This page provides a list of commonly-used TDX knowledge terms and their explanations. Note that this is not an exhaustive list of definitions.
In this article:
Knowledge Base
The UMN TDX Knowledge Base (KB) is a self-service library of how-to instructions for the processes, services, and technologies that support daily information technology (IT) operations.
Subject
The Subject is the title of an article. Properly-formed subjects greatly help with both searching for and identifying which article to use.
Refer to Guidelines for Writing Knowledge Article Subjects (Titles).
Sometimes the status of an article is denoted at the beginning of its title.
- An article in a draft state should have WORK IN PROGRESS: at the beginning of its title.
- An archived article should have ARCHIVED: at the beginning of its title.
Article Summary
The Article Summary field displays in search results for knowledge articles, within the Knowledge Base, when searching for knowledge from an Incident, and for Published articles (both restricted and not-restricted) pulled to the Technology Help website. Article summaries are ideally under 100 characters and should contain information based on knowledge article type.
| Article Type | Information to Include |
|---|---|
| Incident Models | List of the applicable technologies |
| Published articles | A copy of the first sentence of the article |
| Other article types | A short statement that clarifies the title, if necessary |
Status
An article's Status identifies where it is in the knowledge workflow. For a detailed description of article statuses, refer to Article Status and Lifecycle Overview.
Owner
The Owner of an article indicates who manages and can edit an article. Articles should be owned by a Group (formerly Assignment Group).
Published
Once an article is Approved, it can also be published. A Published article is one intended for audiences beyond Technicians. Only Global Knowledge Editors can flag articles as Published (those without Global Knowledge Editor access will not see this option appear in their TDX editing interface).
There are three levels of publishing that affect who can view an article:
- Not Published: approved for daily IT operations by support staff, but contains information that is not appropriate for an audience beyond Technicians.
- In TDX Article Settings, Restrict Access is marked as Internal article for TDX technicians only.
- Published-Restricted: approved for daily IT support operations, and contains information that is appropriate and intended only for the University community.
- Restricted articles are published to the Technology Help website but include only a summary of the article with a link back to the TDX Client Portal where University community members can log in to view the full articles.
- In TDX Article Settings, Restrict Access is marked as Yes - all campuses must log in to view.
- Published-Unrestricted: approved for daily IT support operations, and contains information that is appropriate and intended for the general public.
- Unrestricted articles are available to view publicly on the Technology Help website without authentication.
- In TDX Article Settings, Restrict Access is marked as No - Article can be published for public viewing.
An article that is both Approved and Published is pushed to the Technology Help website (it.umn.edu), and is also available by logging in to TDX with a UMN account.
- To understand how content is pushed from TDX to the IT website, refer to TDX Knowledge and Drupal: Content Availability and Linking.
Public
Within the TDX interface is the option to set an article's view permissions to Public. When an article is marked as Public, it means anyone in the world with the link can view it in TDX, including unauthenticated users.
This Public setting is NEVER used because no one outside of the University should be able to access articles directly from the TDX knowledge base. The Technology Help website is how information may be shared with and accessed by the general public.
However, an article can still be considered "public-facing" without the Public setting. A public-facing article may be one visible to anyone who can log in with a University account (Authenticated User), or it may be one that is visible to anyone on the Internet (Unauthenticated User).
For more information on assessing an article's content and intended audience to determine the appropriate level of access, refer to the following KB articles:
- TDX Knowledge: Restrict Access to Content
- TDX Knowledge: Understanding the Restrict Access and Publishing Settings
- Technology Help Website: Put Restricted Content in the TDX Knowledge Base
Restricted
An article that is Restricted indicates its content contains sensitive and/or confidential information that only certain audiences are permitted to view.
Aligning with the three levels of article publishing, there are three Restrict Access settings:
- Yes - All campuses must log in to view.
- No - Article can be published for public viewing.
- Internal article for TDX Technicians only.
For more information on assessing an article's content and intended audience to determine the appropriate level of access, refer to the following KB articles: