System Overview

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MinervaKB is a Knowledge Base Management system powered by WordPress. In this article we’ll cover the high-level overview of how the plugin is built and works and what features it provides.

General

On the client side, MinervaKB consists of three main sections:

  • Home page
  • Article pages
  • Topic pages

If you are using plugin for the first time, it’s probably a good idea to install dummy data, which is available at MinervaKB / Settings / Demo Import.

KB Home page

Home page is a regular WordPress page with MinervaKB sections added to it via shortcodes. This approach allows you to create any layout you wish and mix MinervaKB modules with your own in any possible way. Home page typically looks like this:

In the editor these sections can be added via shortcode builder:

Also, you may add FAQ section to home page, if your support portal needs it.

Note: There are also two more legacy ways to create home page:

  1. Plugin Settings (first three tabs handle global KB home page)
  2. MinervaKB page builder

These methods work now, but will probably be deprecated at some point in the future. Currently we recommend to use normal WordPress page with our shortcodes.

Articles

All KB content is stored in Articles, which use standard Custom Post Type functionality of WordPress. In other words, they are very similar to regular posts in your system and use same editor and all content shortcodes available at your site. Other benefits of this approach include possibility to use native WP Export / Import for KB content, thousands of popular plugins that support custom post types and many more.

New articles can be added via MinervaKBKnowledge BaseAdd New Article. After creation and publishing, the article is available at your site with YOUR_SITE/KB_BASE/ARTICLE_URL address:

Note, that base KB slug can be edited in options:

Articles have many useful custom features, like related articles module, likes/dislikes, feedback, attachments, table of contents and others. You can setup all these via MinervaKB / Settings / Article tab.

Topics

Articles are organized and grouped in Topics, which are Custom Hierarchical Taxonomies. For the end user this means that these are very similar to post categories in admin dashboard, but with added functionality.

Typical topic page is similar to Category page of your blog. There are two template options available: you can use Plugin template:

or you can switch to Theme template (your blog archive layout), which usually looks same as you site Category page or Blog index. Plugin template also has Detailed layout, with article stats and excerpt.

As mentioned earlier, topics are hierarchical so they can have sub-topics. You can select between Box and List view for subtopics:

Topics also have many custom options, such as ability to replace topic content with page content for any possible layout, sidebar options, content restriction, etc. These can be edited on each topic individually or globally via settings.

Widgets

MinervaKB comes with a set of Sidebars and Widgets, which you can use to extend your KB pages. Widgets can be added in Appearance / Widgets.

There are sidebars available for Topics, Articles, Tags and Search results pages. Note, that some widgets, like Table of Contents, will display only on appropriate pages.

Analytics Dashboard

KB tracks many interactions with content, such as views, likes, dislikes and search request and results. All this data can be viewed in MinervaKB / Dashboard and used to improve KB performance.

You can also reset statistics at any time, either globally or for specific articles.

Please note, that we do not track user-sensitive data, like IP, email, username, gender, etc. which may be regulated in some countries.

Additional Features

  • Content Restriction – allows you to allow only specific groups of users to read content. Useful for internal knowledge systems and for membership sites.
  • Attachments – you can add attachments, like Word, Excel or PDF files to your KB articles.
  • KB Helper – floating KB helper module, that allows customers to search KB on any page of your site.
  • Localization – all text strings are available for translation using standard WordPress localization tools. Also, the text that is rendered on the client side is editable in plugin Settings, so no localization experience required.
  • WPML (multilingual sites) support – allows you to translate articles, topics and home pages of your support portal. WPML plugin is required for this.
  • Multisite support – allows you to use MinervaKB plugin for MultiSite, with unique settings and content for each site.
  • Guest posting – a simple content submit form, that allows guest users to submit draft articles, which can be later edited and published by site owner / editor.

Please note, that all these modules are included in MinervaKB plugin and do not require additional purchases.

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