Knowledge Base

The Knowledge Base (KB) is the place for long-form, slowly-changing company knowledge: HR policies, the employee handbook, technical runbooks, security procedures, “how we work” documents and Standard Operating Procedures. Where News is what just happened, the KB is what is true now. Pages are organised in a hierarchy so they read like a digital handbook, with a permanent sidebar showing the user where they are in the tree and what comes next.

Knowledge Base "Company" page with a left sidebar showing topic categories (Other, Operations/Delivery, Strategy, Sales) and a right column with the page title, "Public" badge, last updated, About Our Company and Our Mission sections

What it is

A KB page is a Drupal node of bundle knowledge_base_page. Pages are connected through Drupal’s core Book module, which gives every page a parent / siblings / children relationship. The Book hierarchy is the navigation backbone: opening any KB page renders a sidebar block showing the section it belongs to, the siblings around it and the children below.

Beyond the body and hierarchy, every KB page carries a Data classification label (Public, Internal, Confidential, etc.), an optional list of Related content to cross-link, Tags for taxonomy filtering and Document references so the page can pin specific files from the Documents library.

Components

The knowledge_base_page content type

Each KB page carries the following editorial fields:

Field	Type	Purpose
Title	Plain text	Headline shown in the sidebar tree, breadcrumbs and as `<h1>`.
Body	Rich text (CKEditor 5)	The long-form content of the page, with images, embedded media, links and the AI Assistant button.
Data classification (`field_data_classification`, required)	List	Information sensitivity label — Public, Internal, Confidential, etc. Rendered as a coloured badge next to the page title.
Document references (`field_oi_document_ref`)	OI Document reference (multi-value)	Pin specific files from the Documents library to the page (the file lives in one place but appears here too).
Related content (`field_related_content`)	Entity reference (multi-value)	Curated list of other pages, articles or events that the reader should consider next.
Tags (`field_tags`)	Taxonomy reference (multi-value)	Topic tags used in faceted search and listings.
Book outline (core)	Book	The page’s position in the Book hierarchy: parent page and weight.

Create Knowledge Base Page form: two tabs (CONTENT, ACCESS), Title and Body editor on the left, right-side panels for Menu, Flags, Sitemap, Book outline, URL alias

The Book hierarchy

Every KB page belongs to a Book. The Book outline panel on the edit form lets the editor pick the parent page (or “Top-level page of book”) and the weight (sort order among siblings).

The Book hierarchy is what gives the KB its handbook feel. Each book can be many levels deep, and the rendered KB page automatically shows:

A sidebar table of contents for the current section.
Breadcrumbs from the root to the current page.
Previous / next navigation between siblings.
A child pages list at the bottom, automatically maintained as new children are added.

The Knowledge Base landing page

The main navigation menu has a Knowledge Base entry that points at the KB landing page (e.g. /pages/knwoledge-base). The landing page is a Basic page laid out with paragraphs and Layout Builder, so each site can shape it differently — typically a hero, a list of top-level Books, and “popular pages” or “recently updated” blocks.

Knowledge Base landing page with site header, breadcrumb and a brief intro

The page detail view

Opening a KB page renders three columns:

Sidebar (left) — the Book navigation block. Top of the block is a KB-scoped search box. Below it the topic tree (e.g. Other, Operations/Delivery, Strategy, Sales) with the current branch expanded. Click any item to jump.
Main column (centre) — the page header (data-classification badge, last-updated timestamp, authors), then the body content rendered with the configured paragraphs.
Right gutter / actions (top) — the standard Edit button for users who can modify the page; the Bookmark action; and on hover, the in-place Frontend editing pencil.

The data-classification badge (e.g. Public, Internal, Confidential) is shown prominently next to the title so a reader always knows the sensitivity of what they are reading.

Per-page access control

KB pages have an extra ACCESS tab in the edit form (and a corresponding /node/{nid}/openintranet-access route). The tab provides the same per-item access form as folders and documents: pick OI Groups that should see the page (with hierarchy inheritance) and / or pick individual users.

Access tab on the Create Knowledge Base Page form

This makes the KB usable for sensitive material: a Confidential HR runbook can be restricted to HR and selected leadership; everyone else sees neither the page nor a “denied” message — it disappears from the sidebar tree, search results and related-content lists.

The full access control story (groups, hierarchy, inheritance, individual users, “bypass” permissions) is on the Documents administration page.

Custom Book block

The custom_book_block module ships with Open Intranet to give site builders a more flexible Book navigation block than core’s. The block can be placed anywhere via Block Layout, restricted to a specific book, and styled per region. The default KB sidebar uses it.

Search and discovery

KB pages are part of two search experiences:

The KB-scoped search box in the sidebar — searches inside the current Book only.
The site-wide search at /search — covers KB pages, articles, pages, documents and users together.

Search covers the title and body of every KB page. Tags and the data classification are exposed as filter facets through Better Exposed Filters.

URL pattern

KB pages are aliased automatically by Pathauto using the pattern /knowledge/[node:title-slug]. Sub-pages also live at /knowledge/..., so the URL hierarchy mirrors the Book hierarchy.

Integration with other features

Documents — Pin files from the Documents library on a KB page through the Document references field; the file lives once in the library and is referenced from the KB page.
Access Control & Groups — The KB Access tab uses the same openintranet_access form, group hierarchy and inheritance rules as Documents. See Access Control & Groups.
Engagement scoring — Page views and time-on-page feed the Engagement RFV score.
Search — Indexed by the default_index Search API index alongside articles, events, pages and documents.
Must Read tracking — A KB page can also be flagged as Must Read to require every employee to read it. See Must Read tracking.
Social interactions — Bookmarks and recently-read apply to KB pages automatically. See Social interactions.
Translations — When additional languages are enabled, KB pages can be translated; each translation has its own revisions.

Permissions

Capability	Default role(s)
View published KB pages	Authenticated user (subject to per-page access)
Create / edit / delete own KB page	Content editor
Edit / delete any KB page	Content editor, Administrator
Add / move / remove pages in a book outline	Content editor
Manage access on a KB page	Content editor + page owner
View revisions / revert	Content editor, Administrator

Modules behind it

Drupal core: node, book, views, path, editor, image
custom_book_block — flexible Book navigation block
openintranet_access — per-page access tab and group-based restrictions
pathauto — /knowledge/{slug} URL alias
search_api — search indexing
flag — bookmarks and Must Read flag

Learn more

How to use it — step-by-step procedures for browsing, adding, editing, linking and reorganising KB pages
Documents — the file library that KB pages can pin from
Access Control & Groups — the group hierarchy that powers per-page restrictions
Must Read tracking — flag a KB page as required reading