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Roles required: admin, knowledge_admin.
The Knowledge Base (KB) enables you to build a library of articles in the Self-Service Portal (SSP) that provides necessary information for users: instructions, service descriptions, release notes, and other. Here, you can store articles for users with specific roles and public articles for any authorized user.
The KB allows you to categorize the content on different levels and arranging articles in a particular hierarchy to easily navigate through them. The KB consists of five essences:
Element | Description |
---|---|
Content database (Content DB) | Helps create separate knowledge bases which, in turn, are arranged into several sets of articles. It is the most general and wide section of the KB. This element is not displayed on the SSP as it is used for inner categorization. |
Content category | Provides an additional level of categorization for content items (articles, known errors). It stands for a more specific and narrow KB section in comparison with the content database. This element is not displayed on the SSP as it is used for inner categorization. |
Knowledge Base category (KB Category) | It sets the hierarchical order of articles and categories, which allows to nest articles and sort them. There are no limitations for nesting levels. This element defines the appearance of the KB on the SSP. A KB category is not equal to a content category: one KB category may contain articles with different content categories. Yet, in some cases, they can be closely connected to each other, which depends on the structure you build. |
Content item class | Defines classes of content items and access to them. It may be referred to as a subsection, yet it does not depend on any of the previous KB sections. That is, a content item class can contain items from any content database and any content category. This element defines what articles will be displayed to agents and users without roles. It also helps categorize KB items. |
Content item (article) | Works as a storage for such KB items as articles and known errors. The Self-Service Portal displays articles only. Known errors and other content items are only available through the agent interface. |
User roles
Knowledge base articles are displayed to all authorized users if the content item class is external.
Users with the following roles can access internal articles:
- admin
- itsm_agent (and its related roles such as problem_manager and incident_manager)
- service_owner
- service_catalog_manager
- knowledge_admin
- knowledge_agent
See the Role Structure article to learn more.
Create a content database
Content databases are designed to store knowledge base content items. The content database is the most general and wide section of the KB.
To create a content database, follow the steps below:
- Navigate to KB Dictionary → Content DB.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes.
Create a content category
Content categories help arrange items in the content databases. They provide the addition of new article groups within one content database.
To create a content category, follow the steps below:
- Navigate to KB Dictionary → Content Categories.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes.
Create a Knowledge Base category
KB categories define a tree of articles on the SSP. Use categories to group articles.
To create a new KB category, follow the steps below:
- Navigate to KB Dictionary → KB Categories.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
- Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes.
Create a content item class
The content item class defines the content item purpose and the application area:
- External – external service specifications essential for the business user of the service.
- Internal – service internal specifications available to the owner of the IT service (agent) responsible for task handling.
- Configure content item class records in a developer instance. After the necessary configurations are applied, create a configuration pack to transfer the content item class to the main, production instance.
- Content item class versions are stored in the VCS Records (sys_vcs_record) table used for storing access settings. You can implement changes to unrelated instances using the configuration packs.
To create an item class, follow the steps below:
- Navigate to KB Dictionary → Content Item Class.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes.
Create a content item
As discussed previously, each service documentation has a set of specifications – external and internal. The KB contains these service specifications as content Items.
Before creating KB content items, make sure you have configured content databases and content item classes.
Create an article
To create an article to be displayed on the SSP, perform the following steps:
- Navigate to Knowledge Base → All Articles.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
For the description of fields, see the table at the end of the article. - Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes.
Articles in the Draft and Retired states are not displayed on the Knowledge Base portal page. To display them, change the state to Published.
Portal integration
The integration of the Knowledge Base into the portal should be understood as the availability of a certain database and its articles within the framework of the "out-of-the-box" service portal. The knowledge base is available on the portal in the following format:
- pages with categories and articles. See Knowledge Base Categories and Knowledge Base Articles.
- search and a group of results that include the found articles. See the System Search article.
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