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Knowledge Base allows building your articles library in the Self-Service Portal (SSP) providing necessary information for users: instructions, service descriptions, release notes, etc. Here, you can store articles for users with specific roles and public articles for any authorized user.

You can give access to your knowledge base to unauthorized users. See the Opening KB to public section of this article.

Knowledge Base allows categorizing the content on different levels and arrange articles in a particular hierarchy to navigate through them easily. Knowledge Base contains five essences:

ElementDescription

Content Database (Content DB)

It helps to create separate knowledge bases which in their turn are arranged into several sets of articles. It is the most general and wide section of the KB and may be called basic section.

This element is not displayed on the portal page. It serves for inner categorization.

Content Category

It provides an additional level of categorization for content items (articles, known errors). It stands for a more specific and narrow KB section in comparison to Content DB and may be called general section.

This element is not displayed on the portal page. It serves for inner categorization.

Content Item Class

It defines classes of content items and access to them. It may be referred to as subsection, yet, it does not depend on any of the previous KB sections. That is, a content item class cay contain items from any content DB and any content category.

This element defines what articles will be displayed to agents and users without roles. It also helps categorizing KB items.

Content Item (article)

It works as a storage for such KB items as articles and known errors. 

The Self-Service Portal (SSP) displays only articles. Known Errors and other content items are available only through the agent interface.

This elements contain data as it is in text form.

Knowledge Base Category (KB Category)

It sets hierarchical order of articles and categories, allows nesting articles and sorts them into something that can be called folders. There are no limitations for nesting levels.

This element defines the appearance of the Knowledge Base on the portal page.

Role required: admin, knowledge_admin.

In the screenshot above you can see a Knowledge Base portal page. Let us clarify what has been done to build it.

Preparation stage includes the following results:

  1. A Content DB was created. We named it Company Knowledge Base. Along with this knowledge base we may need to build a separate KB for other needs.
  2. To categorize articles within our knowledge base, three Content Categories were added:
    1. General information
    2. Process description
    3. Change protocols and checklists
  3. To restrict access to specific articles, two Content Item Classes were used:
    1. Processes protocol – internal specifications, custom class.
    2. User Self-Study – external specifications, out-of-the-box SimpleOne class.
  4. To make the portal knowledge base page structure, the following KB categories were created:
    1. Change Implementation
    2. Process
    3. Change Advisory Board (CAB)

Our example knowledge base has the following structure:

  • Two articles without a KB category, i.e. they belong to the root folder of the KB:

    ArticleContent CategoryContent Item Class
    About IT services

    General information

    		User Self-Study (external)
    Company structureProcess descriptionUser Self-Study (external)

  • The Change Implementation is a KB category that may be referred to as the first level folder. It has two articles:

    ArticleContent CategoryContent Item Class
    Conditions for changing servicesChange protocols and checklistsProcess protocol (internal)
    Change suggestion

    General information

    		User Self-Study (external)

  • The Process is a KB category that is a second level folder, child category to the Change Implementation KB category. It has two articles:

    ArticleContent CategoryContent Item Class
    Change implementation process (stages)Process descriptionProcess protocol (internal)
    Quality checklistChange protocols and checklistsProcess protocol (internal)

  • The Change Advisory Board protocol is a third level folder, child category to the Process KB category. It has one article:

    ArticleContent CategoryContent Item Class
    CAB protocolChange protocols and checklistsProcess protocol (internal)


Please note that Content Category is not equal to KB Category: one KB Category may contain articles with different Content Categories. Yet in some cases they can be closely connected to each other. This depends on the structure you build.

Content Item Class does not depend on Content Category nor KB Category either.

User Roles

Knowledge base articles are displayed to all authorized  users in case 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, incident_manager, etc.)
  • service_owner
  • service_catalog_manager
  • knowledge_admin
  • knowledge_agent

See the Role Structure article to learn more.

Content DB configuration

Content databases are designed for storing knowledge base content items. It is the most general and wide section of the KB.

For example, you can establish the following storages:

To create a content DB, follow the steps below:

  1. Navigate to KB Dictionary → Content DB.
  2. Click New and fill in the fields.

  3. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes. 


Content Category configuration

Content categories helps arranging items in the content DBs. They provide adding new groups of articles within one content DB.

Create a content category following the steps below:

  1. Navigate to KB Dictionary → Content Categories.
  2. Click New and fill in the fields.

  3. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes.

Content Item Class configuration

Content item class defines the content item purpose (SLA, OLA, UC, Service Description, Known Error, etc.) and application area:

  • External – service external specifications are essential for a person with the end-user role.
  • Internal – service internal specifications are available to the agent (also may be called the service owner) responsible for the task handling.

A good practice is to configure content item class records in a developer instance. After the necessary configurations applied, create a configuration pack to transfer the content item class to the main instance.

Create an item class following the steps below:

  1. Navigate to KB Dictionary → Content Item Class.
  2. Click New and fill in the fields.

  3. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes.


Before starting your work with SimpleOne ITSM

Create the following Content Item Classes used for specifying the External specifications:

  • SLA
  • Service Description
  • Request Description
  • User Self-Study.

Create the following Content Item Classes used for specifying the Internal specifications:

  • Incident Model
  • Request Model
  • Contacts
  • Escalation Rules.

Content Item Class versions are stored in the VCS Records (sys_vcs_record) table for keeping the access settings. You can implement changes to unrelated instances using the configuration packs.

Knowledge Base Category configuration

Knowledge Base Categories define the tree of articles on the portal. It is the KB Category that divide sets of article from each other. Use categories to group articles.

To create a new KB Category, perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to KB Dictionary → KB Categories.
  2. Click New and fill in the fields.
  3. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.

Content Item configuration

In SimpleOne, each service documentation has a set of a specifications which, in turn, are divided into external and internal ones. The Knowledge Base contains these service specifications as Content Items.

Before creating the KB content items, make sure you have configured content DBs and content item classes.

Create an article

To create an article to be displayed on the SSP, perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Knowledge Base → All Articles.
  2. Click New and fill in the fields.
  3. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply 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.


Create a Service Description

This is a service description, informative, and related to the company infrastructure.

To create a Service Description, follow the steps below:

  1. Navigate to Knowledge Base → All Articles.
  2. Click New to open the form.
  3. Fill in the form and specify the following fields:
    1. Content DB – select the Service Catalog option.
    2. Content Item Class – select the Service Description option.
  4. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.

Create a Service SLA

This specification is for SLM-relevant parts related to this service (for example, indicators). It describes various aspects of service quality, like maximum requests handling time, and others.

  1. Navigate to Knowledge Base → All Articles.
  2. Click New to open the form.
  3. Fill in the form and specify the following fields:
    1. Content DB – select the Service Catalog option.
    2. Content Item Class – select the SLA, OLA, or UC option.
  4. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.

Making KB public

You can allow access to your articles to unauthorized users, that is, to those who do not have a user account and/or have not logged in.

This operation is carried out in two steps:

  • Configuring the relevant portal page.
  • Configuring the relevant widget instance.

To configure a portal page, perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Portal Structure → Pages.
  2. Open the Knowledge Base Item record.
  3. In the Options section, select the Public checkbox.
  4. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.

To configure a widget instance, perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Portal Structure → Widget Instances.
  2. Open the Knowledge Base Item Form record.
  3. Select the Public checkbox.
  4. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.

As result:

  • When an unauthorized user follows a link to an external article, they will be able to see it without logging in.
  • Unauthorized users cannot open other articles in the system. To see the article, they need a direct link. This way you can restrict access to other articles.

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