How to create/design templates for Knowledge articles

[cfhunt70]

I am needing to know the best way to create/design templates for Knowledge articles. Currently, we are designing templates using HTML in the text field. We are wanting a method of adding a field to a template and that field appear on all templates. I tried doing that in development with the form design, but that changed the entire form. Is there a way to make different forms accessible to users? Right now, if we mess with form design, I do not want it to go screwing things over in the database and fields being unavailable to users because of the form design change. Also, I do not want messy articles with unused fields junking up articles as well. Thoughts/Opinions/Questions... I would love the feedback. Thank you!

[sachin_namjoshi]

Hi Chad,

To change the base "Create New" Knowledge Base Article Template:

1. As an admin, access System Definition > Templates
2. Filter the list on Table, searching for *kb
3. You should see a list of the Knowledge Base Article templates (you'll probably only see one, we have several)
   
   
4. Click on "New article" and edit it to suit your needs

The next time you click "Create New" under the Knowledge application, your new template will be used.

If you'd like to have different templates, then just create new ones in the same area, on the kb_knowledge table.   Then to access them you'll "Create New" on an article, then right-click the header to access the contextual menu, select Templates > Apply Template and select the template you want to use.   The current body of the article will then be deleted and replaced with the Template you selected.

Regards,

Sachin

[cfhunt70]

That helps. Thank you. My issue with this method is that we must use the same form design for all articles. When I use a field on a template that is not present in the form, an error occurs. Easy fix: just add the field, but we are trying to prevent having all fields available. This is confusing when creating articles. We want this process to be as simple as possible. Do you know of a way to automatically add the unavailable fields when not present on form design and keep them hidden on the generic form design? Thanks!

[thomaslcollett]

A workaround I have found is to create a simpler base template and create additional templates for specific types of articles to apply in addition to the base template.

i.e. Apply the base template to all articles and then apply one of the additional templates that correspond to the type of article to apply the additional fields.

[thomaslcollett]

One thing I have done is create a more basic base template and then created additional templates for each article type that contains the additional field for each article type.

I apply the base template to each article and then apply an additional template based on the article type to populate the additional fields.