A site that does not publish one of them turns it off under Setup › Management Levels. Its pages then answer "page not found", and its menu links, page sections, sitemap entries and (for the Knowledgebase) ticket suggestions disappear. The records are kept.
Departments
Departments define ownership, visibility, routing address, access rules, autoresponder behavior, feedback requests, and closure policy. Keep the name and description customer-friendly because both appear in the ticket form.
Ticket workflow
- Classify.Select the right department, priority, customer, and related service.
- Understand.Read the history, attachments, account activity, and recent billing events.
- Respond.Use clear formatting, explain ownership, and give a concrete next step.
- Resolve.Record the outcome, update reusable knowledge, and close only when policy allows.
Knowledgebase URLs
Article URLs are lowercase and do not include database IDs:
https://example.com/knowledgebase/smoke-full-feature-regression-article.htmlChoose stable slugs, preserve meaning when titles change, and use categories to help browsing rather than embedding category IDs in URLs.
Two systems, two sets of templates
Updates and the Knowledgebase are different systems for different readers. Updates is the newsroom - news, announcements, releases, launches, service status. The Knowledgebase is the resource centre - references, how-tos, tutorials, FAQs, troubleshooting, policies. From 1.6.0 each has its own presentation templates, its own content blocks in the editor and its own styles in the client themes; nothing is shared between them but the mechanics. Each update or article carries one template, chosen in its editor. Translations inherit the canonical record's template so one record does not change look between languages.
Newsroom templates (Updates)
The newsroom blocks the Updates editor inserts: lead, dateline, heads-up, action required, pull quote, highlights, change list, version, image, timeline, status line, call to action, related links and roadmap list. They carry news-* classes and are styled only inside an update.
Resource templates (Knowledgebase)
yes or no prints as a mark.The resource blocks the Knowledgebase editor inserts: summary, key facts, note, warning, important, result, before you start, steps, checklist, definitions, question, comparison table, change list, version, screenshot, related articles and revision note. They carry doc-* classes and are styled only inside an article.
Writing in the editor
The Presentation card is the first thing in both editors. Choosing a template fills the editor with that template's structure - a release-notes update starts with a version line, a lead and a change list; a troubleshooting article with symptoms, likely causes, a fix and a result - and restyles the editor canvas to match, so the author writes inside the template and sees what clients will see, in light or dark mode. Choosing another template with text already written asks whether to replace the text with the new structure or keep it and only restyle; Reload this template's structure starts over. The block bar under the title offers that system's blocks; a block keeps its name in every template of its system, so switching templates later restyles what was written rather than breaking it. Live preview shows the article in the client theme.
The Video block has its own editor: paste a YouTube or Vimeo link or pick an MP4 / WebM from the media library, set a poster (YouTube supplies its own thumbnail; for a library file, pause the preview on a good moment and press Use this frame to save that frame as the poster), a caption, the aspect ratio, a start time for YouTube, and loop / muted / autoplay for library files. Readers see the poster and a play button and nothing loads from the video host until they press it. In the editor the video shows as its poster; click it for a toolbar with edit, change poster, aspect ratio and remove, or double-click to open the editor.
List views take their excerpt from the lead (news-deck) or summary (doc-summary) paragraph, or from the first paragraph when there is none. Bodies pass through the article sanitizer, which allows headings, paragraphs, lists, links, quotations, tables, figures with captions, definition lists and the other structural HTML5 elements the blocks use; scripts, forms and event attributes are removed.
Content written before 1.6.0 used five shared templates and mtd-* blocks. The 1.6.0 upgrade maps each stored template to the nearest template of its own system - Standard becomes News Update or Reference, Editorial Feature Story or Explainer, Field Brief Progress Brief or How-to, Cultural Feature Community Story or Policy, Safety Notice Urgent Notice or Security Guidance - and rewrites the block classes. Nothing needs re-editing.
Write for the reading layout
- Open with a concise summary that answers why the article matters.
- Use descriptive headings, short paragraphs, lists, callouts, and source links to create a clear reading rhythm.
- Use art or photography only when it adds context; provide accurate alternative text and never publish sensitive personal information.
- Keep dates, corrections, source ownership, and review status visible when the subject can change.
- Test the list card, category view, detail page, search result, print view, mobile layout, keyboard path, and both color modes.
Updates
Updates replace legacy Announcement terminology. Use them for customer-visible service news, release information, operational notices, and important changes. Keep the title specific, publish date accurate, content actionable, and slug permanent.
Categories
An update can carry one category, typed in the Category field of the Publishing card (the field suggests the categories already in use; a new name starts a new category). The updates page shows a row of category tabs once any published update has one, each update's card shows its category, and a visitor who picks one sees only its updates at /updates?category=Name. Translations share the category of the update they translate. In the admin list, the Category column and filter narrow the list the same way, and the Updates page section can show a single category.
An update that is published with a future date is scheduled: it stays off the updates page, the page sections and the RSS feed until that date.
Preview image and alt text
Open Control area → Support → Updates and add or edit an Update to reach the Preview image fields and live preview. An Update can optionally reference one preview image. The canonical record owns the image location so every translation uses the same asset. The canonical alt text is the fallback, and each translated Update can supply localized alternative text. These fields are native Update data; do not hardcode article images or descriptions into a theme template.
The Preview image field stores a reference to an asset that is already available to public browsers; it does not upload a file. Use one of these formats:
- Site-relative: a portable asset path such as
assets/images/updates/service-window.jpg. A leading-slash path such as/assets/images/updates/service-window.jpgis also accepted when the asset intentionally lives at the web origin root. Do not hardcode an installation folder such as/opsiam/into reusable content. - External: a complete
https://URL with a host, such ashttps://cdn.example.com/updates/service-window.jpg.
A site-relative path may also begin ./ or be a filename in the current asset base. A non-empty path can carry a query string or fragment, such as assets/brief.webp?v=2#lead; a query-only or fragment-only value is not an image path.
Locations can contain at most 2,048 characters. WBAMS rejects http:// and other scheme-like values, protocol-relative values beginning //, embedded usernames or passwords, literal control or whitespace characters, quotes, markup delimiters, backslashes, malformed URLs, and any .. path segment. URL-encoded paths are decoded repeatedly—up to eight passes—before checking decoded control characters, markup delimiters, quotes, backslashes, and traversal, so encoded traversal is not an alternative. Validation protects the stored location but does not upload, proxy, download, or continuously monitor the asset; verify that the final public page can load it over HTTPS without authentication or hotlink restrictions. A syntactically valid URL that later returns an error remains stored until an editor clears or replaces it.
Prepare a well-composed 16:9 crop, normally 1600 × 900 pixels, at an appropriate web file size. Keep important detail away from the crop edges, confirm publishing rights, and never expose private customer or case information in the file, filename, URL, metadata, or visible image. An external host receives each visitor's image request, so use only an approved provider whose availability, privacy, and retention terms fit the site.
Alternative-text decision
- If the image communicates information that the title and body do not, write concise alt text that conveys the same purpose. Do not begin with “image of,” repeat the headline, or include a credit line.
- If the image is only decorative, leave the canonical alt text blank. Serepok emits an empty alternative and hides the image from assistive technology; the Update title and Read More control remain clear links to the article.
- Translate meaning rather than words. A localized alt value overrides the canonical text for that translation; an empty localized value falls back to the canonical alt text.
Clearing the Preview image also clears its alt text. If no valid location is stored, the Updates index keeps its 16:9 media rhythm with a neutral decorative placeholder. The Update detail page emits no lead-image markup and retains the selected presentation template's existing treatment.
Email routing
Protect mailbox credentials, validate senders, prevent loops, restrict attachment types, and monitor failed imports. The scheduler must run reliably for queued or polled workflows.