Knowledge Administration

The Knowledge Administration window enables you to search for knowledge entries that you may not be able to locate using the standard Knowledge Search option.

You can search for and view knowledge entries you are permitted to view and edit. They can be of any status, including those set to unmoderated and flagged for review. You can also restore deleted entries.

CAUTION

Knowledge Administration is not the same as Knowledge Bank administration, which is primarily restricted to system administrators and enables them to configure the settings for the Knowledge Bank module.

Before you start

You must have Editor selected in the Options tab and Editor selected for the Knowledge Profile of the entry in the Contents Access tab of your Knowledge Management Security Role.

Searching for Knowledge Entries

  1. Select Admin > Knowledge Bank.

    This window is divided into two panes. You select the criteria for the search in the left pane, and the results are displayed in the right pane. You can apply as many filters as you wish (some of the fields require you to select a check box for that criteria to apply).

  2. Complete the details in the Knowledge Search Criteria pane as necessary:

The Options section includes the following search options:

All

Select to search for all types of knowledge entries.

Abstract

Select to search for entries that have the type set to Abstract

Call

Select to search for entries that have the type set to Calls.

Directory

Select to search for entries that are Directory type

FAQ

Select to search for entries that have the type set to FAQ.

KCS

Select to search for KCS knowledge entries.

Known Issue

Select to search for knowledge entries that are Known Issues.

Website

Select to search for knowledge entries that are websites.

Active

Select to search for knowledge entries that have the status Active (that is, entries that have not been deleted).

Deleted

Select to search for knowledge entries that have been deleted.

Moderated

Select this option to search for knowledge entries that have statuses with the Moderated flag enabled inConfiguring the Knowledge Bank. Moderated entries are visible internally.

Not Moderated

Select to search for knowledge entries that have statuses with the Moderated flag not enabled.

Published

Select to search for knowledge entries that have statuses with the Published To Self Service Portal flag enabled in Admin Knowledge Statuses. Published entries are visible in the Self Service Portal.

Not Published

Select to search for knowledge entries that have not been published to the Self Service Portal.

Expired

Select to search for knowledge entries that are expired. These entries contain a past date in the Expiry field.

Not Expired

Select to search for knowledge entries which have not expired.

Review Required

Select this option to search for knowledge entries that have the Review Required option selected.

Review Not Required

Select to search for knowledge entries that do not require review.

Contributor

Select to search for knowledge entries for which the selected Analyst is a contributor.

If you do not have Editor permission through your security role, this field displays your name and is grayed out. You can only search for those entries for which you are a contributor.

Include Unclaimed

Select to search for knowledge entries cloned from calls that have not been edited yet. These entries are termed “Unclaimed” because a contributor is not associated with them. This option returns all entries without contributors.

Partition

Select to search for knowledge entries that have been created in the selected partition. This list displays only those partitions to which you have access.

Include Deleted Field Values

Select to include deleted field values in your search. Selecting this option updates the selected fields with values that have been deleted for those fields. For example, if you are searching for a knowledge base entry by Created By, and you select Include Deleted Field Values, the Created By list will be updated to display Analysts that were created and subsequently deleted. You can then select a deleted value from the list, and conduct your search

The Knowledge Article Criteria section contains fields that allow you to search on the following criteria:

Created By

Search for an Analyst who created the knowledge entry and use this person as the criteria for your search.

Search Text

Select this criterion to search for Knowledge Entries by typing in words or text the entry may contain.

The following options are available for text searches: You can choose between All Words and Any Words. You can choose between Exact, Related, Logical and Regular Expression.

All Words

Returns knowledge entries with words that match all the search text. However, it does not take into account the sequence of the words specified.

Any Words

Returns knowledge entries with one or more words that match the search text.

Exact

Returns knowledge entries in which the body text contains any or all of the search text words, but not necessarily in the same order. This type of search does not include an exact phrase search. To search for an exact phrase, the words for which you are searching must be specified within quotation marks.

Nor will it retrieve text that has another form of the word or a synonym. For example, if you specify “Join” in text box, the search will not retrieve “Joined” as a match.

Related

Returns knowledge entries that contain synonyms or words that are similar to the search text. For example, if you search on “Cloning”, the search will locate entries such as “clone” and “cloned”.

Logical

Same behavior as Exact, however uses the SQL Server text searching engine instead of the ASM text search engine. Both require the ASM Indexing Service to be running.

Regular Expression

Returns knowledge entries with regular expressions associated with the search words, including wildcard characters such as an underscore (_) to represent one character or percentage (%) to represent zero or more characters.

Wildcard characters are ignored if the Regular Expression option is not selected.

Usage of regular expressions is specific to the database engine you are using: SQL Server or Oracle. Regular expressions are limited to searching for individual words and therefore exclude any punctuation and white space specified in the search text. The regular expression wildcard characters that ASM Core supports include:

%

to search for any string of zero or more characters. Use of this character at the beginning of a word by which you are searching is not supported. Furthermore, if using ‘%’ in the middle of a word, you should ensure that you always put ‘%’ at the end also. For example, col%r% will return color, colour

_

Any single character

[]

Any single character within the specified range. For example, in the range [a-f] or in the set [abcdef]

[^]

Any single character not within the specified range. For example, not in the range [^a-f] or not in the set [^abcdef]

  1. After you have specified your search criteria, select Search. All knowledge entries that match your search criteria are displayed in the main pane. You can adjust the column widths if required.

  • If you do not find the entry you are looking for, you can create one by selecting Add New at the bottom of the Knowledge Search Criteria pane if available, or selecting from the top of the results pane.

  • Select the entry you want to view by either double clicking in the relevant row of the browse table, or selecting the entry and then selecting the Action icon. The details of the selected entry are displayed.

  • Your system may be configured such that double-clicking an entity in the search results will open it in action mode, rather than review mode. If so, select the entity and then select the Edit icon to open the entry in review mode.

Other Search Criteria

You can configure the search criteria to add other fields associated with knowledge entities. Some examples of the fields you may add are described below.

Created Date From / Created Date To

You can use these fields to select a date and time range for the search to represent the duration in which the entry was created. Other date fields you can configure include: Moderated Date, Reviewed Date, Expiry Date, Updated Date, Published Date or Next Review Date

Knowledge Ref

Select to search for a knowledge entry by its reference number. Note that this is a numeric field, and therefore you will not be able to specify letters or other characters in this field.

Call No

Select to search for a knowledge entry by the Call No. This will return all entries that are linked to the specified call number.

Entry Type

Select to search for knowledge entries by a selected Entry Type. Select the required entry from the list. Entry Types other than the system ones are defined by the system administrator.

Profile

Select to search for knowledge entries based on their profile. Select Equal to search for knowledge entries where the entry’s profile is the same as the profile selected. Select Equal + Below to search for knowledge entries within the profile you have specified as well as knowledge entries within the lower tiers for the profile.

CMDB Item

Select to search for knowledge entries related to the specified CMDB item. Using the search function

Call Type

Select to search for knowledge entries by the Type specified in the knowledge entry. Select Equal to search for Knowledge Entries matching the Call Type selected. Select Equal + Below to include lower tiers for the selected type.

Created By

Use this option to search for knowledge entries based on the Analyst who created the entries. Using the search function

Updated By

Use this option to search for knowledge entries based on the Analyst who last updated the entries. Using the search function

Moderated By

Use this option to search for knowledge entries based on the Analyst who changed the status of the entries to one that has the Moderated flag enabled. Using the search function

Published By

Use this option to search for knowledge entries based on the Analyst who changed the status of the entries to one that as the Publish To Portal flag enabled. Using the search function

Reviewing a Knowledge Entry

A knowledge entry can be saved as “Review Required”. When the entry is viewed in 'read' mode, the message “This entry has been flagged for review” appears at the bottom of the information pane.

Assuming you have the appropriate permissions in your Security Role, you can review the contents for accuracy and usefulness, change the entry to 'edit' mode, make necessary changes, and then flag it as reviewed.

Before you start

To review other Analysts’ knowledge entries, you must have Review and Editor selected in the Options tab and Editor selected for the Knowledge Profile of the entry in the Contents Access tab of your Knowledge Management Security Role.

To review knowledge entries which you have created or contributed to, you must have Review Own selected in the Options tab of your Knowledge Management Security Role.

Statuses you can select in the Knowledge Entry details are determined by the settings in the Statuses tab in your Knowledge Management Security Role.

  1. Search for the entry, selecting Review Required as one of the search criteria.

  2. When the knowledge entry details are displayed , select the Action icon from the toolbar.

  3. Modify the required details on the Details window.

  4. When you have finished, select Save. The Save window appears. Complete the details.

Minor Update

Select this option to indicate that the changes to the entry were minor such as spelling corrections or adjustments to review or expiry dates. The credit for the entry is attributed to the original author.

If you are making significant changes, leave this unselected to save the change as a “major update”. The credit for the entry is now attributed to you as the Analyst who made the changes. You will become a “contributor”. The system displays a warning that you may not be able to review this entry.

Review Required

This option is grayed out until after the entry is saved with the Reviewed check box selected.

Reviewed

Select this option to indicate that the review has been done.

When this option is selected and the entry is saved, the Review Required option will be deselected.

Status

The value displayed in this field is inherited from the previous window. However, you can set a different status by selecting a different value from the list.

To display the entry on the Self Service Portal, the selected status must have Published to Self Service Portal selected on the Knowledge Statuses window. If moderation is enabled for the Knowledge Bank, it must also have the Moderated option selected.

Rating

You can select a rating for the entry only if you want to make a minor update to the entry.

If you leave the Minor Update option deselected, you automatically become a contributor for the entry and hence cannot provide a rating as creators and contributors are prevented from rating their own knowledge entries.

Comments

Use this field to add any other relevant comments about the entry. These comments are only visible in Knowledge History window of the knowledge entry.

  1. Select Ok to save the changes. You are returned to the search window and the details are saved.

Updating a Knowledge Entry

Once a knowledge entry has been saved, it can be updated in a number of ways, including changing the status and updating the information it contains, as well as adding, changing or deleting objects attached to the entry.

  1. Search for the entry.

  2. When the details are displayed, select the Action icon from the toolbar.

  3. Modify the required details on the Details window.

  4. When you have finished, select Save. The Save window appears. Complete the details.

  5. Select OK to save the changes. You are returned to the search window and the details are saved.

Deleting a Knowledge Entry

  1. Select Admin > Knowledge Bank.

  2. Select the entry you want to delete in the browse table, and select the Delete icon . The entry disappears from the browse table.

  3. If you want to view the entry before you delete it, select it in the browse table and then select the Action icon. When the details are displayed, select the delete icon.

You can restore deleted entries if necessary, following the instructions below.

Restoring Deleted Knowledge Entries

  1. Search for the knowledge entry, deselecting the Active and select the Deleted search criterion. Add any further search criteria you wish to use to filter the search results.

  2. Select Search to display the results in a browse table. You can adjust the column widths if required.

  3. Highlight the entry you wish to undelete in the search results and select the Undelete icon. If you wish to review the entry before undeleting it, select the entry you wish to undelete. When the details are displayed, you will see a banner across the top of the window informing you that the item has been deleted. Select the Undelete link in the top right corner.

  4. The banner disappears from the list and if you return to the window containing the search results, selecting Active and deselecting Deleted, you will see the entry is restored.