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How do I publish an answer to our end-user pages?

Environment:

Answers, Answer Visibility Settings
Oracle B2C Service, All versions

Resolution:

When publishing answers in Oracle B2C Service, several conditions must be met in order for the answer to appear in a search on the end-user pages of a particular interface. If even one of the conditions listed below is not met, the answer will not display.

Important Considerations

Answer workspaces:  The Language, Answer Status, and Access Level must be included in the answer workspace used to publish answers. In addition, if Products and Categories are enabled, those fields must be included in the workspace so that the fields can be set.

If you remove any of these fields, the answer is saved with the default value for that field.

For answers, the default values are:
    Type = Answer_Type_Html
    Access Mask = Everyone
    Assigned = Account/Group of agent logged in
    Language = Current language of interface logged in
    Position = Historical Usefulness
    Status = Private

Visibility of sub-products or sub-categories: The product or category that determines the visibility of answers does not have to be the lowest level. For more information refer to Answer ID 4069: Product and Category checkboxes with green fill color.

Note: When editing product and category visibility, you must close the product/category edit page before meta-answer visibility information is refreshed. In other words, changes to product and category visibility will not affect answer visibility until you close out of the product or category window.

Publish On Date field: You can enable the Publish On date field for use with creating and publishing answers. The Publish On field allows you to set a future date for when the answer should be published.

On the date specified, the answer status will change to the Public status automatically from whatever status it had been assigned to. Therefore, in order for the answer to be published successfully, all other criteria must be set when you set the Publish On date. For example, if a product is not set, the status will change to Public, but since the product is not set, the answer is still not visible on the end-user pages.

For more information on this feature, refer to Answer ID 1999: Publishing Answers Automatically.

Publishing Criteria

In order for an answer to be published to the end-user pages, the criteria below must be met. For more information on publishing Answers to a specific interface if your site has multiple interfaces, refer to Answer 1096: Publishing Answers to Multiple Interfaces.

	Product association:  If products (and sub-products if applicable) are enabled on the end-user pages, the answer must be assigned to at least one value that is visible to the interface as configured in the Products table.   For more information on configuring products and categories, refer to Answer ID 645: Configuring Products and Categories.
	Category association:  If categories (and sub-categories if applicable) are enabled on the end-user pages, the answer must be assigned to at least one value that is visible to the end-user pages for the interface as configured in the Categories table. The lowest sub-level must be enabled for end-user visibility.
	Language association:  The language specified for the answer must correspond with the language specified for the interface. See Answer ID 1096: Publishing different answers to different interfaces for more information.
	Answer Status:  The answer status for the answer must be a public status type as configured in the Answer Statuses table. Refer to Answer ID 48: Default incident and answer statuses for more information.
	Access Level:  The access level for the answer must be a visible for the interface as configured in the Answer Access Levels table.  See Answer ID 208: Specifying answer access levels to display on the end-user pages for more details. If using privileged access, the access level should not have the visibility check box enabled, but rather the contact or organization record must allow access to that access level via an applied Service Level Agreement (SLA). See  Answer ID 1838: Setting up privileged access for more information.
	Customer Portal Answer Search Report:  The end-user report or view must be configured to allow the answers to be displayed. By default, the end-user page includes a fixed filter for the access level that is set to User Access. This filter allows end-users to view answers that are set to access levels that either have end-user visibility enabled or are used for privileged access. The Oracle B2C Service application is designed to work optimally with a fixed filter in place for access level  equal to User Access.  If the end-user report or view is modified to restrict answers to a specific access level, product, or category, any answers that are assigned to other values will not be accessible -- even if that value is enabled for end-user visibility. If you are using the default end-user report, the user_access filter is included in the default report.  If you are using a customized report, refer to the 'Changing the search report' section in online documentation for more information on finding and editing the custom report.  To access Oracle B2C Service manuals and documentation online, refer to the Documentation for Oracle B2C Service Products. If the fixed filter for the access level is removed, answers published to a specific interface may display on other interfaces as well since the filter is not in effect to restrict answer visibility by access level.

Note:

Only answer records can be published to the Answers tab on your end-user interface. You cannot publish an incident directly to the Answers tab. You must first propose the incident as an answer by clicking the Propose button. Then you must edit the answer for final publishing.