Question 1

Can I pass secure values into Malcolm! Workflows via the URL?

Accepted Answer

Passing data into a Workflow via the URL is a feature we've had for a while - read more - but what if the data you want to pass is confidential?

Understandably, you wouldn't want to pass that straight in. Luckily Malcolm! understands how important protecting your data is so we've come up with a solution that allows values to travel safe and secure with minimal effort!

A beginners guide to encryption

Suppose you have a value, such as an account number, that you don't want anyone else to read. Encryption provides a way to scramble this value so only you and the people you share the password or secret key with can read it.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/FR8yDloV2d/encryption-diagram.png (encryption-diagram.png)

The sender uses the secret key to scramble the original value and the encrypted value is sent to the receiver. On receipt of the encrypted value the receiver uses the same secret key to unscramble the value back to the original.

And that's encryption in a nutshell!

Step 1: Generate a secret key

The secret key can be any string you like, but Malcolm! recommends using a random string of at least 36 characters. A simple ruby command can quickly generate one for you.

Keep your secret key safe - you'll need it later!

Step 2: Share your secret key with Malcolm!

We do this via the Workflow Builder. Any question field that supports URL query values can now be secured with your secret key - e.g. text fields, hidden fields, number fields, email address fields, etc.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/g6hGpX1dvl/Screenshot%202021-11-10%20at%2013.43.37.png (Screenshot 2021-11-10 at 13.43.37.png)

Here's a simple example which starts with a text field renamed to "Account number".

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/b4uJV41azB/Screenshot%202021-11-10%20at%2013.51.53.png (Screenshot 2021-11-10 at 13.51.53.png)

To enable URL values open up the edit window, scroll to the bottom and turn on "Allow a value to be set in URL query". Malcolm! will automatically generate a query name for you but you can change it to something different if you prefer.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/7OhxX21Mdq/Screenshot%202021-11-10%20at%2013.52.01.png (Screenshot 2021-11-10 at 13.52.01.png)

Next turn on the "Secure the query value" and paste in your secret key.

Hit save and that completes the configuration!

Step 3: Encrypting values

Malcolm! uses OpenSSL and the "aes-128-gcm" cipher to decrypt values.

Passed values need to be encoded and made up of three parts -

The Initialisation Vector used during the encryption
The Authentication Tag resulting from AEAD ciphers
The encrypted string

Initialisation Vectors are generated using the OpenSSL rand function. For our chosen cipher these need to be exactly 12 bytes long. If using PHP you can use the openssl_random_pseudo_bytes function.

Why 12 bytes? This just happens to be the required length for our chosen cipher. In PHP you can verify this by using the openssl_cipher_iv_length function.

This will output -

Next use the OpenSSL enc function to create the encrypted string. Here's an example using the PHP openssl_encrypt function.

This will assign an Authentication Tag to the $tag variable (passed by reference) and an encrypted string to the $ciphertext variable.

Note - in PHP we pass OPENSSL_RAW_DATA to generate binary data.

Complete the process by concatenating $iv, $tag and $cipertext into a single string - Malcolm! needs all three for the decryption process!

As we're passing this value via the URL we need to first encode it. Use a Base 64 encoder followed by a URL encoder to ensure all the characters are sent correctly. In PHP this is the base64_encode function and urlencode functions respectively.

This is the final encoded string!

For simplicity all the steps from above can be put in a single function.

And that's all there is to it ;)

Question 2

How do drafts, versions, publishing and approvals of FAQs work?

Accepted Answer

Malcolm! has an inbuilt versioning system and optional scheduled publishing and approval functionality.

Versions can be useful if you change the answer to a question but at a later date want to revert the answer back to a previous version.

They can also be useful for compliance and regulatory reasons, eg in the future you might want to review what your FAQ answer was at a certain point in time.

Versions also enable you to "prep" updated content ahead of it going live. For example if you are revising your product or service you might need to update your FAQ content. But you might not want that new updated content to go live until your the changes to your product or service also go live.

How Versioning Works

When you first create an FAQ you are creating a draft. When you have finished editing you publish that draft into a version. When you make a version live that version is then what your customers see.

You can choose which version of content is live via the publishing section of an FAQ. To get to this browse to FAQ via the Library, then once selected go into the Publishing section.

You can also start a new draft based on a published version.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/VB6EF763Ha/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.08.06-19_15_24.png (Versions in MyMalcolm)

How Scheduled Publishing Works

As well as choosing to make a version live immediately you can also choose to make a version live at a certain date and time in the future. You may only want a version to be live for a certain period of time so you may wish to set an end date. You may also want different versions live at different times. You can set this up and manage and edit upcoming schedules in the publishing section of an FAQ.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/6R9cFykdG0/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.08.06-19_30_00.png (Scheduled Publishing in MyMalcolm)

How Approvals Work

The Approval functionality adds a stage between turning a draft into a published version - the draft has to be approved. This functionality can be useful if you work in an organisation where a legal or compliance department wants to review any changes to customer facing communications. It can also be useful if one team member, for example a manager or editor, wants to ensure they personally review all content changes submitted by staff members (or perhaps freelancers) before those changes are allowed to go live.

Approvals functionality is off by default. To turn it on go to the Settings section, General settings, Content approval.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/drOJxuIL5V/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2020.06.29-17_43_05.png (Enable Approvals in MyMalcolm)

Although you can technically approve your own content the approval functionality makes most sense when you have several team members on an Instance. So it tends to be used by instances that are on our Team or Enterprise plan. You can choose which users on your instance have the approval privilege via the Team section.

Notes can be added to each draft you put forward for approval.

If you are waiting for your content to be approved, or you are a user with the approval privilege you can access your options in the Publishing section. This can be accessed globally (ie showing activity and options across all FAQs) within the first level of FAQ or via an individual FAQ where just activity and options for that individual FAQ is shown. )

Question 3

Can I change the sender and email address in the emails Malcolm! sends my customers?

Accepted Answer

Malcolm! can send emails to your customers/users in the following situations:

Workflow email answers where you have configured the email answer to be sent to the email address specified in the Workflow
Email this answer functionality on an FAQ
Sending the resume later Workflow link
Payment confirmation email

By default these emails come from the sender "Malcolm!" with the email address noreply@malcolm.app

To do this, goto Settings --> Instance --> Emails and toggle Custom email sending to be active. You can then supply your Mailgun or SendGrid credentials and specify your desired sender name and email address.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/3dFvKHsdpC/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2022.01.02-18_57_32.png (Adding MailGun or SendGrid credentials in MyMalcolm)

You can also change the look and feel of these emails - please see this FAQ for further details.

Question 4

How is the removal of Company Personal Data handled?

Accepted Answer

What is personal data?

Personal data only includes information relating to natural persons who:

can be identified or who are identifiable, directly from the information in question; or
who can be indirectly identified from that information in combination with other information.

What is Company Personal Data?

When you use Malcolm! to collect information from your customers, suppliers, staff or others that information may include personal data. In this context, Malcolm! acts as your data processor and the personal data we may process on your behalf is referred to as Company Personal Data. You can read more about this here.

Removal of Company Personal Data

There are two tiers of data removal. The first is a recoverable delete, known also as a soft delete. The second is a permanent delete or purge. Malcolm! supports both types of data deletion.

Soft deletion

Soft deletion means data is deleted enough to make it no longer visible or discoverable but not quite enough should it need to be recovered.

For example if you delete a Malcolm! Workflow in MyMalcolm then the Workflow and everything related to that Workflow is soft deleted. This means it'll all disappear from MyMalcolm and our APIs but should you realise the deletion was a mistake it could still be fully recovered (on request).

Purging

Purging is a permanent or secure delete. This could be either a physical delete (e.g. uploaded files on disk) or a nullification of stored values in a database. Once data has been purged it is no longer recoverable.

Rest assured, Malcolm! will never purge your data whilst your Instance is active!

What happens after my trial finishes?

After your 14 day trial period comes to an end your Instance will be disabled. From that point you'll have 30 days to subscribe to one of the plans. If no subscription is in place by then your Instance data will be soft deleted and after 120 days all Company Personal Data will be purged in accordance with our Data Processing Addendum.

What happens if my subscription lapses?

Subscriptions could lapse for a number of reasons but the most likely cause is an expired credit card. We'll keep you Instance active for 14 days to give you time to fix the problem.

If the problem is not fixed your Instance will be disabled but you'll still have a further 30 days to subscribe to a new plan should you wish to. If no subscription is in place by then your Instance data will be soft deleted and after 120 days all Company Personal Data will be purged in accordance with our Data Processing Addendum.

What happens after I delete my Instance?

You can request to have your Instance deleted and purged in Settings > Instance > Delete Instance. After 30 minutes of requesting the deletion your Instance data will be soft deleted and after 120 days all Company Personal Data will be purged in accordance with our Data Processing Addendum.

Can I request just a Workflow data delete and purge?

Yes you can! Within MyMalcolm you can create a Workflow data deletion request. The Workflow data will be first be soft deleted and then 30 days later it will be purged.

See How do I delete data submitted to a Workflow? for more information.

For more information...

For more information please read the Data Processing Addendum.

Question 5

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 6

How do I review the feedback on my FAQs or Workflows?

Accepted Answer

You can choose whether to allow your customers to feedback on your FAQs or Workflows. They can say whether the content was helpful or not and optionally leave comments.

This information is only seen by you and other team members on your instance - it isn't viewable by other customers.

The feedback feature can be very useful as your customers may highlight things that are confusing or information/items you have left out.

When feedback is left a notification will be created. You can see feedback across all content in the Feedback area within the FAQ or Workflow sections. You can also see feedback on an individual FAQ or Workflow when navigating to that FAQ or Workflow via the Library.

Question 7

How do I see completions of my Workflow?

Accepted Answer

When one of your customers completes a Workflow that is called a completion. You can review the data collected via MyMalcolm. Go to the Workflow Section and then select the Completions tab. You can also review completions for an individual Workflow by navigating to that Workflow via the Library and then selecting Completions.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/RSwK2v0l7v/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.08.06-19_56_29.png (Workflow Completions in MyMalcolm)

You can export all the Completion data by selecting Exports within an individual Workflow.

Don't forget that you can also configure email notifications each time a Workflow is completed and use Integrations and Webhooks to pass collected data into other systems.

Question 8

Can I embed HTML or add iframes to Malcolm! content?

Accepted Answer

Malcolm! FAQ supports embedding content via HTML iframes.

Most popular content channels such as YouTube and Vimeo offer an embed sharing option via HTML iframes.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/TEt5gCaFXw/Screenshot%202021-01-29%20at%2011.06.24.png (Screenshot 2021-01-29 at 11.06.24 (1).png)

Malcolm! has two buttons on its editor toolbar. One for inserting video or presentation type content and one for other type of content. To use these features simply locate the HTML iframe code on your content channel and copy/paste it into one of these two dialogs.

Question 9

How many free trials can I have?

Accepted Answer

Each new instance begins with a 14 day free trial. There is currently no limit to the number of instances you can create.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/UmVDibLTsZ/insta-05%402x.png (Malcolm! Free Trial)

We want people to to use Malcolm! as much as possible so encourage you to use trials to try out possible ideas or use cases for Malcolm! Setting up an instance with some content and branding can be a quick and effective way to demonstrate to your colleagues or other team members how useful Malcolm! can be!

Question 10

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.