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User Criteria & Feedback

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In this lesson, you will learn:

  • What user criteria are
  • How to control who can read and who can write in a knowledge base
  • How readers give feedback on articles

1 Not every article is for everyone

SNWR’s HR knowledge base has articles only managers should read, like “How to handle a salary review”. And only the HR team should write articles there. How do you control this? With user criteria. 🔐

Key term: User criteria

A reusable rule that describes a set of users, by users, groups, roles, departments, locations, or companies.

Example: “HR Team” = members of the HR group. “Managers” = users with the manager role.

2 Read and contribute

User criteria on the SNWR HR knowledge base. Can read: All SNWR employees. Can contribute: HR Team. Cannot read: Contractors. Three users: Riya, an employee, can read but not write. Priya, on the HR team, can read and write. Alex, a contractor, cannot read or write. A note says Cannot rules win over Can rules.
Figure 1. Can read, can contribute, and cannot. “Cannot” always wins.
List on the knowledge base What it does
Can read Who can read articles
Cannot read Who can never read them, even if they match Can read
Can contribute Who can create and edit articles
Cannot contribute Who can never write, even if they match Can contribute

⚠️ Heads up: “Cannot” rules always win over “Can” rules. And a knowledge base with no Can read criteria is readable by all users, so set it on purpose.

📝 Note: User criteria are reused in other places too, like the Service Catalog (Lesson 26.2). Build them once, use them many times.

3 Feedback

Readers help keep knowledge good. On an article, they can:

  • ⭐ Rategive stars
  • 👍 Helpful?yes or no
  • 🚩 Flagreport a problem

Flags and comments can create feedback tasks for the knowledge base’s managers, so someone fixes the article.

⭐ Remember: User criteria decide who reads and who writes. Feedback tells you which articles need work.

4 Let’s try it: lock down HR

  1. Go to User Criteria (under Knowledge or Service Catalog administration) and create SNWR Service Desk members with the group SNWR Service Desk.
  2. Open your SNWR IT knowledge base. Add it to Can contribute.
  3. Impersonate Riya. Can she create an article in SNWR IT? End impersonation.
  4. Open a published article and give it a rating and a “Helpful” vote.

5 Quick recap

  • User criteria describe a set of users by users, groups, roles, and more
  • Knowledge bases use Can read, Cannot read, Can contribute, and Cannot contribute
  • “Cannot” always wins
  • Readers can rate, vote helpful, and flag articles

6 Check yourself

Think of your answer first. Then tap to check.

1 A user matches both Can read and Cannot read. Can they read the articles? Show answer

No. Cannot always wins.

2 Which list controls who can write articles? Show answer

Can contribute.

3 A reader finds a wrong step in an article. What can they do? Show answer

Flag the article, which can create a feedback task for the knowledge managers.

Nice work! You finished this lesson. 🎉

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