When to use a Quick Link or an External Link?

Ingrid de Cerqu · ‎03-19-2022

I see that we can connect both the Quick Link and the External Link to a Topic in the Employee Center Taxonomy.

Is there a reason why we should create a Quick Link for an External Link, when we can connect the External Link to the Topic directly?

Jesse_H · ‎06-03-2022

I can only add quick links, knowledge and catalog items. In order to add an external link I first have to create an external link then connect it to a quick link then I can add it to the taxonomy which makes it show up in a little 'box' off to the right on the topic page you connected it to.

It would be great if there were a way to include external links so they display in the center of the screen as a card like catalog and kb articles vs always having to display in a quick links container.

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Ingrid de Cerqu · ‎07-18-2022

That is what I did before I upgraded.
Assigned Topics is no longer available from External Links.

Jesse_H · ‎07-18-2022

That's interesting. I have a sandbox environment in San Diego and I can still see the Assigned Topics tab. I know sometimes you have to go to form layout and add a field that may not be displaying?

Ingrid de Cerqu · ‎07-20-2022

Oh, sorry. I did not see that you were referring to Content Items.
I was referring to External Links (sn_ex_sp_external_link table).

But you are right. We can use Content Items as well.

Because Content Items are not really part of the Employee Center, I imagine this is "Legacy" and we should use Quick Links instead.

Nick Wilson · ‎05-07-2023

I've run into this too - the only items you can add to a taxonomy are Catalog Item, Quick Link, or Knowledge, all via Connected Content or via the Assigned Topics related list in the relevant record.

Catalog Item feels more of a legacy workaround as a 'catch-all' for the missing item types (such as External Link). To get an external link to show on a tile in the taxonomy, it has to be created via an External Content 'Content Item' in the Service Catalog and linked into the taxonomy as a 'Catalog item' rather than an item in its own right. I notice you can also add Knowledge to the taxonomy in this way. However, every item added under this method shows as 'Request' on the taxonomy tile, which better reflects an item that takes you to a request page for hardware than it does an external link.

It would be easier and better if 'External Link' records could be added directly and have a label such as 'Link'. The fact you currently cannot seemingly makes 'External Link' records seem redundant. The only purpose they seem to serve is to provide a reference to the link that the Quick Link record needs - why not just have a URL field directly in the 'Quick Link' record in that case?