About KB Guides
KB Guides is designed to enhance the way you host and navigate knowledge base content within your online community. KB Guides offer a structured and user-friendly approach to presenting valuable information, making it easier for members to find what they need. With KB Guides, brands can efficiently organize and share resources such as training materials, onboarding documents, FAQs, and more. This ensures a seamless and informative experience for community members, helping them access relevant content effortlessly. Enablement KB Guides are enabled by default in Communities Aurora v24.07 and above for all communities using knowledge bases. Permissions Members with the Create, edit, publish, and manage articles permission on the knowledge base board can add a KB Guide to it. Guides widget To start with creating KB Guides, you must add the Guides widget to a Knowledge Base Dashboard template. Set Type in the Guides widget as per your requirement: To view the articles as Type Structured Guide Guides Manually-sorted list Manually-sorted Articles Guides widget configuration Related Topics Adding KB Guides Guides widget configuration General actions on KB Guides, Articles, and ChaptersAurora: Publish knowledge base articles
When a knowledge base article is reviewed and approved to be published, there could be two scenarios for publication: They are ready to be published and you can go ahead and publish it. They are waiting for an event, such as a product release or update, and needs to be published at a later date. To publish articles immediately, click the Publish button. The article is immediately available for viewers to read. Scheduling content to be published later The scheduling feature gives you control in managing when your knowledge base article is published to the community. This makes it possible to manage your growing inventory of content. When scheduling at a future time, you can indicate the time zone to use. Check out the walkthrough below to learn how to schedule a knowledge base article for publication. Same applies for blog posts. 14 STEPS 1. Open the draft of the article that you want to schedule to publish. Click Edit Draft 2. The article opens in an editor. Scroll down the page and click Publication Schedule 3. Click the text box to choose the time 4. Pick a date 5. Pick a time 6. Pick a Time Zone 7. 8. Click Schedule 9. Your article is now scheduled to be published 10. Click Change if you want to reschedule 11. Select a date, time and timezone 12. Click Change 13. Click Remove, if you want to remove the scheduling 14. The schedule is removed. Here's an interactive tutorial https://www.iorad.com/player/2052286/Schedule-Publiation Permissions Permission Purpose Additional permissions required Publish articles To publish or schedule KB articles View draft articles Related topics: Create a Knowledge Base articles Edit articles Follow Content TagsAurora: Create a knowledge base article
Community members can create knowledge base articles in KB boards they have permission to access. When authoring articles, you have the option to publish immediately or save your progress, and edit or publish at a later time. 25 STEPS 1. On your Knowledge Base board, click Start your article. If you do not see this button, check with your Admin. 2. The article editor opens 3. Enter a Title. 4. Optionally, type an Introduction 5. Enter the content for you article. 6. Use the editor tools to modify the look and feel of your content 7. For example, add a smiley! 8. 9. Let's take an example on uploading an image. To upload images, click Camera 10. Choose from the dropdown from where you want to upload the image 11. You can also copy-paste an image. Use the re-size options to resize the image 12. Drag and drop the image to rearrange it. 12b. Drop 13. 13b. Drop 14. 15. Add a caption 16. Optionally, add attachments. 17. Add Tags to categorise your content and make it more findable. 18. Click Tag 19. Click Tag 20. Start typing a tag name. You can either select from predefined list of tags or add new ones. These depend on the Community Settings for Tags. 21. Tags added are displayed 22. Optionally, you can add Article Summary and SEO Content 23. Select Notify Followers, if you want the followers of this node or article to be notified of changes. 24. When your content is ready to be published, click Publish. 25. The article is published. The article is immediately available to members on your Community. Here's an interactive tutorial https://www.iorad.com/player/2051649/Start-an-article Published articles are available immediately in the community. When other members find and read this content, they can like or comment on it. Members with appropriate permissions can view the author's profile, mark if the article was helpful, and add more Tags. As an author, you can always come back and edit this content later to add more info or make any corrections. 10 STEPS 1. While creating your content you can always save the draft and come back later to work on it. Click Save Draft 2. The draft is saved with a version number 3. Let's see how you can find this draft. Go to the board where the draft was created. Click Options menu and click Manage Content 4. The Content Management Dashboard opens. 5. You are automatically taken to the Drafts tab 6. Depending on your permission, you can see all the drafts. Members can mostly see only their own drafts. Click the article you want to work on. 7. When the draft is ready to be published, click Publish 8. The published version get a new version number. 9. Your draft is published. 10. Scroll up and that's it. You're done. Here's an interactive tutorial https://www.iorad.com/player/2051697/Intermitted-save--drafts Notes: You can use markdown syntaxes while writing the content instead of formatting the text using toolbar options. Also, you can use other keyboard shortcuts to work quickly and efficiently. Learn more about keyboard shortcuts. While creating an article, the content is auto-saved. Upon reloading the page, the content is auto-recovered and you can continue to edit. Admins and members who started the article or have edit access to the article can add or remove tags.. By default, members who comment on an article, automatically follow or subscribe to the article. If you do not want the "Helpful Vote" to be visible to your readers on published articles, please contact Support. Permissions Members with the Create, edit, publish, and manage articles permission have total control over the Knowledge Base node. They can create, approve, manage, and publish articles. By default, this permission is denied. To start your own article, you must have the Start new articles and edit drafts permission. This permission is granted by default to Authors. Members with the View draft articles permissions can view the draft of articles. Managing published articles Members with elevated permissions (like admins and moderators) can perform a variety of content management tasks on published KB content. These tasks include: Move the article to another location on the community View the revision history of an article Edit and restore Delete the article Reject Content Report Content Block edits to the article Block comments Most of these tasks are available from the Options menu: Note: If you don’t see any of these menu options, you do not have the required permissions to complete these tasks. Related topics: Create a Knowledge Base (KB) board Commenting on articles Edit articles Publish articles Report inappropriate Follow Content TagsAbout Content permissions
You can adjust permissions related to content at the community, container (category & group), and board level. Some permissions are set to Deny by default while others are set to Grant by default. At the container level and the board level, permission defaults and role permissions are inherited from the parent level. In those cases, the Inherit button is displayed in green to indicate that the permission was set to Grant at the parent level or red to indicate that the permission was set to Deny at the parent level. As an admin, you can manage these permissions. To manage content-related permission defaults at the community level: Note: To manage this permission at a lower level, go to the [Place] Permissions page and edit the permission defaults for that level. To manage this permission for a particular role, go to the [Place] Permissions page at the desired level of the community and edit the permissions of the individual roles. Go to the Roles and Permissions page for the community. Beside Community Permissions Defaults, select Edit. Review permissions in the following areas: Blogs Content Events Ideas Knowledge Bases Select Deny or Grant as required. Unless you have specified different permissions for certain roles or levels below the community level (a category, group, or board), these selections affect all members of the community. Content permissions While Forum permissions are granted by the Content permissions, Blogs, Event Boards, Ideas boards, and Knowledge Bases have distinct permission sections for content type-specific tasks. The Content permissions are provided for general content access and tasks and relate to all content types. Follow the links in the table below to learn more about the tasks granted by these permissions. Permission Default Related permissions in content type sections Read discussions and content Grant Blogs: Read posts and Read comments Ideas: Read ideas and comments Reply to discussions and content Grant Blogs: Comment on posts Events: Comment on events Ideas: Comment on ideas Knowledge Bases: Comment on articles Start discussions and new content Grant Blogs: Start new posts Events: Post new events Ideas: Post new ideas Knowledge Bases: Create, edit, publish, and manage articles Edit own posts Deny Blogs: Edit own published posts Events: Edit own events Ideas: Manage ideas and comments Knowledge Bases: Edit own published articles Edit any post Deny Blogs: Edit any published post Events: Edit all events Ideas: Manage ideas and comments Knowledge Bases: Edit any published article Move content Deny Blogs: Manage any posts and Manage own posts Delete own post Deny Blogs: Manage own posts Events: Delete own events Knowledge Bases: Delete own articles Delete any post Deny Blogs: Manage any posts Events: Delete all events Ideas: Manage ideas and comments Upload file attachments Deny Embed external content Grant Turn on link hyperlinking Grant Use simple HTML in posts Grant Use advanced HTML in posts Deny Use full HTML in posts Deny Make content read only Deny Post read-only content Deny Bypass moderation Deny Blogs: Bypass comment moderation Events: Bypass comment moderation Ideas: Bypass moderation Knowledge Bases: Bypass comment moderation Related topics: About Aurora Community site structure About Aurora Content TypesKnowledge Base Article content widget configuration
The Knowledge Base Article template contains the Knowledge Base Article content widget that houses the body of an article. While you cannot delete this widget, you can modify some of its features to customize the community experience. Page item elements Date: Shows the date on which the article was published (September 3, 2024) or how long ago it was published (3 days ago) depending on your settings. Versions: A badge displays the version of the article. Helpfulness: Shows the “Was this article helpful?” section with sentiment emojis below the article. Guide navigation: In the left panel, shows the table of contents for the knowledge base guide where this article lives (see About KB Guides). Display contributors as None: No contributors are shown. Link: Select the View Contributors link to open contributors in another window. Detailed panel: The list of contributors shows below the article. Related topics: About Knowledge Bases About KB Guides Guides widget configurationPreview published URL
Members who have access to the workflow page of an article, can preview the published URL (the final URL when published) on the workflow page of the draft. They can share this URL with others, who might need to link to this article when it’s published. To view the URL when the artilce or blog post is the in draft state: Open the draft of the article or blog post. Open the Options menu. Select Copy Published URL. The URL will be copied to your clipboard.Add structured Guides
Use this method to create a structured Guide with Chapters and Articles inside the Chapters. Go to the Manage Content page. Select the knowledge base board where the widget was added. Select the Guides tab > Type > Guides. Select Add Guides. A window opens to add the guide. Enter a Title for the guide. Select Add. The guide is added. Open the Options menu (3 dots) near the title of the guide. Select Add Chapters. Enter a Title for the chapter. Select Add. Below is an example of two empty chapters in the guide. Select Add Articles (plus icon). Search for and add articles to the Chapters. You can refine your search by switching between Knowledge Base and Community. Here is an example of an article in a chapter: Add an article directly to a Guide Select Add Articles (plus icon). Search for and add articles to the guides. You can refine your search by switching between Knowledge Base and Community. In our example, we have added 2 chapters and an article to the guide we created: View the Guide Go to the knowledge base board in the community. You can see the manually-sorted articles on the knowledge base board. Select the title of the guide to open the guide on the page. You can see the guide with articles organized under chapters. Select the title of the chapters and articles displayed on the left panel to navigate through the guide. Related topics: About KB Guides Add Manually-sorted Guides Guides widget configuration General actions on KB Guides, Chapters, and Articles CRUD Action audit logsAdd KB Guides with manually-sorted articles
Use this method when you prefer a simple list of articles sorted in a specific order on a knowledge base board without the need for a guide-like structure. Add articles Go to the Manage Content page. Select the knowledge base board where the widget was added. Select the Guides tab > Type > Manually-sorted Articles. Select Add Articles. A window to add articles opens with the options to choose the order in which you want the articles from the knowledge base board to appear. You can also reorder the articles later. In our example, we choose to order them by recency. (Optional) Drag and drop articles to reorder them. Clear the existing Guide To clear the existing list and start fresh to create a new KB Guide: Go to the Manage Content page. Select the knowledge base board where the widget was added. Select the Guides tab > Type > Manually-sorted Articles. The list of articles is displayed. Select Clear List. A window to confirm your action appears. Select Clear. The list is now cleared and the guide is deleted. View the Guide Go to the knowledge base board in the community. You can see the manually-sorted articles on the knowledge base board. Select the title of the guide to open the guide on the page. You can see the guide with the manually-sorted articles. Select the title of the articles displayed on the left panel to navigate through the guide. Related topics: About KB Guides Add structured KB Guides Guides widget configuration General actions on KB Guides, Chapters, and Articles CRUD Action audit logsAudit Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) actions
Administrators can have a comprehensive audit logging for all Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) actions on KB Guides. The following actions will be recorded in the audit log: Guides: Added, moved, deleted, and reordered Chapters: Added, moved, deleted, and reordered within/to Guides Articles: Added, moved, deleted, and reordered within/to chapters or Guides Additionally, audit logs will cover actions taken on Manually-sorted articles, including: Adding Articles Clearing the List Reordering Articles You can access the audit logs from Settings > System > Audit logs Related topics: About KB Guides Adding KB Guides Guides widget configuration General actions on KB Guides, Chapters, and Articles
