Knowledge base

You reach the knowledge base through “Knowledge Base” in the left-hand bar. The overview consists of tiles — one per topic. The number in the top right of a tile is the count of published entries; below it stand the name and description of the topic. A click on the tile leads to the list of entries, each with author, change date and the first lines of its text.

You do not create the topics here but under “Settings → Knowledge Base” (see the card “Visibility per topic”). Without a single topic the overview shows nothing but a note — an entry always needs a topic.

You write with “New entry” on a topic page. The editor asks for three things: “Title”, “Topic” and “Content”. It is the same editor as in a ticket, with the same toolbar: “Bold”, “Italic”, “Underline”, “Strikethrough”, “Text color”, “Highlight color”, “Bullet list”, “Numbered list”, “Quote”, “Link” and “Clear formatting”. A link is made as in a ticket: select the text, click “Link”, enter the address — web and mail addresses are allowed (http, https, mailto). “Save” stays grey while title or topic are missing, and an entry without text is rejected: attachments alone are not an entry.

Images get into the text through the clipboard, just as in a ticket: take a screenshot, paste it into the editor with Ctrl+V. A marker such as “[inline-image:1]” appears in the text; on saving, the system uploads the image and shows it in exactly that place. It additionally turns up below under “Attachments” — that is where you delete it again. PNG, JPEG and GIF can be pasted.

You attach files only once the entry is saved: at the bottom of the entry page sits the “Attachments” card with “Upload file”. Allowed file types and size are the same as for a ticket (up to 50 MB per file). Whoever uploaded a file may remove it again; administrators may remove any of them.

Administrators may always write, agents as long as the switch in the settings allows it (see the card “Approval”). Customers only read. An administrator may delete any entry; an agent may only delete their own entries that have never been published.

The search field sits at the top of the overview page. From two characters on it searches while you type; an empty field brings the tiles back. It searches title AND text, not just the heading — in the picture “separation pad” stands only in the text of the lower entry, not in its title, and it is still found.

The input is split into words, and an entry ranks higher the more of those words it contains. So it is not a search for the exact phrase: “printer jam” also finds an entry that only contains “printer” — in exchange it finds anything at all when somebody asks their question in their own words.

So that a whole sentence does not turn into a random list, a hit has to contain at least half of the words you typed. For a single search word that changes nothing; for “Wi-Fi drops in the west wing” it sorts out the entries that only share “the” and “in”.

What somebody finds depends on their role: agents and administrators also see internal topics and entries still waiting for approval (recognisable by the amber badge). A customer only ever finds published entries in topics released for customers.

You maintain topics under “Settings → Knowledge Base” in the “Topics” card. Every row carries a name, a description, a sort number for the order of the tiles, the “Visible to customers” switch and two buttons for saving and deleting — you save per row, not the whole card.

With the switch off, only agents and administrators see the topic, its entries and their attachments — a customer never even gets the tile and does not find the entries through the search either. With it on, customers see the topic and the published entries inside it; drafts stay invisible anyway.

You create a new topic in the dashed row below: enter a name, choose the visibility, “Add topic”. A topic can only be deleted while it is empty — otherwise you would be deleting its entries along with it, without seeing them.

As soon as three characters stand in the “Title” field of the “Create new ticket” form, the system searches in the background and shows the box “Possible solutions from the knowledge base” — up to five entries matching the title. Whoever finds their answer there does not create a ticket; that is the whole point.

Only the TITLE is searched, not the description. The same rule as in the search applies: a suggestion has to contain at least half of the words of the title — the more precise the title, the fewer and the more fitting the suggestions. A click on a suggestion opens it in a new tab so the half-filled form is not lost; “Open knowledge base” at the bottom leads to the full overview.

Visibility applies here too: a customer only gets published entries of customer-facing topics suggested. As an agent you additionally see internal topics and entries still waiting for their approval.

At the top right of every ticket sits “Add to knowledge base”. The button opens the editor for a new entry, prefilled with the title of the ticket and its whole course: the description as the first paragraph, every comment below it as a quote.

That alone gains you nothing — it is raw material. The point is that you turn it into a guide: cut it down to what will help next time, and rewrite the title if it sounds like a single case (“Printer on 2nd floor pulls two sheets” becomes “Clearing a paper jam”).

No topic is preselected, you choose that yourself. The entry is saved like any other: published straight away as an administrator, sent for approval as an agent. Afterwards the internal reference “Source: Ticket #1” stays on the entry — it is a jump back to the case and is not visible to customers.

Whether agents may write at all is decided by the “Agents can create entries” switch under “Settings → Knowledge Base”. It is on by default. Off, it is a hard boundary: the “New entry” button and the “Add to knowledge base” button on the ticket disappear, and calling the editor directly is refused as well.

There are exactly two states — “Awaiting review” and “Published”; there is no draft you can quietly work on without anybody seeing it. Who writes determines the state: an administrator publishes immediately. An agent produces an entry marked “Awaiting review” — visible to agents and administrators, not to customers. On the topic tile the amber badge “1 awaiting review” appears for it.

The administrators additionally receive an e-mail as soon as an entry is up for approval. That mail is part of Professional. It is an addition, not a requirement: without outgoing mail set up, the badge stays the way a pending approval is found. You approve on the entry’s page with “Approve & publish”; afterwards it says there who approved it.

If an agent later changes a published entry, it goes back for approval — the change is only visible to customers again after the next “Approve & publish”. Somebody who is already waiting and saves once more does not trigger a second e-mail. The same applies when an agent adds or removes an attachment.

Under “Settings → Knowledge Base” the “History” card sits at the very bottom. It lists the last 200 events, newest first: what happened, which entry or topic was affected, who did it and when.

Seven events are recorded: entry created, updated, approved and deleted, plus topic created, updated and deleted. A deleted entry therefore does not vanish without a trace — the line stays, even when the entry is gone.

Two lines at once are not a mistake: when an administrator creates an entry, “Entry created” stands there and directly above it “Entry approved” — they publish without the detour through the approval. For an agent only “Entry created” appears at first; the approval comes later and with the administrator’s name.

Only somebody allowed to open the knowledge base settings page sees the history — administrators, by default. It is one history for the whole knowledge base, not one per entry.