The following list describes the main concepts that will help business users understand how ATG Knowledge works.
Audience
You can use audiences to specify which users can view solutions and their content.
Internal Audience
A Knowledge Internal Audience is used to set viewing security on solutions, fields, and field values. Internal Audiences are created by an application administrator using Profile Groups in the ACC.
External Audience
A Knowledge External Audience is used to set viewing security on solutions, fields, and field values for ATG Self Service users. External Audiences are created by an application administrator using Content or Profile Groups in the ACC. An example of an External Audience is “All males over the age of 30”.
Disabled solution
A disabled solution has been taken out of circulation in the knowledge base. It is flagged disabled and is no longer returned on searches. You can disable solutions when they become irrelevant or obsolete, but they are not deleted from the knowledge base.
Documents
In ATG Knowledge, documents consist of solutions or files. Solutions (see below) are structured content, with statement fields and properties conforming to predefined configurations. Each configuration of statement field and properties is called a solution class (see below). Files are unstructured content, with no statement fields, and can consist of PDF, HTML, plain text, or other types of files.
Documents can be linked with tickets (see below) so that they can be sent out as part of a response.
E-mail template
An e-mail template provides a basis from which agents can create e-mail responses to customers or other agents.
Linking documents
Linking a document associates it with a ticket so that it can be included as part of a response.
Owning Group
An owning group is a set of ATG Knowledge users with a similar business purpose. Owning groups are used to control security on creating, modifying, and viewing solutions.
Proposed Solution
Proposed solutions are created by agents who don’t have full authoring rights. Proposed solutions are created in the Contribute Panel, but proceed through a different workflow than new solutions created by someone with authoring rights.
Solutions
Solutions are answers, suggestions, workarounds, or responses to queries, incidents, or problems. Solutions are structured content defined by solution classes. Solutions are indexed by ATG Search so that you can find them easily and browse them in the topic tree. You can also publish solutions from ATG Knowledge to ATG Self Service.
Solution Class
A solution class defines the type of content for a set of solutions in the knowledge base. Solution classes contain different statement fields and properties as defined by your application administrator. See Solution Classes for more information.
Solution Content and Solution Properties
Solution content includes all of the statement fields associated with a solution. For example, a solution of class Break-Fix includes Goal, Symptom, and Fix statement fields. Solution content appears in the Solution Document pane when viewing a solution in the Research tab, and is generally published to ATG Self Service (although each statement field has its own security settings). All other solution attributes are known as solution properties; they are not published externally, but they do appear in the Solution Properties pane of the Research tab. For example, a solution’s Version, Topics, and Owning Group attributes are considered properties.
Statement Field
Statement fields are used to enter content (text, HTML, links, tables, etc) into a solution. Each statement may contain numerous statement fields. Statement fields are considered part of the solution content.
Suggestions
Suggesting a change to a solution allows an agent to make a quick suggestion for an edit on a solution, without having to do a full proposal. Suggested changes are submitted via a Task Note in the Research tab and follow the Suggest Change workflow.
Task Notes
Task notes provide a way for you to enter information related to the solution-related task you are performing. A task note can be added when reassigning a task or when submitting a task through a workflow. Task notes are recorded in the Solution History.
Tickets
Each ticket represents a customer issue. Tickets are also sometimes referred to as cases, issues, or incidents. See the ATG Ticketing Guide for Business Users for more information.
Topic
Topics are used to categorize content within the knowledge base. Topics are defined by your ATG Search administrator based on your organizational and customer business needs. Topics are structured in a hierarchical Topic Tree.
Topic Tree
A topic tree is a hierarchical organization of all topics in the Knowledge base. Topic trees are used to facilitate browsing in ATG Knowledge of all documents and to help you find solutions. The same topic tree is used on ATG Self Service to help end users on the external site browse content
Workflow
A workflow defines the status of an ATG Knowledge solution, such as whether a solution is in draft, needs review, or is published. Workflows contain two or more states and are controlled by your application administrator. In ATG Knowledge, workflow steps appear in the Next Steps panel of each tab.
