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: http://openkb.mrvautin.com

Installation

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

Deploy on Heroku

Features

Search: openKB is a search based Knowledgebase (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

Responsive

Fully Configurable

Admin editor

Article view

Admin article management

Managing files

This is a deliberate rip from https://twitter.com to show an example. All design and credit goes to https://twitter.com and not openKB.

Live search/typeahead

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 /routes/config.js file.

Setting	Description
`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
`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.
`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.
`enable_mermaid_charts`	Whether to allow Mermaid charts 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.

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.js 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.js for the embedded database (NeDB):

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

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

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

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.

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: http://mrvautin.com/Running-Nodejs-applications-in-production-forever-vs-supervisord-vs-pm2.

NathanBrownDigital / resource-library