The latest release of SharePoint Knowledge Base Solution Accelerator (KBSA), R2.0 is now available. To take advantage of the new features in the latest release, please follow the steps below to upgrade your existing version.

In R2.0, the following Web Parts were added:

• Data-Viewer Web Part: Allows articles to be displayed in grid view, and supports dynamic grouping, filtering, and sorting.
• Group Redirect Web Part: Allows Knowledge Base Administrators to redirect users to the KB Client site if end users try to access the KB Admin site.
• SharePoint Navigators: Allows the KB Admin and KB Client sites to be centralized in a single location.
• SharePoint Secure Trim Web Part: Allows Administrators to set permissions in batches on articles and categories.

A JavaScript Bamboo_KB_Articles_2010.js is added to allow Administrators to adjust the width of the Article Category and Related Articles columns.

The optional Workflow Start Feature allows Administrators to customize and add Start Workflow buttons to the Ribbon items in SharePoint 2010, enabling Administrators to integrate SharePoint Knowledge Base Solution Accelerator with Workflow Conductor R1.6 to create automated processes for publishing articles and comments. SharePoint’s out-of-the-box workflow buttons may also be used.

The Bamboo KB Client Configuration List has been added to the KB Client site. This list allows users to select the option to use a specific account to access data on the KB Admin site, and to allow anonymous access.

New sections have been added to the left navigation:

• Reporting: Four reports are available for Administrators to analyze article usage.
• Authors: My Articles and All Articles are available under the Authors section to allow editors to manage their articles.
• Manage Articles and Category Permissions: This section allows Administrators to manage the permissions for the articles and categories in batches.

New columns are added:

• Expiration Date column has been added to the Bamboo KB Articles list.
• Need KB column has been added to the Customize Bamboo Article Questions and Answers Discussion Board.

I. Run the upgrade from the Setup program.

1. Stop the World Wide Web Publishing Service (W3SVC).

• From the Start menu, select Administrative Tools > Services.
• Right-click on the World Wide Web Publishing Service and select Stop.

2. Select the SharePoint Knowledge Base Solution Accelerator Core Component and click Install.

 

3. Click Next and wait while the system check is completed. Select the Upgrade/Repair Existing and Install New option, then click Next.

 

 

4. Wait while the components are upgraded and the new components (SharePoint Navigators, Group Redirect Web Part, Data-Viewer Web Part, SharePoint Secure Trim Web Part, etc.) are added.

5. Review the summary screen to ensure that the upgrade was successful, then click Close.

 

6. Restart the W3SVC.

II. Manually upgrade the KB Admin and KB Client sites.

Warning:

When the KB Client site is first displayed in the browser, you will see the following errors until the KB Admin and KB Client sites have been manually configured.

 

 

When you first access the KB Admin site after the upgrade, you should see the following:

• New sections added to the left navigation pane: Workflow Configuration List (optional), Reporting, Authors, and Manage Articles and Category Permissions.
• New JavaScript (Bamboo_KB_Articles_2010.js) and Secure Trim Web Page, added to the Shared Documents Library.
• New Bamboo Navigators List and KB Admin Upgrade History List.

 

 

 

Follow the steps below to upgrade the KB Admin site:

1. From the KB Admin site home, edit the KB Tree View Web Part. In the tool pane, click Upgrade KB Admin site and content.

 

After the upgrade has completed, a message is displayed indicating that the upgrade was successful. The Upgrade button in the tool pane will then be grayed out. The KB Admin site’s content is stored in the KB Admin Upgrade History list.

 

Click Apply and then OK.

Note: During the upgrade, if Internet Information Services (IIS) is restarted, it will interrupt this upgrade process. Should this occur, click on the Upgrade button to run the upgrade again.

2. From the Quick Launch, click All Site Content, then click KB Admin Upgrade History List. The status should be Success.

 

3. The upgrade process for the KB Admin site is complete.

Follow the steps below to upgrade the KB Client site:

1. From the KB Client site home, edit the KB Tree View Web Part. In the tool pane, click Upgrade KB Client site and content.

After the upgrade has completed, a message is displayed indicating that the upgrade was successful. The Upgrade button in the tool pane will then be greyed out. The KB client site’s content is stored in the KB Client Upgrade History list.

 

Click Apply and then OK.

Note: During the upgrade, if Internet Information Services (IIS) is restarted, it will interrupt this upgrade process. Should this occur, click on the Upgrade button to run the upgrade again.

2. Navigate to the KB client site’s Lists clicking All Site Content > Lists. Then click KB Client Upgrade History List. The status should be Success.

 

3. In R2.0, the application is no longer set up using the revert application pool to access data from the admin site. You can either allow groups to access certain data and lists in the KB Admin site, or you can use a specific account to access data. The configuration for either option is configured in the new Bamboo KB Client Configuration list. The option is defaulted to Yes, where an account is needed to add to this list, but you can change the option to No. (Note: This is the reason why you see the errors mentioned above—an account was not yet configured to access the data from the KB Admin site.)

 

Navigate to the KB Client site’s lists clicking All Site Content > Lists. Then click the Bamboo KB Client Configuration List. Select Use a Designated Account to Access Data if you want to use a designated account to search and display articles from the KB Admin site, or if you want to allow anonymous access to the KB Client site. In the Access Account field, enter the account that will be used to access data from the KB Admin site. You must first select the Use a Designated Account to Access Data option. Click Save. To add this account to the Read-Only access group, see Security Trimming for more information.

 

III. Manually configure the Web Parts in the KB Admin and KB Client sites.

To manually configure the Web Parts on the KB Admin site:

1. For the Manage Articles, Manage Categories and Approve & Manage sections, modify the KB Search Web Part:

• In the tool pane, click KB Search Web Part Settings. Note: You must disable pop-up blockers for the site to display the Web Part Settings.
• In the Web Part Settings, select Search Results Configuration. Under Search Results Options, select Display both search criteria and search results, only if Search All Columns is enabled in the Search Criteria Configuration. Unchecking this option replaces the search form with the search results. If users are allowed to search in all columns, where the server’s search scope is set up, the option “Use SharePoint Search results view” will replace the KB Search results grid view with the SharePoint Server Search results view. If desired, choose to export search results to Microsoft Excel or to print the results. See Configuring the KB Search Web Parts for more information.
• Click Save & Close to close the Web Part Settings, then click Apply and then OK to stop editing the Web Part.

 

 

To manually configure the Web Parts on the KB Client site:

1. Click the Search link on the left navigation. Modify the KB Search Web Part:

• In the tool pane, click KB Search Web Part Settings. Note: You must disable pop-up blockers for the site to display the Web Part Settings.
• In the Web Part Settings, select Search Results Configuration. Under Search Results Options, select Display both search criteria and search results, only if Search All Columns is enabled in the Search Criteria Configuration. Unchecking this option replaces the search form with the search results. If users are allowed to search in all columns, where the server’s search scope is set up, the option “Use SharePoint Search results view” will replace the KB Search results grid view with the SharePoint Server Search results view. If desired, choose to export search results to Microsoft Excel or to print the results. See Configuring the KB Search Web Parts for more information.
• Click Save & Close to close the Web Part Settings, then click Apply and then OK to stop editing the Web Part.

 

 

Note: The following customizations are optional.

I. Centralize the tabs for the KB Admin and KB Client sites.

The KB Admin and KB Client sites exist as two individual sites. You can create two tabs in one centralized location for easy access to each site following the steps below:

Note: The centralized tabs are available with the site templates in R2.0. With older site templates such as R1.5, you will be required to perform some manual steps.

1. Open Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010. For more information, see this this blog post on modifying master pages in SharePoint Designer.
2. Open v4.master from the _Catalogsmasterpage folder within the admin site where SharePoint Knowledge Base Solution Accelerator is installed. Make sure that SharePoint Designer is in Split mode.

    

3. Enter the following line after /asp:ContentPlaceHolder and before div id=”s4-statusbarcontainer”: <div id=”bs-NavigatorTabStrip”></div>.

    

   Insert the Bamboo Navigators TabStrip into the <div> tag.

    

   Note: If the site was not created as the top site in the site collection, do not insert the Web Part into the master page because you will not be able to configure the Web Part. Instead, see Step 4 below.

4. Open the site in the browser and use the Ribbon to add the Bamboo Navigators TabStrip to the home page.

    

   Configure the Web Part as follows:

   • Select List: Bamboo Navigators
   • Select View: Top
   • Menu Title: Menu Title
   • Description: Description
   • URL Link: URL
   • Parent Menu: Parent Menu
   • Sort Order: Sort Order
   • URL Icon: Icon URL
   • Select Skin: Default

    

   To hide the title of the Bamboo Navigator TabStrip, select None for Chrome Type under Appearance.

    

5. Open the home.aspx page in SharePoint Designer from the site pages folder. Copy the Bamboo Navigators TabStrip and paste the Web Part into the <div> tag on the master page.
6. Insert the following lines after <div id=”bs-clearright”></div> and before <div id=”s4-topheader2″ class=”s4-pr s4-notdlg”>:

   <td class=”s4-socialdata-notif”>
   <SharePoint:DelegateControl ControlId=”GlobalSiteLink3″ Scope=”Farm” runat=”server”/>
   </td>
   </tr>
   </tbody>
   </table>
   <div>
   <div>

7. Insert the following style into the page below line <SharePoint:SPHelpPageComponent Visible=”false” runat=server”/> and above line </head>:

   <style type=”text/css”>
   .menu-horizontal{
   display:none;
   }
   #bs-clearright{
   clear:right;
   }
   #bs-NavigatorTabStrip{
   display:table;
   padding-left:10px;
   }
   .s4-recentchanges{
   display: none;
   }

   </style>

8. Switch to Design mode and save the master page.
9. Open the site in the browser and delete the Bamboo Navigators TabStrip from the home.aspx page.
10. Follow the steps above to add the Bamboo Navigator TabStrip to the KB Client site using SharePoint Designer.
11. Change the URL of the KB Client site on the KB Admin site.
    • From the KB Admin site, click All Site Content, then select the Bamboo Navigators list.
    • Click on the KB Client item and edit the URL. The URL should be the relative path to the KB Client site, such as ../kbclient/default.aspx.
    • The two tabs should now be displayed:

       

12. Change the URL of the KB Admin site on the KB Client site.
    • From the KB Client site, navigate to the KB Client site’s lists clicking All Site Content > Lists.
    • Select the Bamboo Navigators list, then click on the KB Admin item and edit the URL. The URL should be the relative path to the KB Admin site, such as ../kbadmin/default.aspx. If desired, you can hide the KB Admin tab from end users changing the permission for the KB Admin item.

II. Redirect end users to the KB Admin site.

If desired, add the Group Redirect Web Part to the KB Admin site home to redirect end users from the KB Admin site.

• Edit the KB Admin home page. Use the Ribbon to add the Group Redirect Web Part selecting Insert Web Part > Bamboo Solutions > Bamboo Group Redirect Web Part.

   

• Edit the Web Part and configure it according to the instructions in Configuring the KB Admin Site. To hide the Web Part, select the Hidden option in the tool pane under Layout.

   

• Click Apply and then OK to save your changes.

III. Manually change the width of the Related Articles and Article Category fields.

The width of the Related Articles and Article Category fields can be modified using SharePoint Designer so that full article titles and categories are visible.

To modify the width of the fields:

1. Open the KB Admin site using SharePoint Designer 2010.
2. Open EditForm.aspx and NewForm.aspx under /Lists/Bamboo KB Categories/ and /Lists/Bamboo KB Articles/.

    

3. Use the Ribbon to select Insert > Web Part > Media and Content > Content Editor.

    

4. Right-click on the Web Part and select Web Part Properties. Under the Content Link, click on the … and browse to Shared Documents > Bamboo_KB_Articles_2010.js. Click OK and save the page.

    

    

5. Return to the KB Admin site and navigate to the Shared Documents Library. Click Bamboo_KB_Articles_2010.js to download it to a local folder. Use Notepad to edit and change the var maxLimitWidth value to your desired points, such as from 100 to 250. Save the file and upload it to the Shared Documents Library. The Related Articles and Article Category fields are now widened.

    

APPLIES TO:

• SharePoint Foundation and Server 2010
• SharePoint Knowledge Base Solution Accelerator R2.0 or newer

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