Content Access Levels for Portal KB Article not working

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Posted on by MikeC282

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Hi all,

I've got a issue with the Content Access Level(CAL) function for KB articles. I want to restrict access to a select few KB articles to only 4 uses with the correct content access level roles. I've being doing some tests by creating some dummy KB articles and setting the Content Access Level to Premium Users and publishing the KB article.

I then quickly check the Portal website and find that the article is visible under the "Most Recent Articles" section of the home page and is searchable. I have already updated the Site Settings for KnowledgeManagement/ContentAccessLevel/Enabled to "True" (see screenshot below).

8132.CAL.png

I'm planning to clear the Portal Cache later today to see if this resolves the issue but can't at the moment as it's a live portal.

Could I also check something in regards to KB assignment of CALs. I've noticed most of the KB articles published don't have any CALs assigned, not even the default one. If I clear the cache and CALs then works. Will it hide the KB articles without any CAL associated to it also?

Kind regards.

Mike

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Portals

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MikeC282 2,115 on at

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RE: Content Access Levels for Portal KB Article not working

Thanks Nicholas,

Yes I found restarting the portal seems to have stabilised the Content Access Level functionality for now.

I'll keep that in mind as I noticed Portal does spritz up every now and then.

The typical IT fix method of turning it off and on again seems to do the trick.
Nicholas Hayduk 2,863 on at

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RE: Content Access Levels for Portal KB Article not working

Yeah, unfortunately I've noticed that changes in the KB section sometimes don't automatically appear on the Portal as quickly as I'd like. Restarting the portal or clearing the cache should do the trick.

Or, you could try to automate this using this undocumented API:

colinvermander.com/.../

I'd recommend putting in a ticket with Microsoft to see if they can offer any additional support, or perhaps get a bug ticket opened.

Nick
MikeC282 2,115 on at

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RE: Content Access Levels for Portal KB Article not working

Hi Nicholas,

So setting the default content access level on a KB article published and marked internal as "No" seems to do the trick.

I'll mark your answer as completed.

The only other problem is that updating the Content Access Level on KB articles doesn't reflect the change on the front end portal immediately.

For example if a article previously didn't have any content access levels assigned is assigned the default level. It does not appear on the portal immediately for anonymous or registered users.

Likewise for a KB article assigned with the Default content access level and they've made some updates to the KB article text and then clicked "Update", it doesn't seem to reflect the text changes on the front end portal.

It's only when I clear the portal cache that any of the changes seem to apply to the portal front end but I do not want KB article writers to have to clear the portal cache everytime.

I just restarted the Portal at the moment and will be running some tests to see if this resolves the issue.
Nicholas Hayduk 2,863 on at

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RE: Content Access Levels for Portal KB Article not working

Ok let me know if that works as you expect.

With regards to the Knowledge Articles not having the Default CAL associated, try updating the N:N relationship between CAL and Knowledge Articles to display in the Related area (by default, it is set to "Do not display"). Once that's visible, you should be able to add articles in bulk from the CAL.

Nick
MikeC282 2,115 on at

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RE: Content Access Levels for Portal KB Article not working

Hi Nick thank you for the quick reply. I did a check and noted that the anonymous and authenticated web role has the default Content Access Role associated.

Below is also the screenshot of the KB article was testing to set it so that it can be viewed publicly without needing to log into Portal. I did notice that the "Internal" field is set to "Yes" do you think that might be why the test KB article wasn't displaying on the portal even though the CAL was set to Defautl? I'll do another test tonight to see if this fixes it.

On another note. All of the externally published KB articles to portal don't have any Content Access Levels associated to them. Is there a way to associate "Default" CAL to them in bulk or do I have to do it one at a time?

Mike
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Nicholas Hayduk 2,863 on at

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RE: Content Access Levels for Portal KB Article not working

Hi Mike,

Content access levels can be associated with Web Roles, and out-of-the-box the Default content access level should be associated with the Anonymous and Authenticated web roles. So what you're looking to achieve should be possible.

Can you double check that the Anonymous and Authenticated web roles are associated to the Default content access level?

Nick
MikeC282 2,115 on at

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RE: Content Access Levels for Portal KB Article not working

So I cleared my portal cache with the content access level site setting set to true. It appears to then cause all the KB articles to disappear. I had a feeling this might happen as none of the KB articles have a content access level associated to it.

I then tried to assign the "Default" content access level to a KB article, which I assumed would allow someone who isn't logged into Portal to view the one KB article I associated the "Default" Content Access Level (i.e. that KB article can be publicly viewable by anyone on the internet) and the one KB article still doesn't show. I then turned off the site setting and cleared the cache to bring back all the KB articles.

My question would be how to set content access to only a few select KB articles without hiding everything else?

I understand I'd probably have to associate every KB article published to a content access level. Is there a way to do this in bulk?