Retire a Knowledge Article

Overview

There are several possible reasons that a Knowledge Base (KB) article may need to be retired. These include, but are not limited to:

  • The article is a duplicate
  • A new article is replacing an existing article
  • The information is no longer relevant
  • The service discussed is no longer offered
Important
Knowledge articles that are retired are archived within the Knowledge Base, they are never deleted. Archived articles are only available to individuals with KB Candidate, or higher access to the Knowledge Base. Archived articles are not generally available, and individuals attempting to access them via a bookmark, or other means, will receive a Permission Denied error message.

In this article:

Process for Retiring an Article

The process for retiring an article is collaborative and involves individuals with Knowledge Base (KB) Publisher roles. Individuals with KB Candidate, or Contributor roles who feel an article should be retired, should Give Feedback on the Article. Otherwise, either based upon feedback, or their own review KB Publishers should do the following.

The KB Publisher who is evaluating an article for retirement is responsible for completing the following steps:

  1. Before retiring an article
  2. Approve an article for retirement

Before retiring an article

Before submitting an article for retirement, you must:

  1. Validate that the currently assigned Owner is the team/group responsible for the service associated with the article.
    • In most cases the Owner will be the team responsible for the service; however, sometimes the assigned group is maintaining the information on behalf of another department, unit, or college.
  2. Check to see if the article is linked to from other University of Alaska resources.
  3. Communicate with article owner, service owner (if different), and other teams within the responsible department to verify if the article is no longer applicable.
    • The Service Owner must approve the request for an article to be archived.
Important
If the service owner has not granted approval to retire a knowledge article, then the article may not be retired.

Approving an article for retirement

Once the before retiring an article steps have been completed the article can be retired.

  1. Find the desired article in the Knowledge Base.
  2. Click Edit Article.
  3. Click Settings.
  4. Scroll-down to the Status drop-down menu, and select Archived.
    • The Published to KB checkbox will automatically be deselected, and the following notice will be displayed.
      TDX Knowledge Base publish status message
  5. Optional: If the article is being retired because a new article has been written, and published, which replaces it then assign the replacement article to allow pre-existing links to the old article to redirect to the selected article after the old one has been archived.
    Important
    The replacement article must be located in the same Service Portal as the article being archived.
    1. In the Replacement Article field click the Lookup replacement article button.
    2. A new search window will open.
    3. Search for the replacement article by ID, or Subject.
    4. Click the Subject of the replacement article.
  6. Clear the date in the Next Review Date box.
  7. Uncheck the Notify Owner on Feedback box.
  8. Click Save.
  9. After the article has finished saving, scroll-up to the top of the page, and click on the article name. This causes the page to exit the Edit Article mode. The page will be displayed with a banner beneath the article title saying: "This article has been archived and may contain outdated information." Additionally, under the Details section the Status will indicate Archived, and Published will say No.
    TDX Knowledge Base example archived article

Retired Article Visibility

Once an article has been marched as archived it removes it from active use within the knowledge base; however, it is retained for historical purposes such as maintaining integrity to any tickets which may have been linked to it. The article will not be displayed to anyone while browsing through the knowledge base, nor is it publicly visible.

Individuals who may have bookmarked the article will have one of several behaviors happen depending depending upon which options were selected when the article was retired.

Archived Article Visibility
Has Replacement Article Description
No The service portal will display a Permission Denied message.
Yes The service portal will redirect the person automatically to the specified replacement article.

UA employees with a ESM Knowledge Management role in the applicable service portal may still retain access to the archived article; however, they depending upon their KM role as well as the ownership of the article, they may not be able to edit the archived article.

Additional resources

Need additional help or have issues

For support, requests may be submitted anytime using the appropriate Enterprise Service Management form. Requests generate a Ticket which will be worked in order received and urgency by IT Employees with the knowledge and permissions to assist with the request.

For immediate assistance please review the Contact Us page for the appropriate support group.

Print Article