Creating a knowledge base through 3rd party integration

A knowledge base helps you organize and use important information to improve customer interactions and support your business. When you connect your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to a knowledge base, you can transform all the helpful information in your CRM into a valuable knowledge base. This makes it easy for your team and customer support agents to find the most current and accurate information, so they can provide the best assistance to customers.

Note: In addition to 3rd party integration, admins have the option to use web sync or manually create a knowledge base.

This article covers:

• How to create a knowledge base through 3rd party integration
  • Use Confluence connection
  • Use Kustomer connection
  • Use Salesforce connection
  • Use ServiceNow connection
  • Use Zendesk connection
  • Use MS Dynamics connection
• Limitations for creating a knowledge base through 3rd party integration
  • ServiceNow
  • Confluence
  • Salesforce

Prerequisites for creating a knowledge base through 3rd party integration

• Account owner or admin privileges; or relevant role/privilege
• Basic, Pro, Business, Education, or Enterprise account
• Zoom Virtual Agent license
• Established connection in the Integrations page

How to create a knowledge base through 3rd party integration

Use Confluence connection

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click AI Management and then Knowledge Base.
3. Click Add Knowledge Base.
4. Select 3rd party integration.
5. Search for and select from the available Confluence connections.
6. Under Integration details, provide the following information:
   
   • Knowledge base name: Enter a display name for your knowledge base.
   • Confluence cloud: Click the drop-down and select the specific Confluence instance that you want to connect to.
   • Confluence space: Click the drop-down and select the specific area within the Confluence instance where the knowledge base is located.
   • Language: Click the drop-down and select the languages from your knowledge base that you want to add.
7. Click Next.
8. In the Categories section, deselect the checkboxes next to category names if you want to exclude the categories that you do not wish to include in your machine learning model.
9. Click Next.
10. Under Customization, select or deselect the article elements to include in your sync as content:
    • Include images in articles: Include images in the extracted content displayed as answers.
    • Include videos in articles: include videos in the extracted content displayed as answers.
    • Extract tables: Extract and display tables from the original content.
      • Keep table structure: Maintain the original table structure when extracting tables.
      • Convert to plain text: Convert tables into plain text.
    • Highlight answers in the original article URL: Highlight answer section on the original article. This setting is not applicable if answer generation is enabled in bot settings or AI Expert Assist.
    • Use complete article as answers: Select the checkbox to only display full articles as answers. This setting is not applicable if answer generation is enabled in bot settings or AI Expert Assist.
11. Under Initial sync, click the toggle to trigger an initial sync after the knowledge base is created.
12. Click Create.
    You will be directed to the Articles tab where you can see the list of articles and adjust the knowledge base settings in the Settings tab.

Use Kustomer connection

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click AI Management and then Knowledge Base.
3. Click Add Knowledge Base.
4. Select 3rd party integration.
5. Search for and select from the available Kustomer connections.
6. Under Integration details, provide the following information:
   
   • Knowledge base name: Enter a display name for your knowledge base.
   • Kustomer brand: Expand the drop-down and select from the available Kustomer brands.
   • Kustomer article access: Set the article permission to Public or Internal.
   • Default language: Select the default language for your knowledge base.
   • Languages: Click the drop-down and select the languages from your knowledge base that you want to add.
7. Click Next.
8. In the Categories section, deselect the checkboxes next to category names if you want to exclude the categories that you do not wish to include in your machine learning model.
9. Click Next.
10. Under Customization, select or deselect the article elements to include in your sync as content:
    • Include images in articles: Include images in the extracted content displayed as answers.
    • Include videos in articles: include videos in the extracted content displayed as answers.
    • Extract tables: Extract and display tables from the original content.
      • Keep table structure: Maintain the original table structure when extracting tables.
      • Convert to plain text: Convert tables into plain text.
    • Highlight answers in the original article URL: Highlight answer section on the original article. This setting is not applicable if answer generation is enabled in bot settings or AI Expert Assist.
    • Use complete article as answers: Select the checkbox to only display full articles as answers. This setting is not applicable if answer generation is enabled in bot settings or AI Expert Assist.
11. Under Initial sync, click the toggle to trigger an initial sync after the knowledge base is created.
12. Click Create.
    You will be directed to the Articles tab where you can see the list of articles and adjust the knowledge base settings in the Settings tab.

Use Salesforce connection

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click AI Management and then Knowledge Base.
3. Click Add Knowledge Base.
4. Select 3rd party integration.
5. Search for and select from the available Salesforce connections.
6. Under Integration details, provide the following information:
   
   • Knowledge base name: Enter a display name for your knowledge base.
   • Salesforce channel: Expand the drop-down and select from the available channels.
   • Salesforce article fields: Expand the drop-down and select from the available article fields.
   • Salesforce site domain path: Expand the drop-down and select from the available sites.
   • Default language: Select the default language for your knowledge base.
   • Languages: Click the drop-down and select the languages from your knowledge base that you want to add.
7. Click Next.
8. In the Categories section, deselect the checkboxes next to category names if you want to exclude the categories that you do not wish to include in your machine learning model.
9. Click Next.
10. Under Customization, select or deselect the article elements to include in your sync as content:
    • Include images in articles: Include images in the extracted content displayed as answers.
    • Include videos in articles: include videos in the extracted content displayed as answers.
    • Extract tables: Extract and display tables from the original content.
      • Keep table structure: Maintain the original table structure when extracting tables.
      • Convert to plain text: Convert tables into plain text.
    • Highlight answers in the original article URL: Highlight answer section on the original article. This setting is not applicable if answer generation is enabled in bot settings or AI Expert Assist.
    • Use complete article as answers: Select the checkbox to only display full articles as answers. This setting is not applicable if answer generation is enabled in bot settings or AI Expert Assist.
11. Under Initial sync, click the toggle to trigger an initial sync after the knowledge base is created.
12. Click Create.
    You will be directed to the Articles tab where you can see the list of articles and adjust the knowledge base settings in the Settings tab.

Note: At this time, Zoom Virtual Agent only supports Lightning Knowledge Bases in Salesforce.

Use ServiceNow connection

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click AI Management and then Knowledge Base.
3. Click Add Knowledge Base.
4. Select 3rd party integration.
5. Search for and select from the available ServiceNow connections.
6. Under Integration details, provide the following information:
   
   • Knowledge base name: Enter a display name for your knowledge base.
   • ServiceNow Knowledge base: Expand the drop-down and select from the available ServiceNow knowledge bases.
   • Default language: Select the default language for your knowledge base.
   • Languages: Click the drop-down and select the languages from your knowledge base that you want to add.
7. Click Next.
8. In the Categories section, deselect the checkboxes next to category names if you want to exclude the categories that you do not wish to include in your machine learning model.
9. Click Next.
10. Under Customization, select or deselect the article elements to include in your sync as content:
    • Include images in articles: Include images in the extracted content displayed as answers.
    • Include videos in articles: include videos in the extracted content displayed as answers.
    • Extract tables: Extract and display tables from the original content.
      • Keep table structure: Maintain the original table structure when extracting tables.
      • Convert to plain text: Convert tables into plain text.
    • Highlight answers in the original article URL: Highlight answer section on the original article. This setting is not applicable if answer generation is enabled in bot settings or AI Expert Assist.
    • Use complete article as answers: Select the checkbox to only display full articles as answers. This setting is not applicable if answer generation is enabled in bot settings or AI Expert Assist.
11. Under Initial sync, click the toggle to trigger an initial sync after the knowledge base is created.
12. Click Create.
    You will be directed to the Articles tab where you can see the list of articles and adjust the knowledge base settings in the Settings tab.

Use Zendesk connection

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click AI Management and then Knowledge Base.
3. Click Add Knowledge Base.
4. Select 3rd party integration.
5. Search for and select from the available Zendesk connections.
6. Under Integration details, provide the following information:
   
   • Knowledge base name: Enter a display name for your knowledge base.
   • Default language: Select the default language for your knowledge base.
   • Languages: Click the drop-down and select the languages from your knowledge base that you want to add.
7. Click Next.
8. In the Categories section, deselect the checkboxes next to category names if you want to exclude the categories that you do not wish to include in your machine learning model.
9. Click Next.
10. Under Customization, select or deselect the article elements to include in your sync as content:
    • Include images in articles: Include images in the extracted content displayed as answers.
    • Include videos in articles: include videos in the extracted content displayed as answers.
    • Extract tables: Extract and display tables from the original content.
      • Keep table structure: Maintain the original table structure when extracting tables.
      • Convert to plain text: Convert tables into plain text.
    • Highlight answers in the original article URL: Highlight answer section on the original article. This setting is not applicable if answer generation is enabled in bot settings or AI Expert Assist.
    • Use complete article as answers: Select the checkbox to only display full articles as answers. This setting is not applicable if answer generation is enabled in bot settings or AI Expert Assist.
11. Under Initial sync, click the toggle to trigger an initial sync after the knowledge base is created.
12. Click Create.
    You will be directed to the Articles tab where you can see the list of articles and adjust the knowledge base settings in the Settings tab.

Use MS Dynamics connection

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click AI Management and then Knowledge Base.
3. Click Add Knowledge Base.
4. Select 3rd party integration.
5. Search for and select from the available Dynamics 365 connections.
6. Under Integration details, provide the following information:
   
   • Knowledge base name: Enter a display name for your knowledge base.
   • Dynamics article 365 visibility: Select whether to sync internal articles or external articles.
   • Dynamics 365 article URL: If you select external, you can specify a URL format for your articles.
   • Default language: Select the default language for your knowledge base.
   • Languages: Click the drop-down and select the languages from your knowledge base that you want to add.
7. Click Next.
8. In the Categories section, deselect the checkboxes next to category names if you want to exclude the categories that you do not wish to include in your machine learning model.
9. Click Next.
10. Under Customization, select or deselect the article elements to include in your sync as content:
    • Include images in articles: Include images in the extracted content displayed as answers.
    • Include videos in articles: include videos in the extracted content displayed as answers.
    • Extract tables: Extract and display tables from the original content.
      • Keep table structure: Maintain the original table structure when extracting tables.
      • Convert to plain text: Convert tables into plain text.
    • Highlight answers in the original article URL: Highlight answer section on the original article. This setting is not applicable if answer generation is enabled in bot settings or AI Expert Assist.
    • Use complete article as answers: Select the checkbox to only display full articles as answers. This setting is not applicable if answer generation is enabled in bot settings or AI Expert Assist.
11. Under Initial sync, click the toggle to trigger an initial sync after the knowledge base is created.
12. Click Create.
    You will be directed to the Articles tab where you can see the list of articles and adjust the knowledge base settings in the Settings tab.

Articles tab

This is where you can access a compilation of articles and perform the following actions:

• Use the search bar to find articles based on their title or category.
• Click the article title to open a slideout where you can view details like the Category, URL, Article ID, Tags, and Content of the article. The content is displayed according to the settings customized in the knowledge base. Next to the Content section, you'll find a drop-down menu where you can choose how to handle tables within the article. The options include:
  • Extract table (Keep table structure): This keeps the original table format.
  • Extract table (Convert to plain text): This converts the table into plain text.
  • Do not extract table: This option prevents the table from being extracted.
• Exclude one or more articles that you prefer not to display, such as temporary or non-discoverable articles.
• Change the language of the articles. After creating the knowledge base, you can change all the languages in the Settings tab.
• Click the Answer Preview button located at the top right to test queries. Enter a query that you think an end user might input into the bot to assess the responses provided by the Knowledge Base model. You can filter the knowledge base by name and language. 

Limitations for creating a knowledge base through 3rd party integration

ServiceNow

• Permissions:
  • For English only, users need at least Knowledge_Admin and Tags_Admin.
  • For Multi-language, users need Knowledge_Admin, Tags_Admin and also Localization_admin.

Confluence

• Permissions:
  • View Pages (read:page:confluence)
  • View labels (read:label:confluence)
  • View space details (read:space:confluence)
  • View and download content attachments (read:attachment:confluence)

Salesforce

• Permissions:
  • Administrative Permissions > API Enabled: This is necessary to actually make API calls.
  • Administrative Permissions > View Setup and Configuration (which also requires View Roles and Role Hierarchy): This is necessary to access site and domain configuration in order to construct the article URLs.
  • Standard Object Permissions > Knowledge Base Permissions > Basic Access > Read: This is necessary to access article contents.
  • Category Group Visibility Settings > {group} > Visibility > All: This is necessary to access articles in certain category groups.
• Digital Experience (Experience Cloud Site) is required