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Articles

The Knowledge Base consists of Articles submitted by Supervisors and Technicians as a repository for Incident Solutions and to record general information. Customers and Users can search these Articles for quick resolutions to common problems and to reduce Incident load.

The privilege to create, edit, delete and publish Articles is defined for Users within the User Information screen.

The Knowledge Base includes a variety of Article Types. These are defined as follows:

Article Type	Description
Article	A reference document for general information.
FAQs	Frequently Asked Questions.
Solution	Created within an Incident, to resolve a specific request. Solutions are allocated an "Assigned Request" status and can only be viewed by Users and Owners/Customers of the Item associated with the request.

The Knowledge tab defaults to the Articles sub-menu screen that displays the My Content filter view. This lists all the Articles created by the User logged into the application. The other available filter options include:

Filter View	Description
All Articles	Lists all articles, regardless of publication status.
All FAQs	Lists all FAQs, regardless of publication status.
All Solutions	Lists all solutions, regardless of publication status.
My Content	Lists all articles created by the logged in User, regardless of publication status.
My Content Under Development	Lists the User's content with the status In Development.
Pending Content	Lists the User's content that has a status of Pending.
Published Content	Lists the User's content, which is approved for publication and accessible via a Knowledge Base search.

To apply a different filter to the list of articles displayed, select the relevant option from the Filter drop-down menu. For details about searching the Knowledge Base, see: Knowledge Base Search.

Creating an Article

To create a new Article:

Select Knowledge> Articles
In the Articles screen, click New
Select the Article type - Article or FAQ
In this example we will create an Article. For more information about creating an FAQ, see: FAQs.

Select the degree of public visibility from the Visibility drop-down menu

Visibility Options	Description
Users	Viewable by internal Users only (i.e., not Customers).
Users & Customers	Visible to internal Users and Customers logged into the application.
Everyone	Available publicly, without logging into the system.

Select the Status of the Article from the drop-down menu options, as follows:

Status	Description
In Development	The article is under development and is not accessible via a Knowledge Base search.
Pending Publication	The article has moved from development but requires approval before it is accessible via a Knowledge Base search.
Published	The article has been approved and is included in a Knowledge Base search.

Assign the Classification for the Article from the drop-down options
Set the Review Date
This option is displayed if Review KBA is enabled within Admin>Setup>Privileges>System. If the Review Date field is left blank, it will be auto-completed based on the system Setup. To remind Users to review article content, an alert and email will be sent to the author of the Article based on the number of days set for the Review KBA Alert in the system Setup. If the User is no longer active in the system, the reminder will be sent to the Supervisor of the User.
Search and select at least one Item Type

Enter a Title, Summary and Description for the Article
Click Save.

Direct Link

A Direct Link field is displayed when an Article is published and has the visibility defined for Technicians & Customers or Everybody. This link can be sent to system users as a means of providing instant access to the Article.

Article Statistics

For each Article, the Statistics field shows:

when an Article was created
when an Article was last reviewed
the number of times it has been viewed
the date an Article was last viewed
an average rating score.

The Related tab lists Similar Articles and the percentage of relevant text contained in the Article. To view the content of an Article included in the Similar Articles screen of the Related tab, with the Article in Edit mode, select the Article No. link.

Article Attachments

Files can be attached to the Article by clicking on the New button under the Attachments tab of the Article Editor. Choose the file to be attached and click . If the attachment is not to be available to Customers, tick the Private field. Stop the process by selecting .

To delete an Attachment, tick the box to the left of the Attachment link and click Delete.

Article history and Rollback option

To view the historical changes of a Knowledge Base article, select the History tab inside the Article Editor. The History is an audit trail of the Article, recording all activities from creation to publication of the Article. If changes are made to the Article a historical entry is recorded, and displayed with a Rollback option. This option allows the Article to be returned to a previous State, if the change is not required or permitted.

Rolling back an Article

To rollback to a previous version of an Article:

Select Knowledge > Article
Select the Article number and its History tab
Select the history ID# hyperlink to view changes to the Article
Select the Rollback button to return the article to the previous State
Click Save.

Publishing an Article

By setting the status of a newly created Article to In Development the Article can be held in the author’s Development list until it is ready to be submitted for approval.

When it is ready for approval, the author can move the Article status to Pending Publication. Articles with a status of Pending are accessible in the Pending Articles filter of the Knowledge Base.

Articles are made available for reference in the Knowledge Base when they are assigned a Published status.

Users are designated publishing rights within the User Information screen.

Editing an Article

Users that have the Edit privilege can modify the content of an Article by clicking the number in the Articles list, updating the content and selecting Save.

To make changes:

Click Edit
Amend the information
Click Save to apply the changes or Delete to remove the Article.

Users are designated publishing rights within the User Information screen.

Deleting an Article

Users that have the Delete privilege, can delete a published Article by clicking its number in the Articles list and selecting the Delete button.

Users are designated publishing rights within the User Information screen.

Viewing Requests assigned to Articles

When a Solution is assigned to a Incident, the Article Editor will display an additional tab called Requests. This tab will list all the requests that have been associated with the Article.

Knowledge Base Maintenance

If at any time it is suspected that the catalogue of Articles within the Knowledge Base is corrupted, the Knowledge Base can be re-indexed. The main symptom of corruption is that the results returned by the knowledge search will begin to be irrelevant to the search queries entered. Re-indexing will re-catalogue the Knowledge Base Articles.

Re-indexing the Knowledge Base:

To re-index the Knowledge Base, requires the Administrator go to the Setup> Privileges>System tab and click on the Re-Index button. The size of the Knowledge Base will affect the length of time this process takes, so consider selecting a time that is suitable for all Users of the application.

The privilege to create, edit, delete and publish Articles is defined for Users within the User Information screen.