Object Reference for Salesforce and Force.com

Object Basics
Reference
PDF

Newer Version Available

This content describes an older version of this product. View Latest

Data Categories

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 and active data category groups 5 category groups, with 3 groups active at a time 5 category groups, with 3 groups active at a time
Maximum number of categories per data category group 100 categories in a data category group 100 categories in a data category group
Maximum number of levels in data category group hierarchy 5 levels in a data category group hierarchy 5 levels in a data category group hierarchy
Maximum number of data categories from a data category group assigned to an article 8 data categories from a data category group assigned to an 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.

Anwers tab displaying categories

Working with Data Categories in the API

The following table lists API resources for working with data categories.

Name Type Description
Article Type__DataCategorySelection Object Gives access to article categorization.
QuestionDataCategorySelection Object Gives access to question categorization.
WITH DATA CATEGORY filteringExpression SOQL clause Filters articles depending on their status in the publishing cycle and their data categories. For more information, see the Salesforce SOQL and SOSL Reference Guide.
WITH DATA CATEGORY DataCategorySpec SOSL clause Finds articles based on their categorization. For more information, see the Salesforce SOQL and SOSL Reference Guide.
describeDataCategoryGroups() Call Retrieves available category groups for objects specified in the request.
describeDataCategoryGroupStructures() Call Retrieves available category groups along with their data category structure for objects specified in the request.
describeDataCategoryGroups Apex method Returns a list of the category groups associated with the specified objects. See the Apex Developer Guide.
describeDataCategoryGroupStructures Apex method Returns available category groups along with their data category structure for objects specified in the request. See the Apex Developer Guide.