the given language and category visible to the current user.
• Article Page
A page of articles. The individual entries are article summaries so the size can be kept at a minimum.
{
“articles”: [ Article Summary, … ], // list of articles
“currentPageUrl”: URL,
// the article list API with current page number
“nextPageUrl”: URL, // the article list API with next page number,
which can be null if there are no more articles.
“pageNumber”: Int // the current page number, starting at 1.
}

Note: The API supports paging. Each page of responses includes a URL to its page, as well as the URL to the next page
of articles.
• Article Summary
A summary of an article used in a list of article responses. It shares similar properties to the Article Detail representation, as one
is a superset of the other.
{
“id”: Id,
// articleId
“articleNumber”: String,
“title”: String,
“summary”: String,
“url”: URL, // to the Article Detail API
“viewCount”: Int,
// view count in the interested channel
“viewScore”: double (in xxx.xxxx precision),
// view score in the interested
channel.
“upVoteCount”: int, // up vote count in the interested channel.
“downVoteCount”: int, // down vote count in the interested channel.

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Articles List

“lastPublishedDate”: Date // last publish date in ISO8601 format
“categoryGroups”: [ Data Category Group, …. ]}

The “url” property always points to the Article Details resource endpoint. For information on valid channel values, see the channel
parameter description
• Data Category Group
An individual data category group, its root category, and a list of selected data categories in the group.
{
“groupName”: String, // the unique name of the category group
“groupLabel”: String, // returns the translated version
“selectedCategories”: [ Data Category Summary, … ]
}

• Data Category Summary
Provides a summary of data category information. The Summary and Detail responses share common properties.
{
“categoryName”: String, // the unique name of the category
“categoryLabel”: String, // returns the translated version, per the API
language specified
“url”: String // returns the url for the DataCategory REST API.
}

Note: The outputs of Data Category Group and Data Category Summary in Article List API are different from the Data
Category Groups API.

Example
Input
/services/data/v38.0/support/knowledgeArticles?sort=ViewScore&channel=Pkb&pageSize=3
HTTP Headers:
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Accept: application/json
Accept-Language: en-US

Output
{
"articles" : [ {
"articleNumber" : "000001002",
"categoryGroups" : [ ],
"downVoteCount" : 0,
"id" : "kA0xx000000000BCAQ",
"lastPublishedDate" : "2015-02-25T02:07:18Z",
"summary" : "With this online Chinese input tool, you can type Chinese characters
through your web browser without installing any Chinese input software in your system.
The Chinese online input tool uses the popular Pin Yin input method. It is a fast and
convenient tool to input Chinese on English OS environments.",
"title" : "Long text test",
"upVoteCount" : 0,
"url" : "/services/data/v38.0/support/knowledgeArticles/kA0xx000000000BCAQ",

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Articles List

"viewCount" : 4,
"viewScore" : 100.0
}, {
"articleNumber" : "000001004",
"categoryGroups" : [ ],
"downVoteCount" : 0,
"id" : "kA0xx000000000LCAQ",
"lastPublishedDate" : "2016-06-21T21:11:02Z",
"summary" : "The number of characters required for complete coverage of all these
languages' needs cannot fit in the 256-character code space of 8-bit character encodings,
requiring at least a 16-bit fixed width encoding or multi-byte variable-length encodings.
\r\n\r\nAlthough CJK encodings have common character sets, the encodings often used to
represent them have been developed separately by different East Asian governments and
software companies, and are mutually incompatible. Unicode has attempted, with some
controversy, to unify the character sets in a process known as Han unification.\r\n\r\nCJK
character encodings should consist minimally of Han characters p",
"title" : "Test Images",
"upVoteCount" : 0,
"url" : "/services/data/v38.0/support/knowledgeArticles/kA0xx000000000LCAQ",
"viewCount" : 0,
"viewScore" : 0.0
}, {
"articleNumber" : "000001012",
"categoryGroups" : [ ],
"downVoteCount" : 0,
"id" : "kA0xx000000006GCAQ",
"lastPublishedDate" : "2016-06-21T21:10:48Z",
"summary" : null,
"title" : "Test Draft 2",
"upVoteCount" : 0,
"url" : "/services/data/v38.0/support/knowledgeArticles/kA0xx000000006GCAQ",
"viewCount" : 0,
"viewScore" : 0.0
} ],
"currentPageUrl" :
"/services/data/v38.0/support/knowledgeArticles?channel=Pkb&pageSize=3&sort=ViewScore",
"nextPageUrl" : null,
"pageNumber" : 1
}

Usage
Salesforce Knowledge must be enabled in your organization. This resource can be used in API version 38.0 and later. The Custom File
Field is not supported because it returns a link to a binary stream. Use the language code format used in Which Languages Does Salesforce
Support?.

Valid channel Values
• When using the options string channel, where the matching articles are visible, the following values are valid.
– App–Visible in the internal Salesforce Knowledge application
– Pkb–Visible in the public knowledge base
– Csp–Visible in the Customer Portal

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Articles Details

– Prm–Visible in the Partner Portal
• If channel isn’t specified, the default value is determined by the type of user.
– Pkb for a guest user
– Csp for a Customer Portal user
– Prm for a Partner Portal user
– App for any other type of user
• If channel is specified, the specified value may be used to retrieve articles.
– For guest, Customer Portal, and Partner Portal users, if the specified channel is other than the channel accessible to the user, an
error is returned.
– For all users other than guest, Customer Portal, and Partner Portal users, the specified channel value is used.

Articles Details
Get all article fields, accessible to the user.

Syntax
Available since release
38.0
Method
GET
Formats
JSON, XML
Authentication
OAuth accesstoken
Endpoint
[prefix]/support/knowledgeArticles/{articleId}
HTTP headers
Accept: Optional. Can be either application/json or application/xml.
Accept-language: Required. The article must be an active language in the user’s organization
• If the language code isn’t valid, an error message is returned: “The language code is not valid or not supported by Knowledge.”
• If the language code is valid, but not supported by Knowledge, then an error message is returned: “Invalid language code. Check
that the language is included in your Knowledge language settings."
Input:
string channel: Optional, defaults to user’s context. For information on channel values, see Valid channel Values.
• App: Visible in the internal Salesforce Knowledge application
• Pkb: Visible in the public knowledge base
• Csp: Visible in the Customer Portal
• Prm: Visible in the Partner Portal
boolean updateViewStat: Optional, defaults to true. If true, API updates the view count in the given channel as well as the
total view count.

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Output:
The detailed fields of the article, if the article is online and visible to the current user.
• Article Detail
Full detail of an article, with complete metadata and layout-driven fields used for display of an article. It includes all the same
properties as an Article Summary representation.
{
"id": Id,
// articleId,
"articleNumber": String,
"title": String,
"summary": String,
"url": URL,
"versionNumber": Int,
"createdDate": Date, // in ISO8601 format
"createdBy": User Summary on page 125,
"lastModifiedDate": Date,
// in ISO8601 format
"lastModifiedBy": User Summary on page 125,
"lastPublishedDate": Date, // in ISO8601 format
"layoutItems": [ Article Field, ... ], // standard and custom fields visible
to the user, sorted based on the layouts of the article type.
"categories": [ Data Category Groups, ... ],
"appUpVoteCount": Int,
"cspUpVoteCount": Int,
"prmUpVoteCount": Int,
"pkbUpVoteCount": Int,
"appDownVoteCount": Int,
"cspDownVoteCount": Int,
"prmDownVoteCount": Int,
"pkbDownVoteCount": Int,
"allViewCount": Int,
"appViewCount": Int,
"cspViewCount": Int,
"prmViewCount": Int,
"pkbViewCount": Int,
"allViewScore": Double,
"appViewScore": Double,
"cspViewScore": Double,
"prmViewScore": Double,
"pkbViewScore": Double
}

• User Summary
{
"id": String
"isActive": boolean
// true/false
"userName": String
// login name
"firstName": String
"lastName": String
"email": String
"url": String
// to the chatter user detail url:
/services/data/xx.x/chatter/users/{userId}, for guest user, it will return null.
}

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• Article Field
An individual field of article information, which is listed in an Article Detail in the order required by the administrator’s layout.
{
"type": Enum,
"name": String,
"label": String,
"value": String,
}

// see the Notes
// field name
// label

Example
Input
/services/data/v38.0/support/knowledgeArticles/kA0xx000000000LCAQ
HTTP Headers:
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Accept: application/json
Accept-Language: en-US

Output
{
"allViewCount" : 17,
"allViewScore" : 100.0,
"appDownVoteCount" : 0,
"appUpVoteCount" : 0,
"appViewCount" : 17,
"appViewScore" : 100.0,
"articleNumber" : "000001004",
"categoryGroups" : [ ],
"createdBy" : {
"email" : "user@company.com",
"firstName" : "Test",
"id" : "005xx000001SvoMAAS",
"isActive" : true,
"lastName" : "User",
"url" : "/services/data/v38.0/chatter/users/005xx000001SvoMAAS",
"userName" : "admin@salesforce.org"
},
"createdDate" : "2016-06-21T21:10:54Z",
"cspDownVoteCount" : 0,
"cspUpVoteCount" : 0,
"cspViewCount" : 0,
"cspViewScore" : 0.0,
"id" : "kA0xx000000000LCAQ",
"lastModifiedBy" : {
"email" : "user@company.com",
"firstName" : "Test",
"id" : "005xx000001SvoMAAS",
"isActive" : true,
"lastName" : "User",
"url" : "/services/data/v38.0/chatter/users/005xx000001SvoMAAS",
"userName" : "admin@salesforce.org"

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},
"lastModifiedDate" : "2016-06-21T21:11:02Z",
"lastPublishedDate" : "2016-06-21T21:11:02Z",
"layoutItems" : [ {
"label" : "Out of Date",
"name" : "IsOutOfDate",
"type" : "CHECKBOX",
"value" : "false"
}, {
"label" : "sample",
"name" : "sample",
"type" : "PICK_LIST",
"value" : null
}, {
"label" : "Language",
"name" : "Language",
"type" : "PICK_LIST",
"value" : "en_US"
}, {
"label" : "MyNumber",
"name" : "MyNumber",
"type" : "NUMBER",
"value" : null
}, {
"label" : "My File",
"name" : "My_File",
"type" : "FILE",
"value" : null
} ],
"pkbDownVoteCount" : 0,
"pkbUpVoteCount" : 0,
"pkbViewCount" : 0,
"pkbViewScore" : 0.0,
"prmDownVoteCount" : 0,
"prmUpVoteCount" : 0,
"prmViewCount" : 0,
"prmViewScore" : 0.0,
"summary" : "The number of characters required for complete coverage of all these
languages' needs cannot fit in the 256-character code space of 8-bit character encodings,
requiring at least a 16-bit fixed width encoding or multi-byte variable-length encodings.
\r\n\r\nAlthough CJK encodings have common character sets, the encodings often used to
represent them have been developed separately by different East Asian governments and
software companies, and are mutually incompatible. Unicode has attempted, with some
controversy, to unify the character sets in a process known as Han unification.\r\n\r\nCJK
character encodings should consist minimally of Han characters p",
"title" : "Test Images",
"url" : "/services/data/v38.0/support/knowledgeArticles/kA0xx000000000LCAQ",
"versionNumber" : 7
}

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Usage
Salesforce Knowledge must be enabled in your organization. This resource can be used in API version 38.0 and later. The Custom File
Field is not supported because it returns a link to a binary stream. Use the language code format used in Which Languages Does Salesforce
Support?.
A lookup custom field is visible to guest users depending on the lookup entity type. For example, User is visible, but Case and Account
are not visible. Following standard fields are not visible to a guest user, even if they are in the layout:
• archivedBy
• isLatestVersion
• translationCompletedDate
• translationImportedDate
• translationExportedDate
• versionNumber
• visibleInInternalApp
• visibleInPKB
• visibleToCustomer
• visbileToPartner

Valid channel Values
• When using the options string channel, where the matching articles are visible, the following values are valid.
– App–Visible in the internal Salesforce Knowledge application
– Pkb–Visible in the public knowledge base
– Csp–Visible in the Customer Portal
– Prm–Visible in the Partner Portal
• If channel isn’t specified, the default value is determined by the type of user.
– Pkb for a guest user
– Csp for a Customer Portal user
– Prm for a Partner Portal user
– App for any other type of user
• If channel is specified, the specified value may be used to retrieve articles.
– For guest, Customer Portal, and Partner Portal users, if the specified channel is other than the channel accessible to the user, an
error is returned.
– For all users other than guest, Customer Portal, and Partner Portal users, the specified channel value is used.

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CHAPTER 4 Salesforce Knowledge Metadata API
In this chapter ...
•

ArticleType

•

KnowledgeSettings

•

DataCategoryGroup

•

SearchSettings

•

SearchLayouts

•

SynonymDictionary

•

ExternalDataSource

You can manage articles, page layouts, and data categories with the Metadata API.
Use Metadata API to retrieve, deploy, create, update or delete customization information, such as custom
object definitions and page layouts, for your organization. This API is intended for managing
customizations and for building tools that can manage the metadata model, not the data itself.
For generic Metadata API information see the Metadata API Developer Guide.

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ArticleType

ArticleType
Represents the metadata associated with an article type.
All articles in Salesforce Knowledge are assigned to an article type. An article's type determines the type of content it contains, its
appearance, and which users can access it. For example, a simple FAQ article type might have two custom fields, Question and
Answer, where article managers enter data when creating or updating FAQ articles. A more complex article type may require dozens
of fields organized into several sections. Using layouts and templates, administrators can structure the article type in the most effective
way for its particular content. User access to article types is controlled by permissions. For each article type, an administrator can grant
“Create,” “Read,” “Edit,” or “Delete” permissions to users. For example, the article manager might want to allow internal users to read,
create, and edit FAQ article types, but let partner users only read FAQs. See “Knowledge Article Types” in the Salesforce online help and
“Articles” in the SOAP API Developer's Guide.

Declarative Metadata File Suffix and Directory Location
An ArticleType is defined as a custom object and is stored in the objects folder. ArticleTypes have a suffix __kav (instead of __c
for custom objects). ArticleType field names have a suffix of __c like other custom objects, and must be dot-qualified with the name
of the article type to which they belong. This is shown in the following sample package.xml file:


articlefilemetadata
Unrestricted

newarticle__kav.description__c
CustomField


newarticle__kav
CustomObject



Version
ArticleTypes are available in API version 19.0 and later.

Fields
Field Name

Field Type

articleTypeChannel articleTypeChannelDisplay
Display

Description
Represents the article-type templates used to display an article in the
various channels. See “Article Type Templates” in the Salesforce online
help.

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ArticleType

Field Name

Field Type

Description

deploymentStatus

DeploymentStatus
(enumeration of type string)

A string which represents the deployment status of a custom object or
field. Valid values are:
• InDevelopment
• Deployed

description

string

A description of the article type. Maximum of 1000 characters.

fields

CustomField[]

Represents one or more fields in the article type.

gender

Gender

Indicates the gender of the noun that represents the object. This is used
for languages where words need different treatment depending on their
gender.

label

string

Label that represents the object throughout the Salesforce user interface.

pluralLabel

string

Plural version of the label value.

startsWith

StartsWith (enumeration of
type string)

Indicates whether the noun starts with a vowel, consonant, or is a special
character. This is used for languages where words need different treatment
depending on the first character. Valid values are listed in StartsWith.

articleTypeChannelDisplay
Determines the article-type templates that are used to display an article in its channels. Unless otherwise noted, all fields are createable,
filterable, and nillable.
Field Name

Field Type

articleTypeTemplates articleTypeTemplates

Description
Indicates which article-type template applies in the specified channel.

articleTypeTemplates
Sets the article-type template for a specific channel. If not specified, the default article-type template applies.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

channel

string

Specifies the channel where the article-type template applies:
• AllChannels: all the available channels.
• App: the Articles tab in Salesforce Knowledge.
• Pkb: the public knowledge base.
• Csp: the Customer Portal.
• Prm: the partner portal.

page

string

Represents the name of the custom Visualforce page used as a custom
article-type template. Use this field when you select Page in the
template field.

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ArticleType

Field Name

Field Type

Description

template

string

Indicates the article-type template used for the specified channel:
• Page: custom Visualforce page. When specifying this value, you
must also set the page field with the Visualforce page name.
• Tab: display the sections you defined in the layout as tabs.
• Toc: display the sections you defined in the layout as table of content.

Declarative Metadata Sample Definitions
A sample article type definition follows:




App



Prm



Csp



Pkb



Deployed
Article type with custom fields

description__c
Description
48
Text

newarticle
newarticles


IN THIS SECTION:
ArticleType Layout
Represents the metadata associated with an article type page layout. Article type layouts determine which fields users can view and
edit when entering data for an article, they also determine which sections appear when users view articles.

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ArticleType Layout

ChannelLayout
Represents the metadata associated with an communication channel layout. Communication channel layouts allow admins to share
article contents inline into communication channels (eg. email publisher, portal publisher, social publisher etc.). Admins can create
a list of fields of an article type that they want to share for each communication channels and customize its order.
ArticleType CustomField
Represents the metadata associated with an article type custom field. Use this metadata type to create, update, or delete article type
custom field definitions.

ArticleType Layout
Represents the metadata associated with an article type page layout. Article type layouts determine which fields users can view and edit
when entering data for an article, they also determine which sections appear when users view articles.
The format of the article, for example whether layout sections display as subtabs or as a single page with links, is defined by the article-type
template. Each article type has only one layout, but you can choose a different template for each of the article type's four channels. For
more information, see "Knowledge Article Types" in the Salesforce online help and “Articles” in the SOAP API Developer's Guide

File Suffix and Directory Location
ArticleType layouts are stored in the layouts directory of the corresponding package directory. The prefix must match with the article
type API name. The extension is .layout.

Version
ArticleType layouts are available in API version 19.0 and later.

Fields
Field Name

Field Type

Description

layoutSections

LayoutSection[]

The main sections of the layout containing the article fields. The
order here determines the layout order.

LayoutSection
LayoutSection represents a section of an ArticleType layout.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

customLabel

boolean

Indicates if this section's label is custom or standard (built-in). Custom
labels can be any text, but must be translated. Standard labels have a
predefined set of valid values, for example 'System Information', which
are automatically translated.

label

string

The label; either standard or custom, based on the customLabel flag.

layoutColumns

LayoutColumn[]

The columns of the layout, depending on the style. Salesforce Knowledge
only supports one column in article type layouts.

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ArticleType Layout

Field Name

Field Type

Description

style

LayoutSectionStyle
(enumeration of type
string)

The style of the layout. Salesforce Knowledge only supports the value
OneColumn which displays a one column page.

LayoutColumn
LayoutColumn represents the items in a column within a layout section.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

layoutItems

LayoutItem[]

The individual items within a column (ordered from top to bottom).

LayoutItem
LayoutItem represents the valid values that define a layout item.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

field

string

The field name reference, for example MyField__c.

Declarative Metadata Sample Definition
The following is the definition of an ArticleType page layout:



true
Description


description__c


dateTime__c





Data Sheet


file__c






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Salesforce Knowledge Metadata API

ChannelLayout

ChannelLayout
Represents the metadata associated with an communication channel layout. Communication channel layouts allow admins to share
article contents inline into communication channels (eg. email publisher, portal publisher, social publisher etc.). Admins can create a list
of fields of an article type that they want to share for each communication channels and customize its order.

File Suffix and Directory Location
Channel layout components have the suffix .channelLayout and are stored in the channelLayouts folder of the
corresponding package directory. The prefix must match with the article type API name.

Version
Channel layout components are available in API version 32.0 and later.

Fields
Field Name

Field Type

Description

label

string

The label

layoutItems

layoutItem

The article fields contained in the layout. The order here determines the
field order.

enabledChannels

enabledChannel

The channels where this layout applies.

layoutItem
Field Name

Field Type

Description

field

string

Name of the field. The format is .

enabledChannel

enum

Enum name of the communcation channel (eg. email, portal etc)

Declarative Metadata Sample Definition
The following is an example of a Channel Layout component.


layoutaaaa

ArticleTypeA.FieldA


ArticleTypeA.FieldC

email
portal


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Salesforce Knowledge Metadata API

ArticleType CustomField

The following is an example package.xml that references the previous definition.

ArticleType CustomField
Represents the metadata associated with an article type custom field. Use this metadata type to create, update, or delete article type
custom field definitions.
This type extends the Metadata metadata type and inherits its fullName field.
Always specify the full name whenever you create or update a custom field. For example, a custom field on a custom object:
MyArticleType__kav.MyCustomField__c

Declarative Metadata File Suffix and Directory Location
Custom fields are defined as part of the article type. ArticleType field names have a suffix of __c like other custom objects, and must
be dot-qualified with the name of the article type to which they belong. See ArticleType for more information.

Retrieving Custom Fields on Custom or Standard Objects
When you retrieve a custom or standard object, you return everything associated with the object. However, you can also retrieve only
the custom fields for an object by explicitly naming the object and fields in package.xml. The following definition in package.xml
retrieves the files objects/MyCustomObject__c.object, objects/Account.object__c.object, and
objects/MyArticleType__kav.object, each containing one custom field definition.

MyCustomObject__c.MyCustomField__c
Account.MyCustomAccountField__c
MyArticleType__kav.MyOtherCustomField__c
CustomField


Version
ArticleTypes custom fields are available in API version 19.0 and later.

Fields for ArticleType
Unless otherwise noted, all fields are createable, filterable, and nillable.
Note: If you create a knowledge validation rule, the errors always display at the top of the page, even if you add it beside the
field. Therefore, write the errors descriptively so authors know how to satisfy the validation rule. For example, identify which field
is causing the error. The Salesforce Classic user interface does not support field level error messages for articles.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

defaultValue

string

If specified, represents the default value of the field.

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ArticleType CustomField

Field Name

Field Type

Description

deleteConstraint

DeleteConstraint
(enumeration of type
string)

Provides deletion options for lookup relationships. Valid values
are:
SetNull

This is the default. If the lookup record is deleted, the
lookup field is cleared.
Restrict

Prevents the record from being deleted if it’s in a lookup
relationship.
Cascade

Deletes the lookup record as well as associated lookup
fields.
For more information on lookup relationships, see “Object
Relationships” in the Salesforce Help.
description

string

Description of the field.

formula

string

If specified, represents a formula on the field.

formulaTreatBlankAs

TreatBlanksAs
(enumeration of type
string)

Indicates how to treat blanks in a formula. Valid values are
BlankAsBlank and BlankAsZero.

fullName

string

Inherited from Metadata, this field is not defined in the WSDL
for this metadata type. It must be specified when creating,
updating, or deleting. See create() to see an example of
this field specified for a call.
This value cannot be null.

inlineHelpText

string

Represents the content of field-level help. For more information,
see “Define Field-Level Help” in the Salesforce Help.

label

string

Label for the field. You cannot update the label for standard
fields in Article Type such as Title, UrlName, Summary, etc.

length

int

Length of the field.

picklist

Picklist (Including
Dependent Picklist)

(Deprecated. Use this field in API version 37.0 and earlier only.
In later versions, use valueSet instead.) If specified, the field
is a picklist, and this field enumerates the picklist values and
labels.

referenceTo

string

If specified, indicates a reference this field has to another object.

relationshipLabel

string

Label for the relationship.

relationshipName

string

If specified, indicates the value for one-to-many relationships.
For example, in the object MyObject that had a relationship to
YourObject, the relationship name might be YourObjects.

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ArticleType CustomField

Field Name

Field Type

Description

required

boolean

Indicates whether the field requires a value on creation (true)
or not (false).

type

FieldType

Required. Indicates the field type for the field. Valid values are:
• Checkbox available in version 30.0 and later
• Currency
• ArticleCurrency
• Date
• DateTime
• Email
• File
• Formula
• Html
• Lookup
• Number
• Percent
• Phone
• Picklist
• DependentPicklist
• MultiselectPicklist
• Text
• TextArea
• LongTextArea
• URL

visibleLines

int

Indicates the number of lines displayed for the field.

Declarative Metadata Sample Definition


....

Comments__c
add your comments about this object here
Comments
32000
LongTextArea
30

....


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KnowledgeSettings

KnowledgeSettings
Represents the metadata used to manage settings for Salesforce Knowledge.
This type extends the Metadata metadata type and inherits its fullName field.
In the package manifest, all organization settings metadata types are accessed using the “Settings” name. See Settings for more details.

File Suffix and Directory Location
KnowledgeSettings values are stored in a single file named Knowledge.settings in the settings directory. The .settings
files are different from other named components because there is only one settings file for each settings component.

Version
KnowledgeSettings is available in API version 27.0 and later.

Fields
Field Name

Field Type

Description

answers

KnowledgeAnswerSettings

Represents the metadata used to manage settings
for Salesforce Knowledge and Answers.

cases

KnowledgeCaseSettings

Represents the metadata used to manage settings
for Salesforce Knowledge and Cases.

defaultLanguage

string

Required. The default language for Salesforce
Knowledge. Use the abbreviation for the
language, for example, en_US for United States
English.

languages

KnowledgeLanguageSettings

A list of languages enabled for Salesforce
Knowledge.

enableChatterQuestionKBDeflection boolean

Indicates whether tracking for case deflection via
Chatter is enabled (true) or not (false).

enableCreateEditOnArticlesTab boolean

Indicates whether users can create and edit
articles on the articles tab (true) or not
(false).

enableExternalMediaContent

boolean

Indicates whether connecting to external media
is enabled (true) or not (false).

enableKnowledge

boolean

Indicates whetherSalesforce Knowledge is
enabled (true) or not (false).

showArticleSummariesCustomerPortal boolean

Indicates whether article summaries appear in
the Customer Portal (true) or not (false).

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KnowledgeSettings

Field Name

Field Type

Description

showArticleSummariesInternalApp boolean

Indicates whether article summaries appear in
the internal knowledge base (true) or not
(false).

showArticleSummariesPartnerPortal boolean

Indicates whether article summaries appear in
the partner portal (true) or not (false).

showValidationStatusField

boolean

Indicates whether validation status appears on
articles (true) or not (false).

suggestedArticles

KnowledgeSuggestedArticlesSettings Represents the metadata used to manage settings
for the case fields used to suggest articles for
cases. Available in API version 37.0 and later.

KnowledgeAnswerSettings
Represents the metadata used to manage settings for Salesforce Knowledge and Answers.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

assignTo

string

Specifies the username an article is assigned to from Answers.

defaultArticleType

string

The default article type for articles created from Answers. Uses the API
name of the article type.

enableArticleCreation

boolean

Indicates whether users can create articles from Answers (true) or not
(false).

KnowledgeCaseField
Represents the name of the case field used to suggest articles for the case. Available in API version 37.0 and later.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

name

string

Specifies the name of the case field used to suggest
articles for the case.

KnowledgeCaseFieldsSettings
Represents a list of the case fields used to suggest articles for the case. Available in API version 37.0 and later.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

field

KnowledgeCaseField[]

Specifies the names of the case fields used to suggest
articles for the case.

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KnowledgeSettings

KnowledgeWorkOrderField
Represents the name of the work order field used to suggest articles for the work order. Available in API version 39.0 and later.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

name

string

Specifies the name of the work order field used to
suggest articles for the work order.

KnowledgeWorkOrderFieldsSettings
Represents a list of the work order fields used to suggest articles for the work order. Available in API version 39.0 and later.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

field

KnowledgeWorkOrderField[]

Specifies the names of the work order fields used to
suggest articles for the work order.

KnowledgeWorkOrderLineItemField
Represents the name of the work order line item field used to suggest articles for the work order line item. Available in API version 39.0
and later.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

name

string

Specifies the name of the work order line item field
used to suggest articles for the work order line item.

KnowledgeWorkOrderLineItemFieldsSettings
Represents a list of the work order line item fields used to suggest articles for the work order line item. Available in API version 39.0 and
later.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

field

KnowledgeWorkOrderLineItemField[]

Specifies the names of the work order line item fields
used to suggest articles for the work order line item.

KnowledgeSuggestedArticlesSettings
Represents the metadata used to manage settings for the articles suggested for cases, work orders, and work order line items.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

caseFields

KnowledgeCaseFieldsSettings

Represents a list of the case fields used to suggest
articles for the case.

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Field Name

KnowledgeSettings

Field Type

Description

useSuggestedArticlesForCase boolean

workOrderFields

Indicates whether case content is used to suggest
articles for cases (true) or not (false).

KnowledgeWorkOrderFieldsSettings

Represents a list of the work order fields used to
suggest articles for the work order.

workOrderLineItemFields KnowledgeWorkOrderLineItemFieldsSettings Represents a list of the work order line item fields used

to suggest articles for the work order line item.

KnowledgeCaseSettings
Represents the metadata used to manage settings for Salesforce Knowledge and Cases.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

articlePDFCreationProfile

string

The profile used to create a PDF of an article from
Cases.

articlePublicSharingSites

KnowledgeSitesSettings

Represents the metadata used to manage settings
for Salesforce Knowledge and Sites.

articlePublicSharingCommunities KnowledgeSitesSettings

Represents the metadata used to manage settings
for Salesforce Knowledge and Communities.

articlePublicSharingSitesChatterAnswers KnowledgeSitesSettings

Represents the metadata used to manage settings
for Salesforce Knowledge and Sites with Chatter
Answers.

assignTo

string

Specifies the username an article is assigned to from
Cases.

customizationClass

string

Specifies the Apex class used for customization.

defaultContributionArticleType

string

The default article type for articles created from
Cases.

editor

KnowledgeCaseEditor
(enumeration of type string)

Indicates the rich text editor type. Valid values are:
• simple
• standard

boolean

Indicates whether users can create articles from
Cases (true) or not (false). Controls whether
other fields on KnowledgeCaseSettings can be set.

enableArticlePublicSharingSites boolean

Indicates whether articles can be shared via a public
site (URL) from Cases (true) or not (false).

boolean

Indicates whether a profile is used to create a PDF
of an article from Cases (true) or not (false).

enableArticleCreation

useProfileForPDFCreation

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KnowledgeSettings

KnowledgeSitesSettings
Represents the metadata used to manage settings for Salesforce Knowledge and Sites.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

site

string[]

Specifies the site used for Salesforce Knowledge and Sites.

KnowledgeLanguageSettings
A list of languages enabled for Salesforce Knowledge. KnowledgeLanguageSettings is available in API version 28.0 and later.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

language

KnowledgeLanguage

Represents the metadata used to manage settings for
the languages enabled for Salesforce Knowledge.

KnowledgeLanguage
Represents the metadata used to manage settings for the languages enabled for Salesforce Knowledge. KnowledgeLanguage is available
in API version 28.0 and later.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

active

boolean

Indicates whether the language is enabled (true) or
not (false).

defaultAssignee

string

The default assignee for articles in the language.

defaultAssigneeType

KnowledgeLanguageLookupValueType
(enumeration of type string)

Indicates the default assignee type. Valid values are:
• user
• queue

defaultReviewer

string

The default reviewer for articles in the language.

defaultReviewerType

KnowledgeLanguageLookupValueType
(enumeration of type string)

Indicates the default reviewer type. Valid values are:
• user
• queue

name

string

The code for the language name, for example: English
is en. See “What languages does Salesforce support?”
in the Salesforce online help for a list of supported
languages and their codes.

143

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DataCategoryGroup

Declarative Metadata Sample Definition
This is a sample Knowledge settings file.



false


partner portal knowledge
profile

KnowledgeSite
PKB2Site
ChatterAnswersSite


ChatterAnswersSite

testall@kb.org
Support
simple
true
true
true

ja
true
true
true
true
true
true
true



Subject


SuppliedEmail


true



DataCategoryGroup
Represents a data category group.
This type extends the Metadata metadata type and inherits its fullName field.

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DataCategoryGroup

Warning: Using Metadata API to deploy category changes from one organization to another permanently removes categories
and record categorizations that are not specified in your XML file. Salesforce recommends that you manually create data categories
and record associations in an organization from Setup by entering Data Categories in the Quick Find box, then
selecting Data Categories rather than deploying changes from a sandbox to a production organization. For more information,
see Usage.
Data category groups are provided to:
• Classify and filter data.
• Share data among users.
Every data category group contains items or data categories that can be organized hierarchically.
The example below shows the Geography data category group and its data categories.
Geography
Worldwide
North America
United States of America
Canada
Mexico
Europe
Asia

Note: See "Data Categories in Salesforce.com" in the Salesforce online help for more information on data category groups, data
categories, parent and sub categories.

File Suffix and Directory Location
The file suffix is .datacategorygroup. There is one file for each data category group stored in the datacategorygroups
folder in the corresponding package directory.

Version
Data category groups are available in API version 18.0 and later.

Fields
This metadata type contains the following fields:
Field Name

Field Type

Description

active

boolean

Required. The status of the category group. Indicates whether this
category group is active, (true), or not active (false).

dataCategory

DataCategory

Required. The top-level category within the data category group.

description

string

The description of the data category group.

fullName

string

Required. The unique name of the data category group. When creating
a data category group, the fullName field and the file name (without
its suffix) must match.The fullName can contain only underscores
and alphanumeric characters. It must be unique, begin with a letter, not

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Field Name

DataCategoryGroup

Field Type

Description
include spaces, not end with an underscore, and not contain two
consecutive underscores. This field is inherited from the Metadata
component.

label

string

Required. Label that represents the object in Salesforce.

objectUsage

ObjectUsage

The objects that are associated with the data category group.

DataCategory
Represents an item (or data category) in the data category group. A data category can recursively contain a list of other data categories.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

dataCategory

DataCategory[]

A recursive list of sub data categories. For example, a list of countries
within a continent. You can create up to 100 categories in a data category
group and have up to 5 levels in a data category group hierarchy.

label

string

Required. Label for the data category throughout the Salesforce user
interface.

name

string

Required. The developer name of the data category used as a unique
identifier for API access. The name can only contain characters, letters,
and the underscore (_) character, must start with a letter, and cannot
end with an underscore or contain two consecutive underscore
characters.
Important: The value for this field is defined once and cannot
be changed later.
Warning: If you deploy a category group that already exists in
an organization, any category that is not defined in the XML file
is permanently removed from your organization. For more
information see Usage.

ObjectUsage
Represents the objects that can be associated with the data category group. This association allows the object to be classified and filtered
using the data categories.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

object

string[]

A list of the object names that can be associated with the data category
group. Valid values are:
• KnowledgeArticleVersion—to associate articles. See
"Modify Default Category Group Assignments for Articles" in the
Salesforce online help for more information on data category groups
association to articles.

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Field Name

DataCategoryGroup

Field Type

Description
• Question—to associate questions. You can associate the
Question object with at most one category group. See "Assigning
Data Categories to Answers" in the Salesforce online help for more
information on data category groups association to questions.
Warning: If you deploy a category group that already exists in
an organization, any object association that is not defined in the
XML file is permanently removed from your organization. Ensure
that your XML file specifies all the records associated with your
category group in the organization. For more information see
Usage.

Declarative Metadata Sample Definition
This sample is the definition of the Geography data category group and its data categories:


Geography
Geography structure of service center locations
geo
 WW Worldwide
 AMER North America

USA
United States of America


CAN
Canada


MEX
Mexico


 EMEA Europe, Middle East, Africa

FR
France


SP
Spain


UK
United-Kingdom


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DataCategoryGroup



APAC
Asia







Usage
When you deploy a category group XML file, Metadata API checks whether the category group exists in the target organization. If the
category group does not exist, it is created. If the category group already exists, then Metadata API:
• Adds any new category or object defined in the XML file.
• Deletes any category that is not defined in the XML file. Records associated with the deleted categories are re-associated with the
parent category.
• Deletes any object association that is not defined in the XML file.
• Moves any category if its hierarchical position differs from the position specified in the XML file.
Note: When a category moves to a new parent category, users that have no visibility on the new parent category lose their
visibility to the repositioned category.
Note: For more information about category deletion, category repositioning and its impact on record categorization and visibility
see "Delete a Data Category" and "Modify and Arrange Data Categories" in the Salesforce online help.
Using Metadata API to deploy category changes from one organization to another permanently removes categories and record
categorizations that are not specified in your XML file. Salesforce recommends that you manually create data categories and record
associations in an organization from Setup by entering Data Categories in the Quick Find box, then selecting Data
Categories rather than deploying changes from a sandbox to a production organization.
The following example illustrates what happens if you deploy an XML representation of a Geography data category group hierarchy
to an organization that already has this data category group defined. Note that the organization contains a US category, while the XML
file includes a USA category in the same hierarchical position. The Metadata API deployment process deletes the US category from
the organization and moves associations for any records from US to the parent AMER category. It also adds the USA category under
AMER. Note that all records that were previously categorized with US are now associated with the AMER category.

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DataCategoryGroup

The next example illustrates what can happen when you delete or move a category in a data category group and deploy its XML
representation from a sandbox to a production organization that already has this data category group defined. Hierarchy 1 shows the
initial data category group in the sandbox organization. In hierarchy 2, we add an EU category under EMEA and move FR, SP and
UK below EU. In hierarchy 3, we delete FR and associate its records with its new parent, EU. Finally, we deploy the changes from the
sandbox to the production organization.

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SearchSettings

Metadata API has no concept of the order of the changes made to the sandbox organization. It just deploys the changes from one
organization to another. During the deployment, it first notices the deletion of the FR category and removes it from the production
organization. Consequently, it moves associations for any records from FR to its parent on the production organization, EMEA. Metadata
API then adds the EU category and moves SP and UK below it. Although the category group hierarchy looks the same in both
organizations, record categorization in production is different from the sandbox organization. The records that were originally associated
with FR in hierarchy 1 are associated with EU in the sandbox organization, but are associated with EMEA in the production organization.

SearchSettings
Represents an org's search settings.
This type extends the Metadata metadata type and inherits its fullName field.
In the package manifest, all organization settings metadata types are accessed using the “Settings” name. See Settings for more details.

File Suffix and Directory Location
SearchSettings values are stored in a single file named Search.settings in the settings folder. The .settings files are
different from other named components because there is only one settings file for each settings component.

Version
SearchSettings is available in API version 37.0 and later.

Fields
Field Name

Field Type

Description

documentContentSearchEnabled

boolean

Indicates if a full-text document search is performed.

optimizeSearchForCJKEnabled

boolean

Indicates whether the search is optimized for the Japanese,
Chinese, and Korean languages. This setting affects sidebar

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Field Name

Field Type

Description
search and the account search for Find Duplicates on a lead
record in sidebar search and global search. Enable this option
if users are searching mostly in Japanese, Chinese, or Korean,
and if the text in searchable fields is mostly in those languages.

recentlyViewedUsersForBlankLookupEnabled boolean

Indicates whether the list of records that are returned from a
user autocomplete lookup and from a blank user lookup is
taken from the user’s recently viewed user records. Otherwise
this setting is false if the lookup shows a list of recently
accessed user records from across your org (false). Only
applies to User object blank lookup searches.

searchSettingsByObject

SearchSettingsByObject Represents a list of search settings for each object.

sidebarAutoCompleteEnabled

boolean

Indicates if autocomplete is enabled for sidebar search.
Autocomplete is when users start typing search terms and
sidebar search displays a matching list of recently viewed
records.

sidebarDropDownListEnabled

boolean

Indicates if a drop-down list appears in the sidebar search
section. From this list, users can select to search within tags,
within a specific object, or across all objects.

sidebarLimitToItemsIOwnCheckboxEnabled boolean

Indicates if the Limit to Items I Own checkbox appears. The
checkbox allows your users to include only records for which
they are the record owner when entering search queries in
the sidebar.

singleSearchResultShortcutEnabled boolean

Indicates if a shortcut is enabled. With the shortcut, users skip
the search results page and go directly to the record’s detail
page when their search returns only a single item. This setting
doesn't apply to tags, case comments (in advanced search),
and global search.

spellCorrectKnowledgeSearchEnabled boolean

Indicates if spell check is enabled for Knowledge search.

SearchSettingsByObject
Includes ObjectSearchSetting field type, which is a list of search settings for each object.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

searchSettingsByObject

ObjectSearchSetting Contains a list of search settings for each object.

ObjectSearchSetting
A list of search settings for each object.

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SearchSettings

Field Name

Field Type

Description

enhancedLookupEnabled

boolean

Indicates if enhanced lookups is enabled for the object.

lookupAutoCompleteEnabled boolean

Indicates if autocomplete is enabled for lookup search. Autocomplete
is when users edit the lookup field inline by choosing an autosuggestion.

name

string

The entity name of the object being configured.

resultsPerPageCount

int

The number of search results per page.

Declarative Metadata Sample Definition
The following is an example of the Search.settings file.


true
true
true


false
false
Account
25


false
false
Activity
25


false
false
Asset
25


true
true
true
true
true


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SearchLayouts

Example Package Manifest
The following is an example package manifest used to deploy or retrieve the Account settings metadata for an organization.



Search
Settings

37.0


SearchLayouts
Represents the metadata associated with the Search Layouts for an object. You can customize which fields to display for users in search
results, search filter fields, lookup dialogs, and recent record lists on tab home pages.
For more information, see ”Customize Search Layouts” and ”Customize Search Layouts for Custom Objects” in the Salesforce online help.

Version
Search layouts for custom objects are available in API version 14.0 and later. The ability to modify search layouts for standard objects
(except events and tasks) is available in API version 27.0 and later.

Fields
Field

Field Type

Description

customTabListAdditionalFields

string[]

The list of fields displayed in the Recent Object Name
list view on a tab associated with the object. The name field
is mandatory and is always displayed as the first column
header, so it is not included in this list; all additional fields
are included. The field name relative to the object name, for
example MyCustomField__c, is specified for each
custom field.

excludedStandardButtons

string[]

The list of standard buttons excluded from the search layout.

listViewButtons

string[]

The list of buttons available in list views for an object.
This field is equivalent to the Buttons Displayed value in the
Object Name List View in the Search Layouts
related list on the object detail page in the Salesforce user
interface. For more information, see “Standard and Enhanced
Lookups in Salesforce Classic” in the Salesforce online help.

lookupDialogsAdditionalFields

string[]

The list of fields displayed in a lookup dialog for the object.
The name field is mandatory and is always displayed as the

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Field

SearchLayouts

Field Type

Description
first column header, so it is not included in this list; all
additional fields are included. The field name relative to the
object name, for example MyCustomField__c, is
specified for each custom field.
Salesforce objects often include one or more lookup fields
that allow users to associate two records together in a
relationship. For example, a contact record includes an
Account lookup field that represents the relationship
between the contact and the organization with which the
contact is associated. A lookup search dialog helps you search
for the record associated with the one being edited. Lookup
filter fields allow you to filter your lookup search by a
customized list of fields in the object.
This field is equivalent to the Lookup Dialogs in the
Search Layouts related list on the object detail page in the
application user interface. For more information, see
“Standard and Enhanced Lookups in Salesforce Classic” in
the Salesforce online help.

lookupFilterFields

string[]

The list of fields that can be used to filter enhanced lookups
for an object. Enhanced lookups are optionally enabled by
your administrator. The field name relative to the object
name, for example MyCustomField__c, is specified for
each custom field.
This field is equivalent to the Lookup Filter Fields
in the Search Layouts related list on the object detail page
in the application user interface. For more information, see
“Standard and Enhanced Lookups in Salesforce Classic” in
the Salesforce online help.

lookupPhoneDialogsAdditionalFields string[]

The list of phone-related fields displayed in a lookup dialog
for the object. The name field is mandatory and is always
displayed as the first column header, so it is not included in
this list; all additional fields are included. The field name
relative to the object name, for example
MyCustomField__c, is specified for each custom field.
This list enables integration of the fields with a SoftPhone
dial pad. For more information, see “About CTI 1.0 and 2.0
SoftPhones” in the Salesforce online help.
This field is equivalent to the Lookup Phone Dialogs
in the Search Layouts related list on the object detail page
in the application user interface.

searchFilterFields

string[]

The list of fields that can be used to filter a search for the
object. The field name relative to the object name, for

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Field

SynonymDictionary

Field Type

Description
example MyCustomField__c, is specified for each
custom field.
This field is equivalent to the Search Filter Fields
in the Search Layouts related list on the object detail page
in the application user interface.

searchResultsAdditionalFields

string[]

The list of fields displayed in a search result for the object.
The name field is mandatory and is always displayed as the
first column header, so it is not included in this list; all
additional fields are included. The field name relative to the
object name, for example MyCustomField__c, is
specified for each custom field.
This field is equivalent to the Search Results in the
Search Layouts related list on the object detail page in the
application user interface.

searchResultsCustomButtons

string[]

The list of custom buttons available in a search result for the
object. The actions associated with the buttons can be
applied to any of the records returned in the search result.

Declarative Metadata Sample Definition
A sample definition of search layouts in an object is shown below.


. . .

New
Accept
ChangeOwner
firstQuote__c
finalQuote__c
CREATEDBY_USER

. . .


SynonymDictionary
Represents a set of synonym groups, which are groups of words or phrases that are treated as equivalent in users’ searches. You can
define synonym groups to optimize search results for acronyms, variations of product names, and other terminology unique to your
organization.

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SynonymDictionary

Synonyms are available in Service Cloud features such as Salesforce Knowledge. This type extends the Metadata metadata type and
inherits its fullName field.

File Suffix and Directory Location
SynonymDictionary components have the suffix .synonymDictionary and are stored in the synonymDictionaries folder.

Version
SynonymDictionary components are available in API version 29.0 and later.

Special Access Rules
Synonyms must be enabled in your organization. Only users with the “Manage Synonyms” permission can access this object.

Fields
Field Name

Field Type

Description

groups

SynonymGroup

The synonym groups defined in this dictionary.

isProtected

boolean

Indicates whether this component is protected (true) or not (false).
Protected components cannot be linked to or referenced by components
created in the installing organization.

label

string

Required. Specifies the display name of the synonym dictionary.

SynonymGroup
Represents a group of synonymous words or phrases.
Field Name

Field Type

Description

languages

Language

Required. Specifies the languages the synonym group applies to. If synonyms
are specific to a single language, specify only that language. If the synonyms
apply to multiple languages, specify multiple languages for one synonym
group.

terms

string

Required. A word or phrase synonymous with other terms in the group.
Maximum of 50 characters. Minimum of two terms per group.
Synonym groups are symmetric, which means that if oranges and apples are
defined in a synonym group, a search for oranges will return a match for
apples, and vice versa for a search for apples.

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ExternalDataSource

Declarative Metadata Sample Definition
The following is an example of a SynonymDictionary component:



en_US
Salesforce
salesforce.com
The Customer Company
SFDC


fr
renault
clio

Sample Dictionary


The following is an example package.xml that references the SynonymDictionary component.



Sample Dictionary
SynonymDictionary

39.0


Usage
If you have existing synonym groups defined before API version 29.0, your existing groups are associated with a default dictionary called
_Default.
If you have a set of synonyms that require frequent updates, we recommend assigning the synonym group or groups to a dedicated
dictionary with a small number of groups. Each time you deploy an existing dictionary, all of its synonym groups are overwritten. We
don’t support deploying updates to only a single synonym group within a dictionary.

ExternalDataSource
Represents the metadata associated with an external data source. Create external data sources to manage connection details for
integration with data and content that are stored outside your Salesforce org.
This type extends the Metadata metadata type and inherits its fullName field.

File Suffix and Directory Location
ExternalDataSource components are stored in the dataSources directory of the corresponding package directory. ExternalDataSource
components have the suffix .dataSource, and the prefix is the name of the external data source.

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ExternalDataSource

Version
ExternalDataSource components are available in API version 28.0 and later.

Fields
Field Name

Field Type

Description

authProvider

string

The authentication provider that is represented by the AuthProvider
component.

certificate

string

If you specify a certificate, your Salesforce org supplies it when
establishing each two-way SSL connection with the external system.
The certificate is used for digital signatures, which verify that requests
are coming from your Salesforce org.

customConfiguration

string

A string of configuration parameters that are specific to the external data
source’s type.
• customConfiguration for Salesforce Connect—Cross-Org Adapter
• customConfiguration for Salesforce Connect—OData 2.0 or 4.0
Adapter
• customConfiguration for Salesforce Connect—Custom Adapter

endpoint

string

The URL of the external system, or if that URL is defined in a named
credential, the named credential URL. Corresponds to URL in the user
interface.
A named credential URL contains the scheme callout:, the name
of the named credential, and an optional path. For example:
callout:My_Named_Credential/some_path.
You can append a query string to a named credential URL. Use a question
mark (?) as the separator between the named credential URL and the
query string. For example:
callout:My_Named_Credential/some_path?format=json.

isWritable

boolean

Lets the Force.com platform and users in this org create, update, and
delete records for external objects associated with the external data
source. The external object data is stored outside the org. By default,
external objects are read only. Corresponds to Writable External
Objects in the user interface.
Available in API version 35.0 and later. However, with the cross-org
adapter for Salesforce Connect, you can set this field to true only in
API version 39.0 and later.

label

string

A user-friendly name for the external data source. The label is displayed
in the Salesforce user interface, such as in list views.
Examples include Acme Team Marketing Site, or Acme SharePoint.

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ExternalDataSource

Field Name

Field Type

Description

oauthRefreshToken

string

The OAuth refresh token. Used to obtain a new access token for an end
user when a token expires.

oauthScope

string

Specifies the scope of permissions to request for the access token.
Corresponds to Scope in the user interface.

oauthToken

string

The access token issued by the external system.

password

string

The password to be used by your org to access the external system.
Ensure that the credentials you use have adequate privileges to access
the external system, perform searches, return data, and return information
about the external system’s metadata.

principalType

External
Determines whether you're using one set or multiple sets of credentials
PrincipalType to access the external system. Corresponds to Identity Type in

(enumeration of
type string)

the user interface. The valid values are:
• Anonymous
• PerUser
• NamedUser

protocol

Authentication The authentication protocol that’s required to access the external system.
The valid values are:
Protocol

(enumeration of
type string)

• NoAuthentication
• Oauth
• Password
For cloud-based Files Connect external systems, select Oauth 2.0. For
on-premises systems, select Password Authentication.
For Simple URL data sources, select No Authentication.

repository

string

type

ExternalData For Salesforce Connect, specifies the adapter that connects to the external
system. The valid values are:
SourceType

(enumeration of
type string)

Used for SharePoint Online. If metadata is not accessible, use this field
to create tables and default table fields.

• OData—OData 2.0 adapter
• OData4—OData 4.0 adapter
• SfdcOrg—cross-org adapter
• ApexClassId—DataSource.Provider class that defines
the custom adapter created via the Apex Connector Framework
For Files Connect, specifies the data source type. The valid values are:
• ContentHubSharepoint—SharePoint 2010 or 2013
• ContentHubSharepointOffice365—SharePoint Online
• ContentHubSharepointOneDrive—OneDrive for Business
• ContentHubGDrive—Google Drive

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Field Name

ExternalDataSource

Field Type

Description
If Chatter is enabled, you can also specify SimpleURL to access data
hosted on a web server that doesn’t require authentication.
• outgoingemail—A data source used for sending an email
through a quick action.
The Identity and Wrapper types are reserved for future use.

username

string

The username to be used by your org to access the external system.
Ensure that the credentials you use have adequate privileges to access
the external system, perform searches, return data, and return information
about the external system’s metadata.

version

string

Reserved for future use.

customConfiguration

for Salesforce Connect—Cross-Org Adapter

The following sample JSON-encoded configuration string defines parameters that apply when the external data source’s type is set
to SfdcOrg.
{"apiVersion":"32.0","environment":"CUSTOM",
"searchEnabled":"true","timeout":"120"}

The parameters correspond to these fields in the user interface:
• apiVersion—API Version
• environment—Connect to
• searchEnabled—Enable Search
• timeout—Connection Timeout

customConfiguration

for Salesforce Connect—OData 2.0 or 4.0 Adapter

The following JSON-encoded configuration string defines parameters that apply when the external data source’s type is set to OData
or OData4.
{"inlineCountEnabled":"true","csrfTokenName":"X-CSRF-Token",
"requestCompression":"false","pagination":"CLIENT",
"noIdMapping":"false","format":"ATOM",
"searchFunc":"","compatibility":"DEFAULT",
"csrfTokenEnabled":"true","timeout":"120",
"searchEnabled":"true"}

The parameters correspond to these fields in the user interface.
• compatibility—Special Compatibility
• csrfTokenEnabled—CSRF Protection
• csrfTokenName—Anti-CSRF Token Name
• format—Format
• inlineCountEnabled—Request Row Counts
• noIdMapping—High Data Volume

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ExternalDataSource

• pagination—Server Driven Pagination
• requestCompression—Compress Requests
• searchEnabled—Enable Search
• searchFunc—Custom Query Option for Salesforce Search
• timeout—Connection Timeout

customConfiguration

for Salesforce Connect—Custom Adapter

The following sample JSON-encoded configuration string defines the parameter that applies when the external data source’s type is
set to the ID of a DataSource.Provider class.
{"noIdMapping":"false"}

The noIdMapping parameter corresponds to the High Data Volume field in the user interface.

Declarative Metadata Sample Definition
The following is the definition of an external data source for Salesforce Connect—OData 2.0 or 4.0 adapter.


FacebookAuth
{"compatibility":"DEFAULT",
"noIdMapping":"false","inlineCountEnabled":"true",
"searchEnabled":"true","format":"ATOM",
"requestCompression":"false","pagination":"SERVER",
"timeout":"120"}
http://myappname.herokuapp.com/DataHub.svc
DataHub
NamedUser
Oauth
OData


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CHAPTER 5 Salesforce Knowledge with SOQL and SOSL
In this chapter ...
•

Update an Article’s
Keyword Tracking
with SOQL

•

Update an Article
Viewstat with SOQL

•

WITH
filteringExpression

•

Using Relationship
Queries with Data
Category Selection
Objects

•

About SOSL

Use the Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) to search your organization’s Knowledge data for
specific information. SOQL is similar to the SELECT statement in the widely used Structured Query
Language (SQL) but is designed specifically for Salesforce. Use the Salesforce Object Search Language
(SOSL) to construct text-based search queries against the search index.
Knowledge Object

Limits

KnowledgeArticleVersion

• Always filter on a single value of
PublishStatus unless the query filters
on one or more primary key IDs. To support
security, only users with the “Manage Articles”
permission see articles whose
PublishStatus value is Draft.
• Archived article versions are stored in the
articletype_kav object. To query archived
article versions, specify the article Id and set
IsLatestVersion='0'.
• Always filter on a single value of Language.
However, in SOQL, you can filter on more than
one Language if there is a filter on Id or
KnowledgeArticleId.

For generic SOQL and SOSL information see the Force.com SOQL and SOSL Reference.

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Update an Article’s Keyword Tracking with SOQL

Update an Article’s Keyword Tracking with SOQL
Track keywords that are used in Salesforce Knowledge article searches with the UPDATE TRACKING optional clause on a SOQL query.
UPDATE TRACKING is an optional clause that can be added to a SELECT statement of a SOQL query to report on article searches
and views. Developers can use UPDATE TRACKING to track the keywords that are used in Salesforce Knowledge article searches.
Example: You can use this syntax to track a keyword that are used in Salesforce Knowledge article search:
SELECT Title FROM FAQ__kav
WHERE Keyword='Apex' and
Language = 'en_US' and
KnowledgeArticleVersion = 'ka230000000PCiy'
UPDATE TRACKING

Update an Article Viewstat with SOQL
Determine how many hits a Salesforce Knowledge article has had by using the UPDATE VIEWSTAT optional clause on a SOQL query.
You can get a view count for every article that you have access to online.
The UPDATE VIEWSTAT clause is used in a SELECT statement to report on Salesforce Knowledge article searches and views. It
allows developers to update an article’s view statistics.
You can use this syntax to increase the view count for every article you have access to online:
SELECT Title FROM FAQ__kav
WHERE PublishStatus='online' and
Language = 'en_US' and
KnowledgeArticleVersion = 'ka230000000PCiy'
UPDATE VIEWSTAT

WITH filteringExpression
You can filter records based on field values, for example, to filter according to category or to query and retrieve changes that are tracked
in a user’s profile feed by using WITHfilteringExpression. This optional clause can be added to a SELECT statement of a
SOQL query.
Unlike the WHERE clause which only supports fields from the object specified in the FROM clause, WITH allows you to filter by other
related criteria. For example, you can use the WITH clause to filter articles based on their classification in one or more data category
groups. The WITH clause can only be used in the following cases:
• To filter records based on their categorization. See WITH DATA CATEGORY filteringExpression.
• To query and retrieve record changes tracked in a user profile feed. See UserProfileFeed in the Object Reference for Salesforce and
Force.com.
If WITH is specified, the query returns only records that match the filter and are visible to the user. If unspecified, the query returns only
the matching records that are visible to the user.
The filtering expression in the statements below is highlighted in bold. The syntax is explained in the following sections.
• SELECT Title FROM KnowledgeArticleVersion WHERE PublishStatus='online' WITH DATA
CATEGORY Geography__c ABOVE usa__c

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WITH DATA CATEGORY filteringExpression

• SELECT Id FROM UserProfileFeed WITH UserId='005D0000001AamR' ORDER BY CreatedDate
DESC, Id DESC LIMIT 20

IN THIS SECTION:
WITH DATA CATEGORY filteringExpression
You can search for Salesforce Knowledge articles and questions by their data category in a SOQL query. WITH DATA CATEGORY
is an optional clause in a SELECT statement that’s used to filter records that are associated with one or more data categories and
are visible to users.

WITH DATA CATEGORY filteringExpression
You can search for Salesforce Knowledge articles and questions by their data category in a SOQL query. WITH DATA CATEGORY is
an optional clause in a SELECT statement that’s used to filter records that are associated with one or more data categories and are
visible to users.
If WITH DATA CATEGORY is specified, the query() returns only matching records that are associated with the specified data
categories and are visible to the user. If unspecified, the query() only returns the matching records that are visible to the user.
Important: CategoryData is an object and DATA CATEGORY is syntax in a SOQL WITH clause. WITH DATA CATEGORY is
valid syntax, but WITH CategoryData is not supported.
A SOQL statement using a WITH DATA CATEGORY clause must also include a FROM ObjectTypeName clause where
ObjectTypeName equals:
• KnowledgeArticleVersion to query all article types
• an article type API Name to query a specific article type
• Question to query questions
When ObjectTypeName equals to KnowledgeArticleVersion or any article type API Name in the FROM clause, a WHERE clause
must be specified with one of the following parameters:
• PublishStatus to query articles depending on their status in the publishing cycle:
– WHERE PublishStatus='online' for published articles
– WHERE PublishStatus='archived' for archived articles
– WHERE PublishStatus='draft' for draft articles
• Id to query an article based on its id
For information on article types or questions, see “Knowledge Article Types” and “Finding and Viewing Questions” in the Salesforce Help.
Note: The WITH DATA CATEGORY clause does not support bind variables.

filteringExpression
The filteringExpression in the WITH DATA CATEGORY clause uses the following syntax:
dataCategorySelection [AND [dataCategorySelection2][...]

The examples in this section are based on the following data category group:
Geography__c
ww__c

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WITH DATA CATEGORY filteringExpression

northAmerica__c
usa__c
canada__c
mexico__c
europe__c
france__c
uk__c
asia__c

The category filtering in the statements below is highlighted in bold. The syntax is explained in the following sections.
• SELECT Title FROM KnowledgeArticleVersion WHERE PublishStatus='online' WITH DATA
CATEGORY Geography__c ABOVE usa__c

• SELECT Title FROM Question WHERE LastReplyDate > 2005-10-08T01:02:03Z WITH DATA
CATEGORY Geography__c AT (usa__c, uk__c)

• SELECT UrlName FROM KnowledgeArticleVersion WHERE PublishStatus='draft' WITH DATA
CATEGORY Geography__c AT usa__c AND Product__c ABOVE_OR_BELOW mobile_phones__c

You can only use the AND logical operator. The following syntax is incorrect as OR is not supported:
WITH DATA CATEGORY Geography__c ABOVE usa__c OR Product__c AT mobile_phones__c

IN THIS SECTION:
dataCategorySelection
The syntax of the data category selection in a WITH DATA CATEGORY clause in a SOQL query includes a category group name
to use as a filter, the filter selector, and the name of the category to use for filtering.
Filtering Selectors
When specifying filters for a WITH CATEGORY clause of a SOQL query, you can use AT to select the specified category, ABOVE
to select the category and all its parent categories, BELOW to select the category and all its subcategories, and ABOVE_OR_BELOW
to select the category, its parent categories, and its subcategories.
Example WITH DATA CATEGORY Clauses
Here are examples of WITH DATA CATEGORY clauses in a SELECT statement in a SOQL query.

dataCategorySelection
The syntax of the data category selection in a WITH DATA CATEGORY clause in a SOQL query includes a category group name to
use as a filter, the filter selector, and the name of the category to use for filtering.
The dataCategorySelection uses the following syntax:
dataCategoryGroupName filteringSelector dataCategoryName

Syntax

Description

dataCategoryGroupName The name of the data category group to use as a filter. Geography__c is the data category group

in the following example.
You cannot use the same data category group more than once in a query. As an example, the following
command is incorrect: WITH DATA CATEGORY Geography__c ABOVE usa__c AND
Geography__c BELOW europe__c

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WITH DATA CATEGORY filteringExpression

Syntax

Description

filteringSelector

The selector used to filter the data in the specified data category. See Filtering Selectors for a list of
valid selectors.

dataCategoryName

The name of the data category for filtering. You must have visibility on the category you specify. For
more information on category visibility, see "Data Category Visibility" in the Salesforce Help.
You can use parentheses to apply the filtering operator to more than one data category. Each data
category must be separated by a comma.
Example: WITH DATA CATEGORY Geography__c AT (usa__c,france__c,uk__c)
You can't use the AND operator instead of parentheses to list multiple data categories. The following
syntax does not work WITH DATA CATEGORY Geography__c AT usa__c AND
france__c

Filtering Selectors
When specifying filters for a WITH CATEGORY clause of a SOQL query, you can use AT to select the specified category, ABOVE to
select the category and all its parent categories, BELOW to select the category and all its subcategories, and ABOVE_OR_BELOW to select
the category, its parent categories, and its subcategories.
The following table lists the filteringSelector values that are used in the dataCategorySelection syntax.
The examples in this section are based on the following data category group:
Geography__c
ww__c
northAmerica__c
usa__c
canada__c
mexico__c
europe__c
france__c
uk__c
asia__c

Selector

Description

AT

Select the specified data category.
For example, the following syntax selects asia__c.
WITH DATA CATEGORY Geography__c AT asia__c

ABOVE

Select the specified data category and all its parent categories.
For example, the following syntax selects usa__c, northAmerica__c, and ww__c.
WITH DATA CATEGORY Geography__c ABOVE usa__c

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WITH DATA CATEGORY filteringExpression

Selector

Description

BELOW

Select the specified data category and all its subcategories.
For example the following selects northAmerica__c, usa__c, canada__c, and mexico__c.
WITH DATA CATEGORY Geography__c BELOW northAmerica__c

ABOVE_OR_BELOW

Select the specified data category and:
• all its parent categories
• all its subcategories
For example the following selects ww__c, europe__c, france__c and uk__c.
WITH DATA CATEGORY Geography__c ABOVE_OR_BELOW europe__c

Note: For more information on data category groups, data categories, parent and subcategories, see "Data Categories in
Salesforce.com" in the Salesforce Help.

Example WITH DATA CATEGORY Clauses
Here are examples of WITH DATA CATEGORY clauses in a SELECT statement in a SOQL query.
Type of Search

Example(s)

Select the title from all questions classified
with the mobile_phones__c data
category in the Product__c data
category group

SELECT Title FROM Question WHERE LastReplyDate <
2005-10-08T01:02:03Z WITH DATA CATEGORY Product__c AT
mobile_phones__c

Select the title and summary from all
published Knowledge articles classified:

SELECT Title, Summary FROM KnowledgeArticleVersion WHERE
PublishStatus='Online' AND Language = 'en_US' WITH DATA
CATEGORY Geography__c ABOVE_OR_BELOW europe__c AND
Product__c BELOW All__c

• above or below europe__c in the
Geography__c data category group
• below allProducts__c in the
Product__c data category group
Select the ID and title from draft articles of
type “Offer__kav” classified :
• with the france__c or usa__c
data category in the Geography__c
data category group

SELECT Id, Title FROM Offer__kav WHERE
PublishStatus='Draft' AND Language = 'en_US' WITH DATA
CATEGORY Geography__c AT (france__c,usa__c) AND
Product__c ABOVE dsl__c

• above the dsl__c data category in
the Product__ data category group

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Using Relationship Queries with Data Category Selection
Objects

Using Relationship Queries with Data Category Selection Objects
Data categories are used to classify records. In SOQL, you can use the Article__DataCategorySelection or QuestionDataCategorySelection
objects. You can also build a relationship query with the DataCategorySelections relationship name in a FROM clause.
Imagine an Offer article type. The following query returns the ID of any categorization associated with an offer and the ID of the
categorized article.
SELECT Id,ParentId
FROM Offer__DataCategorySelection

The following example uses the DataCategorySelections relationship name to build a relationship query that returns the ID
of published offers and the ID of all the categorizations associated to these offers.
SELECT Id, Title
(
SELECT Id
FROM DataCategorySelections
)
FROM Offer__kav WHERE publishStatus='online';

About SOSL
Use the Salesforce Object Search Language (SOSL) to construct text-based search queries against the search index.
You can search text, email, and phone fields for multiple objects, including custom objects, that you have access to in a single query in
the following environments.
• SOAP or REST calls
• Apex statements
• Visualforce controllers and getter methods
• Schema Explorer of the Eclipse Toolkit
Note: If your org has relationship queries enabled, SOSL supports SOQL relationship queries.

Compare SOSL and SOQL
Use SOQL when:
• You want to search against the org’s database. Results from a database search include matches for the exact search string.
• You know in which objects or fields the data resides.
• You want to:
– Retrieve data from a single object or from multiple objects that are related to one another
– Count the number of records that meet specified criteria
– Sort results as part of the query
– Retrieve data from number, date, or checkbox fields
Use SOSL when:
• You don’t know in which object or field the data resides, and you want to find it in the most efficient and fastest way possible.

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Update an Article’s Keyword Tracking with SOSL

• You want to:
– Retrieve data for a specific term that you know exists within a field. Because SOSL can tokenize multiple terms within a field and
build a search index off this, SOSL searches are faster and can return more relevant results. Depending on the search object,
SOSL searches also take advantage of the advanced features of the search index, such as out-of-order matching, synonyms,
lemmatization, and spell check.
– Retrieve multiple objects and fields efficiently, and the objects might or might not be related to one another.
– Retrieve data for a particular division in an org using the divisions feature, and you want to find it in the most efficient way
possible.

Define Efficient SOSL Text Searches
If your searches are too general, they are slow and return too many results. Use the following clauses to write more targeted and useful
searches.
• IN: Limits the types of fields to search, including email, name, or phone.
• LIMIT: Specifies the maximum number of rows to return.
• OFFSET: Displays the search results on multiple pages.
• RETURNING: Limits the objects and fields to return.
• WITH DATA CATEGORY: Specifies the data categories to return.
• WITH DivisionFilter: Specifies the division field to return.
• WITH NETWORK: Specifies the community ID to return.
• WITH PricebookId: Specifies the price book ID to return.
IN THIS SECTION:
Update an Article’s Keyword Tracking with SOSL
Track keywords that are used in Salesforce Knowledge article searches with the UPDATE TRACKING optional clause on a SOSL
query. You can use the language attribute to search by locale.
Update an Article’s Viewstat with SOSL
Determine how many hits a Salesforce Knowledge article has had by using the UPDATE VIEWSTAT optional clause on a SOSL
query. You can use the language attribute to search by locale.
WITH DATA CATEGORY DataCategorySpec
WITH DATA CATEGORY is an optional clause that can be added to a SOSL query to filter all search results that are associated
with one or more data categories and are visible to users. This clause is used in searches of Salesforce Knowledge articles and
questions.
WITH SNIPPET
WITH SNIPPET is an optional clause that can be added to a SOSL query for article, case, feed, and idea searches. On the search

results page, excerpts below article titles show terms matching the search query highlighted within the context of surrounding text.
Snippets make it easier for users to identify the content they’re looking for.

Update an Article’s Keyword Tracking with SOSL
Track keywords that are used in Salesforce Knowledge article searches with the UPDATE TRACKING optional clause on a SOSL query.
You can use the language attribute to search by locale.

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Update an Article’s Viewstat with SOSL

The UPDATE TRACKING clause is used to report on Salesforce Knowledge article searches and views. It allows developers to track
the keywords used in Salesforce Knowledge article searches. Also, the language attribute can be used to search by a specific language
(locale). However, only one language can be specified in a single query. Make a separate query for each language that you want. Use
the Java format, which uses the underscore (for example, fr_FR, jp_JP, and so on), to supply locales. Search the Web for “java locale
codes” to get a list of supported locales.
You can use this syntax to track a keyword used in Salesforce Knowledge article search:
FIND {Keyword}
RETURNING KnowledgeArticleVersion (Title WHERE PublishStatus="Online" and language="en_US")
UPDATE TRACKING

Update an Article’s Viewstat with SOSL
Determine how many hits a Salesforce Knowledge article has had by using the UPDATE VIEWSTAT optional clause on a SOSL query.
You can use the language attribute to search by locale.
The optional UPDATE VIEWSTAT clause is used to report on Salesforce Knowledge article searches and views. It allows developers
to update an article’s view statistics. Also, the language attribute can be used to search by a specific language (locale). However, only
one language can be specified in a single query. Make a separate query for each language that you want. Use the Java format, which
uses the underscore (for example, fr_FR, jp_JP, and so on), to supply locales. Search the Web for “java locale codes” to get a list of
supported locales.
You can use this syntax to increase the view count for every article you have access to online in US English:
FIND {Title}
RETURNING FAQ__kav (Title WHERE PublishStatus="Online" and
language="en_US" and
KnowledgeArticleVersion = 'ka230000000PCiy')
UPDATE VIEWSTAT

WITH DATA CATEGORY DataCategorySpec
WITH DATA CATEGORY is an optional clause that can be added to a SOSL query to filter all search results that are associated with

one or more data categories and are visible to users. This clause is used in searches of Salesforce Knowledge articles and questions.
The WITH DATA CATEGORY clause can be used in API version 18.0 or later.

Syntax
The WITH DATA CATEGORY syntax is:
WITH DATA CATEGORY DataCategorySpec [logicalOperator DataCategorySpec2 ... ]

Where DataCategorySpec consists of a groupName, Operator, and category.
Name

Description

groupName

The name of the data category group to filter. For information on category groups, see “Create and
Modify Category Groups” in the Salesforce Help.

Operator

Use one of the following operators:
• AT—Queries the specified data category.

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Name

WITH DATA CATEGORY DataCategorySpec

Description
• ABOVE—Queries the specified data category and all of its parent categories.
• BELOW—Queries the specified data category and all of its subcategories.
• ABOVE_OR_BELOW—Queries the specified data category, all of its parent categories, and all
of its subcategories.

category

The name of the category to filter. To include multiple data categories, enclose them in parentheses,
separated by commas. For information on categories, see “Add Data Categories to Category Groups”
in the Salesforce Help.

You can add multiple data category specifiers by using the logical operator AND. Other operators, such as OR and AND NOT, are not
supported.
A SOSL statement using the WITH DATA CATEGORY clause must also include a RETURNING
with a WHERE clause that filters on the PublishStatus field.

ObjectTypeName clause,

In the RETURNING clause, specify one of the following for ObjectTypeName:
• To search a specific article type, use the article type name with the suffix __kav
• To search all article types, use KnowledgeArticleVersion
• To search questions, use Question
For information on article types, see “Knowledge Article Types” in the Salesforce Help.
The WHERE clause must use one of the following publish statuses:
• WHERE PublishStatus='online' for published articles
• WHERE PublishStatus='archived' for archived articles
• WHERE PublishStatus='draft' for draft articles

Examples
Search Type
Search all published (online)Salesforce
Knowledge articles with a category from
one category group.
Search online FAQ articles with categories
from two category groups.

Search archived FAQ articles from one
category group.

Example
FIND {tourism} RETURNING KnowledgeArticleVersion
(Id, Title WHERE PublishStatus='online')
WITH DATA CATEGORY Location__c AT America__c

FIND {tourism} RETURNING FAQ__kav
(Id, Title WHERE PublishStatus='online')
WITH DATA CATEGORY Geography__c ABOVE France__c
AND Product__c AT mobile_phones__c

FIND {tourism} RETURNING FAQ__kav
(Id, Title WHERE PublishStatus='archived')
WITH DATA CATEGORY Geography__c AT Iceland__c

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Search Type
Search all draft Salesforce Knowledge
articles from one category group.

WITH SNIPPET

Example
FIND {tourism} RETURNING KnowledgeArticleVersion
(Id, Title WHERE PublishStatus='draft')
WITH DATA CATEGORY Geography__c BELOW Europe__c

For information on the WITH DATA CATEGORY clause, see the WITH DATA CATEGORY filteringExpression.
Tip: You can also search for articles by ID, without using the WITH DATA CATEGORY clause. For more information, see
Example WHERE Clauses.

WITH SNIPPET
WITH SNIPPET is an optional clause that can be added to a SOSL query for article, case, feed, and idea searches. On the search results

page, excerpts below article titles show terms matching the search query highlighted within the context of surrounding text. Snippets
make it easier for users to identify the content they’re looking for.
Note: To generate search results with highlighted matches but not snippets, use WITH HIGHLIGHT.
Search snippets and highlights are generated from the following field types.
• Email
• Text
• Text Area
• Text Area (Long)
• Text Area (Rich)
Search snippets and highlights are not generated from the following field types.
• Checkbox
• Currency
• Date
• Date/Time
• File
• Formula
• Lookup Relationship
• Number
• Percent
• Phone
• Picklist
• Picklist (Multi-Select)
• URL

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WITH SNIPPET

Example: The following SOSL statement returns snippets for articles that match the search term San Francisco.
FIND {San Francisco} IN ALL FIELDS RETURNING KnowledgeArticleVersion(id, title WHERE
PublishStatus = 'Online' AND Language = 'en_US') WITH
SNIPPET (target_length=120)

The matching terms are highlighted with  tags within the context of the snippet results. Stemmed forms of the term and any
synonyms defined are also highlighted.
Example:
[ {
"attributes" : {
"type" : "KnowledgeArticleVersion",
"url" : "/services/data/v32.0/sobjects/KnowledgeArticleVersion/kaKD00000000001MAA"
},
"Id" : "kaKD00000000001MAA"
"Title" : "San Francisco"
"Summary" : "City and County of San Francisco"
"snippet.text" : "San Francisco, officially the City and
County of San Francisco is the... City and County of
San Fran"
"highlight.Title" : "San Francisco"
}, {
"attributes" : {
"type" : "KnowledgeArticleVersion",
"url" : "/services/data/v32.0/sobjects/KnowledgeArticleVersion/kaBD0000000007DMAQ"
},
"Id" : "kaBD0000000007DMAQ",
"Title" : "San Francisco Bay Area",
"Summary" : "Nine county metropolitan area",
"snippet.text" : "The SF Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is
a populated region that"
"highlight.Title" : "San Francisco Bay Area"
}, {
"attributes" : {
"type" : "KnowledgeArticleVersion",
"url" : "/services/data/v32.0/sobjects/KnowledgeArticleVersion/ka3D0000000042OIAQ"
},
"Id" : "ka3D0000000042OIAQ",
"Title" : "California",
"Summary" : "State of California",
"snippet.text" : "(Greater Los Angeles area and San
Francisco Bay Area, respectively), and eight of the nation’s 50 most"
} ]

Note: In this example, “SF” (as a synonym defined for “San Francisco”) and “San Fran” (as a stemmed form of “San Francisco”)
are also highlighted in the results as matching terms.

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WITH SNIPPET

Usage
For SOSL statements using the WITH SNIPPET clause, we recommend using a RETURNING
a WHERE clause that filters on the PublishStatus field.

ObjectTypeName clause, with

In the RETURNING clause, specify one of the following for ObjectTypeName:
• To search a specific article type, use the article type name with the suffix __kav.
• To search all article types, use KnowledgeArticleVersion.
• To search case, case comment, feed, feed comment, idea, and idea comment types, use Case, CaseComment, FeedItem,
FeedComment, Idea, and IdeaComment. For example:
FIND {San Francisco} IN ALL FIELDS RETURNING FeedItem, FeedComment WITH SNIPPET
(target_length=120)

Other objects that are included in searches that contain WITH SNIPPET don’t return snippets.
Snippets aren’t displayed for search terms that contain a wildcard, when the search doesn’t return any articles, or if the user doesn’t have
access to the field that contains the snippet. Even if you add the WITH SNIPPET clause, searches that don’t return snippets don’t
return snippets.
Snippets are only displayed when 20 or fewer results are returned on a page.
Tip: Use the LIMIT or OFFSET clause to return only 20 results at a time.

Escaped HTML Tags
When matching terms within HTML tags are returned in a snippet, the HTML tags are escaped and the matching terms are highlighted
in the results.
Example: A search for salesforce returns an article with the text “For more information, visit salesforce.com”. The original hyperlink tags from the article are escaped (encoded) and “salesforce”
is highlighted in the snippet result.
For more information, visit <a
href='http://salesforce.com'>salesforce.com</a>

Target Snippet Length
By default, each snippet displays up to approximately 300 characters, which is usually three lines of text in a standard browser window
display. The number of characters displayed is the target length, within a statistically insignificant degree of variance.
Snippets consist of one or more fragments of text that contain the matching terms. If the returned snippet includes multiple text fragments
(for example, for matches within multiple fields), the target length is the maximum total length of all the returned fragments.
To specify an alternate target length, add the optional target_length parameter to the WITH SNIPPET clause. You can specify
a target length from 50 to 1,000 characters. When the target_length is set to an invalid number, such as 0 or a negative number,
the length defaults to 300.
Example: A target_length parameter of 120 characters is useful for displaying a snippet of approximately three lines of
text in a standard mobile interface.
FIND {San Francisco} IN ALL FIELDS RETURNING KnowledgeArticleVersion(id, title WHERE
PublishStatus = 'Online' AND Language = 'en_US') WITH
SNIPPET(target_length=120)

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WITH SNIPPET

Supported APIs
The WITH SNIPPET clause can be used in API version 32.0 or later. The WITH SNIPPET clause in SOSL is supported in SOAP API,
REST API, and Apex.

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CHAPTER 6 Salesforce Knowledge, Apex, and
Visualforce
In this chapter ...
•

PublishingService
Class

With the power of Apex and Visualforce, you can customize you knowledge base look and feel, for
example with custom search pages, or build a robust article publishing cycle.
Apex is a strongly typed, object-oriented programming language that allows developers to execute flow
and transaction control statements on the Force.com platform server in conjunction with calls to the
Force.com API. Using syntax that looks like Java and acts like database stored procedures, Apex enables
developers to add business logic to most system events, including button clicks, related record updates,
and Visualforce pages. Apex code can be initiated by Web service requests and from triggers on objects.
Visualforce is a framework that allows developers to build sophisticated, custom user interfaces that can
be hosted natively on the Force.com platform. The Visualforce framework includes a tag-based markup
language, similar to HTML, and a set of server-side “standard controllers” that make basic database
operations, such as queries and saves, very simple to perform.
Due to the endless possibilities with Apex and Visualforce, only the Apex Publishing Service class is in
this guide. For more Apex and Visualforce information see the Apex Developer Guide and the Visualforce
Developer Guide.

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PublishingService Class

PublishingService Class
Use the methods in the KbManagement.PublishingService class to manage the lifecycle of an article and its translations.

Namespace
KbManagement

Usage
Use the methods in the KbManagement.PublishingService class to manage the following parts of the lifecycle of an article
and its translations:
• Publishing
• Updating
• Retrieving
• Deleting
• Submitting for translation
• Setting a translation to complete or incomplete status
• Archiving
• Assigning review tasks for draft articles or translations
Note: Date values are based on GMT.
To use the methods in this class, you must enable Salesforce Knowledge. See Salesforce Knowledge Implementation Guide for more
information on setting up Salesforce Knowledge.
IN THIS SECTION:
PublishingService Methods

PublishingService Methods
The following are methods for PublishingService. All methods are static.
IN THIS SECTION:
archiveOnlineArticle(articleId, scheduledDate)
Archives an online version of an article. If the specified scheduledDate is null, the article is archived immediately. Otherwise, it archives
the article on the scheduled date.
assignDraftArticleTask(articleId, assigneeId, instructions, dueDate, sendEmailNotification)
Assigns a review task related to a draft article.
assignDraftTranslationTask(articleVersionId, assigneeId, instructions, dueDate, sendEmailNotification)
Assigns a review task related to a draft translation.
cancelScheduledArchivingOfArticle(articleId)
Cancels the scheduled archiving of an online article.

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cancelScheduledPublicationOfArticle(articleId)
Cancels the scheduled publication of a draft article.
completeTranslation(articleVersionId)
Puts a translation in a completed state that is ready to publish.
deleteArchivedArticle(articleId)
Deletes an archived article.
deleteArchivedArticleVersion(articleId, versionNumber)
Deletes a specific version of an archived article.
deleteDraftArticle(articleId)
Deletes a draft article.
deleteDraftTranslation(articleVersionId)
Deletes a draft translation.
editArchivedArticle(articleId)
Creates a draft article from the archived master version and returns the new draft master version ID of the article.
editOnlineArticle(articleId, unpublish)
Creates a draft article from the online version and returns the new draft master version ID of the article. Also, unpublishes the online
article, if unpublish is set to true.
editPublishedTranslation(articleId, language, unpublish)
Creates a draft version of the online translation for a specific language and returns the new draft master version ID of the article. Also,
unpublishes the article, if set to true.
publishArticle(articleId, flagAsNew)
Publishes an article. If flagAsNew is set to true, the article is published as a major version.
restoreOldVersion(articleId, versionNumber)
Creates a draft article from an existing online article based on the specified archived version of the article and returns the article
version ID.
scheduleForPublication(articleId, scheduledDate)
Schedules the article for publication as a major version. If the specified date is null, the article is published immediately.
setTranslationToIncomplete(articleVersionId)
Sets a draft translation that is ready for publication back to “in progress” status.
submitForTranslation(articleId, language, assigneeId, dueDate)
Submits an article for translation to the specified language. Also assigns the specified user and due date to the submittal and returns
new ID of the draft translation.

archiveOnlineArticle(articleId, scheduledDate)
Archives an online version of an article. If the specified scheduledDate is null, the article is archived immediately. Otherwise, it archives
the article on the scheduled date.

Signature
public static Void archiveOnlineArticle(String articleId, Datetime scheduledDate)

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Parameters
articleId

Type: String
scheduledDate

Type: Datetime

Return Value
Type: Void

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
Datetime scheduledDate = Datetime.newInstanceGmt(2012, 12,1,13,30,0);
KbManagement.PublishingService.archiveOnlineArticle(articleId, scheduledDate);

assignDraftArticleTask(articleId, assigneeId, instructions,
dueDate, sendEmailNotification)
Assigns a review task related to a draft article.

Signature
public static Void assignDraftArticleTask(String articleId, String assigneeId, String
instructions, Datetime dueDate, Boolean sendEmailNotification)

Parameters
articleId

Type: String
assigneeId

Type: String
instructions

Type: String
dueDate

Type: Datetime
sendEmailNotification

Type: Boolean

Return Value
Type: Void

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Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
String assigneeId = '';
String instructions = 'Please review this draft.';
Datetime dueDate = Datetime.newInstanceGmt(2012, 12, 1);
KbManagement.PublishingService.assignDraftArticleTask(articleId, assigneeId, instructions,
dueDate, true);

assignDraftTranslationTask(articleVersionId, assigneeId,
instructions, dueDate, sendEmailNotification)
Assigns a review task related to a draft translation.

Signature
public static Void assignDraftTranslationTask(String articleVersionId, String assigneeId,
String instructions, Datetime dueDate, Boolean sendEmailNotification)

Parameters
articleVersionId

Type: String
assigneeId

Type: String
instructions

Type: String
dueDate

Type: Datetime
sendEmailNotification

Type: Boolean

Return Value
Type: Void

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
String assigneeId = 'Insert assignee ID';
String instructions = 'Please review this draft.';
Datetime dueDate = Datetime.newInstanceGmt(2012, 12, 1);
KbManagement.PublishingService.assignDraftTranslationTask(articleId, assigneeId,
instructions, dueDate, true);

cancelScheduledArchivingOfArticle(articleId)
Cancels the scheduled archiving of an online article.

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Signature
public static Void cancelScheduledArchivingOfArticle(String articleId)

Parameters
articleId

Type: String

Return Value
Type: Void

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
KbManagement.PublishingService.cancelScheduledArchivingOfArticle (articleId);

cancelScheduledPublicationOfArticle(articleId)
Cancels the scheduled publication of a draft article.

Signature
public static Void cancelScheduledPublicationOfArticle(String articleId)

Parameters
articleId

Type: String

Return Value
Type: Void

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
KbManagement.PublishingService.cancelScheduledPublicationOfArticle (articleId);

completeTranslation(articleVersionId)
Puts a translation in a completed state that is ready to publish.

Signature
public static Void completeTranslation(String articleVersionId)

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Parameters
articleVersionId

Type: String

Return Value
Type: Void

Example
String articleVersionId = 'Insert article ID';
KbManagement.PublishingService.completeTranslation(articleVersionId);

deleteArchivedArticle(articleId)
Deletes an archived article.

Signature
public static Void deleteArchivedArticle(String articleId)

Parameters
articleId

Type: String

Return Value
Type: Void

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
KbManagement.PublishingService.deleteArchivedArticle(articleId);

deleteArchivedArticleVersion(articleId, versionNumber)
Deletes a specific version of an archived article.

Signature
public static Void deleteArchivedArticleVersion(String articleId, Integer versionNumber)

Parameters
articleId

Type: String

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versionNumber

Type: Integer

Return Value
Type: Void

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
Integer versionNumber = 1;
KbManagement.PublishingService.deleteArchivedArticleVersion(articleId, versionNumber);

deleteDraftArticle(articleId)
Deletes a draft article.

Signature
public static Void deleteDraftArticle(String articleId)

Parameters
articleId

Type: String

Return Value
Type: Void

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
KbManagement.PublishingService.deleteDraftArticle(articleId);

deleteDraftTranslation(articleVersionId)
Deletes a draft translation.

Signature
public static Void deleteDraftTranslation(String articleVersionId)

Parameters
articleVersionId

Type: String

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Return Value
Type: Void

Example
String articleVersionId = 'Insert article ID';
KbManagement.PublishingService.deleteDraftTranslation (articleVersionId);

editArchivedArticle(articleId)
Creates a draft article from the archived master version and returns the new draft master version ID of the article.

Signature
public static String editArchivedArticle(String articleId)

Parameters
articleId

Type: String

Return Value
Type: String

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
String id = KbManagement.PublishingService.editArchivedArticle(articleId);

editOnlineArticle(articleId, unpublish)
Creates a draft article from the online version and returns the new draft master version ID of the article. Also, unpublishes the online
article, if unpublish is set to true.

Signature
public static String editOnlineArticle(String articleId, Boolean unpublish)

Parameters
articleId

Type: String
unpublish

Type: Boolean

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Return Value
Type: String

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
String id = KbManagement.PublishingService.editOnlineArticle (articleId, true);

editPublishedTranslation(articleId, language, unpublish)
Creates a draft version of the online translation for a specific language and returns the new draft master version ID of the article. Also,
unpublishes the article, if set to true.

Signature
public static String editPublishedTranslation(String articleId, String language, Boolean
unpublish)

Parameters
articleId

Type: String
language

Type: String
unpublish

Type: Boolean

Return Value
Type: String

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
String language = 'fr';
String id = KbManagement.PublishingService.editPublishedTranslation(articleId, language,
true);

publishArticle(articleId, flagAsNew)
Publishes an article. If flagAsNew is set to true, the article is published as a major version.

Signature
public static Void publishArticle(String articleId, Boolean flagAsNew)

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Parameters
articleId

Type: String
flagAsNew

Type: Boolean

Return Value
Type: Void

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
KbManagement.PublishingService.publishArticle(articleId, true);

restoreOldVersion(articleId, versionNumber)
Creates a draft article from an existing online article based on the specified archived version of the article and returns the article version
ID.

Signature
public static String restoreOldVersion(String articleId, Integer versionNumber)

Parameters
articleId

Type: String
versionNumber

Type: Integer

Return Value
Type: String

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
String id = KbManagement.PublishingService.restoreOldVersion (articleId, 1);

scheduleForPublication(articleId, scheduledDate)
Schedules the article for publication as a major version. If the specified date is null, the article is published immediately.

Signature
public static Void scheduleForPublication(String articleId, Datetime scheduledDate)

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Parameters
articleId

Type: String
scheduledDate

Type: Datetime

Return Value
Type: Void

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
Datetime scheduledDate = Datetime.newInstanceGmt(2012, 12,1,13,30,0);
KbManagement.PublishingService.scheduleForPublication(articleId, scheduledDate);

setTranslationToIncomplete(articleVersionId)
Sets a draft translation that is ready for publication back to “in progress” status.

Signature
public static Void setTranslationToIncomplete(String articleVersionId)

Parameters
articleVersionId

Type: String

Return Value
Type: Void

Example
String articleVersionId = 'Insert article ID';
KbManagement.PublishingService.setTranslationToIncomplete(articleVersionId);

submitForTranslation(articleId, language, assigneeId, dueDate)
Submits an article for translation to the specified language. Also assigns the specified user and due date to the submittal and returns
new ID of the draft translation.

Signature
public static String submitForTranslation(String articleId, String language, String
assigneeId, Datetime dueDate)

187

Salesforce Knowledge, Apex, and Visualforce

PublishingService Methods

Parameters
articleId

Type: String
language

Type: String
assigneeId

Type: String
dueDate

Type: Datetime

Return Value
Type: String

Example
String articleId = 'Insert article ID';
String language = 'fr';
String assigneeId = 'Insert assignee ID';
Datetime dueDate = Datetime.newInstanceGmt(2012, 12,1);
String id = KbManagement.PublishingService.submitForTranslation(articleId, language,
assigneeId, dueDate);

188

INDEX
A

N

Article
DataCategorySelection 12
ArticleType component
Channel Layout 135
Layout 133, 144

NewsFeed object 42

C
Calls
describeDataCategoryGroups() 70, 73, 77–78, 81
describeKnowledge() 69
Categories filtering (WITH DATA CATEGORY) 163–164
Channel Layout (for article types) 135
Classes
KbManagement.PublishingService 177
Components
Article Type 136
ArticleType 130
Channel Layout (for article types) 135
ExternalDataSource 157
KnowledgeSettings 139
Layout (for article types) 133, 144
SearchLayouts 153
SearchSettings 150
SynonymDictionary 155

D
Data categories
filtering 166
Data categories, filtering in SOSL 170
Data Category Selection 165
DataCategorySelection article 12
describeDataCategoryGroups() call 70, 73, 77–78, 81
describeKnowledge() call 69

E
ExternalDataSource component 157

K
KbManagement.PublishingService
class 177
KnowledgeSettings component 139

L
Layout component (for article types) 133, 144

O
Objects
NewsFeed 42
ReportFeed 52
UserProfileFeed 62

Q
query() call
SOQL overview 162

R
Relationship queries
data categories 168
ReportFeed object 52

S
Salesforce Knowledge
knowledgeManagement/settings 90
Search
suggestedSearchQueries 113
suggestions 106
suggestTitleMatches 111
SearchLayouts component 153
SearchSettings components 150
SELECT
UPDATE 163
WITH 163
WITH DATA CATEGORY 164–165
SOQL
overview 162
SOSL
about 168
WITH DATA CATEGORY clause 170
WITH SNIPPET clause 172
Suggested Article Titles 111
Suggested Queries 113
Suggested Records 106
SynonymDictionary component 155

U
UPDATE TRACKING 163, 169
UPDATE VIEWSTAT 163, 170

189

Index

UserProfileFeed object 62

W

WITH DATA CATEGORY 164
WITH DATA CATEGORY clause, SOSL 170
WITH SNIPPET clause, SOSL 172

WITH 163

190
Source Exif Data: File Type : PDF File Type Extension : pdf MIME Type : application/pdf PDF Version : 1.4 Linearized : Yes Create Date : 2017:04:13 16:35:46Z Author : salesforce.com, inc. Date Time Generated : 2017-04-13T09:35:24.556-07:00 Trapped : False DRC : 206.18 Modify Date : 2017:04:13 16:35:46Z Format : application/pdf Title : Salesforce Knowledge Developer Guide Creator : salesforce.com, inc. Producer : XEP 4.20 build 20120720 Creator Tool : Unknown Page Count : 196 Page Mode : UseOutlines EXIF Metadata provided by EXIF.tools
Salesforce Knowledge Developer Guide

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