Pendo’s knowledge base integration allows you to deliver contextual and on-demand help to your visitors from within the Resource Center.
Supported providers
The following knowledge base providers are supported:
- Zendesk
- Wordpress (WP Engine hosted sites only)
- HelpDocs
- Helpscout
- Swiftype
- Algolia
If you use a provider that isn't supported, contact your sales representative or customer success manager.
Provider-specific features
Depending on your provider, we support different levels of article rendering functionality inside of the Resource Center. Our integrations rely heavily on the provider’s API. We provide as much functionality as they allow.
Full article rendering
- Zendesk
-
Wordpress
- Requires a WP Engine-hosted site.
- The site permalink settings must be set to something other than default. For more information, see the Wordpress Using Permalinks article.
For the above providers, we support full article rendering inside of Resource Center.
Partial article rendering
- HelpDocs
- Helpscout
- Swiftype
For the above providers, we support partial article rendering inside of Resource Center. Partial article rendering means that we present a preview of the article and then add a Read full article button that links out to the web version of that article.
*We're currently unable to support articles rendering for Algolia. Search results always open the web version of the content in a new browser tab.
Getting started
You can configure a knowledge base integration in Integrations. Select any of the tiles to open the configuration options.
Add the integration for the first time
After configuring, select Add Integration > Yes, confirm to enable the integration in your staging environment.
Publish staging configuration to production environment
After successfully adding or saving, you're presented with the option of publishing the integration to your production environment. Select Publish to production to enable the integration in your production environment.
Disable the integration
To disable the integration, toggle the On – Off toggle in the top-right corner of the configuration window.
Configuration options
Contextual help
Suggested article path
Ensure the content presented to the user is contextual.
The number configured here corresponds to a section of the url for the page a user is on. We use the value in that section of the url when generating suggested results. For example:
Suggested article path: 1
URL: https://acmecorp.com/foo/bar/abc
Result: we use the word "foo" when retrieving suggested articles
Suggested article path: 2
URL: https://acmecorp.com/foo/bar/abc
Result: we use the word "bar" when retrieving suggested articles
Suggested article path: 3
URL: https://acmecorp.com/foo/bar/abc
Result: we use the word "abc" when retrieving suggested articles
Combine paths
If checked, we combine all available URL sections up to and including the suggested article path configured above. For example:
Suggested article path: 2
URL: https://acmecorp.com/foo/bar/abc
Result: we use the word "foo" and "bar" when retrieving suggested articles
Suggested article path: 3
URL: https://acmecorp.com/foo/bar/abc
Result: we use the word "foo" and "bar" and "abc" when retrieving suggested articles
Popular topics string
In the event that the search term used for the suggested articles doesn't return any matches, you can optionally display a message to the end user. Whatever you input into this configuration box is shown to the end user.
Advanced options
Bearer Tokens (Zendesk Legacy Integration)
If you have a protected knowledge base (users log in to access help documentation), you must provide a bearer token in order for users to search the content. If your knowledge base is not behind a login, you don't need to configure this option.
For more information, see Zendesk's Using OAuth authentication with your application article.
Custom classes
If you have a highly customized Resource Center and need to leverage these, contact Pendo Support for instructions to ensure the integration functions as intended.
Styles
If you want to customize the styles you see inside of the knowledge base integration, you can upload a stylesheet at the bottom of the advanced options section. Open this starter CSS file to access all of the classes used in the integration. Add your custom styles to these classes and upload it.
Analytics
Through the use of our parameterized URL feature, Pendo can capture and display the following metrics:
- Which Visitors and Accounts are searching for content,
- Keywords used to search for content that yields results
- Keywords that yield no results
- Which articles are viewed.
To configure these analytics, follow the instructions below:
Create page rules
Listed below are the four page rules needed to collect analytics. As a reminder, you must create four new pages in the Pendo subscription, with each containing only the page rules specified below.
Name: Suggested Results //*/search/suggested-results/*parameter*
Name: Search Results //*/search/results/*parameter*
Name: No Results //*/search/no-results/*parameter*
Name: Articles //*/article/*parameter*
Troubleshooting
Zendesk knowledge base images aren't loading
This is now solved through our new Zendesk Help Center integration. For more information, see the Zendesk Help Center Integration Overview.
Error: "Access Denied" when opening Algolia links from the KB integration in the Resource Center.
It's likely that you're implementing relative paths (such as /param1/param2/param3) to direct the links to articles. To fix this, include the full domain as your articles URL, for example, https://www.domain.com/param1/param2/param3. Go to the Algolia site and navigate to Search > Configure > Index. Then, in the list of articles, edit the URL to include the complete path.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I combine the knowledge base search with Pendo Guide search?
No, not at this time.
Are there other methods for determining suggested article queries other than leveraging a part of the URL?
The URL is the only supported method for determining suggested articles.