This chapter covers the following topics:
This chapter includes the required implementation tasks to set up Oracle Knowledge Management.
For a list of prerequisite and mandatory dependencies see Before You Begin.
The System Administrator creates users for Oracle Knowledge Management, including the Knowledge Administrator. Subsequently, the Knowledge Administrator must create resource groups which are required for automating the authoring flow life cycle. To create a resource group you must:
Create a user.
Associate a user with an employee.
Create a resource for an employee.
Create a resource group.
Following are details on how to create a Knowledge Administrator and how to create a resource group:
The System Administrator assigns the Knowledge Administrator responsibility--CS_KB_SYS_ADMIN--to a user who performs setups and maintenance for Oracle Knowledge Management.
The System Administrator should also assign the CS_SYSTEM_ADMIN role to the Knowledge Administrator user.
Login
Oracle Forms module
Responsibility
System Administrator
Prerequisites
None
Navigation
Security > User > Define...Users form
Steps
In the Users form, enter the username for the Knowledge Administrator.
Example: KMADMIN
To associate the user with an employee:
Click the Person field to display the Person Names list.
Search for and choose the appropriate employee.
To create a password for the new user:
In the Password field, enter a password for the new user.
Use the Tab key to clear the field and re-enter the same password to validate.
In the Responsibilities area, search for and choose the Knowledge Administrator responsibility.
Save your work.
To automate the solution authoring process, you must set up authoring flows in Oracle Knowledge Management. Each authoring flow consists of a series of steps that a member of an assigned resource group must complete before publishing a solution.
Note: You must associate the authoring flow to a Category Security Group before you can use the authoring flows.
Example: Authoring Flow Example
A health and fitness equipment manufacturer company creates an authoring flow that requires all solutions in the knowledge base to have an editorial review and marketing approval prior to publication. In addition, the company would like to ensure that the legal review team has final authority on publication of a solution. To ensure that the proper controls are in place, the company sets up steps in the authoring flow and associates a unique resource group to each step. The following table shows the steps and assigned resource groups.
| Authoring Flow Step Name | Resource Group Assigned |
|---|---|
| Format and Edit Review | Editorial_Reviewers |
| Marketing Approval | Marketing_Approval |
| Publish | Legal_Reviewers |
To automate the solution authoring process, you must set up authoring flows in Oracle Knowledge Management. Each authoring flow consists of a series of steps that a member of an assigned resource group must complete before publishing of a solution can occur. A resource group can include one or more users. To create a resource group, you must first create a user, associate that user with an employee, and create a resource for an employee.
Example: Resource Group Example
A software company creates an authoring flow that requires all solutions to have a technical review and an editorial review prior to publication. To ensure that the proper controls are in place, the company sets up the following resource groups:
Technical_Reviewers: Responsible for technical accuracy of a solution.
Editorial_Reviewers: Responsible for formatting and editing content.
Solution_Publishers: Responsible for providing final review and approval prior to publication.
The following procedures describe how to create a resource for an employee or party.
Login
Oracle Applications Forms
Responsibility
System Administrator
Prerequisites
None
Navigation
Responsibilities window
Steps
Switch the Responsibility to the CRM Resource Manager.
Navigate to Maintain Resources > Import Resources.
The Selection Criterion window opens.
In the Resource Category field, choose an employee from the list.
Enter the employee name or employee number to narrow search criteria.
Click Search.
The Search Results section shows the matching results.
Click Create Resource.
The Default Values window opens.
Enter mandatory and other information and click OK.
The Selected Resources window appears.
Click Save Resource.
To create a resource group:
Switch the Responsibility to the CRM Resource Manager Responsibility.
Navigate to Maintain Resources > Groups. The Define Groups window opens.
Note: If a group is not available, you must create a group by entering a group name in the Define Groups window. Click Save.
Enter the group name.
On the Members tab, enter the names of the employees that you want in the group.
Navigate to the Usages tab and click Oracle iSupport.
Save the record.
Note: You can set up employee resources and resource groups in HTML. For information on creating employee resources and resource groups in HTML, see the Oracle Common Application Calendar Implementation Guide.
With Oracle Knowledge Management, administrators can define new repositories for the searching of knowledge. These repositories can be either of type Custom or Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES). The following sections of the current book guide you through setting up repositories:
If you want to set up repositories for a service provider, then refer to Manage Repositories and Map Contexts to Repositories.
If you want to set up repositories for a service requestor, such as a user from Oracle iSupport, then refer to Define a Simple Search Repository for a Service Requestor.
The following sections guide you through setting up Security:
The sensitivity or visibility of categories, solutions, and statements is a factor that determines whether or not a particular user can access a category, solution, and statement. The visibility level is a reflection of the confidentiality or sensitivity of the category, solution, and statement.
Visibilities:
Restrict certain users from viewing secure or sensitive information.
Control the level of access a user has to a category, a solution, or a particular statement within a solution.
You define visibilities on a linear scale, from the most sensitive--such as highly secure or Internal--to the least sensitive--such as low security or External. Visibility levels for categories and solutions are extensible. You should plan and define visibility levels at implementation time. For statements, visibility levels are limited to Internal and External. Users assign visibility levels to data--such as categories, solutions, and statements--when they create the data.
Users are assigned a visibility level through a mandatory profile option, Knowledge: Assigned Visibility Level. A user who has a particular visibility level has access to all data that has that same or less secure level. You can set the profile option at the Site, Application, or Responsibility levels. The Knowledge: Assigned Visibility Level profile option is seeded at the:
Application level for seeded applications that integrate with Oracle Knowledge Management.
Responsibility level for the seeded Oracle Knowledge Management responsibilities.
Note: It is a requirement to assign a value for the Knowledge: Assigned Visibility Level profile at implementation time for any custom applications or responsibilities that are defined that use Oracle Knowledge Management. For more information on the seeded values, see Seeded Visibility Levels.
Categorization of solutions is the process of grouping solutions together for browsing or for performing a category-specific search for solutions. You organize solutions into categories for convenient management. While a knowledge administrator can create an unlimited number of categories for their company's specific needs, categories are more effective and easier for users to navigate if you limit their number.
For some examples of Solution Categories, see Solution Categories.
Category Security Groups are defined views of categories that determine whether or not a particular user can access a category, solution, and statement. Category Security Groups are subsets of the master category hierarchy and represent subject areas. After you define the master category hierarchy, you must also define the views--the Category Security Groups--of the master category hierarchy.
By default, there is a single defined seeded Category Security Group. Users have access to the content within a Category Security Group through the Knowledge: Assigned Category Security Group profile option. You can set the profile at the Site, Application or Responsibility level. The profile option is seeded at the site level with the single default security group.
When you add a new category, you must associate the category with one of the Category Security Groups before anyone can use the category. This requirement applies even if a user does not want to define extra security settings if the user has defined new categories at the top level, under Home. At the very least, you can associate the newly added category to a default Category Security Group. If you create a category beneath another category, and the parent category is already associated with a category group, then you do not need to associate the new category with a category group. It inherits the category group association from the parent.
Before you can use any of the user-defined authoring flows, you must assign the flow to a category security group. This requirement applies even if a user does not want to define extra security settings. At the very least, you can associate all defined authoring flows to a default category security group.
For more information, see Set Up Authoring Flows.
To effectively manage Oracle Knowledge Management, it is critical to spend some time designing the structure of the knowledge base. Oracle Knowledge Management lets you set up structures that help organize and partition information in the knowledge base. Creating a knowledge base structure that is either overly complex or simple minimizes the effectiveness of the knowledge base.
The knowledge base consists of a series of solutions that contain statements that help solve problems. To organize how to create and identify solutions, Oracle Knowledge Management requires that all statements be associated to a Solution Type and all solutions be associated to a Statement Type. Each Solution Type must have at least one Statement Type associated to it. In addition, Oracle Knowledge Management provides the ability to create Solution Category folders to help organize the knowledge base.
Note: Solution Types represent the types of solutions in the knowledge base. Statement Types are then associated to these Solution Types to help form the structure for the solutions.
Following are descriptions of Statement Types, Solution Types, and Solution Categories.
The most granular level of information in the knowledge base is a statement. Statements are the main source of information within the solution. Each statement belongs to a statement type that helps identify the type of information that the statement contains. For example, Action is a statement type--a statement that directs the user to do a particular task to solve an issue.
Example: Statement Type Example
Statement Type: Action
Action Statement: Replace ink cartridge in printer
Similarly, solutions belong to Solution Types that classify the solution. The Solution Type identifies the mandatory Solution Types that the solution contains. The default Solution Type is the Symptom-Cause-Action, which by definition contains at least one Symptom statement, one Cause statement, and one Action statement.
Note: Solution Types represent the types of solutions in the knowledge base. Statement types are then associated to these Solution Types to help form the structure for the solutions.
Example: Solution Type Example
Solution Type: Symptom or Cause or Action
Symptom Statement: Printer is not printing clearly
Cause Statement: Ink cartridge is low
Action Statement: Replace ink cartridge in printer
After a user creates a solution, the user can put the solution into a Solution Category folder that contains a set of related solutions. For example, a solution that covers replacing a printer ink cartridge might be in a Solution Category folder called Printers, which contains similar solutions.
Example: Solution Category Example
Solution Category: Printers
Solution 100: Printer is not Printing Properly
Solution 150: Printer has a Paper Jam
Solution 999: Printer is Offline
Setting up autolinks lets you define parsing rules and destinations for hyperlinking key words in the Statement Details area.
Topics that describe how to set up autolinks include:
Notes: Setup Prerequisites
Before setup, consider the followings:
Do any well-known documents exist to which you would to have a hyperlink created automatically when they are viewed?
Does your company have any well-known systems to which you would like to have quick access?
After noting the answers to the questions above, decide if custom functions are needed to support an autolink. Functions must be created before an autolink can be set up if the autolink involves the use of a function.
Notes: Implementation Considerations
Before implementing this feature, consider the following:
Autolink is a mechanism that provides a hyperlink to a destination for a given keyword pattern. It allows links be generated without “hard-coding” the link inside the solution content. This allows much simpler administration when the link destination is changed.
Autolink usage is not intended for security purposes. A hyperlink is rendered whenever the solution is shown. Do not rely on the autolink usage as a mechanism to secure content. An autolink destination is expected to control the accessibility of content.
A critical component of implementing Oracle Knowledge Management is setting the profile options.
Within all Oracle applications or modules, there are seeded profile options. Each module has its own specific set of profile options. Although all profile options are seeded, the system administrator must specify some settings.
For a listing of all Oracle Knowledge Management profile options, their descriptions, and how to set them up, see Profile Options.
The Oracle Knowledge Management Solution Import Program loads solutions into Oracle Knowledge Management. For a complete description of the Oracle Knowledge Management Solution Import Program, see Concurrent Programs. Sample File For Solution Import Program contains a sample file for the Solution Import Program.
In Oracle iSupport, you can navigate to the Top Solutions tab to view a list of Frequently Used Solutions and a list of Recommended Solutions.
Note: You must have either added or imported solutions into the knowledge base to perform this setup.
Both Oracle Knowledge Management usage counts and date definition setup are the basis for populating the Frequently Used Solutions.
Recommended Solutions is a listing of solutions that a Knowledge Administrator or a Knowledge Worker chose and set up in Oracle Knowledge Management.
Some issues to consider about performance include:
When you make changes to the security setup, this may cause many solutions in Oracle Knowledge Management to be marked for text re-indexing. When many solutions are pending for re-indexing, the subsequent index synchronization requires more time to complete.
Examples of security setup changes include:
Adding or removing a visibility level
Adding or removing a large category--that contains many subcategories and solutions--to or from a category security group
Moving categories around
To significantly reduce the amount of time to rebuild the Oracle Knowledge Management Text indexes, use parallel workers. Each index synchronization program includes the Number of workers parameter. The Number of workers parameter is number of processes that can run at the same time when creating the Oracle Text indexes such as a solution index and a statement index.
A disadvantage of the parallel mode for building indexes is that neither search nor authoring of new solutions can happen while the index is building.
Note: The Number of workers parameter applies only to the drop and recreate (DR) mode. The DR mode is available in the index synchronization programs. When you use this mode, Oracle Knowledge Management drops the text index and recreates it from scratch.
Oracle Knowledge Management provides the functionality to check spellings. The system checks the spellings in statement summary and statement detail.
Dictionaries for the following languages are available for checking spellings:
American English
Brazilian Portuguese
British English
Canadian English
Danish
Dutch
English
Finnish
French
German
Italian
Norwegian
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish
The spell checking functionality enables users to replace a single or all occurrences of an incorrect word with the correct word that matches from the dictionary or can be entered. In addition, you can ignore spelling errors identified by the spell checker.
The value in the Knowledge: Spell Checker Dictionary Files Directory profile option determines the location of the spell checker dictionary files.
You can hide the Related Category Bin and the Related Products Bin by setting valid values for the following profile options:
Knowledge: Show Related Categories Bin in Solution Detail Page - If the profile value is set to No, then the Related Category Bin is hidden in the Solution Detail Page. Else, the Related Category Bin is displayed in the Solution Detail Page.
Knowledge: Show Related Products Bin in Solution Detail Page - If the profile value is set to No, then the Related Products Bin is hidden in the Solution Detail Page. Else, the Related Products Bin is displayed in the Solution Detail Page.
Comments region can be controlled in the iSupport Solution Detail Page using permissions:
If the CS_Solution_View_Internal and CS_Solution_Comments_Add permissions are assigned to the user, then user can see the Comments region and the Comments button
If the CS_Solution_Comments_Table permission is not assigned to the user, the comments table in the comments region is hidden.