--- /dev/null
+
+=head1 Articles
+
+Articles are a way of managing stock answers or frequently asked
+questions. Articles are a collection of custom fields whose values can
+be easily inserted into ticket replies or searched and browsed within
+RT. They are organized into classes and topics.
+
+=head2 UI
+
+The user interface to Articles is available from the Tools -> Articles
+menu. Admin functionality can be found under Tools -> Configuration ->
+Articles. Once configured, articles will become available for searching
+on the Reply/Comment page on tickets. There are configuration variables
+to make Articles available on ticket creation.
+
+=head2 Basics
+
+You will need to make some decisions about how to organize your
+articles. Articles will be organized into one Class and multiple
+Topics. They will use Custom Fields to store their article data.
+These Custom Fields can be configured on a Class by Class basis.
+Classes can be made available globally or on a per-Queue basis.
+
+=head2 Organization
+
+=head3 Classes
+
+Classes are equivalent to RT's queues. They can be created by going
+to Tools -> Configuration -> Articles -> Classes -> New Class. Articles
+are assigned to one Class. When you create Custom Fields for use with
+Articles, they will be applied Globally or to a Class, like Custom
+Fields are applied to a Queue in RT. Each class also controls what
+information is included into a reply (such as the Class header and
+footer) and the Article.
+
+Classes need to be Applied, just like a Custom Field by using the
+Applied To link. You can apply them globally or on a queue-by-queue
+basis.
+
+hotlist.
+
+=head3 Topics
+
+You can also use Topics to organize your Articles. While editing a
+Class, there is a Topic tab for Class specific Topics. You can create
+global Topics from the Global tab under Tools -> Configuration.
+
+When editing Topics, type the name (and optionally description) of the
+Topic, and then click the button at the appropriate location in the
+Topic hierarchy. This should allow you to build a tree of Topics. This
+tree of Topics should show up when creating or modifying articles in
+the class. These can be arbitrarily nested.
+
+Global Topics will be available for all Articles, regardless of their
+Class. Articles can belong to both global and class-specific Topics.
+
+Articles topics can be set from the 'Modify' screen for the article --
+simply select as many topics as you desire from the list at the bottom
+of the screen.
+
+=head2 Custom Fields
+
+Articles don't have a single "body" section for each
+article. Everything is a custom field (except for name, summary and
+some other basic metadata). So, you need to create some custom
+fields to hold the Article body and other data. These Custom Fields
+should have "Applies To" be "RTFM Articles".
+
+Once you've created your custom fields, go into your classes and click
+on "Custom Fields" and add the Custom Fields you want to each class.
+Alternatively, use the Applies To link from each Custom Field.
+
+=head2 Creating Articles
+
+You can create an article from scratch by going to Tools -> Articles ->
+New Article and then picking which Class to create the Article under.
+The Summary, Description and Custom Fields will all be searchable when
+including an Article and you can control what Custom Fields end up in
+your Ticket from the Class configuration page.
+
+=head3 Extracting an Article
+
+You can extract the body of a ticket into an article. Within RT, you
+should now see an "Extract to article" button in the upper right hand
+corner of RT's UI when working with tickets. When you click that
+button, RT will ask you which Class to create your new article in.
+Once you click on a class name, the Ticket's transactions will be
+displayed, along with a set of select boxes. For each transaction, you
+can pick which Custom Field that transaction should be extracted to.
+From there on in, it's just regular article creation.
+
+=head2 Including an Article
+
+When replying to or commenting on tickets or creating tickets, there
+is a UI widget that lets you search for and include Articles in
+your reply. (They're editable, of course).
+
+Articles can be included by searching for them, knowing the Id of the
+article, using the Article Hotlist and using the Queue specific
+dropdown.
+
+=head2 Queue Specific List of Articles
+
+You can use Topics to organize a set of Queue specific Articles.
+Simply create a global Topic called 'Queues' and then create Topics
+under Queues named after each of your Queues. Within each Queue named
+Topic, create some Topics and then assign Articles to those
+sub-topics. This creates a hierarchy like this:
+
+Queues
+\-> General
+ \-> Topic 1
+ \-> Topic 2
+
+If you are replying to a Ticket in the General Queue you will be
+offered a choice of Topic 1 and Topic 2 along with the searching.
+After choosing Topic 1 or Topic 2, you will be given a list of
+relevant articles to choose.
+
+Alternately, you can now implement this by applying a single class to
+your queue and using the L<Article Hotlist> feature described below.
+
+=head2 Article Hotlist
+
+If you enable "All articles in this class are on dropdown on ticket
+reply page" option, there will be a dropdown on the Create or Update
+page which allows users to quickly include Articles.
+
+=head2 SelfService Interface
+
+If you grant the Unprivileged user group the right ShowArticle, they
+will get a Search box at the top of their interface. This allows users
+to look for answer to questions before creating a Ticket.
+
+=head1 Configuration options
+
+=head2 ArticleOnTicketCreate
+
+Set this to a true value to display the Article include interface on the
+Ticket Create page in addition to the Reply/Comment page (Create.html
+in addition to Update.html)
+
+=head2 HideArticleSearchOnReplyCreate
+
+On Ticket Reply (and Create if you set the above config var)
+RTFM normally displays a search box and an include box (for
+inputting an article id) and configurable dropdowns
+of articles. These can be configured using Global Topics or
+on the Class page.
+
+If you set this to a true value, RTFM will only display
+dropdowns and hide the search boxes
+
+=cut
projects / freeside.git / blobdiff