Self-Help Desk Feature: Document Management Tools

Controlled Authorship

In general, Users and Help Desk workers can only edit and delete their own documents. This ensures document integrity. Only the database administrators can edit and delete all documents.

Notes "Freebees"

Being Notes based, the Self-Help Desk database can be replicated to any number of Domino Servers, and can even be replicated to local disks for mobile users (requires that you set the ACL uniform access property before making any of the replicas). Notes also handles any replication conflicts, which should be minimal due to restricted editorship.

Document Properties

When you create a document, your name and the date you post the document are automatically added to the document.

You are also encouraged to add information to the fields in the Document Properties section, for example:



If you are in the database administrator role, you use the Edit Properties button to quickly assign one or more document's properties (Categories, AppliesTo, Keywords, and Questions) or to clear the Edit History from the Search or Update views. There is NO UNDO, so be careful when you use this feature.



Approval Required

All document types can be approved before being published. This is configured on the Features tab in Application Settings:



Document types not requiring approval are saved normally and immediately available for viewing by other users.

But when users try to save documents that require approval, they are warned that while the document has been saved, it is not readable by other users until approved:



It is the responsibility of [DBAdmin] users to approve documents. Approval can be done in the documents themselves by editing them and changing the Approval Status field:



Or, [DBAdmin] users can go to the new Approval Queue view, select one or more documents, and click the Set Approval Status button:



Notice that in all views that documents not marked approved (they are pending or disapproved) can only be seen by the document author and [DBAdmin] users. The eyeglasses icon is the visual clue that the document is locked until approved. The author can make changes, as he/she is in the Authors field.

Document Number

All document types (except Forum and Responses) can be assigned a Document Number. Document numbers are assigned on a per-document type basis. So FAQ #54 is different that Tip #54. Document numbers are entered as numeric characters only (you can use a decimal point).

Document numbers make it easy to reference documents, for example, "see FAQ #23 for information on this problem."

Click the Assign button to increment the highest current document number and assign it to this document:



Caution: If you have installed the database on multiple servers, you will most likely have duplicate document numbers. You should assign one person to make/monitor document number assignments to prevent this phenomenon. Also, the assignment is not actually reserved until you save the document. You must save the document (Ctrl-S or click the Save & Close action button) to reserve the document number.

Document Statistics

Pertinent statistics are captured for every document. The number of entries in the audit trail can be configured.



Database Integrity

There are two preventive measures that help protect the integrity of the database:

• Only users in the [HelpDesk] and [DBAdmin] roles can paste documents into the database. This prevents spurious documents from appearing.
• Only users in the [DBAdmin] role can delete documents that have responses. They are warned, but can proceed to delete them. Orphaned responses appear in the Update Queue view, where an action button selects any orphaned documents.