Data Categories are hierarchical taxonomies that classify Knowledge articles and Chatter Answers questions — "Region: North America > California," "Product: Premium > Pro Plus." Drives article visibility (per category) and search filtering. Foundational for any Knowledge implementation; without categories, all articles are visible to all users.
- Open Setup → Data Categories → Data Category Groups
Setup gear → Quick Find: Data Categories → Data Category Groups.
- Click New
Top-right. A Group is a top-level taxonomy ("Region," "Product," "Service Type").
- Set Group Name and Description
Name appears in article tagging UI.
- Save → click into the new group
Now build the category tree.
- Add categories under the root
Each category is a node. Build hierarchies — "North America" with children "California," "New York," etc.
- Drag to reorder / nest categories
Tree view supports drag-and-drop hierarchy edits.
- Activate the Group
Active groups appear in Knowledge article tagging. Inactive groups exist but aren't in pickers.
- Configure Data Category Visibility per Profile / Role
Setup → Profiles → click profile → Data Category Visibility. Drives which categories users can SEE on articles. Controls article-level access via category.
Multi-level taxonomy.
On/off per group.
Who can see which categories.
Region group + Product group + Service Type group, all separate.
- Data Category Visibility is the gate for Knowledge article access. Without proper visibility per profile, users can't see articles even if Knowledge sharing is otherwise open.
- Category trees can grow deep but slow tagging UX. Keep trees shallow — 3-4 levels is the practical max for usability.
- Renaming a category breaks any stored references in Apex / Flow / external systems. Treat names as semi-permanent.