Authoring Knowledgebases

Starting the Knowledgebase Workshop

Under Windows, double-click on 'kw.bat' in your installation directory. Under Linux/Solaris type 'kw'.

Opening a Knowledgebase

There are two ways to open a knowledgebase for editing:

• Open an existing knowledgebase
• Create a new knowledgebase

Both options are available on the 'Knowledgebase' menu. Once a knowledgebase is opened a tabbed pane will appear on the left side. The 'Object View' shows all the objects in the knowledgebase sorted by object type. The 'Folder View' shows all the objects sorted by folder. Only one knowledgebase can be opened for editing at a time.

Creating and Editing Objects

You can create and edit objects from either the 'Object View' or 'Folder View' by double-clicking on the object name. A form will open to display all the properties of the object. The following types of fields are used to edit the properties:

• Text Boxes: Allows the entry of multiples lines of text.
• Text Lines: Allows the entry of a single line of text.
• List: Allows the entry of an ordered list of items. The 'Add' button adds the item in the box to the list. 'Delete' removes the highlighted item from the list. The up and down arrows move the selected item up and down within the list.
• Table: Allows the entry of items in a row and column format. You can move columns by dragging the column header left or right. Rows and columns can be added or deleted via the 'Row' and 'Column' menus. Columns can be renamed via the 'Column' menu.
• Text Box Table: Allows the entry of multiple lines of text in each cell. The column names and positions are fixed, however, the 'Row' menu can be used to add and delete rows.

Right Mouse Button

When you are editing in text boxes or text lines, the right mouse button has 2 special functions:

Make Link - This turns the currently highlighted word or words into a link (surrounded by percents (%)).

Open Object - This opens the object named in the link where the mouse pointer is.

Managing Folders

Folders let you organize your objects into a tree structure that fits your knowledgebase's application. You can create, rename, delete and move folders with the 'Folder' menu. You can also move objects between folders with the 'Object' menu. To perform these operations, first highlight one or more objects or folders, then select the command from the menu.

Right Mouse Button

If you right click on an object in the tree, the menu of actions that can be performed is displayed.

Finding Things

Find

The Search | Find command will locate text anywhere it appears in the knowledgebase. Each instance is displayed in the tabbed status window at the bottom of the screen.

Replace

When you rename an object, you are given the option of replacing all occurances of the old object name with the new one. When this is done, a list of all the replacements is displayed under this tab in the status window.

Analyzing Knowledgebase Structure

Object Connections

The web icon shows you how any object is connected to other objects. Select the object type and name from the center column. On the left you will get a list of all the objects that use that object. On the right you will get a list of all the objects that object uses.

Structural Problems

The red exclamation mark tells you about inconsistencies and circular loops in your knowledgebase. It lists these things:

• Objects that have been defined, but are not used by any other object.
• Objects that are referenced in another object, but have not been defined.
• Values for objects that are: 1) not found in the choice list for the question or 2) are the wrong type (i.e. a number instead of text).
• Circular loops in your rules, where a rule eventually ends up calling itself. Such loops mean the reasoning engine can never find a solution.

Using the Keyboard

All the menu items have mnemonic keys that can be pressed inconjunction with Alt key to invoke that item. The most commonly used commands also have accelerator keys that are listed to the right of the menu item.

For each environment (Windows & Unix), the Workshop uses the default Look & Feel as determined by the Java runtime. The standard key assignments can be found at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/javax/swing/doc-files/Key-Index.html. The following entries will probably be of the most interest:

• JMenuBar, JMenu and JMenuItem -- for navigating menus.
• JTree -- for using the Object and Folder trees.
• JTextField, JTextArea -- for editing single line and multi-line text boxes in KnowledgeWright objects.
• JTable -- for using tables when editing KnowledgeWright objects.
• JList -- for selecting items in list boxes when editing KnowledgeWright objects.
• JDesktopPane, JInternalFrame-- for managing the various open windows within the Workshop.

Preferences

The Tool | Preferences command lets you customize how the Workshop runs. You can specify the following items:

• Web Browser Path: The pathname of the web browser you want to use to view help.
• Run Log Detail: The default detail level for the log when running your knowledgebases.
• Auto-Update Status Window: Whether or not the status window is updated to show the connections for the currently open object and to check if there are problems in your knowledgebase.
• Save kb files in Unicode Format: Whether or not kb files are saved in Unicode format which fully supports the use of multiple international characters and fonts. Under some versions of Windows (except NT, 2000 and XP) and most versions of Unix/Linux, you will be unable to view/edit knowledgebases in regular text editors when this option is enabled.
• Locale: The Java Locale to use. This setting affects the use of the keyboard, fonts and perhaps display, but it does not change the language for the Workshop menus and forms.