It is pleasure to tell that KnowledgeBase Manager Pro v5.1.1 has been released today. LDAP integration, lots of new small but tasty features, and numerous improvements have been added to the new version. Dialog with Knowledge Management Software customers turned into fruitful close collaboration and allowed us to make KnowledgeBase Manager Pro more stable, easy-to-use and, we are not afraid of these words now, almost perfect.

After release of KnowledgeBase Manager Pro v5.1 we started development of two versions. Version 5.1.1 has been planned as update with LDAP support and some improvements. That’s what we have now. Everyone who worked with previous version will be happy to update to the latest version of Knowledge Management Tool to have the most stable and featured knowledge management system ever.

What’s New in Knowledge Base Manager Pro v5.1.1?

• LDAP Integration
• Number of interface translations to different languages from the package
• "Users" Tab in Group Add/Edit Window
• "Member of" Tab in User Add/Edit Window
• User Picker/Auto Completer with optional combobox for lists with up to 25 user accounts
• Quick add fields with auto completer
• Main menu trigger preference for back-end users
• Installation Wizard improvements and more comments added
• Ability to view Update Log added on the final step of update process
• Current theme loading added by default in Manage Templates module
• Minimal width set for left category tree in the first theme
• Captcha for "Ask a Question" and "Negative Rating" forms

LDAP Integration

This is the most important update in the new version. LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, and allows usage of single user account directory to login to various applications. KnowledgeBase Manager Pro is one of these applications from this moment. Your administrator won’t longer need to create account for each user – just connect to LDAP server, map LDAP directory groups and KnowledgeBase Manager Pro groups, and retrieve users with all account information in one click.

As well as integration, user account details can be synched and LDAP groups can be mapped with KnowledgeBase Manager Pro groups for role-based permissions.

You can use existing LDAP server to manage user integration and authentication with following options:

• Authorization
• Group Mapping
• Synchronization of User Details
• Synchronization of Groups
• User Group Assignment
• LDAP version 3 support
• And much more is available with LDAP support now.

Supported LDAP platforms: Microsoft Active Directory, Novell, SMB/SAMBA, Posix, Posix Bis

TLS cryptographic protocol also supported and provides security and data integrity for communications with LDAP directory server.

Number of interface translations to different languages from the package

New version is shipped with a set of interface translations. We thank you customers for their contributions in translation of KnowledgeBase Manager Pro to various languages.

• French
• Russian
• German (front-end translation)
• Italian (front-end translation)
• Polish (front-end translation)

"Users" Tab in Group Add/Edit Window

This tab shows users assigned to current group, with ability to add and remove them. It became much easier to maintain knowledge base with large number of users. It is possible to search for a user by his account information and filter out user list.

"Member of" Tab in User Add/Edit Window

This tab shows groups current user assigned to, with ability to add and remove them. You have the complete picture what groups current user is member of. Search and filters can be applied to groups list.

User Picker/Auto Completer with optional combobox for lists with up to 25 user accounts

If you have no more than 25 user accounts in your knowledge base, you can just pick them up from the drop down menu that enumerates them. However if there are lots of users, you may find user picker with autocompleting option handy. You just need to start typing user login, first name, last name, email, or any other information from his profile, and voila – you see this user in the short list below. Single click – and you’ve added him to current group with no hassle.

Quick add fields with auto completer for:

Auto completer already works in WYSIWYG editor when you create links to other articles. Now it is also available in other places to provide maximum ease of use:

• Quick adding of Related Articles
• Quick adding of Users to User Groups
• Quick adding of Groups to User
• other places where it is useful

Main menu trigger preference for back-end users

Main menu items open on hovering of your mouse in previous KnowledgeBase Manager Pro versions. However you might find it inconvenient when menu opens every time you move your mouse over it without intention. That’s why this behavior is now can be changed by option in user settings. You may set menu items to open on click only.

Installation Wizard improvements and more comments added

Installation has become more comprehensive. More Installation Wizard instructions have been added to provide maximum ease of use. There is a reference to online installation manual within our knowledge base running under KnowledgeBase Manager Pro. It includes all possible issues you may face during installation because of unusual server settings. Links to the knowledge base articles next to installation errors have appeared for quick problem resolutions. More detailed information on system requirements is provided now. Some specific server settings experienced by our clients were resolved on software side so installation process on servers with specific settings have become smooth, predictable, and doesn’t require additional intervention.

Ability to view Update Log added on the final step of update process

It is possible now to view full update log after update to the latest version.

Current theme loading added by default in Manage Templates module

When you go to the Manage Templates module, you do not need to search which theme is set in the front-end knowledge base currently. It gets opened automatically and it is also marked out within the themes list.

Minimal width set for left category tree in the first theme

Minimal width for left category tree in the first front-end theme helps to keep your categories and articles names nicely typed without unwanted line breaks.

Captcha for "Ask a Question" and "Negative Rating" forms

Now every publicly available form in the knowledge base has maximum protection against spam bots and automated submissions.

Future of the Knowledge Management System

We have kept our word and reduced new version development cycle to a third. By the way, next version of KnowledgeBase Manager Pro is already under development for two months. It will bring lots of new major features like search indexation of attachments, two new search engines – boolean search and natural language search, article templates, and RTL languages support. More information on next version is available on Knowledge Management Software Roadmap page.

Do you know that KnowledgeBase Manager Pro, wonderful specimen of Knowledge Management Systems, is still the best choice among competitors? You can see that from the Knowledge Management Systems comparison table.

Our flexible licensing policy is perfect for small business knowledge management. A company can buy license according to the number of employees who must have authorized access to the knowledge base, so small business can afford this powerful knowledge management tool.

Do you have an idea or a feature request? We want to hear from you! You can now go to Knowledge Base Manager Pro Ideas Lab and vote for some existing feature requests or add your own feature suggestion.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 9:30 pm and is filed under News, Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.