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</style><p><strong>In this guide we will cover:</strong></p><p><strong>- What is the Knowledge Base?</strong></p><p><strong>- Viewing, Editing and Adding Articles</strong></p><p><strong>- Configuring Article Suggestions</strong></p><p><strong>- Adding Videos to Articles</strong></p><p><strong>- Cloning Articles</strong></p><p><strong>- Reporting on Articles</strong></p><p><strong>- KBs on a Ticket Type</strong></p><p><strong>- KBs on the Self-Service Portal</strong></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Admin Guides:</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/1844/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Knowledge Base</strong></a></li><li><a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2055/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Ticket Types</strong></a></li></ul><p data-pasted="true"><strong>Related Guides:</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2043" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>FAQ Lists in the Knowledge Base</strong></a></li></ul><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">What is the Knowledge Base?</span></strong></p><p>The Halo knowledge base functionality is used internally in the system by agents to ensure efficient resolution of common incidents, but it is also used externally by end-users on the self-service portal. This allows end-users to “self-serve” and fix their own problems without logging a ticket.</p><p><br></p><p><strong id="isPasted"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Viewing, Editing and Adding Articles</span></strong></p><p>To add an article, head to the knowledge base by clicking on the book icons on the main page of your web-app.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjEwNTUwZTU5LTFjZDUtNDM2MS1iYzg1LWRkZjAwYmQxMDUwNiJ9.8sa0NLhl8v2SBnwz1_b3TVghlx3s0DqhAec-NqFue2E" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="113" height="115"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 1. Knowledge Base Module on the Navigation Menu.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>This takes you to the main screen for articles.</p><p><br></p><p>The first format appears like the below if "Agent app KB area view" is set to "KB Search Screen" and the "Select an FAQ list before searching Articles" checkbox is enabled - both in Configuration > Knowledge Base.</p><p><br></p><p id="isPasted">Here you will see a search bar and filter list. Press the plus icon in the top right to create a new article. Here you input the description of the common issue/question that this article is being created for, the resolution to the issue/ question and any attachments.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjUwMGU2YzRjLWZkOTYtNGFmZS1iNWIwLTIyNmQxOTQ2MjFmMSJ9.-osNxgG50nCt-9-d0qpgXESOAgIKtwCTfphwf0ZsMBw" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1216" style="width: 1218px; height: 592.941px;" height="593"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 2. KB search screen.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>If "FAQ List Tree" is selected for the Agent app KB area view (within Configuration > Knowledge Base).</p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjNmZjRkYTUxLTM0MjQtNDEwMC1hMGNkLTYwNmEzYTkxYmFmNiJ9.7GBeZMQHQnh3l90A2zDEbtcgYvqKgW2d4ptkQSM2-4w" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="332" height="92"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 3. FAQ List Tree View Option</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>Then you will see the following screen when going to the Knowledge Base section of the navigation menu.</p><p><br></p><p id="isPasted">Click "New Article" to create a new article in this format.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjkyYjY3N2Q1LTMwNGEtNGViZi05ZThhLWMyZGM5YzgwMjJkMiJ9.KQo3Hn4YGk4OMSluvHFn3bCBmdVxTX2hkLKLl2zDH3A" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1210" style="width: 1212px; height: 667.532px;" height="668"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 4. FAQ List Tree view.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>The "All Articles" button will show a list of all articles that agent has access to, and its corresponding details. In Configuration > Knowledge Base > Articles, you can also enable "Allow Agents with edit permissions to bulk edit Articles in the 'All Articles' view". This will show an additional checkbox at the side of each article in the list, which will allow agents with edit permissions to bulk update FAQ lists or Tags.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImRiNzg0YTk1LWFlZmUtNGVhNS1iZjRiLWVkY2Q3ZjI1NTg5OSJ9.KEtP9qnZwP-EFR3w6-vBTfRCZN4UcDOI-Hr2mAeO51A" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="572" height="392"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 5. Bulk editing knowledge base articles.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>The view counts on this screen can be split to show the Agent and User views separately. In Configuration > Knowledge Base, enable "Split Article View Count". This helps show true view counts that are not inflated by Agent's opening an Article, as the Self-Service Portal will only show the User view count.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImQxMGE1YjlkLTE2NTYtNGY0Mi05YmU0LWNlZjg1N2UwOThhNCJ9.5O3P742UHk3SyjxUR8C7HtEvc34JP39JaxNWL_GlJtM" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1215" style="width: 1217px; height: 571.958px;" height="572"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 6. Split view counts.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>News articles view count will also show providing the settings "Hide Article Ratings" and "Disable Article Voting" are not selected in Configuration > Self Service Portal.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><strong id="isPasted"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Configuring Article Suggestions</span></strong></p><p>A valuable part of the knowledge base is the suggested articles function which is provided via the problem/resolution finder. This is essentially a way of the system trying to match onto previous issues when the user is creating a new ticket or when the ticket has already been created.</p><p><br></p><p>It will search through the ticket creation screen or the ticket itself, to see if there is anything that relates to previously resolved issues, if it matches on anything it will display it in the suggested articles section of the problem/ resolution finder.</p><p><br></p><p>This popup will show when viewing or logging tickets, and the article can be linked to tickets by clicking the link icon that appears when hovering over the article.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImI1YzMxMWI2LTA2ZDMtNDNhOS04MDk1LTJiODRjYmJiNGM4NCJ9.x-hptCaUVUp-QRz6sTz3MKHMXmjwhH6oR06wja3Ha5s" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1210" style="width: 1212px; height: 591.907px;" height="592"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 7. Problem/resolution finder matching on suggested articles.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>There are four different options to look at on the problem/resolution finder - suggested articles, matching problems, similar open incidents, and similar closed incidents (represented by the four icons in green, red, orange, and blue at the top of the resolution finder).</p><p><br></p><p>There is a section within the knowledge base configuration called "Article Suggestions" which is used to configure which articles, etc will appear on the resolution finder. These pre-defined options will be globally set across all tickets and articles.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjJmNTIyZDViLWExNTktNGRiZS1hMGVhLTY5YTJjY2IyMmY2YSJ9.OPUQxFKivDrOyneD7cYaxpneE8YlMqWJxSbaCAiu8Es" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1211" style="width: 1213px; height: 592.94px;" height="593"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 8. Suggested articles configuration.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>For example the checkbox option "Categories must match a tag" when selected, will only allow suggested articles to appear if the category of the ticket matches onto a kb tag of the article.</p><p><br></p><p>An example would be if the ticket had the category Account Administration > Mail Access and this was also on as a tag, it will suggest that article with the same tag.</p><p><br></p><p><em><strong>Note: </strong></em><strong><em>The tag and the category must match exactly, it isn't just a contains clause, it must include the entire category in the tag. </em></strong></p><p><br></p><p>Thankfully the categories are suggested in the search box of the tag function.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjlhNmRjMWI0LTg3OWItNDJjNS1hMTkyLWZjZjhiYzQ1OTA4YiJ9.YFyAOC3l7bsBcyqVo-ngr0Y0dd6Ly7_iVEHQlh5aL7s" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="412" height="163"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 9. Categories being suggested on the knowledge base tags input.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Adding Videos to Articles</span></strong></p><p>Adding videos to your articles can be an excellent method of making your knowledge base more engaging for end-users, particularly if you are looking to make your articles available on your end-user portal.</p><p><br></p><p>On any article (when in edit mode) simply click on the video camera icon to add a video. There are 2 methods of adding videos to articles:</p><p><br></p><ol><li>Insert a link: Click on the link icon and add in the URL of the video you wish to link the article to, then click insert.</li><li>Embedded code:</li></ol><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjY3NzM0MzQ2LWVjY2MtNGZiMy1iY2VhLTAzZTZkYTI3NTRlOSJ9.QCNE-M3hZNWL3Si-pKsPXz0mI1Ray5RmOjdTG2jcizw" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="374" height="480"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 10. Adding a video to an article.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Cloning Articles</span></strong></p><p>Articles can also be cloned after creation, which is a useful feature if the information in it is relevant for another guide you would like to create.</p><p><br></p><p>A "Clone" button will show at the top of the article</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6Ijc4NjYzZDVhLTg3YjMtNDRjNy1iMDE0LTBkOTdmYjRmZGNiMCJ9.CL2Xl3p0x4VyHqRHf5PR4iX_brnIVZBlH0EzLyUjyRA" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" style="width: 1217px; height: 594.868px;" width="1215" height="595"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 11. Clone button on an article.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>Upon clicking, you will be prompted to enter a title for the cloned version.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjMxZjEyYmYzLTdiMGItNDE4YS04ZjZjLTk3ZTk0MTQ5YmQyYSJ9.H51mToaF3_gw1fA2OYfzwpZ5aMc7WbQKPsV426ITJm0" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1216" style="width: 1218px; height: 595.99px;" height="596"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 12. Setting title on the cloned version.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>The cloned version will also have the same tags and be part of the same FAQ lists as the original.</p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Reporting on Articles </span></strong></p><p>You can use the table KBViewLog for reporting purposes. It stores the Agent/User ID, KB Article ID and Datetime of every view of a knowledgebase article.</p><p>Other useful reports can be found in the online repository by searching for "knowledge base".</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjA3MjViNDMwLTA2NzEtNDFmMC05MTEzLWEwYjFmZTI0YTMwNiJ9.7h5xVoWSgN9Sj0RDSDHwQkUWickl3oHJOJbLyb5SbeA" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1216" style="width: 1218px; height: 594.116px;" height="594"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 13. Searching the Online Repository for knowledge base reports.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">KBs on a Ticket Type<br></span></strong></p><p>FAQ Lists which will appear in article suggestions can be configured per ticket type in the "Allowed Values" tab.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImZlMzFmODA3LTI2YzItNDVjMC1iYzNlLTkzNTgxYjRlYzMxNSJ9.mJLN_pmQ3MAv0oK-oy2AemZehamcO4pzvQWL_Ga-eUU" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1218" style="width: 1220px; height: 594.423px;" height="594"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 14. Configuring filters for suggested articles.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>The checkbox option to allow all article suggestions can be used or there can be restrictions set on the ticket type so that only set articles will be suggested, based on their FAQ List. This is very useful in making sure relevant information is displayed in the suggested articles.</p><p><br></p><p>There is also the option to use the dollar variable $-suggestedarticles. This variable can be used in email templates to automatically suggest up to three relevant Knowledge Base Articles relating to the ticket it is sent from. For an Article to appear as a suggestion, it must be available to the client who logged the ticket, or available to all users. This setting will only work for acknowledgement emails when using the incoming email service.</p><p><br></p><p>Linked articles can also be defaulted per ticket type in the "Defaults" tab.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6Ijc1YjBlZTg4LWQ5ZTktNGYwZS05MDRiLTNiMTQzOWUwMjQ4NSJ9.pld0dIXEMRLJ2izS8OcjiKAFloYmAsVjjJWhrFvrse0" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1219" style="width: 1221px; height: 594.434px;" height="594"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 15. Setting a default linked article.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">KBs on the Self-Service Portal</span></strong></p><p>Articles can be shown in a section on the Portal, where Users can see any Article they have been <a href="https://usehalo.com/haloitsm/guides/2044" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>granted access to</strong></a>.</p><p><br></p><p>In Configuration > Self Service Portal > Menu Buttons, you can add either a general Article button or a search screen button.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6ImI1NDMyYWQxLTRkODgtNDJkMS04M2NlLTY0M2RjYWU1MzI4MSJ9.pan9QWQBJ3wBRoo6fEpm4zuKB26WRv5AWUKbdL_x6K0" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1217" style="width: 1219px; height: 107.005px;" height="107"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 16. KB area options.</span></strong></p><p><br></p><p>The "Top 5 Articles" can also be shown on the home page of the Portal. These will be the most upvoted Articles, unless a custom list is set.</p><p><br></p><p><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6Ijg2YzNkYWYwLTIyYzEtNGY0NS1iNTEwLWM1OGQ2MTQyMGNjMiJ9.dvseJQzyFxUT0gr4vvnxLY217AwB5uGHU6VWAYOgpX4" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1216" style="width: 1218px; height: 301.42px;" height="301"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 17. Top 5 Articles options.</span></strong></p><p><br>They will then appear in a list on the home page.</p><p><br><img src="https://halo.haloservicedesk.com/api/attachment/image?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpZCI6IjY1NDcwMDBmLWU0ZGYtNDU5OC1iMzk5LWU1NWFmNDBiODk5MiJ9.uEDqSqtXtYub5FFWENsSPSk-zpKiPjwWZjENVdq3Fxk" class="fr-fic fr-fil fr-dib" width="1213" style="width: 1215px; height: 553.079px;" height="553"></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Fig 18. Top 5 Articles widget.</span></strong></p><p><br></p>
