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84fb5b46 MKG |
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2 | =head1 Articles | |
3 | ||
4 | Articles are a way of managing stock answers or frequently asked | |
5 | questions. Articles are a collection of custom fields whose values can | |
6 | be easily inserted into ticket replies or searched and browsed within | |
7 | RT. They are organized into classes and topics. | |
8 | ||
9 | =head2 UI | |
10 | ||
11 | The user interface to Articles is available from the Tools -> Articles | |
12 | menu. Admin functionality can be found under Tools -> Configuration -> | |
13 | Articles. Once configured, articles will become available for searching | |
14 | on the Reply/Comment page on tickets. There are configuration variables | |
15 | to make Articles available on ticket creation. | |
16 | ||
17 | =head2 Basics | |
18 | ||
19 | You will need to make some decisions about how to organize your | |
20 | articles. Articles will be organized into one Class and multiple | |
21 | Topics. They will use Custom Fields to store their article data. | |
22 | These Custom Fields can be configured on a Class by Class basis. | |
23 | Classes can be made available globally or on a per-Queue basis. | |
24 | ||
25 | =head2 Organization | |
26 | ||
27 | =head3 Classes | |
28 | ||
29 | Classes are equivalent to RT's queues. They can be created by going | |
30 | to Tools -> Configuration -> Articles -> Classes -> New Class. Articles | |
31 | are assigned to one Class. When you create Custom Fields for use with | |
32 | Articles, they will be applied Globally or to a Class, like Custom | |
33 | Fields are applied to a Queue in RT. Each class also controls what | |
34 | information is included into a reply (such as the Class header and | |
35 | footer) and the Article. | |
36 | ||
37 | Classes need to be Applied, just like a Custom Field by using the | |
38 | Applied To link. You can apply them globally or on a queue-by-queue | |
39 | basis. | |
40 | ||
41 | hotlist. | |
42 | ||
43 | =head3 Topics | |
44 | ||
45 | You can also use Topics to organize your Articles. While editing a | |
46 | Class, there is a Topic tab for Class specific Topics. You can create | |
47 | global Topics from the Global tab under Tools -> Configuration. | |
48 | ||
49 | When editing Topics, type the name (and optionally description) of the | |
50 | Topic, and then click the button at the appropriate location in the | |
51 | Topic hierarchy. This should allow you to build a tree of Topics. This | |
52 | tree of Topics should show up when creating or modifying articles in | |
53 | the class. These can be arbitrarily nested. | |
54 | ||
55 | Global Topics will be available for all Articles, regardless of their | |
56 | Class. Articles can belong to both global and class-specific Topics. | |
57 | ||
58 | Articles topics can be set from the 'Modify' screen for the article -- | |
59 | simply select as many topics as you desire from the list at the bottom | |
60 | of the screen. | |
61 | ||
62 | =head2 Custom Fields | |
63 | ||
64 | Articles don't have a single "body" section for each | |
65 | article. Everything is a custom field (except for name, summary and | |
66 | some other basic metadata). So, you need to create some custom | |
67 | fields to hold the Article body and other data. These Custom Fields | |
68 | should have "Applies To" be "RTFM Articles". | |
69 | ||
70 | Once you've created your custom fields, go into your classes and click | |
71 | on "Custom Fields" and add the Custom Fields you want to each class. | |
72 | Alternatively, use the Applies To link from each Custom Field. | |
73 | ||
74 | =head2 Creating Articles | |
75 | ||
76 | You can create an article from scratch by going to Tools -> Articles -> | |
77 | New Article and then picking which Class to create the Article under. | |
78 | The Summary, Description and Custom Fields will all be searchable when | |
79 | including an Article and you can control what Custom Fields end up in | |
80 | your Ticket from the Class configuration page. | |
81 | ||
82 | =head3 Extracting an Article | |
83 | ||
84 | You can extract the body of a ticket into an article. Within RT, you | |
85 | should now see an "Extract to article" button in the upper right hand | |
86 | corner of RT's UI when working with tickets. When you click that | |
87 | button, RT will ask you which Class to create your new article in. | |
88 | Once you click on a class name, the Ticket's transactions will be | |
89 | displayed, along with a set of select boxes. For each transaction, you | |
90 | can pick which Custom Field that transaction should be extracted to. | |
91 | From there on in, it's just regular article creation. | |
92 | ||
93 | =head2 Including an Article | |
94 | ||
95 | When replying to or commenting on tickets or creating tickets, there | |
96 | is a UI widget that lets you search for and include Articles in | |
97 | your reply. (They're editable, of course). | |
98 | ||
99 | Articles can be included by searching for them, knowing the Id of the | |
100 | article, using the Article Hotlist and using the Queue specific | |
101 | dropdown. | |
102 | ||
103 | =head2 Queue Specific List of Articles | |
104 | ||
105 | You can use Topics to organize a set of Queue specific Articles. | |
106 | Simply create a global Topic called 'Queues' and then create Topics | |
107 | under Queues named after each of your Queues. Within each Queue named | |
108 | Topic, create some Topics and then assign Articles to those | |
109 | sub-topics. This creates a hierarchy like this: | |
110 | ||
111 | Queues | |
112 | \-> General | |
113 | \-> Topic 1 | |
114 | \-> Topic 2 | |
115 | ||
116 | If you are replying to a Ticket in the General Queue you will be | |
117 | offered a choice of Topic 1 and Topic 2 along with the searching. | |
118 | After choosing Topic 1 or Topic 2, you will be given a list of | |
119 | relevant articles to choose. | |
120 | ||
121 | Alternately, you can now implement this by applying a single class to | |
122 | your queue and using the L<Article Hotlist> feature described below. | |
123 | ||
124 | =head2 Article Hotlist | |
125 | ||
126 | If you enable "All articles in this class are on dropdown on ticket | |
127 | reply page" option, there will be a dropdown on the Create or Update | |
128 | page which allows users to quickly include Articles. | |
129 | ||
130 | =head2 SelfService Interface | |
131 | ||
132 | If you grant the Unprivileged user group the right ShowArticle, they | |
133 | will get a Search box at the top of their interface. This allows users | |
134 | to look for answer to questions before creating a Ticket. | |
135 | ||
136 | =head1 Configuration options | |
137 | ||
138 | =head2 ArticleOnTicketCreate | |
139 | ||
140 | Set this to a true value to display the Article include interface on the | |
141 | Ticket Create page in addition to the Reply/Comment page (Create.html | |
142 | in addition to Update.html) | |
143 | ||
144 | =head2 HideArticleSearchOnReplyCreate | |
145 | ||
146 | On Ticket Reply (and Create if you set the above config var) | |
147 | RTFM normally displays a search box and an include box (for | |
148 | inputting an article id) and configurable dropdowns | |
149 | of articles. These can be configured using Global Topics or | |
150 | on the Class page. | |
151 | ||
152 | If you set this to a true value, RTFM will only display | |
153 | dropdowns and hide the search boxes | |
154 | ||
155 | =cut |