Really, if someone could reply to this, even to inform me that I should fill
out a feature request, that would be helpful. To restate, with goofy diagrams,
what I was expecting:
Article Class: PJM
Article Class: QA
Article Class: Ops (group perms set here)
|---Topic: Systems
|---Sub-Topic: Monitoring Services
| |---Article: Introduction (Textbox)
| |---Article: How to request (Textbox,
linktoform)
|---Sub-Topic: Hosts
|---Sub-Topic: BKP01
|---Article: HostManifest
(Textbox, IP, and stat fields)
|---Article: HostWarranty
(contacts, s/n and date fields)
|---Article: HostServices
(Various svc fields, SLA links)
How it works so far, where it appears [toplevel Topic] = [Class] = [sole
Article Format]:
Article Class: PJM
Article Class: QA
Article Class: Ops (group perms set here, and article format limited to one
type per CLASS)
|---Topic: Systems
|---Sub-Topic: Monitoring Services
| |---Article: Introduction (Textbox)
| |---Article: How to request (Textbox)
|---Sub-Topic: Hosts
|---Sub-Topic: BKP01
|---Article: HostManifest
(Textbox)
|---Article: HostWarranty
(Textbox)
|---Article: HostServices
(Textbox)
I hope this makes my dilemma a bit clearer. If we want multiple formats, then
we need multiple toplevel Topics?
I expected to differentiate formats of articles under sub-topics. If my
expectations were out of line, then I'd appreciate a reply from someone about
how it is intended to be done, as the documentation on 4.0.5 article creation
doesn't really go into this.
My other option would be to fill up the Article Topic toplevel with all of the
different article formats I (and others) would wish to use, but then we lose
the ability for viewers to browse except by article format (and I wouldn't see
the point of topic trees).
Most of this article creation is intended to be self-service for multiple
groups, so I would like to keep it as simple as possible, allowing users within
their groups to create and format articles specific to sub-topic.
William "Bill" Albertson
-----Original Message-----
From: Albertson, William (Rancho Cordova)
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 4:31 PM
To: 'rt-users@lists.bestpractical.com'
Subject: RT4.0.5 article creation- classes and topic nesting
Howdy,
I haven't found a lot of information about creating articles under RT4.0.5 with
nested topics. I've recently installed this application, so I'm also not an
expert. I'm not sure if I would be better served by instead setting up a wiki,
and then just linking article items instead. Here is the problem:
I've created the class "Ops" for articles. This is the name of our group of
staff. We are setting permissions for editing "Ops" related articles here.
Also, there are other groups to be considered- this installation isn't just for
"Ops". There will be other teams with their own articles.
Next, I created a tree of topics. Let's say "Systems" and "Networks".
Subtopics under "Systems" are "Hosts", and then other overview topics like
"Backups".
Under "Hosts" are going to be articles containing host specific info, like a
manifest article for backupsrv01, and another article for warranty information.
Then I get into article creation. I created a couple of custom fields called
"Body" [wikitext] "IP Address" [ip address] and "Attachment" [one upload].
The problem I run into is that RT doesn't seem to differentiate between
different topic custom fields within a class's sub-topics. I need to display
IP address information for "hosts" articles, but don't need to see that field
for an explanation on our backup system. Am I putting the cart before the
horse for managing different article formats?
It seems that the Articles feature of RT is limited to exactly one type of
article format per class, regardless of how many sub-topics you have underneath
that class. From my testing, I would have to create a class for every single
article format type that I wish to use (host manifest, host warranty, service
overview would now all be classes), which wouldn't work well with having nested
topics underneath. Then, my users would have to search for general keywords,
because now they would not be able to drill down nested topics easily for topic
specific information. Instead of drilling down through "Ops -> Systems ->
Hosts -> Warranties", they would have to know to select the class "Warranties"
to browse for host warranties, or know what keywords to search for. The last
two options aren't very desirable.
Classes make up the root of Article topic trees, but I can't customize articles
in topic sub-trees. That seems very wasteful, so I'm guessing that I'm missing
something here. I looked up templates, but that seems to be related to ticket
fields (see, I'm an RT novice here, really).
As I've read what few docs there are for the RT4.0.5 Articles feature, I would
appreciate a kind explanation on how article forms, custom fields and topic
nesting are *intended* to work. At this point, I'm not sure if I need to
either completely change how I am structuring articles in RT, or I if I should
instead install a wiki/dms and point topic related article related items to
that as links.
William "Bill" Albertson
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