Lightning Knowledge sharing versus data category visibility
Key Takeaway
In Lightning Knowledge, after an admin selects "Use standard Salesforce sharing", data categories no longer control access to articles. Org-wide defaults, ownership, and sharing rules based on article fields (such as Record Type) control access instead, and data categories only classify and filter articles.
Salesforce Knowledge uses one of two models to control which articles users can see beyond their object permissions. Data category visibility is the default: access depends on the data categories tagged on an article and the categories a user is allowed to see. In Lightning Knowledge, an admin can turn on standard Salesforce sharing instead, which uses org-wide defaults, ownership, and sharing rules based on article fields.
Two ways to control article access
Beyond object permissions, Salesforce Knowledge uses one of these two models to decide which articles each user can see.
| Data category visibility | Standard Salesforce sharing | |
|---|---|---|
| Available in | Classic Knowledge and Lightning Knowledge (the default) | Lightning Knowledge, as an alternative (Classic Knowledge shares articles by data category only) |
| Access comes from | The data categories tagged on an article, and the categories the user's role, permission sets, or profile allow | Org-wide defaults, owner role hierarchy-based access, and sharing rules based on article fields |