There are many discussions/questions on how to setup different entities of Portal to be available for unauthenticated public users. This will help customers setup self-service options for public users who do not want to login to be able to access them.
In this blog, I will be walking through different steps for configuring the following portal components to be available for public:
- Make your service portal page public
- Make a widget public
- Make your knowledge articles public
- Make your community content/forum public
How to setup a service portal page to be visible for public users?
Often, the customers need to have the landing page to be visible to public users if they need to allow unauthenticated users to be able to access self-service portal. This could be the most common scenario, however the below steps will help you configure all pages that you would like to make available publicly.
These steps are intended for users with little to no coding experience. The Service Portal Designer includes several layers of customization from simply adding widgets in a particular configuration on a page, to adding CSS classes.
Procedure
- Navigate to Service Portal > Service Portal Configuration.
- Click Designer.
- Switch to the portal you want to design pages for by selecting the portal name in the header.
- From the Service Portal Designer, select a page to customize or click Add a new page.
- Under Layouts, select Container and drag it onto the page.
- Drag one of the other layouts and drop it in the container.
This layout defines the structure of your page and the space available to drop widgets. The structure of the layout aligns with the Bootstrap grid template and always adds up to 12.
- Use the filter to search for a widget, then drag the widget to the layout.
Drag containers, layouts, then widgets onto a page
- (Optional) Edit page properties.
- Click Edit Page Properties.The page record from the Pages table [sp_page] opens.
- Edit the form.
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Public |
Enables the page to be accessed without the need for authentication. If Public is selected, all users can view the page no matter the roles listed. |
Note : Although, the page is public to allow users to view the content on the page the widget has to be configured to be available for public users. Please follow the next steps to configure a widget for public users.
Configure widget security to ensure that your widget is being accessed only by the intended audience.
How to setup a service portal widget to be visible for public users?
Role required: admin or sp_admin
To allow public users to view certain widgets on a page, the widget security needs to be configured for the following:
- Make the widget public to unauthenticated users
When you configure widget security, configure the page security accordingly so that users can access the widget via the page on which it appears. For more information, see Configure page security by role.
Procedure
- Navigate to Service Portal > Widgets.
- Open the record of the widget to configure.
- On the form, configure the widget security.
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Option |
Procedure |
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Make the widget public to unauthenticated users |
Select the Public check box. Note: If you select Public and add a list of roles, the widget is still accessible by any user. |
- Click Update.
This will ensure the widgets which display the content is visible to all public users.
Note: To ensure that the users can view the data in the widget, you will need to update the ACL’s for the relevant tables to allow public read/write depending on the requirements.
How to setup knowledge articles to be visible for public users?
Enable knowledge articles on the Knowledge Management Service Portal to be visible to external or public users.
Before you begin
The Knowledge Management Service Portal plugin (com.snc.knowledge_serviceportal) must be enabled.
Role required: admin
About this task
If you are using Knowledge Management within the Customer Service application, you can automatically make knowledge public by activating and running the Make KM Service Portal Pages Public fix script after you install the Customer Service Management plugin (com.sn_customerservice).
If you are using Knowledge Management as a standalone application, perform the steps in this procedure.
Procedure
- Navigate to Service Portal > Pages.
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To |
Do this |
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Make knowledge service portal pages visible to public users |
|
|
Make knowledge service portal pages visible to external users |
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- Search for kb_home and open it.
- You have to be in the Global application to edit. If a message appears, click here to edit.
- Perform one of the following actions.
- Repeat these steps for kb_article_view and kb_search.
- Perform one of the following actions.
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To |
Do this |
|
Enable access to the knowledge base for public users |
Ensure that no Can Read user criteria is defined in the knowledge bases you want to give access to. |
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Enable access to the knowledge base for external users |
Add Can Read access to the knowledge base. |
Note: To ensure the knowledge articles harvested from community to be visible to external or public users, snc_external roles need to be mandatorily added.
How to setup Public forums in customer facing community?
Create a forum to provide a place for users to share content. You can configure forums for membership that registered community users request access to join. You can also configure forums to convert unstructured conversations to structured knowledge articles.
Before you begin
Role required: sn_communities.admin or sn_communities.forum_admin
A forum can be configured in the following ways.
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Public |
Visible to all users, including non-logged in users. All users have content_read access to questions and answers in public forums. Configure public forms by adding a forum user of the type public. |
To Setup forum user of the type public follow the steps below
Procedure
- Navigate to Community > Administration > Forum Users.
- Click New.
- On the form, fill in the fields.
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Forum User form |
Values |
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Field |
Description |
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Name |
Name of the user. |
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Description |
Description of the user. |
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User type |
Public Public users can view the community without logging in. By default, public users have content_read access to questions and answers in public forums. |
- Click Submit.
The forum user is created and added to the Forum Users list.
Procedure to setup public forum
- Navigate to Community > Administration > Forums.
- In the Forums list, click New.
- Fill in the fields on the form as appropriate.
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Forum form |
Values |
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Field |
Description |
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Name |
Name of the forum. |
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Description |
A short description that defines the forum. |
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Image |
An image that provides a visual reference to describe the forum. |
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Order |
The order that forums are displayed in. By default, the display is alphabetical. Enter a numerical value to set the order that forums are displayed in. You can combine both options. |
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Parent |
The parent forum, if required. This lists the forum as a sub forum of the parent forum. |
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Knowledge Base used for harvesting |
The knowledge base used for harvesting community discussions to knowledge articles. |
Two default permissions are added to the forum in the Forum Permissions related list.
- Default Permission for Memberships: Read and write access to questions and answers for users who are forum members.
- Forum Visible: Read access to the name and description of the forum for registered users. To access content, users must request forum membership.
- If required, you can add a new forum permission and set it as the default using the sn_communities.default_permission_for_forum_memberships property.
To add public users to view content in the forum to attract them to become members, create a forum permission as follows:
- Forum User: Public.
- Permission: Question & Answer Read.
- Click Update.
You may also want to see this blog if you are interested in setting up a SEO friendly public portal
