--- schema_version: "1" id: 313f5b862cb698f3c57f5e0bfdebb768ab7c38aaa3ddfb531d0a580f8f95fbef title: Sharing Considerations for Lightning Knowledge collection: admin version: current locale: en-us portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/service/264-0-0/knowledge_sharing_considerations.md canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.knowledge_sharing_considerations.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 source_site: help.salesforce.com content_type: documentation content_hash: 541d81a20499f8980b3e8d80ebc72c0d2e403459f1cfbdeacd6b30c967fdbd6a description: Sharing gives you control and flexibility to set access to articles with organization-wide defaults, owner-based sharing, and criteria-based rules. Sharing is just one piece of the puzzle. It works with object permissions, app permission such as viewing draft articles, administrator access, and whether the article is available internally, externally, or publicly. Keep these considerations in mind when you plan your sharing model. products: - Service Cloud release: "264" --- # Sharing Considerations for Lightning Knowledge Sharing gives you control and flexibility to set access to articles with organization-wide defaults, owner-based sharing, and criteria-based rules. Sharing is just one piece of the puzzle. It works with object permissions, app permission such as viewing draft articles, administrator access, and whether the article is available internally, externally, or publicly. Keep these considerations in mind when you plan your sharing model. ### Required Editions
Available in Lightning Experience. View supported editions.
Where possible, we changed noninclusive terms to align with our company value of Equality. We maintained certain terms to avoid any effect on customer implementations. ## How Do Data Categories Fit In? When you switch to standard sharing, data categories are still used for classifying, filtering, and searching for articles. With standard sharing enabled, data categories no longer control access, so check whether you can simplify or remove any data categories. If you previously created groups of data categories primarily to control access, not filter articles, consider whether to remove or deactivate those groups. For example, sharing rules that use the article’s language or record type can replace groups of categories matching the article’s language, region, or record type. ## Article Access with Salesforce Sharing Changing the sharing model requires you to rethink your permissions and access strategy. Instead of data categories assigned to user profiles, standard sharing uses ownership, defaults, and rules to determine who can see and edit articles. ## Sharing and article versions Sharing works at the level of the article version (the Knowledge\_\_kav object) and not the primary article (the Knowledge \_\_ka object). You can configure rules and settings so that a support rep or user can access some versions but not others. In contrast, because category sharing affects the primary article, versions always have the same category-based access as that of the primary version. This difference applies to language-based versions and consecutive versions. For example, changing the value in a record between versions can change the result of a sharing rule and therefore grant or remove access. In addition, a user can view only published articles unless their profile has the permissions to view draft and archived articles. ## Object and app permissions Knowledge object permissions to Create, Read, Edit, and Delete articles, granted via profile permissions, control baseline access. Sharing settings refine access, but they can’t give access to articles the user can’t otherwise view or edit. Currently, object-level View All Records and Modify All Records don’t grant more access. Similarly, app permissions for Knowledge, such as View Draft Articles and View Archived Articles, are enforced regardless of sharing. When the user doesn't have access to the `Knowledge__ka` object, any code involving `Knowledge__kav` throws an error. Before you implement anything related to `Knowledge__kav`, use the Schema `describe` methods to check if the user has access to the `Knowledge__ka` object. For example, `Schema.sObjectType.Knowledge__ka.isAccessible()` [Learn More About Enforcing Object and Field Permissions](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexcode.meta/apexcode/apex_classes_perms_enforcing.htm) ## Article owners and translations The user who creates a knowledge article is the owner of the primary article and, by default, all versions. The user who submits an article for translation is the owner of the translation version. When your knowledge base contains translations, make sure that your sharing settings provide translators with access to translations and primary-language article versions. For example, if the sharing for a primary-language article is set to Private, it can prevent translators from accessing the primary-language articles. ## Access for article authors Setting the organization-wide default to Public Read Only prevents non-owners from performing authoring actions such as editing or restoring archived articles. Write access granted via sharing is required to use these actions: Edit, Publish, Delete Draft, Assign, Edit as Draft, Archive, Submit for Translation, Restore, and Delete Archived Article. Admin users with Modify All Data permission, which overrides sharing, can still edit articles. ## Fields Available for Sharing Rules You can create rules using custom fields and most standard fields as criteria. But you can’t use the following fields in sharing rules: - Article Type - Assignment Date - Assignment Due Date - Assignment Note - File fields - Is Latest Version - Is Master Language - Publication Status - Translation Completed Date - Translation Exported Date - Version Number The Article Type field differentiates articles in Knowledge for Salesforce Classic, while Lightning Knowledge uses Record Type. ## Limitations The following Sharing features aren’t available for Knowledge. - [Manual sharing](https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=granting_access_to_records.htm&language=en_US) - [Apex sharing](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexcode.meta/apexcode/apex_bulk_sharing_creating_with_apex.htm) #### See Also - [Sharing Settings](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.managing_the_sharing_model.htm&type=5&language=en_US) - [Organization-Wide Sharing Defaults](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.security_sharing_owd_about.htm&type=5&language=en_US) - [Sharing Rules](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.security_about_sharing_rules.htm&type=5&language=en_US) - [Lightning Knowledge User Access](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.knowledge_setup_users_lex.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Give your knowledge support reps access to articles in Lightning Knowledge. Specify which support reps in your company are Salesforce Knowledge users and can create, edit, archive, and delete articles. Create user profiles with the appropriate user permissions, and then assign users to these profiles.") - [Create Data Categories for Articles, Answers, and Ideas](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.category_parent_admin.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Data categories are used in Salesforce to organize and control access to groups of information. Data categories are used in Salesforce Knowledge, Ideas, Answers, and Chatter Answers.")