Definition
An Article Type in Salesforce Knowledge (Classic Knowledge) is a template that defines the structure and layout of a category of Knowledge articles. Each Article Type has its own set of custom fields, page layouts, and workflow rules. For example, an organization might have Article Types for FAQs, How-To Guides, and Troubleshooting articles, each with different fields and layouts. In Lightning Knowledge, Article Types have been replaced by Record Types on a single Knowledge object.
Real-World Example
At their company, a support manager at QuickAssist leverages Article Type to improve response times and customer satisfaction scores. After implementing Article Type, agents have the tools and context they need to resolve issues on the first contact. Average handle time decreases by 20% and CSAT scores climb to an all-time high of 94%.
Why Article Type Matters
Article Type is a Classic Knowledge concept where each kind of article (FAQ, How-To, Troubleshooting, etc.) was modeled as a separate object with its own custom fields, page layouts, and workflow rules. Article Types provided structural flexibility because each type could have fields tailored to its purpose, but they also made reporting, cross-type search, and sharing significantly more complex because content was spread across multiple objects.
Lightning Knowledge replaces Article Types with Record Types on a single standard Knowledge object. This change simplifies the data model dramatically: all articles live in one place, share common metadata, and can be reported on uniformly. Different content structures (the old Article Types) are modeled as Record Types, which still let you have different page layouts and fields per type while benefiting from unified object-level features. Orgs migrating from Classic Knowledge to Lightning Knowledge go through an Article Type to Record Type conversion as part of the migration.
How Organizations Use Article Type
- •QuickAssist — Migrated from Classic Knowledge with three Article Types (FAQ, How-To, Policy) to Lightning Knowledge with three Record Types on the Knowledge object. Reporting across all content became dramatically easier after the migration.
- •Oceanic Corp — Still runs Classic Knowledge with several Article Types for historical reasons. They've documented the pain points and are planning a Lightning Knowledge migration for next year, which will consolidate everything into Record Types.
- •Cyberdyne Co — Used different Article Types in Classic Knowledge to give compliance articles a different workflow than standard support articles. In their Lightning Knowledge migration, they preserved this distinction using Record Types with separate approval processes.