Creating and replying to update requests

The Update Requests feature enables the Support staff to leave comments for articles that they are permitted to view and to describe the changes they would like to see. The person that is assigned to an article receives this update request through the KM Console and is responsible for handling it.

The assignee and all members of the assignee's Support Group can open the article that needs to be modified. All users can add comments about the article, but only the assignee and Knowledge Admin users can change the update request status.

Internal users, such as Knowledge Admin, Knowledge User, Knowledge Submitter, and Knowledge Viewer users, can create and view update requests for the current article in the Update Requests table from either the KM Console or from the Update Requests tab in the knowledge article.

Update request status

The BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge ManagementConsole includes four areas where you can be informed about update requests with New and In Progress statuses:

In Navigation pane > Knowledge Counts > Update Requests, you can see the number of update requests for the articles you are permitted to view.
In Navigation pane > Defined Searches > Has Update Requests, you can select update requests for what status of articles you want to see:
- All — All articles with update requests.
- Not Published — Draft, In Review, and Published Approval articles with update requests.
- Published — Published, Retire Approval, and Retired articles with update requests.
The Knowledge table contains a column that indicates which articles contain update requests.
The update request table contains all the update requests that are associated with the selected article in the Knowledge table.

Update Requests tab

The Update Requests tab contains a table that displays the information that is entered for the current article.

The following table describes the fields in the New Update Request dialog box and the Update Request Info dialog box, which you access from the Update Requests tab when you choose to create or view an update request.

Update Request dialog box fields

Field	Description	Value type	Comments
Update Request Type	All available types: Technical update Enhancement Proofreading Other	Drop-down list
Status	New — Initial status. When a user creates a new request, its status is New and the article assignee is notified. In Progress Completed Rejected	Drop-down list	When opening the update Request Info dialog box the assignee can change the status to In Progress, Completed, or Rejected. Every change in the Status field to Completed or Rejected requires the user to add comments. After an update request has a final status, the user cannot add any more comments. Completed and Rejected are final statuses that are not counted or displayed in the BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge ManagementConsole.
Article Version	Version of the current article.	Automatically populated
Request Summary	Brief update request summary.	Free text
Request Details	Detailed explanation of the update request.	Free text
Request Comments	All comments that have been made for the update request.	Automatically populated
New Comment	Comment added by the current assignee.	Free text
Submitter	Name of the update request submitter	Automatically populated
Submit Date	Date of the update request submission	Automatically populated

Update Request scenario

Ian Plyment, a Support specialist, is looking for a solution to a customer ticket and performs a search for relevant articles. From the results, Ian opens the article that seems to resolve the issue. When testing the solution, Ian discovers that the solution in the article is not accurate and that the actual solution requires a few more actions.

Ian opens the article and selects the Update Request table. He clicks Create, and the New Update Request dialog box opens. He enters the extra steps needed for the solution in the Request Details field, fills in values for the other fields, and clicks Save.

The Assignee gets a notification that this specific article has a new update request. The Assignee logs into the system, opens the BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge ManagementConsole, and sees that the relevant article has a Yes value in the Update Requests column of the Knowledge table. The Assignee performs the following steps:

Selects the article and sees the update requests in the table field.
Selects that update request and clicks the View icon that is located above the table. The Update Request Info dialog box opens and displays the update request details.

The Assignee can also choose to select other update requests from the table and view their details.

The Assignee performs one of the following steps:

The Assignee re-creates the solution steps and verifies that the extra steps are needed. In the knowledge article, the Assignee accesses the update request and changes the request status to Completed after adding comments in the New Comments field.
The Assignee re-creates the solution steps but discovers that steps are not needed. In the BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge ManagementConsole, the Assignee accesses the update request, changes the update request status to Rejected, and adds comments in the New Comments field.

To create an update request

Click the Create icon in one of the following locations:
- In the BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge ManagementConsole, select the article in the Knowledge table, and then click Create above the Update Requests table.
- In an open knowledge article, click the Details tab, click the Update Requests tab, and then click Create.
In the New Update Request dialog box, provide the appropriate information.
Click Save.

To open and reply to an update request

Click the View icon in one of the following locations:
- In the KM Console, select the article in the Knowledge table, and then click View above the Update Requests table.
- In an open knowledge article, click the Details tab, click the Update Requests tab, and then click View.
Add new comments in the Update Request Info dialog box as follows:
1. Enter your comment in the New Comment field.
2. Click Add Comments.
To enhance your comments, add attachments in the Update Request Info dialog box:
1. Click Add in the Attachments table.
2. Enter the location of up to three attachments, and click OK.
3. Click Save.

If you select an attachment in the Attachments table, new buttons are displayed that enable you to perform additional tasks such as deleting, displaying, and saving the attachment.