Enable Deep Links to KM Articles in Help Desk Outbound Emails

When your service agents reply to employees by email, they may sometimes need to add links to Knowledge Management (KM) articles. These articles can help resolve the issue faced by the customers in that help desk request, or they can provide additional information.

These internal links to KM articles work in the Messages tab. But for these internal links to work in emails sent to employees, they must be translated to external links.

Here's what you need to do to convert the internal links to external links:

Enable the SVC_ENABLE_DEEPLINKS_IN_OUTBOUND_EMAIL profile option. For more information, see "Configure Profile Options for Inbound and Outbound Email".
Use the Manage Service Request Dynamic Links task to configure the DCS URL as described in the following table.

This table shows how the links work, depending on how the agent links to the article.

Type of link created to the KM article	What to append to the DCS URL to make the link work	How the link works
Article link format: When the agent uses either the "Insert as link" in RHP or the "Insert Knowledge" button KM application.	`?kmContentId={0}&page=shell&shell=knowledge-article`	The parameter {0} is replaced by the internal document ID of the selected KM article, and a clickable link to the article is inserted in the email message. The title of the KM article is used as the label for the link. The article opens in the DCS portal in a separate nested tab.
Knowledge article format: When the agent composes a message and provides a reference to a KM article. For example, if he types in the text FAQ1234, this text is linked in the email message.	`?kmExternalId={0}&page=shell&shell=knowledge-article`	The parameter {0} is replaced by the internal document ID of the selected KM article. The article is linked by using the typed text as the label for the link. Example of typed text: FAQ1234. The article opens in the DCS portal in a separate nested tab.

Type of link created to the KM article

What to append to the DCS URL to make the link work

How the link works

Article link format:

When the agent uses either the "Insert as link" in RHP or the "Insert Knowledge" button KM application.

?kmContentId={0}&page=shell&shell=knowledge-article

The parameter {0} is replaced by the internal document ID of the selected KM article, and a clickable link to the article is inserted in the email message. The title of the KM article is used as the label for the link.

The article opens in the DCS portal in a separate nested tab.

Knowledge article format:

When the agent composes a message and provides a reference to a KM article. For example, if he types in the text FAQ1234, this text is linked in the email message.

?kmExternalId={0}&page=shell&shell=knowledge-article

The parameter {0} is replaced by the internal document ID of the selected KM article. The article is linked by using the typed text as the label for the link. Example of typed text: FAQ1234.

The article opens in the DCS portal in a separate nested tab.

Note:

The deep links don't work if they contain the # character. Also, special characters such as @, ^, and * can be used only if preceded with the backslash character \. For example, you must use \* instead of * in your regular expression. For more information about using special characters in regular expressions, see the open source documentation for regular expressions. After you modify the regular expression, remember to use a validator to ensure that it's still working.

To enable deep links to KM articles in outbound emails and email previews to open in DCS:

In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to the following:
- Offering: Help Desk
- Functional Area: Productivity Tools
- Task: Manage Service Request Dynamic Links
Note:
Optionally, you can search for the Manage Service Request Dynamic Links task from the Tasks panel tab in the Setup and Maintenance work area.
On the Manage Dynamic Links page, repeat steps 3 to 12 for each of the business units (BUs) for your deployment.

That's because you may have different DCS portals for different BUs. If you have only a single BU, you need to do the steps only once.
Select the row that has ARTICLE_LINK in the Object Type field.
Click Add to add a row.
From the Business Unit Name drop-down list, select a BU.
In the Digital Customer Service URL field, do the following:
1. Enter the Digital Customer Service URL provided to you.
2. Append the following string at the end, after the slash: ?kmContentId={0}&page=shell&shell=knowledge-article
  
  This string is explained in the first row of the table.
  
  Example of how the final URL looks: https://odcsdev1-odcsdevinst2.builder.test.ocp.oc-test.com/ic/builder/rt/KMEXTID297/1.0/webApps/dcs/?kmContentId={0}&page=shell&shell=knowledge-article
Click Save.
Select the row that has KNOWLEDGE_ARTICLE in the Object Type field.
Click Add to add a row.
From the Business Unit Name drop-down list, select the same BU as in step 5.
In the Digital Customer Service URL field, do the following:
1. Enter the Digital Customer Service URL provided to you.
2. Append the following string at the end, after the slash: ?kmExternalId={0}&page=shell&shell=knowledge-article
  
  This string is explained in the second row of the table.
  
  Example of how the final URL looks: https://odcsdev1-odcsdevinst2.builder.test.ocp.oc-test.com/ic/builder/rt/KMEXTID297/1.0/webApps/dcs/?kmExternalId={0}&page=shell&shell=knowledge-article
Click Save.