ArticleType

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 can have two custom fields, Question and Answer, where article managers enter data when creating or updating FAQ articles. A more complex article type can have 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 can 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 Knowledge in the SOAP API Developer 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:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Package xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
    <fullName>articlefilemetadata</fullName>
    <apiAccessLevel>Unrestricted</apiAccessLevel>
    <types>
        <members>newarticle__kav.description__c</members>
        <name>CustomField</name>
    </types>
    <types>
        <members>newarticle__kav</members>
        <name>CustomObject</name>
    </types>
</Package>

Version

ArticleTypes are available in API version 19.0 and later.

Fields

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.

ArticleTypeTemplate

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

Declarative Metadata Sample Definitions

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<CustomObject xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
    <articleTypeChannelDisplay>
        <articleTypeTemplates>
            <channel>App</channel>
            <template>Tab</template>
        </articleTypeTemplates>
        <articleTypeTemplates>
            <channel>Prm</channel>
            <template>Tab</template>
        </articleTypeTemplates>
        <articleTypeTemplates>
            <channel>Csp</channel>
            <template>Tab</template>
        </articleTypeTemplates>
        <articleTypeTemplates>
            <channel>Pkb</channel>
            <template>Toc</template>
        </articleTypeTemplates>
    </articleTypeChannelDisplay>
    <deploymentStatus>Deployed</deploymentStatus>
    <description>Article type with custom fields</description>
    <fields>
        <fullName>description__c</fullName>
        <label>Description</label>
        <length>48</length>
        <type>Text</type>
    </fields>
    <label>newarticle</label>
    <pluralLabel>newarticles</pluralLabel>
</CustomObject>

Wildcard Support in the Manifest File

This metadata type supports the wildcard character * (asterisk) in the package.xml manifest file. For information about using the manifest file, see Deploying and Retrieving Metadata with the Zip File.