openKB

openKB is a Markdown Knowledge base application (FAQ) built with Nodejs and ExpressJS. The application uses an embedded database (nedb) by default but can also use a MongoDB server by changing the config (see below). The application is designed to be easy to use and install and based around search rather than nested categories. Simply search for what you want and select from the results.

Demo: https://openkb.markmoffat.com

Installation

1. Clone Repository: git clone https://github.com/mrvautin/openKB.git && cd openKB
2. Install dependencies: npm install
3. Start application: npm start
4. Go to http://127.0.0.1:4444 in your browser

Running the application in Production using minified code can be done by:

1. Create the minified/ugly files: npm run uglify
2. Ensure the minified/ugly files are being used: NODE_ENV=production node app.js

Note: openKB supports Nodejs version 4.0 and above.

Deploy on Heroku

Features

• Search: openKB is a search based Knowledge base (FAQ) backed by Lunr.js indexing to create the best possible results on searches.
• Backend: openKB uses the pure Javascript nedb embedded database by default or a MongoDB server.
• Design/Themes: openKB is meant to be simple flat design. Themes can be added by creating a theme folder within public/themes/. See the example theme for more information.
• Responsive: openKB is built using Bootstrap allowing it to be responsive and work on all devices. The admin can be a little difficult editing Markdown on smaller screens.
• Mermaid: openKB allows for Mermaid charts in articles.
• Editor: openKB uses Markdown-it which is based off the CommonMark spec. This allows for the very best Markdown experience.
• Image management: openKB allows for drag and drop of images into articles. The image is automatically uploaded to the server in the background. Google Chrome users can also paste images directly from the clipboard.

Screenshots

Homepage

Admin editor

Article view

Admin article management

Managing files

Admin

Visit: http://127.0.0.1:4444/login

A new user form will be shown where a user can be created.

Config

Most of the configuration can be done on the /settings page but there are some addition values which require setting manually in the /config/config.json file.

Setting	Description
route_name	Sets the value in the URL for viewing an article (defaults to kb)
num_top_results	Sets the number of results shown on the home page
date_format	Sets the global date formatting. Uses moment.js date formatting, see more here: http://momentjs.com/docs/#/displaying
show_view_count	Shows the view count next to the results on the homepage and search
update_view_count_logged_in	Updates the view count if the user is logged in, as well as for anonymous users
show_published_date	Shows the published date next to the results on the homepage and search
sort_by	The order to sort articles
website_title	The title of your website
show_featured_articles	Whether to show any articles set to featured in a sidebar
show_featured_in_article	Whether to show any articles set to featured in a sidebar when viewing an article
featured_articles_count	The number of featured articles shown
theme	The theme to use for public facing pages. Leave blank for default.
locale	The language to use for public facing pages. Leave blank for default (English).
password_protect	Setting to "true" will require a user to login before viewing ANY pages
show_kb_meta	Whether to show article meta data including published date, last updated date, author etc
suggest_allowed	If enabled non authenticated users can submit article suggestions for approval
show_author_email	Controls whether the authors email address is displayed in the meta. Requires "Show article meta data" to be true.
mermaid	Whether to allow Mermaid charts within articles
mermaid_auto_update	Whether to auto update Mermaid charts in the preview window as you edit (default is true)
mermaid_options	Additional options for Mermaid charts see here (Default options - link)
mathjax	Whether to allow MathJax inputs within articles
app_context	Allows for the website to be run from a non root path. Eg: http://127.0.0.1:4444/openkb/
links_blank_page	Controls whether links within articles open a new page (tab)
add_header_anchors	Whether to add HTML anchors to all heading tags for linking within articles or direct linking from other articles
typeahead_search	Add live typeahead search results on the search inputs
index_article_body	Whether to add the body of your articles to the search index (requires restart)
show_website_logo	Controls whether to show the website_title text or a logo located: /public/logo.png (by default).
website_description	A short website description when listing the homepage URL in search engines
database	The database type to use. See Database setup
google_analytics	Adds Google Analytics to public facing pages. Include the entire code from Google including the <script> tags.
style	Add any Hex color codes, HTML color names and fonts to style the public pages of your KB.
allow_query_param	Allow main page query params to be passed without going to the login page.

Data sorting You can control the sort order or articles. You can sort on anything but popular fields are kb_viewcount, kb_published_date, kb_last_updated or kb_votes

Setting the sort_by field in the config.json like so:

{field: 'kb_viewcount', order: -1};

Valid order values are: -1 or 1

1 = ascending order

-1 = decending order

Database setup

By default, openKB uses an embedded Javascript database called nedb for easy installation. This works really well for small to medium sized applications but has it's limitations if you wanted to scale your application to handle many articles and concurrent users. For this reason, openKB also supports using a MongoDB server by simply changing the config file.

Here is the config.json for the embedded database (NeDB):

"database": {
    "type": "embedded"
}

Here is an example config.json for a MongoDB server. You can use your own localhost MongoDB instance or you may choose a hosted MongoDB server like mLab or Atlas.

"database": {
    "type": "mongodb",
    "connection_string": "mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/openkb"
}

Alternately, for security reasons, you can use the Node environment variable (below) to store your MongoDB connection string.

MONGODB_CONNECTION_STRING

Public API

An optional public API can be enabled through /settings to allow inserting of documents by HTTP POST using services like IFTTT etc.

Note:The API is disabled by default

Once turned on, the API is hosted on route: example.com/api/newArticle via POST of a Object. The JSON schema is:

    'type': 'object',
    'properties': {
        'api_auth_token': {'type': 'string'},
        'kb_title': {'type': 'string'},
        'kb_body': {'type': 'string'},
        'kb_permalink': {'type': 'string'},
        'kb_published': {'type': 'boolean'},
        'kb_keywords': {'type': 'string'},
        'kb_author_email': {'type': 'string'},
        'kb_password': {'type': 'string'},
        'kb_featured': {'type': 'boolean'},
        'kb_seo_title': {'type': 'string'},
        'kb_seo_description': {'type': 'string'}
    },
    'required': ['api_auth_token', 'kb_title', 'kb_body', 'kb_author_email', 'kb_published']

Note: An API access token is required to be able to use the API. If the API is turned on without a token, all requests will reject. Please use a hard to guess token

The return Object from the API will be as follows:

{
  "result": false,
  "errors": [
    "Any error messages"
  ]
}

The errors value will have any validation or error message which have occurred. The result is an approval boolean. Eg: true was successful and false wasn't.

Migrating from NeDB to MongoDB (experimental)

You can upgrade from NeDB to Mongodb by running the following command:

Note: You will first need to setup a valid MongoDB connection as per the "Database setup" instructions.

npm run-script dbUpgrade

please raise a Github issue if errors are encountered

Typeahead search

The typeahead search is great! Your user types in the word or phrase and the results pop up under the search box. But... One of the things to consider is that there is a little more data being transmitted from server to browser to enable this functionality. This is not normally a big issue for most browsers as the data is cached but you may run into issues if the number of articles in your app is quite large.

As a general rule there is about 3KB of compressed data being transferred from server to browser for 20 articles with long titles and keywords. If you have hundreds of articles, the amount of data will increase and could cause performance issues. It is something to consider if your app seems to slow down once the article numbers increase. If this is the case, you can simply just turn it off.

Contributing

Have design skills? Want to design theme(s) for openKB? Please design and submit PR.

openKB examples

Have openKB running on a public facing server? Submit a PR with your URL and it will be updated here.

Running in production

Using PM2 seems to be the easiest and best option for running production websites. See the PM2 for more information or a short guide here: https://mrvautin.com/Running-Nodejs-applications-in-production-forever-vs-supervisord-vs-pm2.