Allow articles to be posted to multiple sections

Hi @Patrick Lemmer,

Have you seen this - Content blocks EAP? And more info on how it works once you have it - here: Enabling content blocks.

The articles describes what that will allow you to do - does that partially solve any of the issues you're facing?

@Patrick Lemmer

I provided a link above but I wanted to make sure you saw it. This is a workaround to "post" an article in multiple sections without the need to duplicate the content. You would not have to adjust multiple articles anytime the original article content is changed. 

https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360044285373-How-to-include-Article-in-Multiple-Sections

Would this help you out in the meantime?

@Bogdan Andrei Sturzoiu

Do you think this will ever be implemented? :/ We need this very much

Hi Agnes - 

The feature that the team has been working on around posting content in multiple places in your help center is currently in beta. You can find more information on that here: Content Blocks EAP

Hi @Nicole S. - Community Manager

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Content Blocks isn't exactly the same as allowing articles to be nested in multiple sections/categories.

It looks like you're allowed to select parts or the an entire article and insert it into another article as a block of content. But you can't have an article and have it live in 2 different sections. Can you tell me if I'm missing or misunderstanding?

Same here, from how I understand this new feature, while possibly valuable (though available only to Enterprise users), it does not seem to be the answer/solution to this 3000 day old thread. One still has to create multiple articles - one for each section. Looking forward to hear that I misinterpreted.

While Content Blocks sound great and I'm sure I will have justification to use them, that is not the same as the original post in this thread. I feel that Zendesk may have missed the mark here with not fully understanding what the original post was requesting.

If using Content Blocks to solve this, it would still require two or more articles. Technically speaking, this is now duplicate article information (by title) in the Help Center. Rather than having a single article linked into multiple sections.

A single content block in multiple articles ≠ a single article in multiple sections.

My fear is that Zendesk will see the Content Blocks as the 'answer', and subsequently close off this most popular request without addressing it.

Zendesk, please chime in here if we are misunderstanding the scope of Content Blocks.

@Nicole S. 

I agree with previous replies: While Content Blocks seem useful, it's not what this request is about.

Thank you all for your comments, I agree that Content Blocks doesn't solve the case of placing one article in multiple sections and categories in your Help Center. This functionality is designed for reusing smaller fragments of content, like disclaimers, legal notes, call-outs, etc. across the articles, locales, and brands. 

I'm sure that @Nicole S. was excited to share it with you as it's our first step into the area of reusability of content and removing redundancy of some of the knowledge management tasks. It's not the only one however and we also plan to look into multiplacement of the articles.

Thank you for the update.
So that we have a realistic expectation, with Content Blocks being the first step (in EAP) and with article multi-placement being planned, does that mean we are still some time away from this feature request being fulfilled?
It sounds as though Content Blocks are the first phase, with multi-placement articles being a later phase.

@Chad Smith yes, we are still some time away from fulfilling this feature as we are focusing on making Content Blocks a powerful tool, but it definitely something that we want to work on in the future.

Hi Katarzyne, thank you for the info.

However, don't think I'm the only one who feels that this is a bit of a joke. This ticket has been going on for 8 years - we are patiently waiting, and the requirements are clear. Then, you start promising us a solution and when it finally arrives it's not what we expected nor what we wanted.

From what you're telling us now, it sounds like you've realized the entire time, that this isn't going to solve our requirements. Again, you are now promising us a feature "in the future" - what's that? 8 more years?

I completely understand that you can't give us timelines. But when you're fully aware of the fact, that the solution you've been promising us for several years isn't going to cut it, just admit it. I'll far more respect a concise response about this issue not being given any focus for the foreseeable future. Then I at least know what's going on and what I can expect. Now, I'm just disappointed.

@Christian Rasmussen, looking back at this thread I understand your frustration. However, I'd like to make it clear that Content Blocks have not been designed specifically for the case described here, they are solving a different problem in the large area of reusing the content which we want to improve. We see Content Blocks as a start and we hope to follow it with the feature you are requesting. 

I'm only a new customer, so I certainly don't have the same right of action as other existing customers. However, I did recently stumble on this thread because this is something which I naturally expected Zendesk to already be able to do.

Having now been through the entire thread, it is disappointing that not only has it taken so long to get to this point, but it sounds as though it is still not even close to being delivered.

Timeline Summary

2012 - Original request.
2013 - Officially added to the roadmap. (Link)
2013 - Delayed due to other highly requested features. (Link)
2014 - Request for use cases. (Link)
2014 - Feature not being planned "anytime soon". (Link)
2015 - The 'Planned' label is removed from the thread. (Link)
2016 - First public signs of active R&D. (Link)
2016 - Customers start becoming restless due to the lack of action.
2017 - Feature evaluation continues. (Link)
2018 - Target for EAP in Q1 2019. (Link)
2018 - EAP delayed to mid 2019. (Link)
2018 - First mention of 'Reusable Content'. And an admission that this is not quite the same as the requested feature. (Link)
2019 - Still no ETA, but feature is being actively worked on. (Link)
2019 - Survey for feedback and use cases. (Link)
2020 - Suggestion that 'Content Blocks' is the official solution to the feature request. (Link)
2020 - Confirmation the 'Content Blocks' is not the official solution. (Link)
2020 - Confirmation that the original feature request is now planned for future development. (Link)

ALTER TABLE articles ADD COLUMN ptr int;

Then add a field on edit article page that lets you point to a different article, and update render code to check it...

def render_article(id)
  article = Article.find(id)
  return render_article(article.ptr) if article.ptr.present?

  //renders article
end

it's a hack, but it buys 8 years of good will back whilst you work on a proper solution?

*shrugs*

I am with Chad on this one! This is long overdue! 

+1 would be great to have more flexibility to have sections show up in multiple places so the customer can easily find the info they need where it might be relevant

+1

+1

This request was placed 8 years ago with 370 comments 

+1 c'mon!!! Now 371 comments!

So integral for our needs and our customer needs! Please bring this up to higher priority.

This would be super useful for me

+1  

+1

Honestly shocked reading this thread. I don't understand how Zendesk STILL doesn't have this feature. As Zendesk users, we know first hand what it means to service customers. This is a basic and IMPORTANT function that is missing for your CUSTOMERS. Content Blocks don't even remotely solve the issue we are facing. And it's quite embarrassing that Zendesk still hasn't figured this out. Please save the generic reply and just add this to the product roadmap for the NEAR FUTURE. Otherwise at some point people will get tired of waiting and this thread will soon become a thread on what platforms other than Zendesk have this ability.