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Meaningful URLs in Solutions Articles instead of ID numbers

Related products:Freshdesk
  • December 10, 2013
  • 14 replies
  • 55 views
E
Contributor

It would be so much easier to manage links in the knowledge base if you supported meaningful URLs instead of using ID numbers for Solutions articles. 


For example, instead of my_company.freshdesk.com/solution/articles/<some_numeric_ID>-<some_silly_truncated_text> I would like to have URLs like my_company.freshdesk.com/solution/articles/Creating_Reports  


I also would like to be able to use relative URLs within the knowledge base - for example from one solution I could reference "Creating_Reports" instead of having to know the ID number for that article. 


This is especially important for us because we are supporting multiple customers (which was our impetus for switching to Freshdesk) and we want to use a single source editor to maintain our documentation. Our documentation editor automatically creates relative links between articles using the filenames. With the system the way it is now, we always have to publish a new article to learn the ID number and then manually correct the links in all documents that reference that article. 

14 replies

B
Apprentice
  • brynk
  • Apprentice
  • September 13, 2014

I believe this would be much better for SEO purposes too. Right now the truncating of the URL can mess up the meaning and you end up like Erink said with <some_silly_truncated_text>.

S
Community Debut
  • shem
  • Community Debut
  • February 27, 2017

I agree, this is important both for both SEO and being able to predict the URL prior to publishing. 

D
Community Debut
  • doug.axtell
  • Community Debut
  • March 21, 2017

And, when I change the title of the solution article, I'd like the friendly URL to auto-update to reflect the new title.

aravind.sundararajan
Skilled Expert
Forum|alt.badge.img+12

Hello,


We're working on the revamp of the K-Base structure and there have been quite a few other popular asks that we're trying to accommodate in the revamp. I'll share any updates on the revamp as I get to hear more from the team.


Cheers!

Are you interested in learning more about how our services can help add value to your business? Check out our Professional Services - https://www.freshworks.com/professional-services/ to know more & get started.
C
Contributor
  • carlt
  • Contributor
  • June 1, 2018

Also it's important for us to be able to edit the URL after publishing if necessary. I recently had a situation where the title said very much the wrong thing based on the initial title. But editing the title didn't edit the URL so I had to completely remake the solution article since there was no way to edit the URL

aravind.sundararajan
Skilled Expert
Forum|alt.badge.img+12

Agreed, @Carl. We'll keep this mind when we come up with the edit URL option for articles. Thanks for pitching in :)


Cheers!

Are you interested in learning more about how our services can help add value to your business? Check out our Professional Services - https://www.freshworks.com/professional-services/ to know more & get started.
sajesh.krishnadas
Contributor
Forum|alt.badge.img+6

Carl,


I would like to clarify that the URL will change when the title of the article is changed, you can probably try clicking on the 'View on Portal' option (next to the Edit button )after publishing the article.

K
Community Debut
  • kevin_14504
  • Community Debut
  • June 1, 2018

I'd also like to add that I like the idea that with the current structure, the article title can be changed if necessary but the old URL will always work just fine. That is an advantage of the current structure. I actually don't mind it, but I understand the nature of the request. I'd love to hear what other enhancements are being considered for K-Base.

sajesh.krishnadas
Contributor
Forum|alt.badge.img+6

Exactly Kevin. Since we have a unique ID mapped to every article, changing the title of the article won't break the link and links shared with users will just continue to work.

J
Community Debut
  • julian9925
  • Community Debut
  • September 5, 2018

How about this feature current status? Could we change our article ID to meaningful URL currently?

C
Contributor
  • cblair
  • Contributor
  • October 10, 2018

I would also suggest that you stop obfuscating the URLs when viewing the solutions as an editor.  It is extremely frustrating when you refresh the page and lose where you were working because Freshdesk thought it would be cool to have the URL display https://help.AAAAA.com/a/solutions/ instead of https://help.AAAAA.com/a/solutions/articles/12000039006


This is an issue with the folders as well.  What is the point of obfuscating the URL for the administrators and users of Freshdesk?  I can kind of see why you might do it for customers, but even then, I find it only annoying, and not helpful at all.

B
Community Debut
  • b.juszcz
  • Community Debut
  • October 19, 2018

Hello,

Any update on this ?

Also, is it planned to allow be able to add the names of the categories into the url?

Thank you.

D
Community Debut

Good afternoon,  I just wanted to follow up and see if there has been any updates for this idea. I'm looking for a unique URL link for each article so I can send users directly to the article. Currently, I'm seeing a link that sends users to the entire help center page.


Thank you

O
Contributor
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There is a link to each article. This discussion is about how simple the URL should be.

In the top right corner of each article there is "copy link" icon:


image


And in a reply you can select "suggested solutions", choose an article and insert a link. This link only displays the description.

So you can point a user directly to an article.


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