Question 1

How do I use Zapier to connect Malcolm! to other applications or services I use?

Accepted Answer

Malcolm! now plugs into Zapier. Zapier is an integration platform - it connects thousands of apps to other apps/

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/Zx8IUcIpAF/zapier-fb-2022%402x.png (Malcolm! plugs into Zapier)

In the context of Malcolm! this means that when a Workflow is completed you can use our Zapier integration to route some or all of the data that has been collected from that Workflow through into Zapier and then in turn onto thousands of other apps or services.

Here is how to set things up:

Firstly set up and publish a workflow in Malcolm! that collects the data you wish to move into other applications.
In MyMalcolm go to the Settings Section, then Workflows, then Integrations, then click on Zapier.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/0kJ1vTGUV4/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2022.08.11-12_17_47.png (Zapier in Malcolm! Integrations)

In the overlay you'll have an option to choose some featured popular Zapier / Malcolm! integrations or to proceed to Zapier.com to create from scratch.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/GcKFNwccoc/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2022.08.11-12_18_11.png (Make a Zap in MyMalcolm)

Sign up for an account at Zapier if you don't already have one - it is free - or login if you do have an account.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/WZcsX7PoBM/screenshot-zapier.com-2021.02.08-12_32_31.png (Malcolm! on Zapier)

Your trigger app should be Malcolm! and you want it to trigger on a new Workflow completion so hit "Save + Continue" once you have selected this option.
You now need to connect your Malcolm! instance to your Zapier account - click "Connect an Account" and follow the instructions. Once connected click "Save and Continue".
Choose a workflow then "Continue".
Wait for a sample to load and then click "Continue".
Choose an action App of your choice and configure as required - the exact process will vary from action App to action App but you are likely to need to agree some permissions and choose some options. Once done click "Save + Continue" or "Finish".
You will then be able to name your Zap and choose whether it is on or not.
Back in MyMalcolm, if you find the Workflow you used in your Zap in the Library, select it, then go to Configure then Integrations you should be able to see Zapier has been added. You can turn the integation off here if you want and/or configure it to be conditional (for example to only run when certain choices have been made on a Workflow).

Remember that Malcolm! always stores your data (which you can download anytime) - so if Zapier goes down or your integration doesn't seem to work properly no data will be lost.

We are hugely excited about the possibilities opened up via Zapier - we hope you are too! If you have questions or need a hand setting things up just contact us and we'll be happy to help.

Question 2

How do I add Intro text for Categories, Authors & Tags?

Accepted Answer

You can add introductory text to your Categories, Authors & Tag listings. This is perfect for giving your customers/users added context or information as they browse your content.

In MyMalcolm you'll see the a "Description" field when you add or edit a Category, Author or Tag.

How to add intro text to Categories, Authors or Tags

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/5ut5kRCq4Q/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2022.11.09-13_11_50.png (Adding intro text in MyMalcolm)

The Description field supports markdown so it's possible to add styling, links and media too. The content you add will appear on your hosted hub as well as our other formats like embeds, overlays and widgets.

Question 3

How are Related FAQs determined and can I change this?

Accepted Answer

Related FAQs are auto-generated and by default are FAQs either in the same category or similarly tagged (we combine this pool of FAQs). We take the top 4 results from that pool, based on the sort order defined in the instance. For info on how to change the default sort order see this FAQ.

You can choose to force the Related FAQs to use tags or just the category by updating the setting in MyMalcolm / Settings / FAQs:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/mNimQ1t2R3/Screenshot%202020-03-30%2021.19.11.png (Settings in MyMalcolm)

In this scenario we will then take the top 4 results from just the category or tag pool using the defined sort order.

Question 4

How can I change my Hosted Hub URL?

Accepted Answer

You can change the URL of your Hosted Hub via the Settings Section of MyMalcolm. Go to Custom Domains and you choose a new URL on malcolm.support or malcolm.app here. The URL must be available ie not being used by another customer.

You can also configure your own external domain or sub domain in this area as well.

If you want to change the part of the URL after your domain please see this article.

Question 5

Do you mark content up in Schema?

Accepted Answer

By default we mark up your FAQ hosted hub content using the FAQPage schema. This is useful for search engine results. If your content is more general in nature you may prefer to change the schema used to WebPage. You can also do this from Settings --> FAQs.

Question 6

Can I change the path or base URL of my hosted hub pages?

Accepted Answer

As you are probably aware you can configure the Malcolm! hosted hub to use your own custom domain - see here for further details - but sometimes you may wish to change the part of the URL that comes after your domain.

By default your FAQs live at /faqs and your Workflows at /workflows

You can now choose from some alternative "base URLs" in the Settings area of MyMalcolm. Visit the FAQs or Workflows sub section respectively to choose an alternate URL for each content type. This feature may be particularly useful if you are using Malcolm! for more general content (eg how to's) rather than questions & answers.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/2HZEwPaFKU/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2022.02.14-09_32_41.png (Changing base URL in MyMalcolm)

By default we mark up your FAQ hosted hub content using the FAQPage schema. This is useful for search engine results. If your content is more general in nature you may prefer to change the schema used to WebPage. You can also do this from Settings --> FAQs.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/oBmGTh9Taw/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2022.02.14-09_33_40.png (Changing Schema type in MyMalcolm)

See below for a video walkthrough of changing your base URL:

Question 7

How do I embed content from Malcolm! into my own website or app?

Accepted Answer

You can easily embed content from Malcolm! into your existing website, app, product or online service with just a few lines of code.

Begin by going to the Share section of MyMalcolm and then select Embed.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/N17DhjfW2Z/Screenshot%202021-12-30%20at%2013.57.57.png (Choose your embed type in MyMalcolm)

We offer the following type of embeds:

Floating Widget (with button and draw options) - this option floats a button or drawer “pre-expand” over your site, application, product or service - when clicked a content panel opens up
Overlay / Pop Up - this opens an overlay / popup over whatever the user is currently seeing - it’s triggered by a link you can place wherever you want in your site, application, product or service
Inline - pull content directly into the same pages/screens your users are seeing with this option - use blend mode for a truly seamless experience!

We also offer a fourth option which can be useful in some circumstances:

Redirect - this option creates an automatic redirect which will replace the page the embed is fired from with a Malcolm! hosted page. This is achieved by auto forwarding the user. This option can be useful in certain scenarios, for example if you constrained by only being able to publish via a CMS and want some navigation or pages within your CMS structure to link out to Malcolm! hosted content. Note you will likely want to use URL rules in conjunction with the redirect embed (otherwise the redirect will happen on all pages the embed is present on!).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/jbX8ylorUd/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.11.05-13_16_07.png (Choose your embed content in MyMalcolm)

In terms of the type of content you can embed options include:

Hosted Hub results - paginated results showing the default filtered FAQs and Workflows as seen on your Hosted Hub homepage
A single FAQ - your choice of FAQ
A single Workflow - your choice of Workflow
Author listing - paginated results showing FAQs from a particular author
Category listing paginated results showing FAQs within a partiuclar category
Filtered results paginated results showing FAQs and Workflows filtered by your choice of filter (eg most popular, most recent, most helpful etc)
Search results (contextual) - paginated results showing FAQs and Workflows according to a search query provided via a meta tag on your page
Search results (specified search query) - paginated results showing FAQs and Workflows according to a given search query
Tag listing - paginated results showing FAQs referenced by particular tag

Note that if you just want to embed a single FAQ or Workflow you can also access a quick embed interface via the Library in both the FAQ and Workflow sections of MyMalcolm. Simply select "Embed" from the menu accessible on the right hand side of the respective published FAQ or Workflow.

You can configure various options around the visual stlye of your embed. The exact options available depend on the type of embed you have chosen.

When you have finished configuring the content and visual appearence of your embed, Malcolm! will give you the code that can be used to pull your content into your website, app, product or online service.

Watch a video guide to embeding Malcolm! content into your website below.

Question 8

What is the Share section in MyMalcolm for / how does it work?

Accepted Answer

The Share section of MyMalcolm gives you tools to embed and share content from Malcolm! into your existing websites, applications and social spaces.

You can bring content from Malcolm! directly into your current website via embeds. Choose the content you want to embed and how you want it displayed and we'll give you some code. Inserting that code into your current website will load in your content from Malcolm!

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/N17DhjfW2Z/Screenshot%202021-12-30%20at%2013.57.57.png ("Choose your embed type in MyMalcolm)

You can embed individual FAQs or Workflows, create custom widgets that can pull in things like search results, category listings, all content by a particular author, recent content, tagged content, most popular content and much more.

If you don't have a website or you want to group all your Malcolm! content together you can use our Hosted Hub.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/77KnCbIxOb/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.11.05-11_21_58.png (About our Hosted Hub)

We also have a plugin for Wordpress.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/3xBONmPNuf/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.11.05-11_06_58.png (The Share section of MyMalcolm)

In addition to the above customers on our Enterprise plans have full access to our API which means they can pull from and push content to Malcolm! in a variety of ways - please speak to your account manager for more details.

Question 9

How can I password-protect my hub with Auth0?

Accepted Answer

Malcolm supports using Auth0 to password-protect your content.

This guide will help you set up Auth0.

First go to MyMalcolm > Settings > Instance > Visibility and enable Hosted Hub password protection. This automatically enables the built-in password protection.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/ea8meZWJKM/Screenshot%202021-11-25%20at%2016.37.03.png (Screenshot 2021-11-25 at 16.37.03.png)

Next, inside your Auth0 tennant, create a new Auth0 Application. Give it a name and choose Regular Web Applications from the four options.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/VDfX0QpiZh/Screenshot%202021-11-25%20at%2016.31.49.png (Screenshot 2021-11-25 at 16.31.49.png)

Click on the Settings tab and scroll down to the Basic Information section.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/JReEIPSyji/Screenshot%202021-11-25%20at%2016.46.53.png (Screenshot 2021-11-25 at 16.46.53.png)

In MyMalcolm click through to Manage password protection and toward the bottom enable Auth0 for password protection. Copy/paste the Domain, Client ID and Client Secret from Auth0 into MyMalcolm.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/mwX1ffzhIZ/Screenshot%202021-11-25%20at%2016.40.03.png (Screenshot 2021-11-25 at 16.40.03.png)

Next copy/paste the Application Login URI, Allowed Callback URL and Allowed Logout URL from Malcolm! into your Auth0 Application URIs settings.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/ST4LVVMZ3x/Screenshot%202021-11-25%20at%2016.45.36.png (Screenshot 2021-11-25 at 16.45.36.png)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/kpvEhZpVtp/Screenshot%202021-11-25%20at%2016.40.39.png (Screenshot 2021-11-25 at 16.40.39.png)

Save the settings on both sides and you should see your Auth0 login page in your Hub.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/oijJOqmb9t/Screenshot%202021-11-25%20at%2016.42.11.png (Screenshot 2021-11-25 at 16.42.11.png)

But that's not all!

Attributes from your Auth0 users can be pre-populated in Malcolm! Workflows. To enable this feature choose a suitable field on a Workflow, edit the field settings and enable Allow a value to be set in the URL query. Enter one of the four attribute names email, name, nickname or picture to pre-populate those values directly into your Workflow.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/5zfBKHJgrE/Screenshot%202021-11-25%20at%2017.23.01.png (Screenshot 2021-11-25 at 17.23.01.png)

You can read more about passing values in the URL query here.

Question 10

Is there a way a user can browse all my FAQs/Articles bypassing Categories?

Accepted Answer

On your hosted hub your users can search for FAQs/Article content by keyword, browse various filtered views (eg most recent, most helpful etc) and also browse the FAQs/Articles within each category.

It can sometimes be useful to offer your users a browsable view of all your FAQ/Articles (regardless of the category/categories they are in) and this is possible via the directory view.

You can enable this Settings --> FAQs --> General where you you can also decide how you want the content on the directory page to be sorted.

When switched on the directory page can be accessed on your hosted hub URL at /faqs/directory and you can create a link to it from a feature box or promo or from text areas like your homepage preamble (all managed from within your theme).

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/rb5fS303OE/Screenshot-2021-11-26-at-15.10.19.png (Directory Setting in MyMalcolm)

The directory will also show all the categories towards the top of the page (clicking any of these will take you into the category view) and then FAQs/Articles beneath sorted in the order determined in MyMalcolm.

See the below video for a walk through