Article actions reference

Use this page to create or edit an article, open an article record, and choose the available article actions.

Article actions at a glance

The Editor is where you enter an article, and the article record is where you read and manage it after it has been created or updated.

The article surfaces cover creating, editing, reading, deleting, favoriting, following, and commenting. No article lifecycle stages are included in these surfaces.

Start with Before you start.

Before you start

Prerequisites

• Sign in before opening the Editor or the existing article's Editor.
• To edit an existing article, be its author.
• Have the existing article's identifier when opening an existing article or the article record.

The Editor loads an existing article only when the signed-in user is its author. If the author check does not pass, the Editor returns to the home surface.

With these conditions in place, continue to Find and open an article.

Find and open an article

Use this procedure when you need to reach the correct article surface before entering information or selecting an action.

Prerequisites

• Meet the sign-in and ownership requirements in Before you start.
• Have the existing article's identifier when you are opening its Editor or article record.

Steps

1. Choose the article surface that matches your task.

   If you need to…	Open
   Create an article	The Editor
   Edit an existing article	The existing article's Editor
   Read or manage an article	The article record

2. On an article record, select Edit Article to open the existing article in the Editor.

Result: The Editor or the article record is open for the task you selected.

Continue to Understand the article surfaces.

Understand the article surfaces

The Editor is the article-entry surface; the article record is the reading and management surface.

The article owner sees Edit Article and Delete Article. A reader who is not the owner sees follow and favorite controls instead. An authenticated reader sees the comment form; an unauthenticated reader sees Sign in and sign up links instead.

Use Create or edit an article for the Editor, or Manage article actions and branches for the article record.

Create or edit an article

Use this procedure to enter the article information, add or remove tags, and submit a new article or an update.

Prerequisites

• Open the Editor surface identified in Find and open an article.
• Meet the sign-in and ownership requirements in Before you start.

Steps

1. In the field with placeholder Article Title, enter the article title.

2. In the field with placeholder What's this article about?, enter the article description.

3. In the field with placeholder Write your article (in markdown), enter the article body.

4. In Enter tags, enter a tag and press Enter to add it to the article.

5. To remove a tag, select the close icon beside that tag.

6. Select Publish Article.

   Editor opened for	Request used
   A new article	Create the article.
   An existing article	Update the existing article.

Result: After a successful submission, the application opens the article record. While the request is being submitted, the Editor fields and the submit action are disabled. If the request returns an error, the error list appears above the form.

Continue to Manage article actions and branches on the article record.

Manage article actions and branches

An article record offers different actions according to whether you are its author and whether you are signed in.

Prerequisites

• Open the article record identified in Find and open an article.
• Use the ownership and sign-in branch in the table below.

Steps

1. Choose the action that matches your role or task.

   If you are…	Use this path
   The article author	Select Edit Article to change the article, or select Delete Article to delete it.
   Not the article author	Select the follow control or the favorite control in the article metadata row.
   Signed in and adding a comment	Enter the comment in Write a comment..., then select Post Comment.
   Not signed in and adding a comment	Select Sign in or sign up.

Result: A selected article action is applied, the comment is submitted, or the article record is replaced by the home surface that follows a successful deletion.

If an action produces an error, continue to When an article action goes wrong; otherwise, continue to What to do next.

When an article action goes wrong

For the broader application message catalogue, see General error messages.

If no row above matches what you see, continue to What to do next.

What to do next

After you submit an article, continue on the article record. After a successful deletion, the application returns to the home surface.