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How do Knowledge Center users manage tracking shared topics?

Rhonda Fitzgerald

For example, both Bob and Sue are reusing Topic A in their map. However, there is no visual indicator in either Oxygen or Pub Mgr that Topic A is used in more than one map (or publication). If Sue updates Topic A, for example, to document a new feature, then at Publication time, Bob needs to be sure his Publication is using the latest version Topic A (if his product supports the new feature), or maybe he needs to use a previously released version of Topic A because his product doesn't support the new feature yet.  If there were a visual indicator in Pub Mgr, Bob and Sue could check their "shared" topics in their publication's baseline before they publish to make sure they are using the correct version of the shared topic.  If there were a visual indicator in Oxygen, before they update a shared topic, they will be reminded that other people are using this topic so the change will affect other publications. 

Otherwise, writers have to perform a Where used on a topic to see where it is used, which is cumbersome because they won't necessarily know (or remember) which topics are reused in other places. Is there any mechanism in Pub Mgr or Oxygen that would let a writer know that the topic is used in multiple maps/publications?

How are other people managing this? 

Thanks.

PS we are using Build 12.0.2417.0 with Oxygen 17.1.
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  • Hi Rhonda, I would suggest two things for you. 1. Store your reusable topics in a Common folder and make your writers are aware that anything they use from the Common folders are probably used in other publications. 2. Since the writers have an awareness of the reuse, they could then use the "Where Used" report to determine all the other places that this topic is being reused. You can find information about the "Where Used" report for you release in the online documentation https://docs.sdl.com. If you are talking about lower level component use and you are putting those components in Library folders, you can do a "Where Used" on a library object as well. The Where Used report is accessed from Pub Manager (View menu Where Used option).

    Pam Noreault | Knowledge Center Solutions Architect

  • I'll start by stating I think every SDL customer would benefit from a more robust "where used" report. It has been a focus of the customer group and some solutions have been proposed. I appreciate SDL's attention to this area as reported has been stated to be an area of focus for Tridion Docs+.

    Our current solution to mitigate this is a bit complex and it's feasibility depends on volume but when a user attaches a topic or conref we attach some metadata that can later be filtered through query or searches. It will vary from organization to organization but at my company our content is product or model specific. The procedure is to attach appropriate product meta to topics when you attach it to a map/publication. We then query for that product or model and then find all content related to it.

    If you want to verify that users are using the 'latest and greatest' for shared content then short of writing some sort of script with ishremote to browse the database the best option, that I've found, is to periodically audit baselines looking for "newer version available." Appropriate use of the "Changes" field here is incredibly valuable as it allows users to see why versions were created without too much digging.

    Hope this helps.
  • in reply to David Autry
    So many typos but one is so egregious I can't ignore it...

    "reporting has been stated to be an area of focus for Tridion Docs+"

    Thanks!
  • in reply to Pam Noreault
    Thank you Pam. I am aware of the "Where Used" function, but to find all of the "shared" topics in their map, the writer needs to:

    1) Open the topic in Oxygen.
    2) From SDL Knoweldge Center menu, select Where Used.

    If they have a large map this is a lot of work.

    If they do this via Pub Mgr, they still have to select the topic in Pub Mrg and run View >Where Used. Although the baseline does contain a column that displays the CMS folder location so if we setup a "Shared" folder to contain the shared topics, they would see it there. This is the kind of data that would be helpful when working in Oxygen, since that is where writers are doing most of their work.

    ??Is there a Report a writer could run that would list all topics in a Publication, that would include the folder the topics reside in (so essentially a baseline report?) If they could run a report then they could refer to that at least.
  • in reply to Rhonda Fitzgerald
    Hi Rhonda, I don't know of a report that does this. You should make a request to the ideas area of the communities for this so it gets visibility. I agree that as an end user it would be nice to be able to have a report that consolidates this info in one place.

    Pam Noreault | Knowledge Center Solutions Architect

  • in reply to David Autry
    Thank you David.

    - If don't mind sharing, what metadata specifically are you adding? Are you adding metadata to the topic <prolog>, something like:
    <prolog>
    <metadata>
    <othermeta name="shared" content="yes" />
    </metadata>
    </prolog>

    - How do you ensure writers add or update the metadata in their shared topics?

    - Prior to doing a final Publish of their content, I am instructing writers to look at their Baseline and do a Clean Up, and then review the versions of the topics being used to make sure they are using the appropriate version. This becomes critical when sharing topics obviously.

    - We are not currently using the "Changes" field, thank you for pointing that out. I cannot add it as a column in my baseline, is there a way to see this data without having to view the topic Properties and selecting the Version tab?
  • Notes from today's user group meeting:
    - Put shared content in a shared folder that is context specific. Don’t just call it “Shared”, call it something like “Corporate Regulatory Statements” and “Shared” underneath that.
    - Use Draft Comments inside the topic
    - Good to have clear owners of shared content
    - Use version comments heavily (for particular version) & Description field (which persists)
    - Would be nice to have a writer add a comment whenever they check in a topic, for revision history. Add an Idea for this!
    - Add “Shared” to file name (or “ProductX Shared…”)
    o Can use another convention, such as File Name_fa (underscore then two letter code that tells the product name/group/etc.)
    - Put Folder structure in the form of a taxonomy (rather than by book for example). (Might be something you do down the line – it’s ok to start out with book structure)
    - Conrefs: keep them small, and keep them about a specific subject.
    - Can use metatdata (could create a template topic that would have all of this prepopulated)
  • in reply to Elizabeth Gschwind
    I'm thinking to add the prefix, something like "+1AT", to all shared topics. The "+" symbol indicates "Shared topic" and "AT" expresses product classification. With this rule, authors can find reusable topics by using query folder. In addition, author can identify whether the topic is shared or not easily.

    The challenge to introduce such a rule is how to change bunch of object names efficiently. As the solution, I created a PowerShell script that can change object names according to the TSV file. The procedure is as follows:

    1. Obtain GUID and version list of all objects for the target publication and save the list to CSV file.
    2. Obtain current metadata of all objects by using PowerShell script and the CSV file.
    3. The PowerShell script outputs the metadata into the TSV file.
    4. Open the TSV file with Excel and specify appropriate metadata.
    5. Over-write the TSV file.
    6. Revise metadata of all objects by using the PowerShell script and the TSV file.

    I have an enhancement request regarding Publication Manager.
    If Publication Manager can change color of icons depending on metadata, the author can identify whether the topic is shared or not easier. I expect that SDL will take consider of this idea.

    Thank,
    Naoki Hirai
  • in reply to Naoki Hirai
    Hi Naoki - Please submit into the Tridion Docs Idea section also on this community website, see community.sdl.com/.../tridion-docs-ideas
  • You might also consider voting for my idea for a visual indicator of shared content in Publication Manager. community.sdl.com/.../change-object-icon-in-publication-manager-to-automatically-indicate-that-an-object-is-in-more-than-one-map-shared
    Although it doesn't address showing that the topic is shared in the editor, it would show it in the publication.
    Another best practice is to have specific folders in the CMS where the shared topics are stored. In our case, we name the folder ".Common content" (with the dot at the beginning to have it sort to the top of the containing folder). You can check the path of the file to see if it is in a ".Common content" folder somewhere in the path.
    I don't know of any way with the current tools to automatically alert a writer that the topic is shared.