The Shelf Self-Service Portal (SSP) feature makes it possible for administrators to create public libraries, that is libraries designed for public use. These libraries can contain various public-facing content to be further added to a company’s website or used for deflection purposes.
The Self-Service Portal feature is an ideal choice to set up self-service portals for contact centers (CCs) as it allows CC’s users to solve multiple problems on their own, in a self-service manner. Moreover, using custom scripts, self-service portals can be integrated with web forms, chatbot, and virtual assistance solutions in conjunction with the Shelf MerlinAI Suggest module. Another great example of the SSP usage is FAQ-like websites where users can address their issues on their own, using the available content.
Prerequisites
In order to be able to configure, publish, and start using the Self-Service Portal, you first need to enable the Self-Service Library feature in the Admin Panel on the Shelf side.
To do so, log into your Shelf account that has admin permissions and go to the Admin Panel.
Figure 1. Accessing the Admin Panel in Shelf
In the Admin Panel, find and select the Customize submenu. In the window that appears, navigate to the Features tab and switch the Self-Service Library toggle on as shown in the figure below.
Figure 2. Enabling Self-Service Library feature
Once the mentioned Self-Service Library feature is enabled, you need to create a Self-Service Library and populate it with the respective content.
To start creating the Self-Service Library, go to the Home page by clicking the Home link button in the breadcrumbs.
Figure 3. Jumping to the Home page in Shelf
On the Home page, find and click the ADD button. Then select the Create Library option in the dropdown menu that appears.
Figure 4. Starting new library creation
In the popup Add new Library window that appears, click the MORE DETAILS button.
Figure 5. Creating a new library
In the next window, fill in the required fields, that is indicate your new Self-Service Library name, select its content language, and select the Self-Service Library checkbox in the Library type block.
Figure 6. Creating a Self-Service Library
Once done, click the SAVE button, and your new Self-Service Library will be created and appear in the left-side tree panel.
Figure 7. Viewing Self-Service Libraries in the tree panel
Once your new Self-Service Library is created, you can add the needed content (Gems) to it similarly to adding content to standard libraries in Shelf. Note that folders, including the nested ones, and Gems of the Wiki type are allowed to serve as content for Self-Service Libraries.
Self-Service Portal Setup
If all the prerequisites for configuring and using the Shelf Self-Service Portal are met, you can now proceed to the Self-Service Portal setup. To do so, go to the Admin Panel and select the Self-Service Configurator option in the left-side tree panel.
Figure 8. Starting the Self-Service Portal setup
In the window that appears, locate your Self-Service Library and click the More Actions button (...) next to it. In the dropdown menu, select the Configure Portal option.
Figure 9. Accessing the Self-Service Portal configuration window
Following that you are redirected to the new window where you can start configuring your Self-Service Portal settings.
Basic Settings
The Self-Service Portal configuration window by defaults opens with the Basic Settings tab active.
Figure 10. Basic Settings tab
Table 1. Basic Settings for Self-Service Portal
Item
Setting Name
Requirement
Description
1
Publish Self-Service Portal
Optional
This switch allows you to publish SSP once all the needed settings are configured.
2
Manage Content
Optional
This link button when clicked redirects you to your Self-Service Library in Shelf, where you can manage or edit content stored in that library.
3
Open your Self-Service Portal
Optional
This link button when clicked redirects you to your published SSP. However, this works only when your SSP has been already published. If it hasn’t yet been published, then after clicking this link button, you are redirected to the 404 page.
4
Self-Service Portal name
Required
You can enter any desired name for your SSP in this field. It cannot be left blank. The maximum number of characters in your SSP name cannot exceed 255.
5
Default Self-Service Portal domain
Required
This is a non-editable text field that is autopopulated by Shelf and displays the system-assigned URL address of your SSP.
6
Custom Self-Service Portal domain
Optional
This is an editable field where you can enter any custom URL address that has to point to the domain you own and plan to use for your SSP publishing. This URL can contain a custom path that cannot contain any query strings or alike other than schemes, hostnames, or paths. Note that the maximum number of characters of this URL address cannot exceed 253. More details about the custom domain and its setup are provided in the respective Self-Service Portal Custom Domain Setup Guide. At this stage of SSP configuration you can leave this field blank.
7
Link to your website’s homepage
Optional
In case your website homepage has some specific address, you can enter its URL in this field. Based on the template, the link to your website can be displayed as a clickable logo or a simple link, both redirecting the user to your website homepage.
8
Google Analytics Tracking ID
Optional
In this field, you can indicate a dedicated Google Analytics Tracking ID. The tracking ID is a string like UA-000000-2. It must be included in your tracking code to tell Analytics which account and property to send data to.
9
Allow search engine indexing
Optional
You can toggle this switch on in order to make your SSP visible for indexing by search engines. Toggling it off hides your SSP from such indexing, respectively.
10
Turn on user feedback on articles
Optional
This switch, if toggled on, lets you improve your SSP content by enabling users’ feedback for it. Users of your SSP become able to select the respective emojis to evaluate articles on SSP.
11
Show article's author and last updated date
Optional
If this switch is toggled on, users of your SSP are able to see the author of any article on your SSP and understand how fresh the article is.
12
Show article estimated reading time
Optional
If this switch is toggled on, users of your SSP are able to understand how much time they need to read some article. Note that if the article is less than 200 words, the estimation is not displayed.
13
Show article's categories and most popular categories
Optional
If this switch is toggled on, users of your SSP are able to see categories assigned to the content published on your SSP and also understand which categories are the most popular among other users. For this option to work, you need to assign categories to your content (Gems) in Shelf first.
14
Show article's tags and most popular tags
Optional
Same as above but with tags instead of categories.
15
Show most popular articles
Optional
If this switch is toggled on, users of your SSP are able to see which articles are the most popular among other users/visitors. Note that the time period for which the most popular articles are displayed is 90 days and not the entire SSP history.
16
Show extra search on the sidebar
Optional
If this switch is toggled on, your SSP gets a search field in the sidebar in addition to the usual search field on top of the page.
17
Show language selector
Optional
In case the content in your Self-Service Library is multilanguage, that is the Gems have two language variants, switching this toggle on allows users of your SSP to select in which language they can read the content.
Once you have configured all the needed basic settings in accordance with the table above, you can proceed to the advanced settings, for example - configure the branding for your Self-Service Portal.
Branding Settings
After you are done with the basic settings for your Self-Service Portal, you can start working on its branding: add a custom logo, icons, set a custom header image etc. To do so, select the Branding tab and walk through the available options in that tab as shown in the figure and described in the table below.
Figure 11. Viewing theBranding settings
Table 2. Branding Settings for Self-Service Portal
Item
Setting Name
Description
1
Favicon
This option lets you set a custom image for your SSP favicon. Favicon is a small image displayed next to the page title in the browser tab.
2
Logo
Here you can add a custom logo for your SSP.
3
Header image
Using this option, you can add a custom image to be used as the header image on your SSP.
4
Default article thumbnail
In case you haven’t set any custom preview image for your articles on the Shelf side, you can use this option to add a custom image that is to be used as a default thumbnail for the articles on your SSP.
5
Social media image
This option allows you to set a custom image for social media.
6
Color
Header | Header text
This option enables you to select and set a custom color for your header and its text.
Once done with configuring your SSP Branding settings, click the SAVE button to save these settings and proceed to the next stage of the SSP configuration, which is the Homepage settings.
Homepage Settings
After you have completed the Branding settings for your Self-Service Portal, you can now add some short description for your SSP Home page and also add some text to be displayed on it. To do so, select the Homepage tab and populate the needed text fields as shown in the figure below.
Figure 12. Configuring your SSP homepage
In the Description field you can add a short description for your SSP Home page, while in the Content block you can add some content to be displayed on your SSP Home page. In the latter case, you can use the built-in editor to manipulate the text format, font, size, alignment, add numbered and unnumbered lists, add links, images, videos, tables, and even source code snippets.
Once done adding and formatting the text in the Content block, click the SAVE button to save the text. Following that click the SAVE CHANGES button at the bottom of the window to save all changes made by you in the Homepage tab.
After the changes are saved, you can go to the Footer tab in order to set your SSP page footer.
Footer Settings
Select the Footer tab and start setting how the footer on your SSP is going to look.
Figure 13. Setting the SSP footer
What you can configure under the Footer tab is as follows:
Facebook social media link button
Instagram social media link button
LinkedIn social media link button
Medium blog platform link button
Twitter microblog platform link button
Youtube video channel link button
You can also add custom social media links to your footer. Moreover, you can add some text to be displayed in the footer on your SSP, for example the copyright notice or alike.
Note that you can also make a subtle reference to the Shelf website by toggling the respective switch on.
Once you have done with setting your SSP footer, click the SAVE CHANGES button to confirm your settings. After the changes are saved, you can go to the Scripts tab if you need to add some custom scripts to work on your Self-Service Portal.
Scripts Settings
In the Scripts tab, you can add and enable/disable your custom scripts for your Self-Service Portal. Scripts are typically used for some custom styling in case it is not supported by the native portal features. Shelf-enabled scripts can also be used on customer’s SSP for building chat widgets, tracking third-party scripts, etc. In our case, Shelf may not support all styling desires the customers may have for our Self-Support Portals, so we have added script support that allows our customers to configure their SSP styling as they need and want.
Figure 14. Starting to add a custom script
To do so, in the Scripts tab, click the + ADD CUSTOM SCRIPT link button. In the next window that appears, click the Edit icon as shown in the figure below.
Figure 15. Adding the custom script
Figure 16. Adding the script and its details
In the Custom Script window, you can enter the name for your script, indicate where exactly this script is to be placed, and, finally, enter the code of your script in the respective section. Note that the maximum length of a script shall not exceed 8192 symbols, while the maximum number of scripts for one Self-Service Portal shall not exceed 10.
Once done, click the SAVE button to save the script and the information you have entered in this window.
After the script is saved, you need to activate it by toggling on the switch next to its name. After that you can go and set the theme for your Self-Service Portal.
Theme Settings
To set the theme for your Self-Service Portal, go to the Theme tab and select one of the available options there by selecting the respective checkbox.
Figure 17. Selecting the SSP theme
Once you have selected the needed theme, click the SAVE CHANGES to confirm your choice.
Info:
Both Classic and Modern themes have the same functionality but slightly different layout of the page elements and the grid. The search field on top of the page is more prominent in the Modern theme. On the other hand, there's a tree panel in the left sidebar of the Classic theme whereas it's not available in the Modern one.
Publishing Your Self-Service Portal
After you have configured all the settings for your Self-Service Portal, you can now publish it. To do so, go back to the Basic Settings tab and toggle on the Publish Self-Service Portal switch.
Figure 18. Publishing Self-Service Portal
If no errors are returned, your SSP has been successfully published and you can go to its page by clicking the Open your Self-Service Portal link button as shown in the figure above.
Setting Up Custom Slugs for Your Self-Service Portal
Once you have published your Self-Service Portal, it becomes available for your customers and visitors who can now use it for finding answers to their questions or otherwise receiving the needed help.
In the browser’s address bar, your SSP autogenerated URL looks as follows:
Figure 19. SSP URL with autogenerated slugs
This can lead to a reduced frequency of your SSP use by your customers because it can be difficult to remember or copy down such strings.
But Shelf has launched a new feature for your Self-Service Portals that makes your help articles accessible through custom URL slugs. Now you are able to make them more descriptive, succinct, or as unique to your organization as you prefer An optimized URL slug can:
Improve your site's SEO rankings
Make it more easy for your customers/users to predict the content of help articles
Let your customers/users remember the help article URL faster and easier
Make links look more trustworthy.
Now, when the custom slugs are properly configured and set up for your Self-Service Portal, URLs for its pages have the following look:
Let us see what needs to be done to set up custom slugs for your Self-Service Portal.
First of all, even having the Admin user role with the access to Shelf Admin Panel, you cannot set up custom slugs for your portals on your own. The slugs are configured and imported on the Shelf side by the Shelf Team.
What you need to do is to provide the Shelf Team with a CSV file that has the following structure and content:
gemId: Identifier of the needed Gem as assigned by Shelf, in our case 7ff116a9-fd82-49a9-a2af-f93a41fd8e8a.
slug(encoded path): Desired custom slug to be displayed instead of the autogenerated one
redirects (encoded paths separated by |): Optional value that displays the list of old slugs used to define the SSP page for which you create a new slug; it is used to allow redirecting visitors who use old URLs to the current version of the page with the new slug. As said, it is the list of values that can contain maximum 23 values separated by |. In our case, this list looks as follows: %2small-breeds%2Fbrussel-griffon-old|%2small-breeds%2Fbrussels-griffon-dog
lang: Language of the Gem.
There are also some other limitations in regards to the custom slugs and/or redirects values. For instance, the following cannot be used for creating slug and redirects:
/
/searchin the end of URL
/favicon.ico.
There is also a slug length limitation: slug value cannot exceed 1795characters. This limit is a technical one - slug length should not exceed the difference between the maximum URL length (2048 characters) and the maximum length of a custom domain (253 characters).
When preparing the required CSV with the slugs and other needed values, make sure that slug and redirects values you enter are unique.
Once the CSV file is ready, send it to Shelf for importing and setting up the custom slugs for your Self-Service Portal.
If, for some reasons, you have no possibility to prepare such a CSV file, contact Shelf and we will instruct you on the needed actions from your side.
Self-Service Portal Overview
After publishing your Self-Service Portal you can visit its page either by clicking the Open your Self-Service Portal link button as shown in Figure 18 or by copying and pasting the URL address of your default SSP domain or your custom SSP domain (based on the option you use), shown in Figure 10, in your browser’s address bar, and make sure everything works as expected and as configured by you on the Shelf side.
If your SSP has been successfully published, you are redirected to your Self-Service Portal Home page, as described in the section and shown in Figure 21 and Figure 22 below.
Self-Service Portal Home Page
First thing you see when visiting your published Self-Service Portal is its Home page shown in the figure above. Basically, it is a starting point where your SSP visitors can begin their journey across your Self-Service Portal.
The appearance of the SSP Home page depends on the theme you have selected in the Self-Service Configurator. As you can remember, there are two default themes available for selection - Classic and Modern. You can also contact the Shelf Support and request any desired Custom theme that is expected to be configured to fully match your wishes and requirements.
Figure 21. Viewing SSP Home page with the Modern theme selected
Figure 22. Viewing SSP Home page with the Classic theme selected
In Figures 19 and 20 above, you can see the difference between the Modern and Classic themes: general layout of the content on the Home page and presence of the initial sidebar panel and breadcrumbs in the Classic theme. At the same time, all the main functionality remains unchanged: header and footer, social media link buttons, logo, content block with folders and their content, and the link to the Shelf website.
The most important point is that visitors of your Self-Service Portal, regardless of its theme, are able to access the needed content easily by clicking the respective article or folder.
For example, if the Classic theme is selected for your Self-Service Portal, you or your visitors can browse the available content using the sidebar panel in the left part of the Home page. The panel shows folders that contain articles and it is possible to click the folder names to show what is stored in the respective folders.
Figure 23. Sidebar panel, breadcrumbs, and search field in the Classic theme
For the ease of use, we will discuss the published Self-Service Portal features and elements based on the Classic theme selected for it.
Self-Service Portal Folder Page
In case there are folders in your Self-Service Library that you have configured on the Shelf side, they are displayed on your Self-Service Portal both in the sidebar panel in the left part of the Home page and in the Content block in the bottom of the Home page.
Additionally, each folder has its own page - Folder page - on the Self-Service Portal that is accessible by clicking the folder name in the sidebar panel or the See all articles link button in the Content block at the bottom of the window. Folder names in the Content block in the bottom of the window are not clickable.
Figure 24. Viewing folders on SSP
Figure 25. Viewing the Folder page on SSP
On the Folder page, you can see articles contained in it and the nested folders, if any, and also view which articles, categories, and tags are most popular across the Self-Service portal among users and navigate between those articles, categories, and tags by selecting any needed one. If you have enabled the additional search feature on the Shelf side, you are also able to see and use it from the panel in the right part of the Folder page. Using the breadcrumbs feature, you can jump to the Home page.
Self-Service Portal Search Results Page
The Search Results page is the page where you or your SSP users arrive after completing the search for the needed information. It can be accessed through the main search field in the SSP header, or from the additional search field, if enabled on the Shelf side, located in the panel in the right part of the Folder and Article pages.
Figure 26. Search fields on Self-Service Portal
Enter your search request and hit the Enter button on the keyboard. Once done, you are redirected to the Search Results page as shown in the figure below.
Figure 27. Accessing the Search Results page
All the results - articles - on the Search Results page are clickable and redirect to the respective Article pages. Categories and tags buttons under the article name and description are also clickable and once clicked redirect to the respective Search Results page listing all the articles that have such a category or tag. If you have enabled the display of the article’s author name, last update time, and reading time, these will also be displayed under the description. The other actions available for you and your SSP users on the Search Results page are similar to those described for the Folder page: search for and access articles, view most popular articles, most popular categories, and most popular tags, and, correspondingly, navigate between these entities
Self-Service Portal Article Page
One of the most important elements of the Self-Service Portal is its Article page that shows the needed article where you or your SSP users can get information that can help resolve problems or answer questions.
Accessing the Article page occurs when you select any needed article either in the sidebar panel on the Home or Folder pages or in the Content block on the Home page of your Self-Service Portal.
Figure 28. Viewing the Article page on SSP
On the Article page, you can read the article in order to get the information that helps resolve your issue or answer your question. Immediately under the article name, you can see its brief description as preconfigured for the respective Shelf’s Gem. If you have enabled these options on the Shelf side, you are able to see the article author, last update time, and reading time, as well as the article categories and tags. On this page, you can also see which articles are recommended to you by the Shelf AI. You can also view which articles, categories, and tags are most popular across the Self-Service portal among users and navigate between those articles, categories, and tags by selecting any needed one. If you have enabled the additional search feature on the Shelf side, you are also able to see and use it from the panel in the right part of the Article page. Using the breadcrumbs feature, you can jump to the Home page.
Moreover, you are able to evaluate the article and its content by selecting the respective emoji: happy face emoji if you find the article useful, and sad face emoji if you wouldn’t recommend it to other users.
At the bottom of the Article page, there are social media link buttons by clicking which you or your SSP users can jump directly to the respective social media linked to your Self-Service Portal. These links are configured in the Footer Settings of the Self-Service Configurator on the Shelf side.
Finally, if you have enabled this option in the Basic Settings of the Self-Service Configurator on the Shelf side, you or your SSP users will be able to go to the Shelf website by clicking on the respective link at the bottom of the Article page.
Self-Service Portal 404 Page
This is the page you are redirected to try to access your default or custom Self-Service Portal domain URL-address without publishing your Self-Service Portal.
Figure 29. Toggling the switch on to publish SSP
Figure 30. Viewing the 404 page on SSP
Self-Service Portal Usage
Once your Self-Service Portal is configured and published, its visitors and you as well can use it for various needs: look for and get the needed information etc.
Let us see how the Self-Service Portal works and what its components serve for. The exemplary use case is based on the Self-Service Portal with the Classic theme.
Opening the Articles
The important thing for your SSP users is to open and read articles published on it. The users can do it in three ways. The first option is to open the needed folder in the sidebar panel in the left part of the SSP Home page and then find and select the needed article from the list.
Figure 31. Opening the article from the sidebar panel
The second way to open the needed article is to navigate to the bottom of the SSP Home page and select the needed article in the respective block there.
Figure 32. Finding and opening the article from the Content block
The third way is to open the needed article by selecting it on the Folder page.
Figure 33. Opening the article from the Folder page
Regardless of the way you have decided to use, you have successfully found and opened the needed article and are able to get the needed content or answer to your question.
Navigating across Self-Service Portal
You or your SSP users can easily navigate across the Portal using one of the following options:
Sidebar panel in the left part of the SSP window
Breadcrumbs on top of the SSP window
Logo in the SSP header
Search field in the SSP header
Recommended Articles block in the panel in the right part of the SSP window
Most Popular Articles block in the panel in the right part of the SSP window
Most Popular Categories block in the panel in the right part of the SSP window
Most Popular Tags block in the panel in the right part of the SSP window
Additional search field in the panel in the right part of the SSP window
Content block in the bottom of the SSP window
Website homepage link in the SSP header
Figure 34. Navigation options in SSP
Sidebar Panel
Functionality of the sidebar panel in the left part of the SSP window is very simple: it is a standard tree panel with items you can expand and collapse to show, access, or hide the needed content.
To expand the item - in our case folder - you need to click it. If it contains any subfolders or articles, they are expected to be shown underneath as a dropdown list. In order to collapse the folder, click it again.
Figure 35. Sidebar panel in SSP
Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs is a convenient tool to navigate through your Self-Service Portal as it allows for a quick navigation to any needed page of the Portal. To jump to a needed page, click the respective link button in the breadcrumbs.
Figure 36. Using the breadcrumbs
Logo
Like the breadcrumbs, the logo is a convenient navigation tool. Clicking it allows you to quickly jump to your SSP Homepage no matter which Portal page or article you are currently viewing.
Figure 37. Using the logo for navigation
Search Field in Header
Search field in the SSP header is one of the most important elements of the Portal as it allows its users to quickly find the needed information that helps them resolve their problems or answer their questions. To look for the information, place the pointer in the field and then enter your query. The system processes it and displays the search results on the page.
Figure 38. Using the search field and viewing search results
Once the search is complete, you can view the search results and access the matching content by clicking the link hidden in the article name. The system also displays the number of the results found, search query, brief description of the article (Gem), and, if the respective features enabled, the article’s author name, last update time, and categories and tags assigned to the article (Gem) on the Shelf side.
Recommended Articles Block
Users of your SSP are able to see recommendations on each Article page in the dedicated Recommended Articles block in the right part of the window. This feature is not customizable and depends exclusively on the AI-based recommendations. The feature is handled by Shelf’s Recommendations API and displays up to five (5) articles that need to be located within the same Self-Service Library. In case there are no recommendations at the moment, the placeholder text is expected to be shown reading No Recommended Articles at this time.
Figure 39. Viewing the Recommended Articles block
You can click any of the recommended articles in this block to open it in the Article page and read its content for finding the needed information.
Most Popular Articles Block
This feature allows you and your SSP users to see which articles are most popular among other users. For its operation, it must be first enabled on the Shelf side in the Self-Service Configurator’s Basic Settings for your SSP.
Figure 40. Enabling the Most Popular Articles feature in Shelf
In this block, which is available on the Folder, Search Results, and Article pages, your SSP users can see articles that have the most views over the last 90 days. Popularity of an article is based on the views count exclusively on the Self-Service Portal. The block can display up to five (5) articles, and users can open any of them by simply clicking it in this block.
Figure 41. Viewing the Most Popular Articles block
Most Popular Categories Block
Like the Most Popular Articles block, the Most Popular Categories block is available to you or your SSP users from the Folder, Search Results, Article pages provided it is enabled on the Shelf side in the Self-Service Configurator’s Basic Settings for your SSP. It shows up to 10 (ten) categories assigned to the SSP articles, which are most popular among SSP users during the last 90 days. Each category is clickable and redirects to the Search Results page listing all the matching articles that have the subject category assigned to them. There is also a counter near each category in the Most Popular Categories block showing the number of articles that have such a category.
Figure 42. Navigating by category
Most Popular Tags Block
Like the Most Popular Articles and Most Popular Categories blocks, the Most Popular Tags block is available to you or your SSP users from the Folder, Search Results, and Article pages provided it is enabled on the Shelf side in the Self-Service Configurator’s Basic Settings for your SSP. It shows up to 10 (ten) tags assigned to the SSP articles, which are most popular among SSP users during the last 90 days. Each tag is clickable and redirects to the Search Results page listing all the matching articles that have the subject tag assigned to them. There is also a counter near each tag in the Most Popular Tags block showing the number of articles that have such a tag.
Figure 43. Navigating by tag
Additional Search Field
The additional search field can be enabled on the Shelf side in the Self-Service Configurator’s Basic Settings for your SSP and provides a secondary method of looking for the needed information. If enabled, it is available in the panel in the right part of the Folder, Search Results, and Article pages.
Both the main search field in the SPP header and the additional search field in the right-side panel of the abovementioned pages, as shown in Figure 26, have the same functionality and allow searching by term across all articles on SSP. Place the pointer in the field, enter your query, and hit the Enter button on the keyboard. If the search is successful, its results are displayed on the Search Results page as shown in Figure 27.
Content Block
This block simplifies navigation through the articles on your Self-Service Portal and is located at the bottom of the Home page just above its footer.
Figure 44. Viewing the Content block on SSP Home page
In this block, you can see folders preconfigured on the Shelf side and, if any, nested folders and articles (Gems) created inside these folders. You can navigate to any needed article by simply clicking its name. Once clicked, you are redirected to the respective Article page. You can also click the See all articles link to get to the respective Folder page listing all articles available in this folder.
Figure 45. Accessing all articles in the folder
Figure 46. Viewing all articles in the folder
Website Homepage Link
As mentioned in Table 1, you or your SSP users can make use of the link to your website homepage that is preconfigured in the Basic Settings of the Self-Service Configurator on the Shelf side. The display of this link depends on the template and can be either in the form of a clickable logo or a simple text link. Regardless of the form, once clicked, it redirects the user to your website homepage.
Figure 47. Accessing your website homepage via the link in the SSP header
Figure 48. Viewing your website homepage
Language Selector
This option is also enabled in the Basic Settings of the Self-Service Configurator on the Shelf side. It is only operational when you have the same content in your Self-Service Library but in different languages, and it helps your SSP users select the language of the needed content.
If there is such content, the language selector is displayed in the SSP header as shown in the figure below.
Figure 49. Viewing the language selector in the SSP header
If there are no articles that have the same content but in different languages, the language selector is not displayed in the SSP header.
Social Media Link Buttons
These elements of your Self-Service Portal play an important role as they allow your SSP users to quickly and easily jump to your organization’s official social media pages directly from the SSP. In order to make this feature operational, you need to preliminary enter or paste URL addresses linking to your organization’s social media pages in the respective address fields in the Footer settings of the Shelf’s Self-Service Configurator.
Figure 50. Configuring social media link buttons for SSP footer
Once the links are set and saved, they are displayed in the footer of your Self-Service Portal and clicking them will redirect users to the respective social media pages.
Figure 51. Social media link buttons in the SSP footer
If you have left the respective address fields in the Footer settings unchanged or blank, no social media link buttons are displayed in the SSP footer.
Evaluating the Content on Self-Service Portal
One of the most exciting features of Self-Service Portals delivered by Shelf is the opportunity for SSP users to give their feedback on the content, that is to evaluate how useful the content turned out to be for them. To make it possible, the content evaluation feature must be enabled on the Shelf side, in the Basic Settings of the Self-Service Configurator.
Figure 52. Enabling the user feedback feature for SSP content
Once the feature is enabled, SSP users are able to provide their content to the articles available on your Self-Service Portal. To do so, they need to open any article, read or scroll through it to the end, and then select one of the two available emojis to respond whether they like the content in this article or not.
Figure 53. Evaluating content on SSP
Once the user has evaluated the article, the emojis are replaced with the message shown in the figure below.
Figure 54. Feedback message
Self-Service Portal Analytics
In addition to the delivery of the Self-Service Portal product and its Configurator feature, Shelf also provides a functionality to view analytics on the Self-Service Portal usage. This functionality can be extremely useful for your organization as it makes it possible to understand which content, that is articles, is popular among your SSP visitors by views, what visitors search for and whether there are any unsuccessful searches, and also see how visitors rate the content on your SSP. Altogether, it can help your organization to improve your content health and make it more useful and efficient for your existing and potential customers.
To access the SSP Analytics functionality, go to your Admin Panel on Shelf, then in this panel, find and select the Insights option.
Figure 55. Accessing the Shelf Insights
On the Insights page you are redirected to, find and navigate to the Self-Service Reports section in the sidebar panel.
Figure 56. Finding the Self-Service-related reports
Click the report name to select and open it on the page.
Article Views Report
Figure 57. Viewing the global (across all SSLs) Article Views Report
Once you’ve selected the Article Views Report option, this report opens on the page and covers all articles in all Self-Service Libraries of your account. The report has the table grid where you can see names of the articles, number of views for each article, number of viewers, as well as the date and time of the article’s last view. You can sort the data in the table grid in descending order and in ascending order using the sorting arrow icons in the respective columns’ headers. You can also select the period for which you want to see the report on article views. To do so, click on the down arrow icon near the date or the period and select any desired timeframe using either the list of available time options or the date picker tool.
Figure 58. Setting the report timeframe
To view statistics on article views for a specific Self-Service Portal, select the respective Self-Service Library by clicking the SELECT LIBRARY button, selecting the respective checkbox next to the needed library, and clicking the SELECT button in the popup window that opens.
Figure 59. Selecting the Self-Service Library
Once the needed library is selected, the Article Views Report is updated to display the statistics for the specified Self-Service Portal only.
This report is accessible by clicking the respective option in the Self-Service Reports section of the Shelf Insights. The Search Queries Report opens on the page and, like the Article Views Report, covers all your Self-Service Libraries.
Figure 61. Viewing the global (across all SSLs) Search Queries Report
It also contains the table grid that shows query names, meaning the search words, and numbers of searches in total and broken down by broad searches and by exact searches. You can sort the data in the table grid in descending order and in ascending order by means of the respective sorting arrow icons in the headers of the respective columns. You can also select the period for which you want to see the report on search queries. To do so, click on the down arrow icon near the date or the period and select any desired timeframe using either the list of available time options or the date picker tool, as shown in Figure 58.
To narrow the data on the report to the specific Self-Service Portal, click the SELECT LIBRARY button, then select the respective checkbox next to the needed library, and click the SELECT button in the popup window that opens as shown in Figure 57. Once it is done, the report is updated to display the statistics for the specified Self-Service Portal only.
If no data on the search queries is available, the respective message is displayed in the table grid.
Figure 62. Viewing the Search Query Report if no data on search queries are available
Empty Searches Report
This report opens when you select it in the Self-Service Reports section in Insights, and displays the data on unsuccessful searches performed by users on Self-Service Portals. It can cover all Self-Service Portals configured for your organization or any specific Self-Service Portal. You can select the needed SSP by selecting the respective Self-Service Library as shown in Figure 59.
You can also set the timeframe for which you want to get the report. To do so, click on the down arrow icon near the date or the period and select any desired timeframe using either the list of available time options or the date picker tool, as shown in Figure 58.
Figure 63. Viewing the SSP-specific Empty Searches Report
Like the Search Queries Report, this report shows the total number of searches that returned no result, and then breaks them down by broad and exact searches.
If there is no data to be displayed on this report, the respective message is shown in the table grid on the report page.
Figure 64. Viewing the Empty Searches Report with no data on unsuccessful searches
Feedback Report
This report is very useful to understand how visitors of your Self-Service Portal evaluate the content available on it.
The report opens by its selection in the Self-Service Reports section in Insights and displays the table grid as shown in the figure below.
Figure 65. Viewing the Feedback Report for your Self-Service Portal
In the table grid, you can see which articles of your SSP have been evaluated by users, how many views they have received, which feedback - positive or negative - they have received, and check their total score which is the difference between positive and negative evaluations.
As in case with other reports, you can refine the report by the period as shown in Figure 58.
Conclusion
If you have read to this point, it means that you have learned what a Self-Service Portal is and what purposes it serves, how it is configured and customized on the Shelf side, how it looks when published, and what its elements are used for. You have also learned how to get some statistics on your Self-Service Portal and its content using the Shelf Insights App and use it for improving the health of your content and popularity and usability of your Self-Service Portal.
Shall you have any further questions regarding the Self-Service Portal feature or any of its settings or elements, feel free to contact Shelf at: https://shelf.io/contact-us.
Figure 8. Starting the Self-Service Portal setup
Figure 12. Configuring your SSP homepage
Figure 16. Adding the script and its details
Figure 17. Selecting the SSP theme
Figure 18. Publishing Self-Service Portal
Figure 20. SSP URL with custom slugs
Figure 23. Sidebar panel, breadcrumbs, and search field in the Classic theme
Figure 25. Viewing the Folder page on SSP
Figure 27. Accessing the Search Results page
Figure 30. Viewing the 404 page on SSP
Figure 31. Opening the article from the sidebar panel
Figure 32. Finding and opening the article from the Content block
Figure 34. Navigation options in SSP
Figure 35. Sidebar panel in SSP
Figure 37. Using the logo for navigation
Figure 39. Viewing the Recommended Articles block
Figure 44. Viewing the Content block on SSP Home page
Figure 57. Viewing the global (across all SSLs) Article Views Report
Figure 58. Setting the report timeframe
Figure 61. Viewing the global (across all SSLs) Search Queries Report
Figure 62. Viewing the Search Query Report if no data on search queries are available
