Why aren't categories and sections visible to customers?

Question

I created a new section or category in the help center, but the content isn't visible to visitors. I can see the section or category when I sign in as an agent, but not my customers. Why aren't the category and sections visible to customers?

Answer

There are different reasons why categories or sections aren't visible to customers:

The help center content is arranged as Category > Section > Article. All sections must be in a category, and all articles must be in a section or subsection. Article permissions control the visibility of the section and category. If you create a category with a section that doesn't have a published article, the category and section are both hidden. For the category and section to appear in your help center, publish at least one article that is visible to your users.

If a category only has a single section within it, the system logic forgoes the category container and instead displays the section container. This same logic applies if you have multiple sections within a category, but the user only has the permission to see articles from one section.

If you added an article to a section, and the section or category it belongs to is not visible, you set the incorrect view permissions on the article for your target audience. To ensure that your section and category appear, set the article's visibility to Visible to everyone. When you confirm that the section or category is visible, apply the relevant view permission to the article if you need to further restrict access to the article.

If you create a new article, click Save, and the article doesn't appear, you need to click Publish. Consequently, the section or category becomes visible.

If you add a translation to an article that doesn't have a translation for its section or category, the article translation won't appear in the help center, even if the article is published