TDX Knowledge and Drupal: Content Availability and Linking

Understand how TDX knowledge base articles are displayed and linked on the Technology Help (IT) website.

TDX Knowledge Base Article Content

  • Internal articles can only be viewed in TDX.
    • Exception: If an article is marked Public (which no article should be), anyone with the link can view it in TDX. 
  • Published articles can be viewed in TDX or on the Technology Help (IT) website. 
  • Published articles are pulled into Drupal nightly:
    • Central Standard Time (CST): 5:00 PM
      • Fall/Winter is January-March and November-December
    • Central Daylight Time (CDT): 6:00 PM
      • Spring/Summer is March-November
  • Once a published article has been pulled into Drupal, it will have a Drupal-generated URL based on the article's title. 
    • Once pulled, you can find it using the Self Help Search for on the Technology Help website (it.umn.edu).
      • In general, new knowledge will be available no later than 6:00 AM the next morning.
      • If there is an emergency need for information to be available sooner, fill out a OIT Digital Content and Communications Request via z.umn.edu/makeituserfriendly form.

How Linking Works Between TDX and Drupal

  • Links from one article to another must use the TDX link whether an article is for internal use or is public-facing (Published).
  • If a published article contains a link to another published article, Drupal will automatically substitute the TDX article link with the Drupal-generated URL.
  • When an article title changes, Drupal updates the Drupal-generated URL. 
  • All changes to articles must be made in TDX. 
    • Most knowledge editors cannot edit KB articles directly on the Drupal website.
    • If there is an urgent need to have an article updated, fill out a request via z.umn.edu/makeituserfriendly form.
  • Links from an IT web page to a public article must use the article's Drupal-generated URL, not its TDX link.
  • There is a pull limit of 50 public-facing articles per day into Drupal. 
    • The limit is for any articles that had changes made (including both newly Published articles and articles with any updates or changes).
    • The limit is in the pull from the headless Drupal site to the production Drupal site. There is no limit in the pull from TDX to the headless Drupal site.
    • The limit is 50 per day and does not roll over to the next day.
      • Example: If you publish/update 60 Published articles in one day, then 50 articles will update in Drupal that night and the extra 10 articles will not update in Drupal. To get those extra articles to pull into Drupal, go into TDX the next day and either un-Publish/re-Publish them or make an edit so they can be part of the 50 for the new day.
    • If you are working on a large Knowledge maintenance project and are updating/publishing 50+ public-facing KB articles in one day, it is recommended to limit those updates to 40 public-facing articles per day. This leaves 10 extra slots in the knowledge pull for any general operational KB article updates.

Note: If you don't see a TDX ID number at the bottom of an Technology Help web page, the page was created in Drupal, not TDX.

All KB articles are How-To articles on the Technology Help website (it.umn.edu).

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