Step By Step Guide to Importing Articles in Salesforce Knowledge

If you are implementing Salesforce Knowledge, one of the things that you may want to do is to import knowledge articles rather than creating it one by one in Salesforce. Importing knowledge articles is different than importing records in a standard/custom object using a data loader tool and is a bit tricky. But don’t worry. Now, here is a step by step guide to walk you through the entire process and make it a breeze.

Import Articles Tool

Import Articles is a tool provided by Salesforce which you can use to import articles to Salesforce Knowledge base. It’s a declarative, no-code, simple-to-use tool. Before you can import Knowledge Base, you must first create a .csv file, a .properties file, and then a zip file. It also gives you sample .csv and .properties files to view the file structure and prepare your files accordingly.

There are two ways in which you can import articles to Salesforce Knowledge:

1. Import Articles Only
2. Import Articles with Translations

Import Articles Only

If you have Knowledge set up in only one language then you can use this option. Create the files as specified in sample file and then import the zip file to bring articles in. There is no need to define Master Language for articles in this case.

Import Articles with Translations

If you have multilingual Knowledge base, then you need to use this option. There are separate sample files provided for this. When creating .csv file, you need to specify the Master Language. Enter article details in master language first in a row followed by all the subsequent translations. Import fails if Master Language is not specified.

In this step-by-step guide, that should take between 30-45 minutes for you to follow, we will cover how to:

• Create CSV File
• Create Properties File
• Create Zip File
• Import Zip File
• Monitor Article Import Queue
• Refer Article Import Log
• Review Imported Article
• Import Article with Translations

References:

• Salesforce Knowledge – A Step By Step Guide to Getting Started – Blog Post (45 minutes)
• Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge – Help Article (10 minutes) – https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=knowledge_article_importer.htm&type=5
• Create a .csv File for Article Import – Help Article (10 minutes) – https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=knowledge_article_importer_02csv.htm&type=5
• Set Article Import Parameters – Help Article (10 minutes) – https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=knowledge_article_importer_03parameters.htm&type=5
• Create an Article .zip File for Import – Help Article (10 minutes) – https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=knowledge_article_importer_04zip.htm&type=5
• Article and Translation Import and Export Status – Help Article (10 minutes) – https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=knowledge_article_importer_05status.htm&type=5
• How to Create a Zip File to Import Lightning Knowledge Articles – Video (4:28 minutes) – https://youtu.be/U1N18hmFjIU