What are RTFM Topics used for?

Jo_Rhett · July 30, 2009, 6:23pm

So I’ve read the RTFM manual and I’m no clearer really on what purpose
Topics provide. They don’t see to add anything to the privileged
user interface. Is this something that is used in the self-service
interface?

Jo Rhett
Net Consonance : consonant endings by net philanthropy, open source
and other randomness

Cassandra_Phillips-S · August 4, 2009, 3:11pm

Hello, Jo. Topics can be very useful for organizing your articles. On
the RTFM Documentation Intro there is a section on using topics to
organize and group your articles:

github.com

bestpractical/rtfm/blob/1d2d722dec013e3a1e55335a00c21b0ebeb8bed0/lib/RT/FM/Introduction.pod


=head1 INTRODUCTION

=head2 Basics

Users should be now have a new "RTFM" menu item RT's top level menu.
You will need to make some decisions about how to organize your
articles.  Articles will be organized into one Class and multiple
Topics.  They will use Custom Fields to store their article data.
These Custom Fields can be configured on a Class by Class basis.

=head2 Organization

=head3 Classes

Classes are equivalent to RT's queues.  They can be created by going
to RTFM -> Configuration -> Classes -> New Class.  Articles are
assigned to one Class.  When you create Custom Fields for use in RTFM,
they will be activated per Class, like Custom Fields are activated per
Queue in RT.  Each class also controls what information is included

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I know that when I use RTFM I create articles with a topic or topics
for easier categorization later on.

Though I personally have not used this feature, topics may also be
used to create a Queue-Specific list of articles.

From the RTFM intro:

Queue Specific List of Articles

You can use Topics to organize a set of Queue specific Articles.
Simply create a global Topic called ‘Queues’ and then create Topics
under Queues named after each of your Queues. Within each Queue named
Topic, create some Topics and then assign Articles to those
sub-topics. This creates a hierarchy like this:

Queues
-> General
-> Topic 1
-> Topic 2

If you are replying to a Ticket in the General Queue you will be
offered a choice of Topic 1 and Topic 2 along with the searching.
After choosing Topic 1 or Topic 2, you will be given a list of
relevant articles to choose.
Cassandra Phillips-Sears

Office Manager
Best Practical Solutions, LLC
http://www.bestpractical.comOn Jul 30, 2009, at 2:23 PM 7/30/09, Jo Rhett wrote:

So I’ve read the RTFM manual and I’m no clearer really on what
purpose Topics provide. They don’t see to add anything to the
privileged user interface. Is this something that is used in the
self-service interface?

–
Jo Rhett
Net Consonance : consonant endings by net philanthropy, open source
and other randomness

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