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Outline

Interact with Outline knowledge base
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Overview

The node interacts with the Outline knowledge base service, specifically enabling operations on various resources such as documents, collections, users, groups, attachments, and more. For the Document - Search operation, it allows you to perform a search query against documents stored in the Outline knowledge base.

This is useful when you want to programmatically find documents matching certain keywords or criteria within your organization's knowledge base. For example, you could use this node to:

  • Search for documentation related to a specific topic or issue.
  • Retrieve relevant articles based on user queries in a chatbot workflow.
  • Filter documents by date, status, or other metadata to generate reports or trigger further automation.

Properties

Name Meaning
Query The search query string or question to look for in documents.
Additional Fields A collection of optional filters and parameters to refine the search results:
- Date Filter Filter results by date range: Day, Week, Month, or Year.
- Include Archived Whether to include archived documents in the search results (true/false).
- Include Drafts Whether to include draft documents in the search results (true/false).
- Limit Number of results to return (1 to 100). Defaults to 25.
- Offset Number of results to skip (for pagination). Defaults to 0.
- Sort Field to sort results by: Created At, Updated At, Title, or Index. Defaults to Updated At.
- Direction Sort direction: Ascending or Descending. Defaults to Descending.
- Status Filter Filter by document status. Multiple selections allowed: Published, Draft, Archived. Defaults to Published only.

Output

The output is an array of JSON objects representing the search results returned from the Outline API's /documents.search endpoint. Each item corresponds to a document matching the search query and includes its metadata and content summary as provided by the API.

If multiple input items are processed, the output will contain corresponding arrays of results for each.

No binary data output is produced by this operation.

Dependencies

  • Requires an API key credential for authenticating with the Outline knowledge base API.
  • The node uses a generic outlineApiRequest function to make HTTP POST requests to the Outline API endpoints.
  • No additional external dependencies beyond the Outline API and proper credential configuration in n8n.

Troubleshooting

  • Common issues:

    • Invalid or missing API credentials will cause authentication errors.
    • Providing an empty or invalid query string will likely result in no results or an error.
    • Exceeding the limit or offset bounds may cause unexpected behavior or empty results.
    • Network connectivity issues can prevent successful API calls.

  • Error messages:

    • Authentication failures: Check that the API key credential is correctly configured and has necessary permissions.
    • Validation errors: Ensure required fields like "Query" are not empty and optional filters have valid values.
    • Rate limiting or server errors: Retry after some time or check Outline API status.

Links and References

Discussion