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Moving or Renaming a Brand's Help Center When Rebranding (Content Transfer, Subdomain Rename and Redirects)

Overview

When a company rebrands, it may want its existing Help Center content (categories, sections and articles) to appear under a new brand name or a new *.kayako.com address. Common questions include:

  • Can existing Help Center content be copied or moved to another brand on the same account?
  • Can an article on one brand be opened at the same URL on another brand?
  • Can one *.kayako.com subdomain redirect to another?
  • Which approach works best, and what has to be updated afterward?

Kayako does not offer a one-step way to move Help Center content between brands, and it cannot redirect one *.kayako.com subdomain to another. This article explains how Help Center content relates to brands, compares the supported options, and describes how to prepare for and follow up on a subdomain rename.

Solution

How Help Center content relates to brands

  • Content belongs to the brand it was created under. Each brand has its own Help Center, and its categories, sections and articles are tied to that brand. They cannot be copied or reassigned to another brand in one step.
  • Article IDs and URLs are brand-specific. An article created on one brand cannot be opened at the same path on another brand. For example, an article at oldbrand.kayako.com/article/123-example is not available at newbrand.kayako.com/article/123-example. To show the same content on another brand, the content must be recreated there, where it receives its own new ID and URL.
  • Account-level items are not affected. Users, triggers and monitors are not tied to a brand. A content move between brands only concerns Help Center content.

Redirects between Kayako subdomains

A redirect between two *.kayako.com subdomains is not available. Redirects are only possible through a custom domain that you own and manage in your own DNS. For example, after mapping a custom domain to the new brand, your IT or DNS team can redirect your old custom domain to the new one at the DNS level. If the Help Center uses only the default *.kayako.com address, point visitors to the new URL by other means, such as updating links, bookmarks and announcements.

Choosing an approach

Option What happens to the content Who does it Best when
1. Rename the existing subdomain Content stays in place; only the address changes. The Infrastructure team, on request The old address is no longer needed and you want to avoid copying or duplicating articles.
2. Copy the content to the new brand with the Kayako API Content is recreated under the new brand with new IDs and URLs; the original stays on the old brand. You (self-service) Both brands must stay live, or only part of the content should move, and someone on your team is comfortable with API calls.
3. Managed migration through the partner Help Desk Migration Handled by the partner as a custom migration. Help Desk Migration (external partner) You want the content moved without building the API process yourself.

Option 1: Rename the existing subdomain

The Infrastructure team makes this change on the back end. When you are ready, submit a request that includes:

  • The current domain or instance name (for example, currentname.kayako.com).
  • The exact new domain or instance name (for example, newname.kayako.com).
  • Whether a custom domain is currently mapped to the brand being renamed.

Before you request the rename:

  1. Make sure the new subdomain is free. If another brand on the same account already uses the subdomain you want (for example, a separate brand created earlier for the rebrand), that subdomain must be released before the rename can be applied. Mention this in your request so availability can be confirmed before the change is scheduled.
  2. Complete the visual rebrand at any time. You can update the logo, colors and Help Center templates yourself without changing the URL. A rename is not needed for this. See Customizing the Appearance of Your Help Center.
  3. Identify the affected article content in advance with the scan described below, so you know how much manual editing to plan for.

Option 2: Copy content with the Kayako API

The Kayako UI has no option to export or bulk-import Help Center content, but the API supports both:

  1. Retrieve the existing categories, sections and articles from the current brand's Help Center.
  2. Bulk-add them under the new brand's Help Center, recreating the same structure.

This requires an agent, collaborator or admin account (depending on the request) and working knowledge of API calls, for example with a tool such as Postman. You build and run the process yourself. See Managing or Retrieving Data From the Help Center Using API.

Option 3: Managed migration

Help Desk Migration is a Kayako partner that offers custom migrations, including migrations split by brand. The guidance in Knowledge Base & Ticket Conversation History Export and Import Between Two Kayako Accounts covers moving content between two separate Kayako accounts. For a move between two brands on the same account, ask the partner whether their custom migration service fits your requirements.

After a rename: update images and links inside articles

Images and links inside articles that point at the old subdomain are hardcoded and must be updated manually. There is no bulk tool for this. Embedded images are the priority, because they do not display until they point at the new address.

Finding affected articles

Do not rely on the Help Center search for this task. It does not reliably find URLs inside article markup and can miss most affected articles.

Use the API instead:

  1. Retrieve all articles, including their content, with:
    GET https://<subdomain>.kayako.com/api/v1/articles.json?include=locale_field&offset=0&limit=<page size>
    The include=locale_field parameter is required. Without it, the contents field returns only reference IDs, not the article text.
  2. Page through the results by increasing offset (or by following next_url) until every article is retrieved. The response includes total_count.
  3. The results include articles from every brand on the account. Use each article's helpcenter_url to see which brand's Help Center it belongs to.
  4. Search the translation value inside each article's contents for the old address (for example, oldname.kayako.com).
  5. Classify each match:
    • src="https://oldname.kayako.com/..." is an embedded image. Repoint it after the rename, or the image will not display.
    • href="https://oldname.kayako.com/..." is a link to another article or page. Update it so readers are not sent to the old address.
  6. Run the scan again shortly before the rename. Content usually changes between planning and changeover, so an earlier list may be incomplete.

Updating an article

This requires an administrator or agent account with the Create and edit articles permission.

  1. Sign in to the Help Center.
  2. Open the article and click Edit article.
  3. Click the </> (source code) icon in the editor toolbar.
  4. Replace the old subdomain with the new one in each image source and link.
  5. Click Update to save the change.

Verification

  • After a rename, the Help Center opens at the new subdomain with its existing categories, sections and articles.
  • Re-running the article scan for the old address returns no remaining src= references, and images display correctly in the updated articles.
  • After an API copy, the categories, sections and articles appear on the new brand's Help Center with new IDs and URLs. Successful API calls return Status: 200, or Status: 201 when a resource is created.

Additional Notes

  • When Kayako staff are needed: The rename itself, and any request to have Kayako staff move content between brands, must be raised with the Kayako support team; the rename is performed by the Infrastructure team. The visual rebrand, API copies, the article scan and article edits are self-service.
  • The old address after a rename: Do not rely on the old *.kayako.com address after a rename. Update every link and reference you control to use the new address.
  • Custom domains: If a custom domain is mapped to the brand being renamed, mention it in the rename request. Any redirect between custom domains is configured in your own DNS, not in Kayako.

References

Relevant Knowledge Base Articles

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  1. Syed Haider

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