Introduction to the Support Jig

A jig consists of two things:

• The objects that comprise the knowledgebase.
• A process of reasoning over those objects.

When you are creating objects in the KnowledgeWright Workshop, you can press F1 to get the help detailed here.

Knowledgebase Objects

The Support Jig is a reasoning engine that is designed for diagnosing problems and presenting their solution. The primary object in the Support Jig is a solution. A solution defines the environment the problem occurs in (operating system, product version, etc.) and the precise conditions under which the problem occurs. Included in each solution is a description of the problem and the workaround or fix to it. Solutions can optionally include external actions to be taken, such as to send an e-mail to tech support when a solution is not found.

The Support Jig also includes knowledge objects for:

• the knowledgebase itself which defines the goals for reasoning,
• rule sets and rules_tables, which define relationships,
• facts which define fixed values
• user questions, data_table queries and database queries, which are called to gather information when needed,
• dynamic text, which can be used to dynamically construct output documents,
• external actions, which dictate actions a calling program should take, such as send an e-mail.

Objects can be organized into folders. Folders have no effect on the reasoning process, they are simply an aid to knowledgebase development.

Reasoning Process

The reasoning engine starts with the list of all possible solutions and orders them by the priority specified within each one. It then examines the environment constraints and the conditions under which the problem occurs. If it needs additional information, questions are asked of the user. The reasoning engines walks through each solution looking for the ones that match. When found, the problem and its resolution are displayed and any actions specified for that solution are taken.