Overview

When navigating between articles within a Knowledge Base (KB) Guide on a Khoros Aurora community, the browser URL does not change to reflect the currently viewed article. Instead, the URL remains set to the parent Guide article, with query parameters appended to identify the selected sub-section. This is expected behavior in Aurora when KB structured guides are enabled.

This article explains how KB Guide URLs work in Aurora, why the URL appears not to update, and how to obtain the direct URL for a specific article within a Guide.

In This Article

• How KB Guide URLs Work
• Obtaining Direct Article URLs
• Impact on Table of Contents Anchor Links
• FAQ

How KB Guide URLs Work

A KB Guide in Aurora groups multiple articles under a single parent structure. When you open a Guide and click between articles, the URL follows this pattern:

https://community.example.com/kb/board-name/guide-title/48?guideId=guide:41&nodeId=board:community-guides&articleId=message:39344

URL Structure Breakdown

• Base path (up to /48) — This is the URL of the parent KB Guide article (message ID 48). It does not change as you navigate within the Guide.
• Query parameters (?guideId=...&nodeId=...&articleId=...) — These act as guide markers that identify the specific child article or sub-section currently selected. The articleId value updates to reflect the child article's message ID.

Because the base path stays the same, the URL in the browser address bar may appear unchanged at a glance, even though the query parameters do update to point to the selected child article.

Obtaining Direct Article URLs

If you need the standalone URL of an individual KB article displayed inside a Guide, use one of these methods:

1. Refresh the page — After clicking the article within the Guide, press F5 (or Ctrl+Shift+R / Cmd+Shift+R for a hard refresh). The browser will reload and the address bar will show the direct URL for that article.
2. Open in a new tab — Right-click the article link in the Guide's navigation panel and select Open link in new tab. The new tab will load the article at its own standalone URL, which you can copy and share.

Impact on Table of Contents Anchor Links

When an article inside a Guide has a Table of Contents (TOC) with anchor links to its own sections, those anchor links are appended to whatever URL is currently in the address bar. Because the address bar shows the parent Guide URL, the resulting anchor link may point to the wrong page.

To work around this:

• Open the specific article in a new tab first (as described above), then use the TOC anchor links from that tab.
• Alternatively, refresh the page while viewing the article to update the address bar before copying any anchor links.

FAQ

Q1: Is this a bug or expected behavior?
A1: This is expected behavior in Khoros Aurora when KB structured guides are enabled. The Guide uses query parameters to track the selected child article while keeping the parent Guide URL as the base path.

Q2: Will copying the full URL (including query parameters) still link to the correct article?
A2: Yes. The full URL — including the ?guideId=...&nodeId=...&articleId=... parameters — will direct the recipient to the correct child article within the Guide. However, if you need a clean, standalone article URL, use the refresh or open-in-new-tab methods described above.

Q3: Has this behavior changed recently?
A3: The Guide URL structure has been consistent since KB structured guides were introduced. If linking behavior appears to have changed, it may be due to a Guide structure edit or a browser caching issue. Try a hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R / Cmd+Shift+R) or test in an incognito window to rule out cache-related issues.