Creating knowledge base system

Owned by Robert Alexander Marshall
Last updated: Oct 06, 2023 by Robert Alexander Marshall
3 min read
1 Overview | 2 Use Case | 3 Building the knowledge base system | 3.1 Step 1 - Create the template | 3.2 Step 2 - Create a knowledge base article | 3.3 Step 3 - Add content

Overview

A knowledge base is a self-serve repository of articles about a product, service, department or topic.

Your knowledge base isn't just helpful for customers, it's also useful for your team. A well-structured, clearly-written, and cleanly-designed knowledge base helps customers help themselves, acts as a learning tool, and can even be a source for machine learning. 

In this example, we will build a knowledge base system using Scaffolding.

The knowledge base articles will share the same format, layout and sections

  • your team members will use the template to create knowledge base articles

  • Confluence users can then access the knowledge base article to get information

You can also make changes to the template in the future, which will automatically update all the pages your users have created. 

Use Case

Background

Your users have reported that page exports have failed.

Solution

You want users to be able to search your Knowledge Base before coming to you as this is a known issue that can be resolved via self help.

For you as as the administrator you want to be able to create a template that can be edited with one click and change reflected on every page using the template.

Final Outcome

You have setup a Knowledge Base space, then created a live template for KB with Scaffolding Cloud using key fields you created using Field Group macro. 

End Result

Building the knowledge base system

Step 1 - Create the template

Go to

  • Space Settings > Look and Feel

  • add a new template

  • name the new template as Knowledge Base Article Template

  • add a Field Group macro by typing /field

In the macro editor

  • add the necessary fields; Summary, Diagnosis, Cause, Solutions using the Paragraph field type

For the System field

  • add a table and make use of the Dropdown List type

  • edit the field, to add your list options

  • save the template

Step 2 - Create a knowledge base article

Create a new page

  • add a Live Template macro

  • locate the template Knowledge Base Article Template

  • save the macro

  • publish the page

Step 3 - Add content

On the published page

  • choose Edit Content to turn the page into a form

     

  • populate the fields on the form

     

  • choose Publish Content

That's it! You now have a knowledge base system in your Confluence site! See more Recipes.