How do I troubleshoot answer visibility issues?

Environment:

Answers, Answer Visibility Settings
Oracle B2C Service, All versions

Issue:

There are a few common issues that can arise when publishing answers to your end-user pages.  This includes:

• Answers have been published to your end-user pages, but are not showing up.
• Answers are visible to the end-user pages, but should not be because they are meant for privileged access only.
• Answers are getting removed from end-user pages.
• All answers have disappeared from your end-user pages.

Each of these issues comes with its own set of details to check.  The following information will help in troubleshooting as well as provide resolution resources for each of the above scenarios and more.

Resolution:

First, it's important to understand there are specific criteria that determine if an answer is visible to customer portal or not.  These are:

1. Products and/or Categories must be associated to the answer and be set with end-user visibility. (there is one cavaet to this, see "Why did all our answers disappear from our end-user pages?" below)
2. Language specified for the answer corresponds to the interface it's to be published in.
3. Answer Status must be set as a public status type.
4. The Access Level set within an answer must be visible for the interface it's being published in. 
   Note: How privileged access is set up also impacts visibility.
5. The answer search report used in your customer portal pages should have all appropriate filters set.

For more information on each of these criteria, refer to Answer ID 1112: Publishing an answer to the end-user pages.

When the above criteria are not set correctly, various issues may arise.  Expand each section below to find more information on identifying and resolving each behavior.

Click the next to the appropriate heading below to expand that section for viewing.

  Why are published answers not showing up on our site?

Issue:
We have created several new answers and set them to Public status. However, they are not showing up on our end-user pages as expected.

Resolution:
This behavior is common if each of the publishing criteria are not set correctly.  You can create a custom report that lists your answers along with the product, category, status, access level and language. You can then sort the results by the various fields to determine which answers either do not have a value set at all or are set to a value that prevents the answer from displaying on the end-user pages (such as a non-visible product or category).

Refer to Answer ID 1648: Finding answers that are public, but are not on the end-user pages for additional information to accomplish this.

  Why are answers visible to the end-user pages when they are meant for privileged access only?

Issue:
We have created answers that should only be visible to our Partner contacts. However, the answers are visible to everyone.  

Resolution:
This behavior generally indicates that the privileged access level associated with the answer has been enabled for end-user visibility.  

To correct this, use the steps outlined in Answer ID 1779: Verifying that privileged access is set up correctly.

  Why are public answers being removed from our end-user pages?

Issue:
We have noticed that some of our answers have been assigned to the Review status, even though no one has recently edited those answers.

Resolution:  
This behavior relates to the answer review functionality.  It is identified by answers being set to the Review status each night (with an agedatabase run) and is dependent upon how your site is configured.

For information and options to change this behavior, refer to Answer ID 586 Answers are being removed from our end-user pages.

  Why do private answers have their status changed to 'public' automatically?

Issue:  
We had answers that were set to a private status that have since been published automatically.

Resolution:
This behavior happens when a Publish On date value has been set within the answer and agedatabase runs.  
See Answer ID 2704: Private answers publishing automatically for information on how to resolve this.  

  Why did all our answers disappear from our end-user pages?

Issue:  
All of our answers have suddenly disappeared from our end-user pages.  We have just enabled visibility of one product for testing, but have made no other changes within the console.

Resolution:  
If end-user visibility is not enabled for all products or categories on a given interface, the default answers list report assumes that products/categories are not being used and will not take them into account.  However, if end-user visibility for just one product or category is enabled and no answers are associated to that product/category, then all the answers will suddenly disappear from the end-user pages. 

Answer ID 4565: Prod/cat visibility changes removing all answers from end-user pages provides information and steps to resolve this behavior.

Additional behaviors that may be encountered are below:

  With no access levels enabled with enduser visibility, how are customers seeing any answers?

Issue:
We have not yet enabled any of our access levels with end-user visibility. However, we are still seeing answers on our end-user pages.

Resolution:  
It is likely the answers that are visible are associated to the system defined Help access level.  
Refer to Answer ID 5894: Answers visible with no access levels set for enduser visibility for information and steps to resolve.

  Why am I unable to see answers that are set to an access level of Everyone on my site?

Issue:  
All of our answers are showing on our site regardless of access level set within the answer.

Resolution:
This can also be caused by incorrectly set filters within the search report used within customer portal. More specifically, the answer access ID filter should have only the 'User Access' checked.  To do this, refer to Answer ID 8342: All answers are showing on site regardless of access level.

  Why are the answers in Customer Portal not displaying in the same language as the interface is set?

If you are unable to resolve any of these issues using the information provided and need additional assistance investigating, please refer to online documentation or submit a service request to Ask Technical Support.  To access Oracle B2C Service manuals and documentation online, refer to the Documentation for Oracle B2C Service Products.