Though HelpieKB offers an extensive number of features for creating a WordPress Knowledgebase, it is not the limit to what is possible with Helpie.
HelpieKB could be used with multiple plugins (mostly free, some paid) which will help you to achieve more than what is possible by our default features.
In this 2-part series, we have accumulated some of the common user requests with HelpieKB and have briefly explained how it could be easily achieved by using a complementary plugin.
WP BETTER PERMALINKS
Permalinks are the permanent URLs (address) of your articles or pages on your WordPress site. Permalinks are also referred to as pretty links.
Your Knowledgebase/Wiki home page, articles, categories will each have a unique URL (address) for your visitors to access and for search engines like Google to index.
We have received countless requests on how to change the default URL structure for their kb/wiki articles, categories, home page, etc..
By default the Kb/wiki article has its URL address composed of:
- <website address> / <Main page Slug> / <article slug>
The Kb/Wiki categories has its URL as:
- <website address> / <Category page Slug> / <category slug>
The Main page has its URL as:
- <website address> / <Main page Slug>
Note:
The article slug would be usually the title of the article. You can also change it while editing an article itself in the top just below the title box.
The category slug could also be changed by editing the categories in the Wiki categories option.
We have also given the option to change the “Main page slug” and “Category page slug” in our Main page and category page settings.
However we do have received many requests to have their URL as
- <website address> / <Main page Slug> / <Category page Slug> / <article slug>
Setting this up is very simple. You just need to install a free plugin from WordPress.org called WP Better Permalinks.
STEPS TO FOLLOW:
- Go to Dashboard -> Plugins -> Add new plugin. Search “WP Better Permalink”. Install and Activate it.
- After activating it, go to Dashboard -> Settings -> WP Better Permalinks.
- In the post type “Articles”, set the taxonomy as Wiki Categories.
That’s it. Once you have saved the changes, your URL would have been set as
- <website address> / <Main page Slug> / <Category page Slug> / <article slug>
Note: If it does not work by refreshing the page, close it and open the page from the dashboard.
LOCO TRANSLATE
While HelpieKB has some languages translated like French, Spanish and Chinese, we are still in the progression phase.
We do love to have our plugin translated in your language. Feel free to reach us at ‘hello[at]pauple[dot]com‘ if you are interested in translating our plugin in your language.
Using a free plugin called Loco-translate, you could easily translate every of our strings to your language.
Loco-translate is a free, lightweight plugin which has more than 1 million active installs.
STEPS TO FOLLOW:
- Download and install the Loco Translate plugin from WordPress.org
- Now, go to Dashboard -> Loco Translate -> Plugins -> Helpie – WordPress KB Wiki plugin.
- Find your language in that list and select “edit”.
- In that, select the string you want to translate. You will see two tables as Source text and the translation of your language. (As shown below)
- You could just enter the translation of the string and enter save. Once saved, click the “Sync” button which will synchronize the translation to the plugin.
- In the same way, you could translate any strings to any language.
- If you could not find your language in the options, just select the “New language” option and set up your own language.
TRANSLATING USING WPML
If you are using WPML WordPress plugin for your website translations, here is your guide to integrating it with HelpieKB.
Step 1: Enabling WPML for Helpie’s post type
If you have not installed the WPML Multilingual CMS plugin yet, you need to install and configure it first before following these steps.
i. Go to WP Dashboard -> Helpie Kb Wiki -> ‘Add New Helpdesk Article’ or edit existing Helpie article
ii. Scroll down in that page till you see ‘ Multilingual content setup ‘ widget. In there check the Make ‘Helpdesk Article’ translatable option
iii. Click Apply

Step 2: Create your first translation
As of now, your article will not have a translation, so on your frontend article page, there will not be the option for the translated page. So let’s create a translation of our article.
i. From an existing Helpie article, click the plus symbol in the right column to create a translation of the article.
ii. That will take you to a new article page. Create and publish this new article.

Now, the new language icon will appear on the article’s front page.
Step 3: Translate Helpie’s taxonomies:
After you have created the article’s translation, you still need to enable translations for Helpie’s category and main page.

i. To do this, go to WP Dashboard -> WPML -> Translation Options. There you will find Custom Taxonomies widget. If you have installed the WPML String Translation and WPML Translation Management plugin you will find the Custom Taxonomies widget in WP Dashboard -> WPML -> Translation management -> Multilingual Content Setup -> Custom Taxonomies.
There you should select ‘Translate’ for the following options and click Save:
a. Helpdesk Categories (helpdesk_category)
b. Tags (helpie_tag)
c. Helpdesk Added Tags (helpie_add_tag)
d. Helpdesk Updated Tags (helpie_up_tag)
Step 4: Translate Admin String from Helpie Settings:
To translate the input from HelpieKB Settings in the frontend, you would need to install WPML’s String Translation and Translation Management plugins which are included in the Multilingual CMS plan.
i. After installing them, you can go to WPML -> String Translation and click ‘admin_texts_helpie_core_options_main’ in ‘Select strings within domain’ option. There you can translate the KB Title and Subtitles.
ii. Then go to WPML -> String Translation and click ‘admin_texts_helpie_components_options’ in ‘Select strings within domain’ option. There you can translate the KB’s Sidebar title.
After translating each text, select the translation complete checkbox before saving.
In such a case, the KB title, subtitle or KB Sidebar title does not appear in the String translation list, please save the HelpieKB Settings for it to detect the strings.
Now, HelpieKB’s main page, category page, and single article page are fully integrated with WPML translations.
WP ALL IMPORT
Are you looking for ways to import your content which is already available in your hands to the Knowledge base/Wiki?
Are you tired of creating new articles every time which is already available? Don’t worry, you can directly import your content to the KB/wiki articles rather creating it one by one.
We have written a brief guide on Importing articles which are in different formats like XML,CSV, Excel and Docs.
If you have your content in XML or CSV format, you can follow the below simple steps which will easily import the content to the Helpdesk.
But, If you are having your content in Excel or Docs format, you need to convert it first to XML or CSV format and then follow the below steps. Let’s look at in detail:
Importing Content which are in XML or CSV Format:
1.First, you need to download and install a Plugin called WP All Import . It has both free and premium versions. We personally recommend premium version as it allows extensive possibilities in the Pro version.
2. Once you installed and activated the Plugin, You will see an option named “All Import” in your dashboard as show in the screenshot below:
3. Select “New Import” under that All Import and choose “Upload a file”. Now upload the XML or CSV file which is in your system.
4. Once the upload is complete, you will be asked where to import the data from the file you selected. Select “Article” under the Create New button as shown below and continue to step 2.
5. Next, make sure your item elements has been selected to import and continue to step 3.
6. In the Step 3, you will see a XML tree on the right which will contain all the tags of the fields. You just need to drag and drop the tags of the fields which you need on the right to its respective position on the left. For example, you need to drag the title tag which you could see on the right (in the screenshot below) and drop it in the Title box in the left. Similarly for all other fields. Remember, only in the Pro version, all the fields will be available. That’s why we recommended the premium version.
7. Continue to Step 4. Now, WP All Import will create a new article for each unique record on your file. So if you have two articles that are same, WP All Import will detect those as duplicates. They do that through something called “Unique Identifier” and in general they can Auto detect that. So Just click “Auto Detect” in it.
8. Now continue and “Confirm and Run Import” and they will create all posts. Now if you go to HelpieKB Wiki and check the articles, you will see all your content has been imported into it.
9. If you want to have an In-depth overview on “WP All Import”, kindly check the video in this link
Importing Content which are in Excel Format:
Do you have your content in Excel Format and want to import it to Helpdesk?
Almost all the steps are similar, except convert your content from Excel to CSV format and then follow the same steps given above.
Check this video for detailed explanation.
Importing Content which are in Doc’s Format:
The best way is to convert the Doc’s to CSV and then following the same steps. There are many free online tools like this which will convert the doc’s to CSV file.
Also See: Extending the functions of HelpieKB – Part 2
There are more Complementary plugins to extend the functions of your WordPress knowledge base which will be covered in Part-2. Stay Tuned!