Overview
Cireson's HTML Knowledge Base is a wonderful tool to supply the necessary information and knowledge among not only to your entire company, but your end users, and customers as well. Separate from System Center Service Manager's Knowledge repository, the HTML Knowledge Base allows the user to develop HTML and CSS code to customize and mold the article to fit company aesthetic requirements. Furthermore, customizations, such as media embedding is possible using existing HTML code within the article itself.
Portal HTML Knowledge Base vs. SCSM's Knowledge Management
System Center Service Manager stores all Knowledge articles in a separate repository from where the Cireson SCSM Portal's HTML Knowledge Base stores data, which is directly in the ServiceManagement SQL Server database. Due to this, SCSM Knowledge articles are not transferred over to the ServiceManagement SQL Server database, and thus won't be viewed in the SCSM Portal out of the box. HTML Knowledge Base articles created in the Cireson SCSM Portal are not transferred to Service Manager to be viewed.
By default, included with the Analyst Portal license, the Knowledge Base feature of the Cireson Portal for Service Manager is enabled. This allows the user to begin with creating new Knowledge Base articles as they see fit. Should you want to have your SCSM Knowledge articles be available for view in the Cireson SCSM Portal, perform the following steps:
1. Logged into your Cireson SCSM Portal as an administrator, go to Your Name on the top right of the page, then Admin Settings
2. With Admin Settings open, click Setting Items.
3. With the Setting Items table open, look for the item UseHtmlKB. Change the table next from true to false. Click the Save button.
4. Restart the Cache Builder system service. Allow the Cache Builder to run completely before performing any further actions within the Cireson SCSM Portal.
Do note that all Knowledge articles will be opened in Rich Text (.rtf) and will open in a local text editor on your computer. Articles will not be embedded into the Cireson SCSM Portal site itself.
Furthermore, both the Cireson SCSM Portal's HTML Knowledge Base and the Service Manager Knowledge Management cannot be enabled at the same time.
Creating a new HTML KB Article
When you are ready to create a new HTML Knowledge Base article, logged in with a user with Knowledge Manager or Administrator rights in the Portal, go to New (bottom left of the Portal) - Knowledge Article - New Knowledge Article.
HTML Knowledge Base Features
With our new Knowledge Base article, we have four different sections, with different options available.
General
The General section has the details of the article itself. Here, you can give your new Knowledge Base article a title, a description, and designate what kind of Knowledge Base article you are creating.
Title (Required): This is the name of the article itself. Words in the Title can be searched for in the top search bar of the Cireson SCSM Portal
Abstract: A description of the Knowledge Base article, including details of content of the article itself.
Status: Three options are available; Draft, Published, and Archived. This can be toggled based on the need and relevancy of the contents of the article
- Draft is a Knowledge Base article that has been created, but the contents of the article have yet to be finished. The article is not available for Analysts and End User consumption. It can be searched for by Knowledge Managers and Administrators
- Published are articles that have been made available for consumption by Analysts and End Users.
- Archived is a Knowledge Base article that has since been retired, and is only available for view by Knowledge Managers and Administrators.
These out of the box options can be modified, removed, re-arranged, or you can create your own Status by going to Enumeration Settings as an Administrator, then going to Edit Knowledge Article Status Enumeration List.
Popularity: The higher the ranking, the most likely that the article will appear in the Popular Articles section of the Knowledge Base page.
Language: This is the language of the article that has been written. You can configure this setting to dictate who can view the article, based on the user's default language set in the User Settings. For example, if you have customers who use the Finnish language, and you configure the article for the Finnish language, only this subset of users will be able to view the article.
Category: Knowledge Base articles can be grouped based on anything in which your company wishes, such as application, what the article affects, or the subject matter. By default, the options created for you are Enterprise Application, Hardware, Networking, Other, Printing, and Software. These out of the box options can be modified, removed, re-arranged, or you can create your own Status by going to Enumeration Settings as an Administrator, then going to Edit Knowledge Article Category Enumeration List.
Type: Knowledge Articles can furthermore be grouped based on the purpose of the content. By default, FAQ, How To, and Issue is available to you. These out of the box options can be modified, removed, re-arranged, or you can create your own Type by going to Enumeration Settings as an Administrator, then going to Edit Knowledge Article Type Enumeration List.
Owner: This is the user that is the primary contact of who will be creating or making changes to a Knowledge Base article.
Keywords: Knowledge Base articles can be further found using the SCSM Portal search function using words or phrases entered. Each keyword or keyword phrase will need to be separated by commas (,).
Vendor ID: If a Knowledge Article is tied to a specific Vendor entered in Asset Management, the Vendor ID can be entered here.
External URL: If a Knowledge Article is tied to a specific web site outside of the SCSM Portal, this can be entered in here.
Analyst & End User Content
Here, we can enter the Knowledge Base article itself. The content itself uses HTML and CSS in formatting, which allows for the ability to customize your content to match the look and feel of the rest of the Portal.
The difference between the Analyst Content, and End User Content, is that any content entered in the Analyst Content section will only be viewed by Administrators, along with user in the Analysts or Knowledge Manager groups. The benifit to this is that this allows for internal information only available within the company. Furthermore, the Analyst Content section can be used as a method of making rough drafts of End User Content available before being published to that section. You may also used this section for change notes, or can be used as a sandbox to test functionality.
You will notice a WYSIWYG-like (What You See Is What You Get) interface, where you can edit your article using some of the most common formatting capabilities, such as changing the text type (bold, italtics, underline, strikethrough), and the alignment. You can include both ordered and unordered lists, hyperlinks, superscript and underscript texts.
Figure 4.1 - Analyst Content
You can also add your own HTML code, edit the article using raw code, or edit a page using a third party application such as Adobe Dreamweaver or Notepad++ using the </> button.
Related Items
You can relate both a Service Offering, along with a Request Offering, to a Knowledge Base, for a reference. For example, if you have a Knowledge Base article that describes how to create a work item, you can relate it to a Request Offering.
Once you are ready, you can click Apply or Save your new Knowledge Base article. This will create the article, and give it a KB number.
