Question 1

Can I turn off automatic email alerts?

Accepted Answer

Malcolm! will automatically send you email alerts when certain activity happens on your instance, such as a user leaving feedback or a Workflow being completed. Wherever possible we aggregate these alerts so you receive fewer emails but if you'd rather not receive them you can easily turn them off.

To do this, from the MyMalcolm control panel area, click your name at the top of the screen where it says "Logged in as"

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/LgmiVqgthh/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2020.01.16-10_57_39.png (Logged in Navigation in MyMalcolm)

You'll then be taken to your personal preferences. If you select the "Notifications" tab on the left you'll be able to edit the notifications you receive. Remember to hit "Save" once you are done!

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/aez6lFczno/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2020.01.16-11_03_51.png (Manage your notifications in MyMalcolm)

Note that your notificatons are based on an instance. If you are a user on more than one instance you should first switch to the instance you wish to adjust notifications for. You can do this using the drop down selector at the top right of the screen. You can therefore have different notification preferences for different instances. The notificiation preferences you choose are personal to you and will not affect the notifications of other team members on an instance.

If you are the owner of an instance, you can edit the notifications members of your team receive. To do this go to the Team section, click on the name of the team member in question then select notifications. Remember to hit save when done. Also note than you can assign the permission for a team member to be able to edit other team members notifications via the permissions tab.

Question 2

Can I turn off the "last updated" date on FAQs?

Accepted Answer

If you'd like to hide the "last updated" date displayed on an FAQ you can do this on a per FAQ basis via the Configure / General area of the FAQ in MyMalcolm:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/rAF6afXiNL/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.10.23-11_42_54.png (Enabling or disabling the last updated date globally)

If you want to turn off this feature for all FAQ's in the instance you can do this globally via Settings / FAQs / General Settings:

Question 3

Can I change meta information and optimise Malcolm! for SEO?

Accepted Answer

Malcolm! offers lots of options to configure your hosted hub for SEO purposes. Below is an overview.

Hosted Hub Homepage

You can set the page title, meta description and keywords for your hosted hub homepage via Settings --> Instance --> Meta Content.

Hosted Hub homepage meta options in MyMalcolm

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/1YN7mN8DHC/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2022.08.09-13_02_55.png (Hosted Hub homepage meta options in MyMalcolm)

Hosted Hub homepage meta options in MyMalcolm

You can configure whether you want search engines to see this page via the visibility tab.

FAQs and Workflows only homepage

If you use the FAQs only and Workflows only homepages, you can set the page title, meta description and keywords for them via Settings --> FAQs --> Meta Content and Settings --> Workflows --> Meta Content respectively.

You can configure whether you want search engines to see these pages via the visibility tab.

Visibility settings in MyMalcolm

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/SYnelFDeLl/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2022.08.09-13_08_05.png (Visibility settings in MyMalcolm)

Visibility settings in MyMalcolm

Authors, Categories & Tags

By default the results pages for Authors, Categories & Tags are not shown to search engines, but you can change this and configure the meta information via the respective Author, Category and Tag in the FAQ section.

Tag configuration in MyMalcolm

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/9qAnoZ47Lg/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2022.08.09-13_04_47.png (Tag configuration in MyMalcolm)

Tag configuration in MyMalcolm

Advanced Settings

You can set much of the above, and some additional title and meta info via the language file which can be found at Settings --> Instance --> Advanced. Click "Show dictionary" to see what can be edited.

Advanced SEO options in MyMalcolm

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/SmUzmyq955/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2022.08.09-13_03_41.png (Advanced SEO options in MyMalcolm)

Advanced SEO options in MyMalcolm

Individual Content

You can edit the meta content and visibility (ie whether a search engine can see it) of an individual FAQ or Workflow via the configure tab of the FAQ or Workflow in question.

Social Images

A social image is the image that will be used when you link to content via services like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.

A default social image is defined in your theme (Brand --> Theme --> edit icon on theme --> General)
That can be overriden by defining a social image in Settings --> Instance --> Meta
For your hosted hub home, the FAQs and Workflows only homepages and the Authors, Categories & Tags results pages the above can be overriden via the respective setting screens mentioned above.
An individual piece of content (ie an FAQ or Workflow) can set their own social image and override the above via the configure tab of the content in question.

Site Map

All published and "visible" pages/content will appear in the sitemap.xml file which can be found at yourhostedhub.com/sitemap.xml where yourhostedhub.com is your actual Malcolm! hosted hub URL.

Schema

We mark up content created in the FAQs section using Schema. This means your content may appear in Google as Rich Results. You can choose between marking content up as FAQPage (perfect for questions and answers) or as a WebPage. See here for more info. In addition if you insert a How-to / Step by Step into your content this is also marked up using Schema. See here for more info.

Question 4

Can I change the order in which FAQs are shown when a user browses a category, tag or author listing?

Accepted Answer

You can change the order your FAQs are sorted in when your users view by author, category or tag via Settings --> FAQs --> General.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/evapRB3yn5/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2021.06.29-16_30_20.png (Author, category and tag sort order in MyMalcolm)

In addition to this you can also set an absolute order for FAQs within a particular category. To do this go to the category in question in FAQs --> Categories and select Reorder. You can then drag the FAQs to create the order you want.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/RibhVyjiBt/Screenshot%202021-10-11%20at%2010.40.21.png (Reorder the FAQs in a category in MyMalcolm)

Note that these settings only affects listings, not searches. Searches are ordered by relevance.

If you want to be able to set an absolute for FAQs within an author or tag listing the way to do this is to set the date sort option, then in the individual FAQ configure tab use the display date to determine an order. The FAQ with the most recent date will be shown first in an author, or tag listing - and also in a category listing unless overridden using the absolute method above. The FAQ with the second most recent date will be shown second and so on.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/44K839GO3Z/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2021.06.30-15_14_49.png (Display date in FAQ configure tab)

Note that if you set the display date to invisible either globally in Settings or individually on an FAQ's configure tab the date won't show on the front end to your customers/users but the date you set will still be relevant in determining the order in which the FAQs displays.

See the video below for a walkthrough

Question 5

Does the free trial have any restrictions?

Accepted Answer

The free trial follows the quotas for the Team plan, but with a lower limit for file uploads.

A trial therefore allows:

Up to 100 FAQs
Up to 10 Workflows
Up to 5 team members
Fle uploads to a total of 100MB.

If you sign up to a plan via the Billing section of MyMalcolm your restrictions will be lifted. If you have a particular requirement for higher FAQ, Workflow, team members or file upload limits during your trial please get in touch with us to discuss.

Question 6

Where is Malcolm! hosted?

Accepted Answer

Malcolm! is currently hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) within their Europe region.

For Enterprise clients we do offer the possibility of custom hosting set-up - for example we can support tenanted data, different AWS regions or even different hosting providers. Please contact us for more information on this.

Question 7

How do I turn off my hosted hub?

Accepted Answer

Every instance of Malcolm! comes complete with a hosted hub. But you might not want to use it and may prefer to turn it off. No problem!

To turn off your hosted hub go the settings section of MyMalcolm, then select "visibility" in the vertical left hand navigation. You can then select "Disable the instance Hosted Hub"

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/kzMmGw4DCl/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.08.12-16_35_15.png (Disable the instance Hosted Hub in MyMalcolm)

Once disabled, any traffic hitting your Hosted Hub URL will see a 403 error. If you'd prefer to redirect that traffic somewhere else you can do this by selecting "Advanced" in the vertical left hand navigation then entering your redirect URL.

Question 8

How do I write a good Frequently Asked Question (FAQ)?

Accepted Answer

Some top tips for writing a good Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) include:

Think like your customers and try to phrase your title in a way a real customer would ask you a question
Use the brief summary area to provide the initial answer - this is what customers will see in search results and when browsing FAQs
For the full answer you can repeat the Brief Summary information but go into more detail
Try and be concise and punchy with your answer - it can be useful to break up the text with subheadings and bullet points
Don't repeat information if it's available elsewhere - better to link to that information! For example if you have an FAQ answering "What times are you open?" and your opening hours are on your main website your answer can simply be "Our opening hours can be seen on our website here" and you can add a link
If you have images or media (eg a YouTube video) that can help with an answer don't be afraid to include it in your answer - Malcolm! fully supports this and customers love it!
Remember to use tags and categories as that will help your customer find their way to the FAQ
Use the feedback option in Malcolm! as that will let customers tell you if the content is useful or not. Regularly review the feedback you get in MyMalcolm!

Question 9

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 10

Can I turn the spell checker in MyMalcolm off?

Accepted Answer

As you type content in the MyMalcolm FAQ markdown editor your text is automatically spell checked - words that are not recognised by the spell check are highlighted in red. To turn this feature off click the "x" symbol in the "Full answer" area of "Compose your question and answer"