Article templates have pre-defined fields structured in a specific order. These templates help create a consistent structure for knowledge articles.

Using the Knowledge Article Templates feature, as a knowledge administrator (a user with knowledge_admin role), you can create article templates, add or customize fields in a template, and activate or deactivate a template.

As a security administrator (a user with security_admin role), you can configure field-level security in any template to make it visible to specific users.

As an author, you can create articles using pre-defined article templates or any newly created article templates.

Pre-defined knowledge article templates

Use either the standard template or one of the pre-defined How To, What Is, FAQ or KCS article templates.

Note:

When you upgrade Knowledge Management to Kingston or later releases, all the existing articles from the earlier version automatically use the standard template of the upgraded version. For example, if you upgrade Knowledge Management from Jakarta to Kingston, all existing articles use the standard template available in the Kingston version.

All pre-defined templates are inactive by default. If you do not activate a template, the articles automatically use the standard template. As a knowledge admin, you can activate a template by navigating to Knowledge > Administration > Article Templates. Then in the article template list, set the Active field to true for one or more templates you would like to activate.

Templates are associated with knowledge bases. Only templates which are active and associated with a knowledge base are shown.

The template structure is stored in kb_article_template while the fields for each template are stored in kb_article_template_definition. For creating and manipulating templates navigate to Knowledge > Article Templates.

The table below lists the fields available in each template and the name of the template table.

Table 1. Pre-defined knowledge article templates
Template nameTemplate fieldsMaps to tableSEO Description Tag
FAQ
  • Question
  • Answer
 FAQ [kb_template_faq] Question
How To
  • Introduction
  • Instructions
 How To [kb_template_how_to] Introduction
What Is
  • Introduction
  • Explanation
 What Is [kb_template_what_is] Introduction
KCS Article
  • Issue
  • Environment
  • Cause
  • Resolution
 KCS Article [kb_template_kcs_article] Issue
Standard Text kb_knowledge Text

Activating knowledge article templates

The Knowledge Article Templates feature is activated with the Knowledge Management Advanced (com.snc.knowledge_advanced) plugin. After the feature is activated, when creating an article, option to choose a template for the article appears. For details, see Activate the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin.

Deactivating knowledge article templates

You cannot delete an article template because article templates have an associated child table. Deleting a template would also require deleting the child table. Due to the limitations on dropping tables, article templates and template columns are explicitly made non-deletable. Instead, you can disable the Knowledge Article Templates feature by clearing the Active check box on the Article Template form.

Note: The Standard template is available by default and can’t be made inactive.