On using the FAQ section as a knowledgebase

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troffasky
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Posts: 53
Joined: 04 Apr 2011, 15:38
Znuny Version: 3.2.8
Real Name: Alex Dekker

On using the FAQ section as a knowledgebase

Post by troffasky »

We use OTRS to support internal and external customers.

I am looking to replace our existing KB for the support team. Currently this consists of the Documents section in SugarCRM, which is pretty basic.
The vast majority of the documents will be for internal use only.

I looked at the ITIL stuff on Youtube and the CMDB section on that looks as if it could be the starting point for a pretty good KB, however the rest of the ITIL stuff is complete overkill for us. I'd like to have just the KB from the ITIL version. Actually I've just noticed there aren't any rich-text free fields in CMDB like there are in FAQ, so maybe what I'm looking for is a hybrid of the two.

I would like to be able to hide unused fields in FAQ entries. For most articles, the only field that will ever be valued is Solution. If OTRS
could hide Sympton, Problem, etc, when they're empty, that would be useful. Or even just disable all fields globally except Solution.

Having thought a little more on this, maybe what would be best is templates for FAQ entries. The template defines a list of fields, whether the field
is optional or not, default values for the field, etc. A template could look like the current FAQ style, or it could look like a CMDB entry, or whatever you want.
OTRS 3.2.8 on Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS
Mike_B
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Re: On using the FAQ section as a knowledgebase

Post by Mike_B »

The FAQ (Knowledge Base) is a complete separate package from the ITSM extensions, and can be installed and used separately.
You can indeed customize the fields that are available in a FAQ article, via the OTRS SysConfig; you can have 1 to 6 fields with visibility for customers or just internally.
The FAQ at this moment does not support templates; it might be a nice addition though. You can of course have a template elsewhere and make your agents copy and paste it in as the start of their knowledge base authoring process.

--
Mike
huntingbears.nl - @michielbeijen on Twitter
troffasky
Znuny newbie
Posts: 53
Joined: 04 Apr 2011, 15:38
Znuny Version: 3.2.8
Real Name: Alex Dekker

Re: On using the FAQ section as a knowledgebase

Post by troffasky »

Thanks for that Mike. I had had a dig around in SysConfig but didn't find it before.

For the benefit of anyone else wondering about this: Admin > SysConfig > search for 'FAQ' > edit 'Core::Item'. Set 'Show' to blank to remove a field. 'Prio' controls the sort order of the fields.

I have configured ours to have one public field and one private field. This will be fine for our needs.

Looking ahead, I'm minded to think that FAQ Core::Item being a global setting could be a limitation. It might be nice to have different fields for different article categories. On the other hand, given that it supports rich text, then a field could just be a table row, without any further support required from OTRS. Even if it doesn't support templates controlling the content for every field, then a default value for the field would be useful, or the ability to copy FAQ entries without cut and paste would do.
OTRS 3.2.8 on Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS
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