[rt-users] RTFM 2.4.3rc1 feedback

[Steve McStravick]

Ok, I'll post some of these finds to rtfm-bugs.

>>    2.       Lists of Classes (e.g. Quick Search, Create an
Article)..should be in Alphabetic
>>    order (or optionally if you could defined the order, but defaults to
alpha)


>Is this on the Select Class page or something else? 

This is in:
 Overview->Quick search and Create an article,
http://{my_server}/rt3/RTFM/index.html
 Articles->Search
http://{my_server}rt3/RTFM/Article/Search.html
 Articles->New Article
http://{my_server}/rt3/RTFM/Article/PreCreate.html
 Topics
http://{my_server}/rt3/RTFM/Topics.html
Configuration->Classes->Select Class
http://{my_server}/rt3/Admin/RTFM/Classes/index.html

I also noticed when you go to the "Configuration" tab you get the RT "create
Ticket" and Search at the top, rather than the Search KB

>>    3.       Search KB in menubar, ideally should be a "search all fields"

>I assume you mean 'search all custom fields' rather than the 'search
>name and description' that currently exists?  You could certainly port
>the code from the SelfService search bar.

Yes. Search->Content->Any field
I think this is useful, since for a Knowledge base you're usually looking
for keywords rather than the name/description
I'll try my had at porting the code over, though I'm not a Perl guy!

>>    4.       Kwiki formatting for the CFs is confusing, make it VERY
difficult to add formatted
>>    items,...e.g. if you added some SQL:

>Wiki Custom Fields aren't Kwiki syntax, and you may just want plain
>text fields for RTFM.

Problem with plain text, is I can't embed screenshots etc., yes I can attach
them, but the article becomes disconnected.  Currently I'm trying "Write
Area" (someone suggested that in one of the threads) to add/edit content,
and I attach images to an attachment CF, then use that URL to embed it into
the article..works great..but 
I'm having issues with any type of Code....I frequently use SQL, XML, and
java properties in my articles, so having some way to do it with nice
formatting would be a great help.  For a straight FAQ storage you could get
away with plaintext, but with a Knowledge Base, it's too limiting.

>>    6.       The Custom Field labels (when viewing a ticket) blend in to
the content..I modified
>>    the CSS for CFs in general to make them stand out a bit.

>Similarly, it would be interesting to see CSS tweaks, but I assume
>these are RT rather than RTFM specific.  Those should end up at
>rt-bugs.

Yes they are RT specific...I hadn't adjusted it since upgrading to RTFM
2.4.3rc.  Basically I increased the size, bolded and added a light
background color.  It affects both RT and RTFM.  It looks ok in RT too,
though not required there.

I'll also mention a few other things (do I add this to rtfm-bugs as well?),
I know others have commented on it...but it would be REALLY handy to pull in
attachments from RTFM articles to Tickets...even if it's just the URL to
link to the RTFM article (to avoid filling up the DB with duplicate
documents).
And Ruslan just responded to another question I had, re: searching IN
attachments, which apparently isn't supported...this really should be added
to at least RTFM, there appears to be a few OpenSource solutions to this.
We should be able to search in pdf, doc, etc., in a KnowledgeBase. My brief
search turned up an open source "Sphinx Search" (sphinxsearch DOT com) and
using antiword (word 200-2007), docx2txt, pdftotext and OpeOffice::OODoc ,
which seem to do this...though obviously there would be code involved to
actually get it to work with RT/RTFM (if it's possible at all) and way out
of my realm....Anyone attempted this?

Finally..I'll mention it, but it's not Best Practical's code.  I found I'm
using tons of CFs in RTFM to handle specific Class requirements, this was a
nightmare from a Assignment and Priv point of view, so I thought I'd try
using RightsMatrix.  Problem is it only works for RT and Asset Tracker...so
I've modified it to work with RTFM...problem is, I'm not a Perl guy, so my
hacks may be ugly..and since I don't use Asset Tracker, is possible I could
have broken it without realizing it.  If anyone reading this who knows
something about that plugin or wants to clean up my hack, I'd be happy to
share it.

Steve