Folders for knowledge base articles
A help center grows in two directions: new articles for every release, and old articles that slowly go out of date. Categories show readers the way. They cannot show you what needs work.
Plathix PRO adds private folders to the Echo Knowledge Base articles list. Group articles by review, release or owner. Categories, URLs and the knowledge base your readers see stay as they are.
Categories are for readers. Your work needs its own shelf.
Echo categories build the knowledge base page: they decide where an article sits, and they can be part of its URL. Change them to track your own work, and readers see the change.
So teams add tags or a note like OLD or v2 to the title, and readers see those too. Folders give that work a place inside the articles list instead.
Help articles go out of date one release at a time
Teams that run a help center describe the same slow problem. New releases keep coming, and old articles stay where they are.
The product changes with every release. The hard part is knowing which help articles need an update.
Guides from years ago are still marked as current. The same how-to exists in several versions.
Articles are saved as drafts, everyone gets busy, and hundreds of them wait for an approval nobody gives.
Nobody clearly owns the knowledge base, so nobody keeps it up to date.
Folders give that work a place in the articles list: to check, by release, by owner. Readers see the same help center.
Folders for the work behind the help center
A review queue
Put articles that need a check in To review. When the review is done, move them back.
By release
Collect every article a release touches, so nothing is missed on launch day.
By owner
Each team keeps its articles in its own folder and knows what it has to keep up to date.
Retired articles
Articles about old versions go to a Retired folder. They stay published until you change their status.
One tree for each knowledge base
The All Articles list
The panel sits beside the Echo articles list. Click a folder and the list shows only its articles.
A tree for each knowledge base
The paid version of Echo can run several knowledge bases. Each one is its own content type, so each gets its own checkbox and its own folder tree.
Search inside a folder
Search, status tabs and the date filter work inside the open folder.
A Folder column
Every row shows its folder next to its Echo categories, so you see both at a glance.
Readers never see your folders
| What you do | What changes | What stays as it is |
|---|---|---|
| Put an article in a folder | Its Plathix folder | Its categories, tags and URL |
| Rename or move a folder | The folder tree in wp-admin | The knowledge base page and its layout |
| Move an article to Retired | Its Plathix folder | Its status: a published article stays published |
| Trash an article, then restore it | Its Trash state | Its folder: it comes back to the same place |
| Turn Plathix PRO off | The list looks like plain WordPress | Your folders wait in the database and come back |
Folders have no URLs and never appear in the knowledge base.
How we test Echo Knowledge Base
We run each check on a live site with Plathix PRO and the current Echo Knowledge Base version, on the real All Articles screen.
Status Planned
Results go to Plathix Lab. Each row turns into a link once it has run.
| Check | What we verify | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Enable articles | Turn on Echo articles in Enabled Sections; the panel appears on All Articles. | Planned |
| Second knowledge base | A second knowledge base shows its own checkbox and its own tree. | Planned |
| Categories unchanged | Move an article between folders: its categories and URL stay the same. | Planned |
| Knowledge base page | The knowledge base page looks the same after folders are added. | Planned |
| Trash and restore | A trashed article comes back to its folder. | Planned |
Knowledge base folders FAQ
Do folders change my categories or URLs?
I have more than one knowledge base. Do they share folders?
Can I mark an article as outdated?
Do drafts count in a folder?
Is this in Plathix Free?
Related pages
Keep your help center in Echo. Keep the work behind it in order.
Review queues, releases and owners in folders you choose. Readers see the same knowledge base.