Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management
ServiceNow Documentation
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Contents
Knowledge Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Knowledge Management setup guide for admins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Knowledge base setup guide for knowledge admins and managers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Activate the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Knowledge Management roles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Knowledge homepage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Knowledge search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Social Q&A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Enable social Q&A for a knowledge base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Social Q&A questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Social Q&A search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Social Q&A tags. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Knowledge feedback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Request a knowledge base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Create a knowledge article. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Select a knowledge article category. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Move a knowledge article. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Retire a knowledge article. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Create knowledge from an incident or problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Import a Word document to a knowledge base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Create a knowledge article from a customer service case. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Knowledge manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Pin a knowledge article. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Select user criteria for a knowledge base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Select user criteria for an article. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Define a knowledge article category. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Assign a knowledge base manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Knowledge administration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Create a knowledge base. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Knowledge workflows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Knowledge properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Create a custom knowledge homepage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
I18N - Knowledge internationalization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Duplicate knowledge article numbers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Enable search on all knowledge bases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Enable creating an article from a customer service case. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Use knowledge on mobile devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Knowledge Management v3 migration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Knowledge Management
Last updated: November 16, 2017
Knowledge Management has significantly changed with Knowledge v3, which is enabled by
default for all instances starting with the Fuji release.
• Knowledge Management • Video: Getting Started with • Select user criteria for a
release notes Knowledge Management v3 knowledge base
• Upgrade to Kingston • Knowledge Management • Video: How to Control
• Knowledge Management v3 setup guide for admins Knowledge Access Through
• Knowledge homepage • Knowledge base setup guide User Criteria
• Knowledge search for knowledge admins and • Blog: Article Security and
• Contextual search managers Filtering in Knowledge v3
• Social Q&A • Define a knowledge article
category
• Pin a knowledge article
• Knowledge administration
Before users in your organization can start creating knowledge bases and knowledge
articles, you must set up Knowledge Management. Work with stakeholders to define
requirements for setting up Knowledge Management effectively to meet the needs of users.
For this task, you must be an administrator with the admin role.
Requirements
Role required
admin
Stakeholder Responsibilities
Knowledge manager Defines and oversees the knowledge
management processes for day-to-day
operations related to content publishing and
usage.
Knowledge admin Configures advanced settings for specific
Knowledge Management features
Knowledge coach Enables users to adhere to content standards.
Knowledge domain expert Provides domain knowledge expertise.
Version author Contributor to a particular version of an article.
Content creators and reviewers Create, review, and update articles in the
knowledge bases.
Community managers Focus on the creation and curating of social
content.
Line managers Manage teams that create and use knowledge
articles
What to do
Assign knowledge roles to users and groups
Determine which Knowledge Management roles are appropriate for each user, and then
assigning those roles .
If the default knowledge workflows for publishing and retiring knowledge articles are not
appropriate for knowledge bases, create custom workflows for those knowledge bases.
If the default knowledge properties do not fulfill the requirements of users, reconfigure the
properties as necessary.
If languages other than English must be supported, activate the Knowledge Management
Internationalization plugins.
Let knowledge managers and administrators know that they can start configuring their
knowledge bases. For details, refer them to the Knowledge base setup guide for knowledge
admins and managers.
Next steps
Depending on any other requirements for the knowledge bases, you may be asked to help
with additional tasks, such as configuring knowledge homepages.
After basic Knowledge Management setup is completed, you can set up a knowledge base
for users to create and publish knowledge articles.
Multiple knowledge bases can be created for different groups within your organization to
share information within and between those groups.
Administrators create knowledge bases, and assign them to individual managers responsible
for controlling the behavior and organization scheme of each knowledge base.
Each knowledge base contains knowledge articles that provide information for users, such
as policy, release notes, or instructions for a task. Each knowledge base can also use a
separate workflow for publishing and retiring articles.
Requirements
Role required
• Who are the knowledge base managers that are responsible for approving articles?
• Who are the users and contributors for that knowledge base? Access for these users is
defined through user criteria.
• What are the categories to be used to classify articles? Will users be able to create
categories?
• Will users of the knowledge base be able to create new content?
• Will Social Q&A be leveraged for this knowledge base?
What to do
Set up the knowledge base
Next steps
Let users in your organization know that they can start creating and searching articles in the
knowledge base. For details, refer users to the Knowledge Management guide for users.
If you have the knowledge_manager role, there are many other tasks that you can perform
to maintain the knowledge base. You can pin articles so they are featured prominently in the
search results and on homepages. You can also assign other users as managers of a
knowledge base. For details, see Knowledge manager.
The Knowledge Management Advanced plugin includes feature code and demo data.
• Article Versioning
• Article Subscriptions
The Knowledge Management Advanced plugin activates the Subscriptions and Activity
Feed Framework plugin (com.snc.activity_subscriptions).
Demo data is included as part of the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin. If the
validation step performed by the Knowledge Management Advanced Installer plugin
completes successfully, the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin is activated
automatically. However, the demo data is not included in this activation. To load the demo
data, go to the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin page, click the Load Demo Data
Only related link, and then click OK.
Procedure
If the plugin depends on other plugins, these plugins are listed along with their
activation status.
If the plugin has optional features that depend on other plugins, those plugins are listed
under Some files will not be loaded because these plugins are inactive. The optional
features are not installed until the listed plugins are installed (before or after the
installation of the current plugin).
Some plugins include demo data—Sample records that are designed to illustrate plugin
features for common use cases. Loading demo data is a good practice when you first
activate the plugin on a development or test instance.
You can also load demo data after the plugin is activated by clicking the Load Demo
Data Only related link on the System Plugin form.
5. Click Activate.
Administrators assign these roles to the users and groups who maintain the knowledge
content.
Related Tasks
• Create a knowledge article
• Select user criteria for a knowledge base
Related Concepts
• Knowledge manager
• Knowledge administration
Knowledge homepage
Last updated: November 16, 2017
The Knowledge homepage displays knowledge articles and social Q&A questions organized
by knowledge base and category, as well as featured content and popular articles.
If you access knowledge from a service management application, the knowledge homepage
for the associate application opens.
From the homepage, you can import a Word document to a knowledge base using the
Import Articles button. You can also create a new article using the Create An Article button,
or ask a question using the Post a Question button.
Note: You must have user criteria "Can contribute" permission for at least one
active knowledge base, otherwise these buttons do not appear. See
Knowledge Management v3 migration and Knowledge manager.
You can select a knowledge base to browse articles and questions within that knowledge
base. You can view only knowledge bases you can access.
Articles and questions are organized by category or by tag. Categories are listed
alphabetically. While browsing, you can filter content by type to view only knowledge
articles, only social Q&A questions, or only unanswered questions. You can sort content by
most recent update or by number of views.
An administrator can configure the knowledge homepage to display the number of articles
and questions within each category. This count includes articles and questions from
subcategories. To display the article and question count, set the knowledge homepage
property Display or hide the count of articles and questions in the category and child
categories (glide.knowman.show_number_on_categories) to true.
• Knowledge search
You can search for knowledge articles and social Q&A questions from the knowledge
homepage using the search bar at the top of the page.
Related Tasks
• Define a knowledge article category
Related Topics
• Knowledge Management
Knowledge search
Last updated: November 16, 2017
You can search for knowledge articles and social Q&A questions from the knowledge
homepage using the search bar at the top of the page.
Search results include only articles and questions you are authorized to read. The search
results count does not take into consideration any security rules set for the articles;
therefore, the number of articles you could access may be lower than count displayed in the
search results page. The documents that are attached to articles are also listed in the search
results (for those articles to which you have access).
Note: To change how the attachments are displayed in the search results, set the
How to display attachments in Knowledge Search Results property.
Attachments can be displayed with a snippet, link only, or not at all.
To use wildcards in your search, navigate to Contextual Search > Search
Contexts > Knowledge Base Search and enable wildcard search.
You can sort knowledge content by relevancy, most recent update, or number of views.
You can filter results using the check boxes that appear. Filtering options appear depending
on the search text.
Filtering options
Field Description
Type Select if you want to view knowledge articles,
social Q&A questions, or both. This option is only
available if Social Q&A is enabled.
Knowledge Bases Select a knowledge base to search. You can
select only knowledge bases you can access. If
you do not select a specific knowledge base,
search results include articles and questions from
all knowledge bases that you can access. You can
also select a knowledge base from the choice list
in the search bar.
For pinned articles, only those in the selected
knowledge base in the corresponding language
appear.
Filtering a search
Related Tasks
• Request a knowledge base
Related Reference
• Knowledge feedback
• Knowledge search properties
Related Topics
• Knowledge Management
• Global search user preferences
Social Q&A
Last updated: November 16, 2017
If Social Q&A is activated for a knowledge base, you can ask questions and respond to
questions from other users. You can also vote on helpful questions and answers.
Social Q&A extends the Knowledge application. All questions and answers are associated
with a knowledge base. Social Q&A uses Knowledge access controls, search, and the
knowledge homepage.
Social Q&A is available on mobile devices using the mobile knowledge interface. You can
perform all Social Q&A functions on mobile, such as asking and answering questions.
Note: Social Q&A is not compatible with Internet Explorer 9 or earlier. Navigating
to a Social Q&A page using one of these browsers will cause a browser
support warning to appear.
• Enable social Q&A for a knowledge base
As a knowledge manager, you can enable social Q&A for a knowledge base you manage.
• Social Q&A questions
Users can search for specific questions from the knowledge homepage.
• Social Q&A tags
Tags organize questions and provide information about the question subject matter.
Related Concepts
• Use knowledge on mobile devices
Related Topics
• Knowledge Management
As a knowledge manager, you can enable social Q&A for a knowledge base you manage.
All Social Q&A questions and answers are associated with a knowledge base. The Enable
social questions and answers check box on the Knowledge Base form controls if users can
view and ask questions.
Social Q&A uses user criteria from the knowledge base to determine which users have
access to questions. A user must meet the criteria defined in the knowledge base Can Read
related list to view or contribute to Social Q&A questions, answers, and comments
associated with that knowledge base.
Note: The Can Contribute related list does not control the ability to contribute to
Social Q&A. Users that meet the Can Read criteria for a knowledge base can
also contribute questions, answers, and comments.
Procedure
What to do next
You can disable Q&A for a knowledge base by clearing the Enable social questions and
answers check box. Disabling Q&A does not delete existing questions and answers
associated with this knowledge base, but prevents users from browsing or searching for
those questions and answers.
Related Concepts
• Social Q&A questions
• Social Q&A search
• Social Q&A tags
You can browse and search for questions from the Knowledge homepage (Self-Service >
Knowledge). Questions appear along with knowledge articles organized by knowledge base,
category, and tags.
Click on a question to view the question details, as well as responses and comments. You
can add responses and comments, vote on existing responses, share questions, and edit
your own questions and answers from the question details.
• Ask a social Q&A question
As a Social Q&A user, you can ask questions that other users can respond to.
• Answer a question
As a user, you can answer a question another used has asked. The owner of the question
or the knowledge manager can then accept the answer.
• Comment on a question or answer
You can edit questions, answers and comments you submit, or in knowledge bases you
manage.
• Vote on a question or answer
As a Social Q&A user you can vote on a question or answer to promote it.
• Subscribe to a question
You are automatically subscribed to any question you ask, so you receive notifications
when another user votes on, comments on, or answers the question. If you want to
receive notifications for a question asked by another use, you can manually subscribe to
the question.
• Delete a question, answer, or comment
The Social Q&A questions and answers are automatically associated with the language
that is set for the interface.
Related Tasks
• Enable social Q&A for a knowledge base
Related Concepts
• Social Q&A search
• Social Q&A tags
As a Social Q&A user, you can ask questions that other users can respond to.
Procedure
Question fields
Field Description
Title Enter the question you have.
Question details Enter additional details about the question that
may help other users provide an answer.
Knowledge base Select the knowledge base this question relates
to. You can select only knowledge bases
configured to allow Q&A.
Category Select the knowledge category this question
relates to. You can select only categories within
the selected knowledge base. Questions
Field Description
without a category appear on the knowledge
homepage in the (empty) category.
Tags Enter one or more tags that describe the
question.
What to do next
To accept the answer, click the Accept link from within the answer. The accepted answer
moves to the top of the list of answers. You can unaccept an answer by clicking Unaccept.
Note: You must be the owner of the question or the knowledge manager to accept
an answer.
Related Tasks
• Answer a question
• Comment on a question or answer
• Edit a question, answer, or comment
• Vote on a question or answer
• Subscribe to a question
• Delete a question, answer, or comment
• Share a question
Related Concepts
• Social Q&A internationalization support
Answer a question
Last updated: November 16, 2017
As a user, you can answer a question another used has asked. The owner of the question or
the knowledge manager can then accept the answer.
As a knowledge manager or the owner of a question, you can accept an answer as the
correct answer. That answer then appears above other answers for the question.
Procedure
Related Tasks
• Ask a social Q&A question
• Comment on a question or answer
• Edit a question, answer, or comment
• Vote on a question or answer
• Subscribe to a question
• Delete a question, answer, or comment
• Share a question
Related Concepts
• Social Q&A internationalization support
Procedure
Related Tasks
• Ask a social Q&A question
• Answer a question
• Edit a question, answer, or comment
• Vote on a question or answer
• Subscribe to a question
• Delete a question, answer, or comment
• Share a question
Related Concepts
• Social Q&A internationalization support
You can edit questions, answers and comments you submit, or in knowledge bases you
manage.
Procedure
Related Tasks
• Ask a social Q&A question
• Answer a question
• Comment on a question or answer
• Vote on a question or answer
• Subscribe to a question
• Delete a question, answer, or comment
• Share a question
Related Concepts
• Social Q&A internationalization support
As a Social Q&A user you can vote on a question or answer to promote it.
Vote up questions that you want users to answer, and answers that you believe accurately
resolve questions. Alternatively, vote down questions that you do not find useful, or answers
that you believe are incorrect. You can vote for each question or answer only once, but you
can change your vote.
Answers with a higher score appear above answers with a lower score when viewing a
question. A pinned answer appears above other answers regardless of votes.
Procedure
What to do next
Related Tasks
• Ask a social Q&A question
• Answer a question
• Comment on a question or answer
• Edit a question, answer, or comment
• Subscribe to a question
• Delete a question, answer, or comment
• Share a question
Related Concepts
• Social Q&A internationalization support
Subscribe to a question
Last updated: November 16, 2017
You are automatically subscribed to any question you ask, so you receive notifications when
another user votes on, comments on, or answers the question. If you want to receive
notifications for a question asked by another use, you can manually subscribe to the
question.
Procedure
What to do next
If you want later to stop receiving notifications about this question, click the unsubscribe
icon ( ).
Related Tasks
• Ask a social Q&A question
• Answer a question
• Comment on a question or answer
• Edit a question, answer, or comment
• Vote on a question or answer
• Delete a question, answer, or comment
• Share a question
Related Concepts
• Social Q&A internationalization support
You can delete only questions, answers, and comments you submitted. Knowledge
managers can delete any question, answer, or comment within knowledge bases they
manage.
Procedure
Related Tasks
• Ask a social Q&A question
• Answer a question
• Comment on a question or answer
• Edit a question, answer, or comment
• Vote on a question or answer
• Subscribe to a question
• Share a question
Related Concepts
• Social Q&A internationalization support
Share a question
Last updated: November 16, 2017
Procedure
What to do next
Related Tasks
• Ask a social Q&A question
• Answer a question
• Comment on a question or answer
• Edit a question, answer, or comment
• Vote on a question or answer
• Subscribe to a question
• Delete a question, answer, or comment
Related Concepts
• Social Q&A internationalization support
The Social Q&A questions and answers are automatically associated with the language that
is set for the interface.
You can only browse and search for questions in the language currently set for the interface.
For example, if a Social Q&A user has set French as the interface language, any questions
that the user asks is associated with the French language. All Social Q&A users who want to
view those questions must have their interface language set to French.
Note: For Social Q&A internationalization to take effect, you must clear the
platform cache and browser cache after selecting the desired language.
Related Tasks
• Ask a social Q&A question
• Answer a question
• Comment on a question or answer
• Edit a question, answer, or comment
• Vote on a question or answer
• Subscribe to a question
• Delete a question, answer, or comment
• Share a question
Users can search for specific questions from the knowledge homepage.
Social Q&A uses knowledge search to provide search results. Searching knowledge returns
questions that contain the search terms in the question title or the question details, or in the
accepted answer.
By default, knowledge search results include both knowledge articles and questions. You can
filter results using knowledge search controls, such as filtering by knowledge base or author.
Social Q&A results also appear with knowledge articles when using global search.
Social Q&A uses the Contextual Search feature to generate search results. Questions appear
in Contextual Search results, such as when creating an incident. The Social QA Question
Search Context and Social QA Question Searcher records define the Social Q&A search. To
ensure Social Q&A search functions as intended, do not modify these records.
Related Tasks
• Enable social Q&A for a knowledge base
Related Concepts
• Social Q&A questions
• Social Q&A tags
Tags organize questions and provide information about the question subject matter.
Social Q&A shares available tags with other applications allowing you to organize records
consistently across the instance. Tags are stored on the Tags [label] table.
You can view a list of tags and filter by tag from the knowledge homepage. Clicking on a tag
displays a list of knowledge articles and questions with that tag.
Only users who can edit a question can edit the associated tags. By default, only the
question owner and knowledge managers can add or remove tags on questions.
Related Tasks
• Enable social Q&A for a knowledge base
Related Concepts
• Social Q&A questions
• Social Q&A search
• Social Q&A search
• Social Q&A
Knowledge feedback
Last updated: November 16, 2017
Feedback options
You can submit feedback for knowledge articles in these ways:
Users can view comments directly on the article. Knowledge managers can view the other
types of feedback by navigating to Knowledge > Feedback.
Administrators and knowledge managers can disable some feedback options using fields on
the Knowledge Base form. Administrators can configure feedback options using properties.
Flagging articles
You can flag an article for incorrect or inappropriate content. Click Flag Article in the article
header to open a new window, allowing you to enter suggested changes.
• If enabled, the system uses live feed to manage and display feedback on knowledge
articles. Flagged comments do not appear on the Article View page. Users with the admin,
knowledge_admin, and knowledge_admin roles can access flagged articles by navigating
to Knowledge > Articles > All Flagged. Users with the knowledge role can access their
flagged articles by navigating to Knowledge > Articles > My Flagged.
• If disabled, the author of the article and users with the admin, knowledge_admin, and
knowledge_manager roles can see all flagged comments. Other users can see only their
own flagged comments.
Flagged comments are stored in the Knowledge Feedback (kb_feedback) table but not the
Live Feed Messages (live_message) table.
Rating articles
The five stars below the article title allow you to indicate the article's effectiveness on a scale
of 1 to 5.
Marking articles
The question Helpful? at the bottom of the article allows you to indicate the usefulness of
the article with a simple Yes or No answer.
Comments
Knowledge comments at the bottom of the article use live feed to enable a conversation
around a knowledge article. For example, you can post replies to comments, add
attachments, or Like comments.
Related Tasks
• Request a knowledge base
• Create a knowledge article
Related Topics
• Knowledge Management
If existing knowledge bases do not fit your needs, you can request a new knowledge base
through the service catalog. If the request is approved, you are added as the owner of the
new knowledge base.
If no knowledge base exists that fit your needs, all users can request a new knowledge base.
Procedure
What to do next
You are notified when the request is approved or rejected. If the request is approved, you are
added as the owner of the new knowledge base. You can then assign managers and manage
articles in the new knowledge base.
Knowledge bases created through this request process are inactive by default, so you must
activate the knowledge base to make it available for users.
Related Tasks
• Assign a knowledge base manager
• Pin a knowledge article
• Create a knowledge article
Knowledge contributors can create and edit knowledge articles within a knowledge base to
share information across your organization.
Users with at least one role can create and edit knowledge. These users are known as
knowledge contributors. Users without any role can read articles and submit feedback, but
cannot create or edit articles.
Some knowledge bases may allow only certain users to contribute. For example, a member
of the IT department can create knowledge articles in the IT knowledge base, such as
desktop support information or articles describing company IT processes.
Procedure
Note: You must have user criteria "Can contribute" permission for at least one
active knowledge base, otherwise the Create An Article button does not
appear. See Knowledge Management v3 migration and Knowledge
manager.
3. Select an article template.
Note: To view an article template, the article template feature must be enabled
and the article template needs to be activated.
4. Fill in the fields on the form, as appropriate.
Knowledge form
Field Description
Knowledge Base The knowledge base selected for this article.
Category The category for this article. Select a
Knowledge Base before you can select a
category. Articles without a category appear
on the knowledge homepage in the (empty)
category.
Field Description
Published The date this knowledge article was published.
This value is set when the article is created, and
updated when the article is published.
Valid to The date this knowledge article expires. Articles
do not appear in search results after the valid
to date, or if the valid to date is empty.
Image An image that appears beside the article when
searching from the legacy knowledge portal.
Article type The type of article, either HTML or wiki.
What to do next
After saving the article record, you can add tags to further organize the article.
Any additional steps required to publish the article, such as approvals, depend on the
publishing workflow for the knowledge base.
• Select a knowledge article category
Knowledge articles within a knowledge base are grouped by category. These groups can
help you define the knowledge base taxonomy, and can help users find articles within that
knowledge base.
• Move a knowledge article
To create knowledge from an incident or problem, select the Knowledge check box on the
incident or problem form and close the incident or problem record.
• Import a Word document to a knowledge base
Reuse information from a customer service case by creating knowledge articles from
cases.
Related Concepts
• Knowledge Management v3 migration
• Knowledge manager
Related Topics
• Assign a tag using the edit tags icon
Knowledge articles within a knowledge base are grouped by category. These groups can
help you define the knowledge base taxonomy, and can help users find articles within that
knowledge base.
As a knowledge contributor, when editing a knowledge article you can select categories
using the Category picker, and add or edit categories if enabled for the knowledge base.
Procedure
2. Select an existing category, or click the add category icon (+) to add a new category.
After you select a category, you can click the pen icon to rename that category. Press
the enter key or click outside the selected category to save the change.
Related Tasks
• Move a knowledge article
• Create knowledge from an incident or problem
• Import a Word document to a knowledge base
• Create a knowledge article from a customer service case
Related Concepts
• Retire a knowledge article
A knowledge manager can define default values for articles in knowledge bases you
manage using the Set default knowledge field values field on the Knowledge Base form.
4. Click Update.
Related Tasks
• Select a knowledge article category
• Create knowledge from an incident or problem
• Import a Word document to a knowledge base
• Create a knowledge article from a customer service case
Related Concepts
• Retire a knowledge article
When editing an article, click Retire to launch the retirement workflow associated with that
article.
Related Tasks
• Select a knowledge article category
• Move a knowledge article
• Create knowledge from an incident or problem
• Import a Word document to a knowledge base
• Create a knowledge article from a customer service case
To create knowledge from an incident or problem, select the Knowledge check box on the
incident or problem form and close the incident or problem record.
The short description from the incident or problem becomes the knowledge article title.
Articles created this way are added to the knowledge base specified in the property
glide.knowman.task_kb.
true, a submission record is created instead of a knowledge article. A user with the
knowledge role must approve the submission to create a knowledge article.
Approving a submission creates a new knowledge article using the submission content.
Procedure
What to do next
You can edit the new knowledge article before publishing it, such as to select a category.
Related Tasks
• Select a knowledge article category
• Move a knowledge article
• Import a Word document to a knowledge base
• Create a knowledge article from a customer service case
Related Concepts
• Retire a knowledge article
Role required: None. You must have user criteria "Can contribute" permission for at least one
active knowledge base. If you cannot contribute, the Import Articles button does not appear.
Note: An administrator can control the visibilty of the Import Articles button by
setting the other knowledge property Hide the 'Import' functionality (button
and drag-n-drop) for all users
(glide.knowman.import.hide_import_functionality) to true.
Importing documents to knowledge is available only from a computer browser. You cannot
import documents from a mobile device.
When you import a document, text content from the document is used to create the
knowledge article. All HTML supported by the TinyMCE editor such as tables, lists, and links,
as well as styling such as bold and italics, are preserved. Images from the document are
added as attachments to the knowledge article and embedded in the article body.
Note: You can import multiple files at a time. Closing the browser or navigating
away cancels any in-progress uploads but does not delete articles created
from completed imports.
You cannot import documents to knowledge from mobile devices.
The following styles and elements are preserved when importing a .doc or .docx file into a
knowledge base. Styles and elements not included in this list may not be preserved when
importing a document.
• Titles
• Headings
• Images
• Links
• Bold text
• Italic text
• Underlined text
• Ordered and unordered lists
• Tables
Note: Only default heading settings are supported. Custom heading styles are
imported using the default settings for those styles. Table styling and
borders are not supported.
Procedure
6. Click Import.
A new article is created in the selected knowledge base and category using the content
from the uploaded document. If you uploaded multiple documents, one article is created
for each. If you use knowledge internationalization, the language of the new article is set
to the currently selected system language.
After the upload completes, a popup window appears displaying the number and short
description of the newly-created articles. Click an article to view the full record.
If any errors occur during the upload, a popup window appears to display the error.
Related Tasks
• Select a knowledge article category
• Move a knowledge article
• Create knowledge from an incident or problem
• Create a knowledge article from a customer service case
Related Concepts
• Retire a knowledge article
Reuse information from a customer service case by creating knowledge articles from cases.
Your administrator must enable creation of articles from customer service cases.
Procedure
Related Tasks
• Select a knowledge article category
• Move a knowledge article
• Create knowledge from an incident or problem
• Import a Word document to a knowledge base
Related Concepts
• Retire a knowledge article
Knowledge manager
Last updated: November 16, 2017
As a knowledge manager, you can assign other managers, define category structures,
configure which users can read and contribute articles, move and pin articles, and modify
most fields on the Knowledge Base form. You can also approve the publishing or retiring of
knowledge articles in those knowledge bases. You can enable Social Q&A for your
knowledge bases if the Social Q&A application is active.
The primary manager of a knowledge base is the owner of that knowledge base. Each
knowledge base must have one owner. There may be any number of additional managers for
each knowledge base. All managers of a knowledge base, including the owner, automatically
receive the knowledge_manager role.
The following podcast offers additional information on using the Knowledge Management.
• Pin a knowledge article
You can pin an article to appear at the top of knowledge search results and in the
Featured content section of the knowledge homepage.
• Select user criteria for a knowledge base
You can specify user criteria to control which users can create, read, write, and retire
knowledge articles within a knowledge base.
• Select user criteria for an article
You can specify user criteria for an article to control which users can read the article.
• Define a knowledge article category
Each knowledge base has a hierarchy of categories that organizes the articles.
• Assign a knowledge base manager
Related Concepts
• Knowledge administration
• Knowledge Management v3 migration
You can pin an article to appear at the top of knowledge search results and in the Featured
content section of the knowledge homepage.
Pinning associates an article to specific keywords. Searching for a keyword causes articles
with that keyword to appear at the top of search results. You can pin articles that need to be
distributed broadly, such as a maintenance notice or new HR policy.
Procedure
Note: When searching a particular knowledge base, only pinned articles within
the selected knowledge base in the corresponding language appear.
3. In the Featured content related list, click New.
4. Select a Knowledge article.
5. Click the lock icon to expand the Keywords field.
6. Select or create knowledge keywords using the reference lookup icon.
Note: Only articles with the keyword homepage are shown in the Featured
Content section of the knowledge homepage.
7. After adding all keywords, click Submit.
Related Tasks
• Select user criteria for a knowledge base
• Select user criteria for an article
• Define a knowledge article category
• Assign a knowledge base manager
You can specify user criteria to control which users can create, read, write, and retire
knowledge articles within a knowledge base.
User criteria refers to knowledge base records that determine the users who can read or
contribute to a knowledge base. User criteria definitions:
canRead
cantRead
users who cannot read, create, or modify articles in the knowledge base
canContribute
users who can read, create, and modify articles in the knowledge base
cantContribute
No User Criteria
If a knowledge base has no user criteria, all users can read its articles. Any user having at
least one role can create and edit articles, unless they are members of the cantContribute
user criteria. If a knowledge base has canRead user criteria, but no canContribute user
criteria, all users with at least one role can access and modify the knowledge base. This
video demonstrates how to control Knowledge Management access through user criteria.
This video demonstrates how to control Knowledge Management access through user
criteria.
Procedure
Option Description
Can read Users who meet one of these criteria can read
articles in this knowledge base.
Result
Note: In the tables of rules, an implicit last rule is: All Users -> Denied Create, Read.
Related Tasks
• Pin a knowledge article
• Select user criteria for an article
• Define a knowledge article category
• Assign a knowledge base manager
You can specify user criteria for an article to control which users can read the article.
If an article has no user criteria selected, the article is available to all users who have access
to that knowledge base (based on the user criteria for the knowledge base). Knowledge
base user criteria restrictions override article-level user criteria. For example, a knowledge
base that is configured to restrict user access overrides any access granted at the article
level.
On the article level, if Can read user criteria is defined, only those users specified can read
the article. If an article has Cannot read user criteria defined, those users specified are
denied reading the article. Cannot read user criteria overrides Can read user criteria for
articles.
Procedure
Note: If the Can Read and Cannot Read fields are not visible, add the fields to
the form by configuring the form layout (click the form context menu
icon and select Configure > Form Layout).
Result
Note: When article-level read access is assigned to an article, only the user who
belongs to that particular user criteria can read the article. Other users are
restricted.
Related Tasks
• Pin a knowledge article
• Select user criteria for a knowledge base
• Define a knowledge article category
• Assign a knowledge base manager
Each knowledge base has a hierarchy of categories that organizes the articles.
A category can be a top-level category or a child category. The parent of a child category
can be a top-level category or another child category. By making a category the child of
another child category you can create a category structure with any number of levels.
You can create and edit categories separately for each knowledge base.
Procedure
Option Action
Create a top-level category. Navigate to the Knowledge Categories related
list and click New.
Knowledge categories
4. Enter a Label for the category. The label appears as the name of the category.
5. (Optional) Enter a Value you can use when referencing the category in scripts.
6. Click Submit.
What to do next
Related Tasks
• Pin a knowledge article
• Select user criteria for a knowledge base
• Select user criteria for an article
• Assign a knowledge base manager
• Select a knowledge article category
Procedure
What to do next
You can remove a knowledge base manager by removing that user from the Managers field.
If the user is not a manager of any other knowledge base, the knowledge_manager role is
removed from that user.
Related Tasks
• Pin a knowledge article
• Select user criteria for a knowledge base
• Select user criteria for an article
• Define a knowledge article category
Knowledge administration
Last updated: November 16, 2017
The following podcast offers additional information on using the Knowledge Base
Application.
soundcloudhttps://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/
243779653&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false
topic/object file:/mnt/jenkins/workspace/dita/zoominV4_2.4.4_KCodeFreezebranch_004-
test-sn-kingston-build/doc/source/product/knowledge-management/concept/
c_KnowledgeAdministration.ditaobject:1;27:218
• Create a knowledge base
An administrator can set knowledge base field values when creating a knowledge base.
Knowledge managers can set field values for knowledge bases they manage.
• Knowledge workflows
The publishing and retirement processes for a knowledge article are controlled by
workflows defined for the knowledge base that the article belongs to.
• Knowledge properties
As an administrator, you can configure the look and functionality of many knowledge
base features with knowledge properties.
• Create a custom knowledge homepage
As a system administrator, you can create a module allowing users to open a knowledge
homepage for a specific knowledge base or category.
Organizations with knowledge users who speak multiple languages can activate the
optional knowledge internationalization features.
• Duplicate knowledge article numbers
Importing knowledge articles into an instance can create articles with duplicate numbers.
• Enable search on all knowledge bases
Configure the knowledge base search source in the service portal to perform a search on
all knowledge bases.
• Enable creating an article from a customer service case
You can enable authors to reuse information in a case by copying case details into an
article template. Use the pre-defined customer service source case table to article
template target table configuration or create custom configurations between the two
tables to copy information from a case to an article.
Related Concepts
• Knowledge Management v3 migration
An administrator can set knowledge base field values when creating a knowledge base.
Knowledge managers can set field values for knowledge bases they manage.
Field Description
Note: Knowledge managers cannot
change the Owner field value.
Related Tasks
• Enable social Q&A for a knowledge base
• Create a custom knowledge homepage
Related Concepts
• I18N - Knowledge internationalization
Related Reference
• Knowledge workflows
• Knowledge properties
Knowledge workflows
Last updated: November 16, 2017
The publishing and retirement processes for a knowledge article are controlled by workflows
defined for the knowledge base that the article belongs to.
You can use one of the default workflows, or create your own workflows to define custom
publishing and retirement processes for different types of knowledge.
For the workflows that require approval, you can configure which users can approve or
reject by editing the getApprovers() function in the KBWorkflow script include.
Related Tasks
• Create a custom knowledge homepage
Related Concepts
• I18N - Knowledge internationalization
Related Reference
• Knowledge properties
Knowledge properties
Last updated: November 16, 2017
As an administrator, you can configure the look and functionality of many knowledge base
features with knowledge properties.
You can access knowledge properties by navigating to Knowledge > Administration >
Properties.
Property Description
Number of columns on Knowledge portal pages. Set the number of columns for arranging topics
(glide.knowman.columns) on the knowledge portal.
Maximum number of articles per content block on Enter the maximum number of articles to display
the home page in the Most Useful and Most Viewed sections of
(glide.knowman.content_block_limit) the knowledge homepage.
Omit empty Knowledge topics and categories. Select the Yes check box to display topic sections
(glide.knowman.show_only_populated) only if there are articles for the topic. Clear the
check box to show all topic sections, even those
with no assigned articles.
Show Knowledge section descriptions. Select the Yes check box to display topic
(glide.knowman.show_descriptions) descriptions in the knowledge portal. To enter
these descriptions:
Property Description
Note: This property applies only to
Knowledge v2 pages. This
property is not supported on
Knowledge v3 pages.
Number of Knowledge Base items to preview in a Set the maximum number of articles per topic for
section. (glide.knowman.section_limit) the knowledge portal. The specific articles shown
depends on the Knowledge section sort field
property setting.
Knowledge section sort field. Select the default order for articles within each
(glide.knowman.section_sort) topic section on the knowledge portal.
Knowledge Base section sort direction. Select the order, ascending or descending, in
(glide.knowman.section_sort_direction) which articles are listed within each topic section
on the knowledge portal. The value used for
sorting is set in the Knowledge section sort field
property.
Show unpublished articles in Knowledge Base Select the Yes check box to allow users to see
portal and topic lists. unpublished articles in the knowledge portal and
(glide.knowman.show_unpublished) knowledge search results. Use the subsequent
List of roles... properties to designated which
users can see articles in various unpublished
states. If this is not selected, users with
appropriate roles can access unpublished articles
through other modules of the Knowledge Base
application.
List of roles (comma separated) that can see Enter role names exactly as they appear in User
articles in the Review workflow state in the Administration > Roles. If Show unpublished
Knowledge portal and Topic list. articles in Knowledge Base portal and topic lists
(glide.knowman.section.view_roles.review) is selected, users with these roles see articles in
the Review workflow state in the knowledge
Property Description
portal, in the topic list that appears when they
click a topic title on the portal, and in knowledge
search results.
List of roles (comma separated) that can see Enter role names exactly as they appear in User
articles in the Draft workflow state in the Administration > Roles. If Show unpublished
Knowledge portal and Topic list. articles in Knowledge Base portal and topic lists
(glide.knowman.section.view_roles.draft) is selected, users with these roles see articles in
the Draft workflow state in the knowledge portal,
in the topic list that appears when they click a
topic title on the portal, and in knowledge search
results.
Define roles that can view articles in other/ Enter role names exactly as they appear in User
custom workflow states. Do not include Draft and Administration > Roles. If Show unpublished
Review states, as they are already defined in articles in Knowledge Base portal and topic lists
other properties. (Format - stage:[roles];) For is selected, define the custom field and role as
example: workflow state:[roles];. The users with these roles
see articles in the custom workflow state on the
knowledge portal.
The number of articles that are asynchronously Enter the number of articles to be displayed
loaded when scrolling down in the new search during a search.
results page.
(glide.knowman.search.articles_per_page) Note: This property applies only to
Knowledge v3 pages. This
property is not supported on
Knowledge v2 pages.
Show only Knowledge topic titles on portal page Select the Yes check box to omit all article titles
(no article links). from the knowledge portal and show only the
(glide.knowman.home_titlesonly) topic names. Users can click the topic title to see
the list of related articles.
Number of days (integer, default 30) used when Enter a number of days to consider when
summing article views. Views older than this are calculating view count. This is used only when the
not considered when sorting articles based on Knowledge section sort field property is set to
view count. 0 means consider all views. View count. Enter 0 to have
(glide.knowman.view_age.days) ServiceNowServiceNow consider all views,
regardless of date.
Automatically place cursor in Knowledge portal Select the Yes check box to have
search box. ServiceNowServiceNow place the cursor in the
(glide.knowman.portal_search_focus) search field when a user opens the knowledge
portal. Clear the check box to have users click in
the search field before entering a search term.
Property Description
Knowledge search result order. Select the order for displaying search results:
(glide.knowman.order.search)
• Number of Views: orders search results based
on the Number of days used when summing
article views property.
• Relevancy: orders search results based on
content that is similar to the search term.
• Last Modified: orders search results based on
modification date.
Search method used when searching Knowledge Select the search approach to use when the
from a task or directly in the Knowledge Base. search term includes multiple words.
(glide.knowman.search.operator)
• OR query: returns articles that contain at least
one word from the search term.
• AND then OR query: first searches for articles
that include all words in the search term (an
AND query). If no matches are found, an OR
query is performed.
Show author in knowledge search results. Select this check box to include the author of
(glide.knowman.search.show_author) each article in knowledge search results.
If the article versioning feature is enabled, articles
with a version number less than or equal to 1.0
display Authored by <name> and articles with a
version number greater than 1.0 display Revised
by <name>.
Show last modified date and time in knowledge Select this check box to include the date and
search results. time each article was last edited in knowledge
(glide.knowman.search.show_last_modified) search results.
Show publish date in knowledge search results. Select this check box to include the date each
(glide.knowman.search.show_published) article was published in knowledge search results.
Show category in knowledge search results. Select this check box to include the category
(glide.knowman.search.show_category) breadcrumbs of each article in knowledge search
results.
Show number of views in knowledge search Select this check box to include the number of
results. (glide.knowman.search.show_view_count) times each article was viewed in knowledge
search results.
How to display attachments in Knowledge Search Select the behavior of how the attachments are
Results. (glide.knowman.search.attachment) shown in the search results:
Property Description
Show relevancy in knowledge search results. Select this check box to show how relevant each
(glide.knowman.search.show_relevancy) search result is based on the search string.
Relevancy value is only shown when knowledge
search result order property is set to Relevancy.
Enable instant search results for knowledge. Select this check box to enable instant search for
(glide.knowman.search.instant_results) search results. The default is No.
Show Knowledge Base name in Knowledge Select this check box to display the knowledge
search results. base to which the knowledge base article
(glide.knowman.search.show_knowledgebase) belongs. For example, IT.
Show average rating from knowledge search Select this check box to display the average star
results. (glide.knowman.search.show_rating) ratings for knowledge base articles.
Show article number in knowledge search results. Select this check box to display the article
(glide.knowman.search.show_article_number) number for each article in the search result.
If the article versioning feature is enabled, the
article number and the version number are
displayed for each article in the search result.
• String
• Default value: user-specified
• Location: System Properties
Note: If the
glide.knowman.enable_multi_language_search(pro
is set to True, then the multi-language search capa
overrides the default language search capability.
Property Description
Show tasks to which an article has been recently Select the Yes check box to have article view
attached. include a list of tasks associated with the article.
(glide.knowman.recent_tasks.display) Knowledge articles can be attached to a task by
clicking the Attach to Task button after searching
from a form.
Number of attached tasks to display when Specify the maximum number of tasks to list in
viewing an article. article view.
(glide.knowman.recent_tasks)
Show article rating section, which may optionally Select the Yes check box to display the rating
include yes/no rating, star rating, and flagging options for users with specific roles. Clear this
options. check box to omit the rating section for all users,
(glide.knowman.show_rating_options) regardless of role.
The Feedback field is always displayed for all
users.
List of roles (comma separated) that can see an Enter role names exactly as they appear in User
article's rating section, which may optionally Administration > Roles. If Show article rating
include yes/no rating, star rating, and flagging section... is selected, users with the roles listed
option. here see the yes/no rating, star rating, and
(glide.knowman.show_rating_options.roles) flagging options, according to related property
settings.
Be sure to include all roles that should be
permitted to see any of these rating options.
Separate properties enable you to identify
specific roles for each option separately. All roles
in those properties must also be listed here.
Show the "Was this article helpful?" yes/no rating Select the Yes check box to display the "Was this
option. (glide.knowman.show_yn_rating) article helpful?" rating to users with roles set in
the associated property. This appears only if the
Show article rating section... property is selected.
List of roles (comma separated) that can see Enter role names exactly as they appear in User
yes/no "Was this article helpful?" rating option. Administration > Roles. If both Show article rating
(glide.knowman.show_yn_rating.roles) section... and Show the "Was this article helpful?"
properties are selected, users with the roles listed
here see the "Was this article helpful?" rating in
article view.
All roles listed here must also be listed in the List
of roles that can see an article's rating
section..."property.
Show "Create Incident" link after a Knowledge Select the Yes check box to display the Create
article is rated not helpful. Incident link after a user rates an article as not
(glide.knowman.create_incident_link.display) helpful.
URL used for the "Create Incident" link after Enter the URL for the page where users can
rating a Knowledge article not helpful. create an incident only if the Show "Create
(glide.knowman.create_incident_link) Incident" link..." property is selected.
To find the URL, open the appropriate page, then
right-click the header bar and choose Copy URL.
Highlight the URL that appears and use the
browser's copy and paste feature to place it into
this property field.
Show five-star rating option. Select the Yes check box to display the five-star
(glide.knowman.show_star_rating) rating to users with roles set in the associated
Property Description
property. This appears only if the Show article
rating section... property is selected.
List of roles (comma separated) that can see five- Enter role names exactly as they appear in User
star rating option. Administration > Roles. If both Show article rating
(glide.knowman.show_star_rating.roles) section... and Show five-star rating option
properties are selected, users with the roles listed
here see the five-star rating option in article view.
All roles listed here must also be listed in the List
of roles that can see an article's rating section..."
property.
Show "Flag Article" option to identify Select the Yes check box to display the flag
incomplete/inaccurate articles. article option to users with roles set in the
(glide.knowman.show_flag) associated property. This appears only if the
Show article rating section... property is selected.
List of roles (comma separated) that can flag Enter role names exactly as they appear in User
incomplete/inaccurate articles. Administration > Roles. If both Show article
(glide.knowman.show_flag.roles) rating section... and Show "Flag Article" option
properties are selected, users with the roles listed
here see the flag article option in article view.
All roles listed here must also be listed in the List
of roles that can see an article's rating
section..."property.
Show user comments on knowledge articles. Select an option for showing user comments
(glide.knowman.show_user_feedback) When article loads, When user clicks link to show
comments, or Never for users with roles set in the
associated property:
List of roles (comma separated) that can see user Enter role names exactly as they appear in User
comments on an article. Administration > Roles. If the Show user
(glide.knowman.show_user_feedback.roles) comments on knowledge articles property is
selected, users with the roles listed here see user
comments in article view.
Maximum number of user comments displayed Set a maximum number of user comments to
on a knowledge article. display. This property applies only to the legacy
(glide.knowman.feedback.display_threshold) Knowledge article view.
Use Live Feed for Knowledge feedback. Select this option to use live feed to manage and
(glide.knowman.use_live_feed) display feedback on knowledge articles.
Table title
Property Description
Display or hide the count of articles and Select to display or hide the count of knowledge
questions in the Knowledge Homepage. articles and questions on the Knowledge
(glide.knowman.show_number_on_homepage) homepage.
Default keyword for getting pinned articles Enter a default keyword for pinned articles.
(glide.knowman.default_keyword) Articles pinned with the specified keyword
appear in the Featured Content section of the
knowledge homepage.
Property Description
Display or hide the count of articles and Select to display the count of articles and
questions in the category and child categories questions within each category, including
(glide.knowman.show_number_on_categories) subcategories, when browsing or searching
knowledge bases.
Show Knowledge Home page when user has Select to display the Knowledge homepage when
access to only one Knowledge Base the current user has access to only one
(glide.knowman.show_home_if_one_kb) knowledge base.
Default header title for the pinned articles section Enter a title for the Featured Content section of
on knowledge home pages. the knowledge homepage.
(glide.knowman.default_pinned_section_header_title)
Property Description
When attaching an article to an incident, copy the When a user searches knowledge from a task
content into this field. form (such as an incident, problem, or change)
(glide.knowman.attach.fields) and clicks the Attach to Task button for an article,
the system copies the article number and content
into the field specified here.
You can specify a separate field for each table
you want to attach articles to as a comma-
separated list. Use dot walking to copy the article
content into related records. If a specified field
does not exist, that field is ignored.
Hide the 'Import' functionality (button and drag- Select Yes to hide the Import Articles button.
n-drop) for all users. If you have not yet migrated to Knowledge v3
(glide.knowman.import.hide_import_functionality) and are using legacy Knowledge v2, you can
configure the visibility of the Import Articles
button to prevent users from importing articles to
knowledge bases.
Show publish check box on the knowledge Select No to remove the Publish check box on the
import pop-up. knowledge import form so that an article cannot
(glide.knowman.import.show_publish_checkbox)
Property Description
be published as part of the import process.
Default is yes.
Use submission workflow. Select the Yes check box to use the knowledge
(glide.knowman.submission.workflow) submission workflow instead of the standard
knowledge workflow. If this option is selected,
each time a user creates knowledge from an
incident or problem, the content is placed into a
submission record instead of a draft article.
Transforming knowledge submissions into articles
follows a specific workflow.
The sys_id of the knowledge base when creating Enter the sys_id of the knowledge base to put
knowledge from task records. new knowledge articles created from tasks in.
(glide.knowman.task_kb)
Before displaying an article's text in search results Select this check box if users must have ACL-
or the article view, check field-level ACLs on based permission to view text fields on the
appropriate field: kb_knowledge.text (HTML Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table to read article
article) or kb_knowledge.wiki (wiki text article). previews in knowledge search results.
(glide.knowman.text.check_can_read)
Property Description
Enable article versioning feature. Select the Yes check box to enable the article
(glide.knowman.versioning.enabled) versioning feature.
Enable minor edits to a published article without Select the Yes check box to enable minor edits to
creating a new version. published articles without creating a new version.
(glide.knowman.versioning.enable_minor_edits)
• Type: true | false
• Default value: false
• Location: Knowledge > Administration >
Properties
A comma-separated list of fields that can be Enter the fields in a comma-separated list that
edited on published articles without creating a can be edited on published articles without
new version. creating a new version.
(glide.knowman.versioning.minor_edit_fields)
• Type: string
• Default value: valid_to
Property Description
• Location: Knowledge > Administration >
Properties
Property Description
Enable subscribe feature for KM Select the Yes check box to enable the
(glide.knowman.enable_km_subscription) Knowledge subscription feature.
List of roles (comma-separated) who can have Enter the roles in a comma-separated list that can
subscription use the Knowledge subscription feature.
feature(glide.knowman.enable_km_subscription.roles)
• Type: string
• Default value: knowledge
• Location: Knowledge > Administration >
Properties
List of workflow states (comma-separated) that Enter the workflow states for knowledge articles
can have subscription feature in a comma-separated list that users can
(glide.knowman.enable_km_subscription.workflow_state)
subscribe to.
• Type: string
• Default value: draft,review,published
• Location: Knowledge > Administration >
Properties
As a system administrator, you can create a module allowing users to open a knowledge
homepage for a specific knowledge base or category.
Procedure
1. Right-click the application label in the application navigator and select Edit Application.
2. In the Modules related list click New.
3. Enter a Title for the module.
4. In the Link type field, select URL (from Arguments).
5. In the Arguments field, append one or more of the following values to $knowledge.do#/
search?.
Option Description
sysparm_kb=<knowledge base sys_id> Enter the sys_id of a knowledge base to show
knowledge articles from that knowledge base
by default.
Example
Organizations with knowledge users who speak multiple languages can activate the optional
knowledge internationalization features.
Enabling any of the I18N language plugins automatically enables the I18N: Knowledge
Management Internationalization Plugin v2 plugin (com.glideapp.knowledge.i18n2).
Note: To set the default language for searching articles to a language different from
the logged in language of the user, specify the desired language in the
glide.knowman.search.default_language system property.
For example, if you are logged in using the French language and would like
the default language for searched articles to be English, specify English in the
system property. You can then switch to French from within the UI to see
French articles.
If no language is specified in the system property, articles default to the
logged in language of the user.
Refer to Knowledge search for information on performing a search on all
available languages simultaneously.
Social Q&A does not use language-specific questions and answers. All questions and
answers appear in the language they were created in. For example, a question in English is
not translated when the current user's selected language is French.
Installed Components
Activating the Knowledge Management Internationalization plugin installs these
components:
• A relationship named Translated Versions that creates a related list on the Knowledge form
showing other articles that have the same parent article.
• A business rule named knowledge query that automatically filters the knowledge portal
and search results based on the user's selected language.
• A UI macro named kb languages. ).
• Two fields, named Language and Parent, in the Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table and the
Knowledge form.
Additionally, the Translated Versions related list is automatically added to the Knowledge
form after you save an article.
The translation is created and added to the Translated Versions related list.
Related Concepts
• Knowledge administration
Importing knowledge articles into an instance can create articles with duplicate numbers.
The Knowledge Number field is auto-generated and is incremented every time you create a
new article in an instance. The initial value for the Number field is 10,000. To customize this
number:
Importing knowledge articles from another instance or as part of the demo data for another
application may introduce an article with a number that is already in use. Because the
Knowledge Number field is not uniquely indexed, the import completes without error.
With duplicate knowledge article numbers present, links to article view pages that use the
knowledge number can behave inconsistently. For example, if there are two articles with the
same Knowledge number KB0000033, the following link may open either of these two
articles randomly: kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0000033. This can happen in Knowledge
search results where clicking on a result opens a different article instead of the article
displayed in the search results.
• Create a before insert business rule on the Knowledge table (kb_knowledge) to ensure the
new number is not already in use.
You can also update the initial value for the Knowledge Number field so that newly created
articles do not conflict with existing articles.
Configure the knowledge base search source in the service portal to perform a search on all
knowledge bases.
By default, the knowledge base search source in the service portal is set to search only a
single knowledge base, which by default is set to the IT knowledge base.
Procedure
6. Click Update.
When you perform a keyword search in the service portal, the knowledge base search
source performs the search on all knowledge bases.
You can enable authors to reuse information in a case by copying case details into an article
template. Use the pre-defined customer service source case table to article template target
table configuration or create custom configurations between the two tables to copy
information from a case to an article.
Note: You can do one of the following to create an article from a case:
Use the pre-defined Case KCS Article mapping as is or modify the field mappings
between the case source table and article template target table.
Create a new article template target table and map it to the case source table and
customize the field mappings between them. For information on creating article
templates, refer to Create an article template.
• Knowledge users use the Create Knowledge button in a case form to create an article from
a case and must have "can contribute" permission for at least one active knowledge base
to create an article from a case. For information on user permissions, see Knowledge
Management roles.
The pre-defined Case KCS Article mapping is stored in the CSM Table Map [csm_table_map]
table. This configuration has the sn_customerservice_case source case table configured to
the kb_template_kcs_article target article template table with the four field mappings pre-
configured between the tables. You can customize the existing field mappings or map
additional fields between the tables.
Procedure
Customer service case table to article template target table field mapping
Field Instructions
Source Field Select the field in the source case table that
contains the information to be copied to the
field in the article template target table.
Target Field Select the field in the article template target
table to which you need information copied
to from the field in the source case table.
b. Click Submit.
c. To map fields using advanced scripts, select the Advanced Field Mapping check box
and then map the fields between the source and the target table using advanced
scripts in the Advanced Field Mapping tab.
Note: If the same source or target field is configured in both the basic and
advanced field mappings, the advanced field mapping overrides the
basic field mapping.
If the fields configured in the basic and advanced field mapping are
different, the field configurations in the advanced field mapping are
appended to the field configurations in the basic field mapping.
d. To customize when and how the Create Knowledge button is displayed, use the
condition builder in the Condition tab or select Use Advanced Condition check box
and configure using advanced scripts.
Note: If you change the target table in the Case KCS Article mapping, also
update the scripts with the configuration changes for display of this
button.
5. Click Update.
All ServiceNow ITSA Suite users can access knowledge from mobile devices to search for
and view knowledge articles and social Q&A questions.
Note:
Select the desired category and click the close icon ( ) for the selected
category to reflect in the search results.
Note: You cannot edit or add comments to knowledge articles on the mobile
interface. If using Social Q&A, you can perform all functions such as adding
and editing questions, answers, and comments through the mobile interface.
Knowledge v3 has several key differences from knowledge v2, the version of knowledge
management that was available until Eureka release. The knowledge v3 plugin is activated
by default starting with the Fuji release.
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When upgrading from Eureka or earlier versions, if you intend to use the new features
available in knowledge v3, you have to migrate legacy knowledge content and any
customizations you have made to the Knowledge Base applications.
The following video provides more information on how to migrate from Knowledge
Management v2 to v3.
Key differences
Legacy Knowledge Knowledge v3
One knowledge base. Multiple knowledge bases.
A single lifecycle workflow shared by all articles. Separate, customizable workflows available for
each knowledge base.
Two-level organizational structure with Topic and Category structure with any number of levels.
Category. A single organizational taxonomy Each knowledge base has a unique category
shared by all articles. taxonomy.
Permissions defined per article using roles and Permissions defined per knowledge base using
ACLs. user criteria.
Review automatic changes before upgrading. These changes are applied immediately when
upgrading and may impact existing functionality.
These items are relevant to getting the full range of new functionality after you migrate.
• Automatic changes after KMv3 migration
Access to knowledge articles is controlled based on the user criteria for the knowledge
base.
• Knowledge functionality migration
You can migrate knowledge functionality to use your customized functionality with the
knowledge v3 enhancements.
Related Topics
• Knowledge Management
These items are relevant to getting the full range of new functionality after you migrate.
• You must configure knowledge access controls based on user criteria to ensure that users
can access existing knowledge content. Since access control in knowledge v3 is intended
to be based on user criteria alone, users may be unable to access v2 or v3 knowledge
articles, or have restricted access, with preexisting ACLs.
• If the home page was customized in knowledge v2, custom layout and links are not saved
in knowledge v3.
Related Concepts
• Automatic changes after KMv3 migration
Related Reference
• Migrating Knowledge access controls
• Knowledge functionality migration
After the upgrade, you can add and edit articles in this knowledge base.
Articles in the default knowledge base continue to use legacy functionality, such as role-
based access controls. Any customizations you made to knowledge functionality before the
upgrade are preserved in the default knowledge base.
You can filter results only by knowledge base. Search results include only those articles the
current user can view based on user criteria. ACLs do not restrict search results.
Existing ACLs on the Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table are preserved, but with the following
changes.
New ACLs introduced by knowledge v3, such as field-level controls, apply to all knowledge
bases.
When you upgrade from Eureka or earlier, any custom ACLs you implemented for the
Knowledge table still apply to any knowledge records in the default knowledge base.
Knowledge v3 updates ACLs that exist before upgrade so they only apply to Knowledge
[kb_knowedge] records where this field value is 2.
Note: These changes affect the default knowledge base. Even if you are not using
the new knowledge functionality, the legacy knowledge behavior may
change if you have made customizations to ACLs on the Knowledge
[kb_knowledge] table. Ensure you configure knowledge access controls after
upgrading to prevent unexpected behavior.
Because Knowledge v3 introduces ACLs for the Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table, if you do
not have high security enabled, you may notice differences in default behavior. See
KB0549970 for information about configuring Knowledge v3 without high security.
UI page
The following changes apply automatically when you upgrade from Eureka or earlier:
You should review all customizations introduced around the legacy kb_view UI page.
• URLs should not be updated as the new kb_view page redirects to the correct page
depending on the article.
• Customizations made to the kb_view UI page are automatically copied to the
kb_view_customer page on upgrade.
• Other customizations that affect kb_view may need to be copied or modified to apply to
kb_view_customer. For example, an ACL defined for kb_view may need to be duplicated
to provide security coverage for kb_view_customer.
Feedback
Legacy feedback functionality is retained for knowledge articles displayed in the legacy
article view. Users can continue to use the feedback options to view, add, and reply to
comments on these legacy articles. Legacy comments are retained in the Knowledge
Feedback [kb_feedback] table.
To retain the legacy comment functionality with new knowledge articles, set the Use Live
Feed for Knowledge feedback property (glide.knowman.use_live_feed) to false. This
property is true by default.
UI page
You can search articles from the knowledge portal and filter search results by knowledge
base, and by language if the instance uses knowledge management internationalization. This
portal also appears for users on older browsers, such as Internet Explorer 9, instead of the
knowledge homepage.
Navigation add-ons are available in the legacy knowledge portal. Navigation add-ons of the
Link type appear in the top-right of the portal. To add navigation add-ons of the Search
type, you must customize the kb_home UI page.
Search
By default, the legacy knowledge portal uses knowledge v3 search with limited filtering
options. You can filter results only by knowledge base. Search results include only those
articles the current user can view.
This feature lets you configure access to a knowledge base, either public or private, or to a
public search engine.
Procedure
4. Click Submit.
Knowledge submissions
Knowledge submissions created from tasks continue to work in knowledge v3 with minor
changes.
By default, the Topic and Category fields no longer appear on the Submission form due to
the knowledge v3 category changes.
See creating knowledge from incidents and problems for instructions on using knowledge
submission in knowledge v3.
Access to knowledge articles is controlled based on the user criteria for the knowledge base.
Important: If you do not migrate existing knowledge ACLs to user criteria, users
may be unable to access knowledge articles, or may be able to access
restricted articles.
User criteria records, rather than ACLs, control basic create, read, update, and delete
operations for knowledge articles as well as which search results appear. This may lead to
unexpected behavior if your configuration depends on ACLs to control access.
To ensure users are able to access the correct knowledge articles, migrate any ACL-based
security settings to user criteria. This process may include creating additional knowledge
bases and moving existing content to these knowledge bases, depending on your security
model. For a detailed explanation and migration examples, refer to KB0550924
Understanding User Criteria and ACLs in Knowledge v3.
This video demonstrates how to manage article-level access controls during migration from
Knowledge Management v2 to v3.
Related Reference
• Knowledge functionality migration
You can migrate knowledge functionality to use your customized functionality with the
knowledge v3 enhancements.
Use the tables below to identify which knowledge v3 modules to activate and which legacy
modules to deactivate. When activating a knowledge v3 module, deactivate the knowledge
v2 module with the same name to ensure users access the correct module.
Knowledge v3 modules
Title Order Link type
Homepage 100 URL (from Arguments:)
Articles 200 Separator
Legacy modules
Title Order Link type
Create New 100 New Record
Published 190 List of Records
Edit 200 List of Records
Retired 240 List of Records
Feedback 300 List of Records
View 400 URL (from Arguments:)
Submissions 410 Separator
Assigned to me 420 List of Records
Open Submissions 450 List of Records
KCS 460 List of Records
Flagged Articles 470 List of Records
Ratings 480 List of Records
Searching Log 495 List of Records
Overview 496 URL (from Arguments:)
Administration 500 Separator
Navigation Add-ons 600 List of Records
Properties 700 URL (from Arguments:)
Messages 800 List of Records
In the legacy knowledge base, article state was controlled by UI actions. UI actions from
previous versions are available only in the default knowledge base.
To preserve your article publishing and retirement process in new knowledge bases, create
workflows that follow these processes. To create these workflows, copy the default workflow
that best matches your process and modify that copy. After creating workflows that use
your article publishing and retirement processes, use these workflows as the Publish
workflow and Retire workflow for the new knowledge bases.
The default knowledge base uses the legacy category structure; knowledge articles are
organized by topics and categories.
Before you migrate articles, create a category structure for these articles in the destination
knowledge bases. This structure can reproduce your legacy topic and category structure or
can be extended to take advantage of the knowledge v3 category functionality.
To migrate knowledge content, move articles out of the default knowledge base by
changing the Knowledge Base value for each article. The state of the article remains
unchanged when moving articles. After selecting a new knowledge base, assign a category
to each article using the category structure defined in the new knowledge base.
After you migrate a knowledge article, the legacy feedback functionality is automatically
replaced with the new knowledge feedback mechanisms. Legacy feedback is copied to the
Live Feed Message [live_message] table to ensure previously submitted feedback is
available for knowledge v3 articles.
Note: You can activate Performance Analytics solutions and in-form analytics on
instances that have not licensed Performance Analytics to evaluate the
functionality. However, to start collecting data you must license Performance
Analytics.
Note: Solutions include some dashboards that are inactive by default. You can
activate these dashboards to make them visible to end users according to
your business needs.
To enable the solution for Knowledge Management, an admin can navigate to Performance
Analytics > Guided Setup. Click Get Started then scroll to the section for Knowledge
Management. The guided setup takes you through the entire setup and configuration
process.
Related Topics
• Available solutions
• Solutions and in-form analytics
• Performance Analytics
Article versioning
Last updated: November 16, 2017
Use the Knowledge Management article versioning feature to create and maintain multiple
versions of a knowledge article.
Knowledge contributors can create a new version of a knowledge article from an existing
published version. This existing version can be either the latest published version or an older
outdated version. All changes are stored in the new version of the article and the
information in the existing article remains the same.
• Check out the latest version of a published article and create a new version.
• Select a previously published (outdated) version of an article and make it current.
• Recall an article that is being reviewed.
• Retire the latest published version of an article.
There are two types of article revisions: major and minor. Minor revisions include updates to
an article that has not yet been published. Major revisions include updates to an article that
has been published and is available to customers. To track the different revisions, the article
versioning feature introduces version numbering.
With the article versioning feature, the knowledge article number also includes the version
number. All references to knowledge articles use this number format. For example,
KB0010003 v2.0.
If you have customized any of the files that are updated as part of the Knowledge
Management Advanced Installer plugin, these files are skipped during plugin activation and
must be updated manually.
• Add the Version field to the Knowledge form layout and the Knowledge list view, if it is not
already present.
• Add the outdated choice to the Workflow choice list field on the Knowledge form, if it is
not already present. Keep the value as outdated because of dependencies that article
versioning functionalities have on this choice.
• Update the Knowledge > My Flagged and Self-Service > My Knowledge Articles modules
to include the following condition in the Filter field, if these modules do not already reflect
this change: Revised by is (dynamic) me.
If you have customized any of the Knowledge Management Overview dashboard reports,
these files are also skipped during plugin activation and must be updated manually.
Article versioning introduces new actions that allow knowledge users to create and revise
versions of existing articles. It also introduces new fields and related lists to the Knowledge
form, new columns to the Knowledge list, and updates to Knowledge dashboard reports.
• Check out a published article and create a new version by clicking Checkout on the
Knowledge form.
• Recall an article that is being reviewed by clicking Recall on the Knowledge form.
• Select a previously published article in the Outdated state and make it the current
published version by clicking Make this current in the Knowledge form header.
• The Version column displays the article version number. The Knowledge list displays
multiple versions of an article.
• The Workflow column includes the new Outdated state.
• The Display number field displays a combination of the article number and the version
number. For example, KB0010004 v1.02. All references to a knowledge article use this
display number.
• The Base Version field displays the knowledge article number and version on which the
current article is based.
• The Revised By field displays the name of the user who checked out a published article
and created a new version.
• The Article Versions related list displays a list of all versions for an article. From this list,you
can:
Click the Version to view a specific version of an article.
Cick the View Article related link to see the article page view.
Note: If necessary, configure the form to display the fields and the related list.
• My Knowledge Articles
For a knowledge user, this module includes records for the articles authored by the user
as well as records for each article revised by the user.
For a knowledge reviser, this module includes records for the articles published by the
user as well as records for each article revised by the user.
• My Flagged
For a knowledge user, this module includes records for each revision made to articles
authored by the user.
For a knowledge reviser, this module includes records for each article revised by the
user.
Note: Users that have customized these modules do not see these changes.
Note: To display the article version number next to the article number in the search
results, enable the glide.knowman.search.show_article_number property in
the Knowledge Search Properties section of the Knowledge Management
Properties page.
The article view page shows a version history section for articles that have been updated.
This section includes the version numbers, date updated, and the name of the author or
reviser.
• Click Latest version or the version number and current state to expand the version history
section.
• Click the version number to open that particular version of the article.
• When viewing an outdated article, a message informs the user that a newer updated
version is available. The message includes a link to the latest version.
With the article versioning feature, users can view and contribute to feedback on the current
versions of knowledge articles.
Knowledge article version numbers follow a specific pattern. Increments to the version
number depend on the revision type.
Article version numbers follow the pattern major.minor. The type of revision being made to
an article determines the increment. A minor revision increments the version number by
0.01. A major revision, such as publishing an article, increments the version to the next whole
number, for example, from version 2.02 to 3.0.
The following example illustrates the life cycle of a versioned article and the changes to the
version number.
Any change to the state of an article results in a version increment, except to and from the
Pending retirement, Retired, and Outdated states.
Users can view version information for a knowledge article from the Knowledge view page.
The knowledge article number and the version number appear at the top of the article, just
below the title. Clicking the version number expands the version history section, which
includes a list of the available article versions. User roles determine what is included in this
list:
• Users with read access to a knowledge base can see the latest published version and
previous major versions.
• Users with read and contribute access to a knowledge base can see the latest published
version, previous major versions, and any draft or review versions.
You can view any of the previous versions of an article by clicking the version number in the
list. When you view a previous version, a message at the top of the article indicates that an
updated version is available.
At the bottom of a knowledge article, you can see additional information about an article,
including the name of the author or revisor and the date that the article was last modified.
A versioned knowledge article can be in one of several states as it progresses through the
creation cycle.
State Description
Draft The article is in the process of being created.
Review The draft version of the article is sent to reviewers
to approve or reject.
Published The article is approved and published. When the
state of an article changes to Published, the state
of any previous published versions of that article
changes to Outdated.
Pending retirement The published article is selected for retirement,
pending approval.
Retired The published article is retired.
Outdated A more recent version of the article has been
published. End users can read published articles
as well as the outdated versions.
The knowledge administrator can set configuration properties that enable users to edit
specific fields on published articles without creating new versions.
Property Description
Enable article versioning feature. Select the Yes check box to enable the article
(glide.knowman.versioning.enabled) versioning feature.
Enable minor edits to a published article without Select the Yes check box to enable minor edits to
creating a new version. published articles without creating a new version.
Property Description
(glide.knowman.versioning.enable_minor_edits)
• Type: true | false
• Default value: false
• Location: Knowledge > Administration >
Properties
Create a new version of a knowledge article by checking out the latest published version.
Users with canContribute permissions, including the knowledge owner, knowledge manager,
and knowledge administrator, can check out a published article unless there is already a
checked out version. If a version has been checked out, the Checkout button does not
appear on the Knowledge form header.
Note: Outdated articles can be checked out by first using Make this current,
provided a version has not already been checked out.
Procedure
Approve an article that is being reviewed and create a new published version.
When an article is in the Review state, only those users who are included in the Approvals
related list can modify the article.
Procedure
This action is available for earlier published version that have a state of Outdated and only
when there is no checked out version. If a version has been checked out, the Make this
current button does not appear on the Knowledge form header.
Procedure
When a revised article is in the Review state, only the corresponding versions reviser can
recall the article to make additional changes. When a newly created article is in the Review
state, only the author can recall the article. Recalling an article in the Review state results in
a minor version increment.
Procedure
View a list of all available versions for a selected knowledge article and then view the
selected version in a new tab.
The list of all available versions for a selected knowledge article is displayed in the Article
Versions related list on the Knowledge form. Users with read access can see major versions.
Users with contribute access can see major and minor versions.
Procedure
Procedure
You can retire the latest published version of a knowledge article. Retiring a knowledge
article does not create a new version. It simply marks the article as Retired.
This action is available only when there is no checked out version. If a version has been
checked out, the Retire button does not appear on the Knowledge form header.
Note: For the Knowledge - Approval Retire workflow, this happens only when the
retire request is approved.
In addition to the knowledge administrator and the knowledge manager, the following users
can retire a versioned article:
• knowledge owner
• author of the versioned knowledge article
• reviser of the versioned knowledge article
Users can still access outdated articles that have been attached to incidents by navigating to
the article view page with the sys_id of the article. Outdated articles include a message that
an updated article is available.
If versioning is disabled, only the latest version of the article is shown in search results and
list views.
Procedure
Users with the system administrator role can disable the article versioning feature by setting
a property.
The Enable article versioning feature property controls the article versioning feature. Setting
this property to false disables the article versioning feature. Once disabled:
• The Version field is removed from the Knowledge form. The Version column remains on the
Knowledge list and can be removed manually.
• The Article Versions related list is removed from the Knowledge form.
• The Recall, Checkout, and Make this current buttons are removed from the Knowledge
form.
• Outdated articles are removed from Knowledge list views.
• The version history does not appear on the article view page.
Articles continue to be versioned in the background. Minor versions are incremented until an
article is published and then the version number is increased to the next major version.
Users can still access outdated articles that have been attached to incidents. Outdated
articles include a message that an updated article is available.
Procedure
After knowledge bases are set up, you can start searching and creating articles. If Social
Q&A was activated for the knowledge base, you can also submit answers or answer
questions for other users.
Requirements
Role required
None. All users can read, create, and edit knowledge articles in a knowledge base, unless the
knowledge manager has restricted access to it.
If you need these permissions, contact the knowledge manager for the knowledge base.
What to do
Create knowledge articles
If you have the required permissions for a knowledge base, you can create articles for it.
You can create articles from the Self-Service application menu or by importing Word
documents.
You can also create knowledge articles from incidents and problems.
From the Knowledge homepage, you can select a knowledge base to search for articles and
answers. You can view only the knowledge bases to which you have access.
If Social Q&A was activated for a knowledge base, you can ask and answer questions. You
can also browse and vote on answers.
Next steps
After articles are created, you can perform the following tasks to make sure that articles are
organized in the right knowledge bases and retired when appropriate. If existing knowledge
bases do not fit your needs, you can request a new knowledge base.
The Knowledge Management Service Portal enables users to perform the same operations
that are available with the Knowledge Management V3 plugin. From the portal, users can
view knowledge bases and articles, search for information, sort and filter search results, and
provide feedback.
Knowledge administrators can customize portal pages and configure widgets for searching,
sorting, and filtering knowledge base information.
• To customize this portal, navigate to Service Portal > Portals and click Knowledge Portal.
See Service Portal for more information about creating a custom interface.
• To configure widget instance options and customize the search, sort, and filter features,
see Knowledge Management Service Portal widgets.
Procedure
If the plugin depends on other plugins, these plugins are listed along with their
activation status.
If the plugin has optional features that depend on other plugins, those plugins are listed
under Some files will not be loaded because these plugins are inactive. The optional
features are not installed until the listed plugins are installed (before or after the
installation of the current plugin).
Some plugins include demo data—Sample records that are designed to illustrate plugin
features for common use cases. Loading demo data is a good practice when you first
activate the plugin on a development or test instance.
You can also load demo data after the plugin is activated by clicking the Load Demo
Data Only related link on the System Plugin form.
5. Click Activate.
• Article number
• Article version
• Authored by
• Last modified
Subscribe option Y Y
Flag article option Y Y
Create incident Y Y
option
Edit option Y Y
Article language Y Y
selection option
Helpful yes/no Y Y
option
Star rating Y Y
Text box for Y Y
comments
Live feed Y N
comment
Copy permalink Y Y
Most Recent Tasks N Y
widget
Affected Products N Y
widget
Most Viewed N Y
widget
Most Useful N Y
widget
Post a question / Back button Y N
Ask a question
page Cancel button Y N
Post Question Y Y
button
Search box N Y
Title Y Y
Text editor Y Y
Knowledge base Y N
Category Y N
Tags Y Y
Cancel button Y N
Social QA view Back button Y N
page
Navigation path Y Y
Up / down voting Y Y
Subscribe option Y N
The knowledge administrator can set configuration properties that determine how
information is displayed on the Knowledge portal.
The following properties direct users to the Knowledge Management Service Portal
homepage, set the URL suffix of the homepage, and enable the document viewer to view
knowledge article attachments.
Property Description
sn_km_portal.glide.glide.knowman.serviceportal.enable_redirect
Directs users to the desired Knowledge
homepage.
Property Description
Note: This property is not honored for
the following use cases:
sn_km_portal.glide.glide.knowman.serviceportal.portal_url
The URL suffix for the Knowledge Management
Service Portal. The default is kb.
sn_km_portal.glide.glide.knowman.serviceportal.use_document_viewer
Use the document viewer to display knowledge
article attachments in the Knowledge
Management Service Portal.
The Knowledge Management Service Portal includes a homepage, a search results page, and
an article view page.
Homepage
The Knowledge Management Service Portal landing page. This page includes a search bar,
knowledge bases, and lists of knowledge articles.
• Users can search for information, explore knowledge bases, and view featured articles.
• Administrators can customize the page layout, add knowledge bases, and add article
collections (for example, a list of the most viewed articles).
This page displays a list of search results and includes several options for sorting and
filtering the information.
This page displays the selected knowledge article or social Q&A item.
• Users can view articles and provide comments and ratings. If enabled, users can subscribe
to articles, view article versions, and create incidents for articles that are rated as not
helpful. Users can also view and edit questions and provide comments or answers.
• Administrators can customize the page layout and enable or disable user actions, such as
creating an incident for an article. Administrators can also activate the plugins to enable
article versioning and article subscriptions.
The Knowledge Management Service Portal homepage displays knowledge articles and
social Q&A items organized by knowledge base and category, as well as featured content
and popular articles.
To view the Knowledge Management Service Portal homepage, navigate to one of the
following:
Note: To use the Knowledge Management Service Portal, activate the Knowledge
Management - Service Portal plugin (com.snc.knowledge_serviceportal) and
enable the glide.knowman.serviceportal.enable_redirect property.
Header
The header contains a search bar and counters that display the number of available
knowledge bases and the total number of knowledge articles and social Q&A items.
Knowledge bases
Each knowledge base is represented by a tile that includes the knowledge base icon and
name. Icons and counters below the knowledge base name display the number and type of
items stored in the knowledge base, such as articles and questions. By default, tiles are
ordered alphabetically by knowledge base name.
List collections
Lists of articles, including featured, most useful, and most viewed articles. By default, these
lists display articles by the article Short description and include information such as the
author name, number of views, and average rating.
Action Description
Search for information Use the search bar to search knowledge bases
and social Q&A.
View knowledge bases Knowledge bases available to the user are
arranged in alphabetical order.
View articles Select articles from the article collection lists.
Ask a question This action is available to logged in users with the
knowledge role. Click Ask a Question, which
opens a question page. Fill in the Question and
Question details fields, and click Post question to
post the question.
Create an article This action is available to logged in users with the
The Knowledge Management Service Portal search results page displays a list of search
results as well as options for sorting and filtering the items in the list.
The Knowledge Management Service Portal search results page includes the following:
The search results list includes knowledge articles, pinned articles, and social Q&A items.
For knowledge articles, the search results include articles in which the short description,
text content, or attached file content includes the search term. For social Q&A items, search
results include answered and unanswered questions, and questions with accepted answers.
The following information displays for each list item:
The header displays the number of search results, which updates as the user selects and
de-selects filters. Selected filter options appear just below the number of search results. The
header also includes the available sort options.
A number of filter facet widgets appear to the left of the search results list. Each filter facet
widget includes a list of selectable options that can be used to refine the search results.
Action Description
Perform a search Use the search bar at the top of the page to
search for additional information.
Sort the search results Click a sort option in the search results list header
to sort list items by relevance to the search term,
number of views, newest, or alphabetical. Items
are sorted in ascending order. Click the option
again to sort in descending order.
Filter the search results Select options in the filter facet widgets to filter
the items in the search results list. Clear selected
filter options by:
The Knowledge Management Service Portal article view page displays the selected
knowledge article, including the article number, short description, and article content.
If users select a question, the article view page displays the question, any answers to the
question, and a text box for providing an answer.
The Knowledge Management Service Portal article view page includes the following:
Header
For knowledge articles, the header includes the knowledge article number and enabled user
actions. For questions, the header includes the question text.
Article information including the short description and author name, the date that the
article was last modified, the number of views, and the average rating. If configured, it also
includes article version information.
Feedback options
Article feedback options include marking the article as helpful, rating the article, and
providing a comment. Question feedback options include sharing a question, commenting
on a question, providing an answer, and accepting an answer.
List widgets
The article view page includes the following list widgets for articles and questions:
From the Knowledge Service Portal article view page, you can do the following.
Action Description
View content View a knowledge article or question.
Edit an article Users with contribute access can edit an article.
Flag an article Users with contribute access can flag an article
that contains incorrect or inappropriate content.
Subscribe to an article This action is available to logged in users;
availability is based on knowledge subscriptions
user roles. Click Subscribe in the article header to
subscribe to that knowledge article. Unsubscribe
by clicking Unsubscribe. See Knowledge
subscriptions for more information.
Create an incident If configured, the Create Incident link appears at
the bottom of the article after the article is rated
as not helpful.
Provide feedback to an article Feedback options include marking an article as
helpful, providing a rating from one to five stars,
and adding a comment. See Knowledge feedback
for more information.
Post a question All users can post a question.
Answer a question All users can provide an answer to a question.
Accept an answer The knowledge manager or the owner of a
question can accept an answer as the correct
answer.
Comment on a question or answer All users can add a comment to a question or to
an answer.
Edit a question, answer, or comment All users can edit the questions, answers, and
comments that they submit. Knowledge
managers can edit questions, answers, and
comments for the knowledge bases that they
manage.
The Knowledge Management Service Portal uses a number of widgets to enable searches,
display search results, and display articles and social Q&A.
The Knowledge Management Service Portal homepage, search results page, and article view
page honor the Knowledge Management V3 system properties. If configured, widget
instance options can override the system properties.
Users with the knowledge_admin or admin role can configure the widget instance options
used on the Knowledge Management Service Portal pages. Use the control + right-click
menu to access the widget instance options and configure a widget instance.
Homepage widgets:
• Knowledge Breadcrumbs
• Knowledge Search
• Knowledge Facet Header
• Knowledge Field Facet
• Knowledge Tags Facet
• Knowledge Resource Facet
• Knowledge Query Facet
• Knowledge Result Sort
• Knowledge Selected Filter
• Knowledge Result
• Knowledge Breadcrumbs
• Knowledge Article Content
• Knowledge Article Helpful
• Knowledge Article Comments
• Knowledge Attachments
• Knowledge Attached Tasks
• Knowledge Affected Products
• Knowledge Most Viewed Articles
• Knowledge Most Useful Articles
Configure widget instance options for the search widgets on the Knowledge Management
Service Portal homepage and search results page.
The homepage uses the Knowledge Homepage Search widget and the search results page
uses the Knowledge Search widget. Use the widget instance options to customize the
search feature for these pages.
Procedure
Allow Instant Search On Keypress Enables instant search results as you type a
search term. The default for the search results
page uses the system property.
Minimum Number of Characters for Search The minimum number of characters required to
generate a search.
Wait time (ms) between searches, if instant The time, in milliseconds, to wait between
search is enabled searches if the instant search feature is
enabled. The default wait time is 500 ms.
Alternate URL Parameters for Search Alternate parameters that appear in the search
results URL. By default these parameters
include keyword and query.
Alternate URL Parameters for Language Alternate parameters that appear in the URL
denoting the selected language.
5. Click Save.
Configure widget instance options for the knowledge base tile widgets on the Knowledge
Management Service Portal homepage.
The homepage uses the Knowledge Bases Browse widget to display knowledge base tiles.
Procedure
5. Click Save.
Configure widget instance options for the knowledge sort widget on the Knowledge
Management Service Portal search results page.
The search results page uses the Knowledge Result Sort widget to provide sort options for
the returned list of results. Use the widget instance options to customize the sort options.
Procedure
5. Click Save.
Configure widget instance options for the article lists on the Knowledge Management
Service Portal homepage.
The homepage uses the Article List widget to display different lists of articles, including
Featured, Most Useful, and Most Viewed.
Procedure
5. Click Save.
Configure widget instance options for the results list widget on the Knowledge Management
Service Portal search results page.
The search results page uses the Knowledge Result widget to provide display options for
the returned list of results. Use the widget instance options to customize the display options.
Procedure
5. Click Save.
Configure widget instance options for the filter facet widgets on the Knowledge
Management Service Portal search results page.
The homepage uses several widgets to filter the items in the search results list. There are
two types of facet widgets:
• Knowledge Field Facet (for filtering by knowledge base, knowledge category, and author)
• Knowledge Tags Facet (for filtering by tag)
• Knowledge Resource Facet (for filtering by resource, such as articles and social Q&A)
• Knowledge Query Facet (for filtering by rating, last modified, and number of views)
Procedure
Show Only Facet Values Matching Results Creates a dynamic filter facet widget that
displays only those filter values that match the
search results rather than showing all values.
Disabling this instance option can reduce the
time needed to load the filter facet data.
5. Click Save.
Configure a user action for the Knowledge Management Service Portal article view page.
The article view page uses the Knowledge Article Content widget to provide user actions.
Use the widget instance options to customize these actions.
User actions available for the article view page appear in a menu after clicking the overflow
icon ( ) in the article header. These actions enable users to flag an article, edit an
article, or create an incident for an article.
Procedure
5. Click Save.
Navigate to the various sections of the service portal to find the information you need.
• The search results page by entering a word or term in the search bar and pressing Enter.
• A knowledge base by clicking a knowledge base tile.
• A knowledge article by clicking the article short description in the Featured, Most Useful,
or Most Viewed article lists.
From the search results page, navigate to a knowledge article or a question by clicking the
short description in the search results list.
From an article view page, navigate to recent tasks, affected products, or other articles
listed in the widgets to the right of the article.
Click links in the breadcrumb to move to the homepage, knowledge base, or search results
page.
The Knowledge Management Service Portal homepage includes a search bar with type
ahead search.
Users can enter a search term and press the Enter key, which redirects to the search results
page. The search results include items in which the short description, content, or attached
files include the search term. By default, knowledge search results include articles, pinned
articles, and social Q&A.
Users can search for information on the Knowledge Management Service Portal homepage
as well as filter the search results.
When a search term contains a misspelling, the search tool displays the search results page
and includes one or more suggested terms at the top of the page under the heading Did
you mean. Clicking one of these suggestions shows all of the search results that match the
selected term.
Users with the system administrator role can enable this feature.
Use the sort feature on the search results list page to sort knowledge articles and social
Q&A in a variety of ways.
Sort the items in a knowledge base or search results list using the Sort by options at the top
of the list.
By default, the selected option sorts in descending order. Click the option again to sort in
ascending order.
The system saves the last selected sort option. When you navigate away from the search
results page and then return, this sort option is retained.
Sorting by language
You can also sort articles by language if the I18N: Knowledge Management
Internationalization Plugin v2 (com.glideapp.knowledge.i18n2) is activated.
Activating this plugin adds a language link at the top of the search results page. To sort by
language, click this link and select the desired language from the drop-down menu. The
search results list displays items in the selected language.
Filter knowledge base information or a list of search results using the filter facet widgets on
the search results page.
The search results page includes multiple ways to filter the results using filter facet widgets.
These widgets are listed in a column on the left side of the page and can be expanded and
collapsed as needed. Refine results by expanding a filter and selecting specific items.
Selections appear at the top of the search results list. By default, you can filter by:
• Resource: lists the types of items available, such as knowledge articles and social Q&A. For
social Q&A, you can also filter for unanswered and answered questions, and question with
answers that have been accepted.
• Rating: lists article ratings from 0-5 stars (clicking a rating displays articles that have the
selected rating and higher)
• Last Modified: lists selections based on the timing of knowledge item modifications such
as Past Month or Past Week
• View Count: lists the knowledge item view counts such as More Than 50 or Less Than 10
The selections that you make filter the items displayed in the search results list. The search
results list updates to display only those items that match your selections. Deleting a
selection reverses the filtering in the list. The number of matching results displayed at the
top of the list changes as you add and remove filters.
• The Clear button at the top of a filter widget clears all of the selections in that widget.
• The Clear all button at the top of the search results list clears all of the widget selections.
• Clear individual filters at the top of the search results list by clicking the X in the filter
name.
Using the base system service portal, access the improved version of the knowledge portal
that features an enhanced landing page with multiple knowledge bases, an article view page
that includes new article widgets, and the search results page that displays global
knowledge search results.
To access the enhanced knowledge portal pages from the service portal, as a system
administrator, you can configure the following in the service portal:
Note: The knowledge portal page integrations described in this section can only be
performed in the base system service portal.
• Link the Knowledge header menu and the Knowledge Base tile widget to point to the new
Knowledge Management Service Portal homepage.
• Configure the type ahead and global knowledge search results links that currently point to
the previous version of the knowledge portal article view page to point to the new
Knowledge Management Service Portal article view page.
• Add a knowledge search widget to perform a highly configurable global knowledge search
in the Knowledge Management Service Portal search results page.
• Replace the Top Rated article widget with one of the new widgets provided in the
Knowledge portal.
Procedure
1. Configure the Knowledge header link to point to the knowledge portal home page.
Knowledge link on service portal header
To configure:
a. Navigate to Service Portal > Portals.
b. In the Service Portals list, select the Service Portal record.
c. In the KB home page field, enter kb_home.
d. Click Update.
When you click Knowledge in the service portal header menu, it takes you to the
knowledge portal home page.
2. Configure the Knowledge Base tile widget to link to the knowledge portal home page.
Knowledge tile widget
To configure:
a. Navigate to the service portal page.
b. Control + right-click the knowledge base tile widget and select Instance Options.
The Knowledge Base form appears.
c. In the Page field, change the value from kb_view to kb_home.
d. Click Save.
When you click the Knowledge Base tile widget in the service portal page, it takes you
to the knowledge portal homepage.
You must configure the type ahead knowledge portal link and knowledge global search
results link in the knowledge base search source and in the service catalog search source, to
point to the Knowledge Management Service Portal article view page.
Procedure
1. Complete the following steps to configure the type ahead knowledge portal link and the
knowledge global search results link in the knowledge base search source.
a. Navigate to Service Portal > Search Sources and click the Knowledge Base search
source.
b. In the Search page template field, change the following line of code from:
"?id=kb_article_view&sys_kb_id={{item.sys_id}}"
to "?id=kb_article&sys_id={{item.sys_id}}"
c. In the Data Source tab, go to the Data fetch script field and add the following line of
code:
c. In the Data Source tab, go to the Data fetch script field and change the code in line
45 to the following, as shown in image below:
3. Click Update.
The knowledge results from type ahead and global search in the service portal point to
the new knowledge portal article view page.
What to do next
Create and add a Search Within knowledge widget to the service portal and link it to the
Knowledge global search results page.
Procedure
1. Create a new widget with the name Search Within using the following settings:
Note: You can click Preview to verify the location and appearance of the
newly added widget.
The Search Within widget is added to the service portal search results page. In the
service portal, when you click Knowledge in the Search Within widget, and search for a
keyword, it redirects you to the knowledge global search results page.
Replace the existing Top Rated knowledge widget in the service portal with one or more of
the knowledge quick-access widgets.
The following knowledge quick-access widgets are available to be added to the service
portal:
• Featured Articles
• Most Useful Articles
• Most Viewed Articles
Procedure
Note: You can click Preview to verify the location and appearance of the newly
added widget.
When you click a link in the newly added quick-access widget from the service portal, it
takes you to the knowledge portal page.
Knowledge subscriptions
Last updated: November 16, 2017
Subscribe to knowledge bases and knowledge articles and receive email notifications about
new articles and article revisions or comments.
With the Knowledge Management knowledge subscription feature, users can subscribe to
both knowledge bases and knowledge articles.
• Knowledge users can receive email notifications when new articles are created in a
knowledge base or existing articles are revised. Notifications are sent based on the user's
subscription notification preferences.
• Knowledge authors receive email notifications about articles that are checked out or
revised by other authors and articles that receive user comments. Knowledge authors are
auto-subscribed to their articles.
• Knowledge base owners receive email notifications when new articles are created in the
knowledge base. Knowledge base owners are auto-subscribed to their knowledge bases.
The knowledge subscription feature is available for both the Knowledge Management v3
user interface and the Knowledge Management Service Portal.
Users can subscribe to knowledge articles and knowledge bases. Notifications are sent
based on the notification preferences for the following activities:
If the article versioning feature is enabled, the following notifications are also sent:
Before using the article subscription feature, the system administrator must:
These properties enable the knowledge subscription feature, identify the roles that can use
the feature, and identify the article states that generate notifications.
Procedure
Property Description
Enable subscribe feature for KM Enables or disables the Knowledge
[glide.knowman.enable_km_subscription] Management knowledge subscriptions feature.
Property Description
List of roles (comma-separated) who can have A comma-separated list of the roles that can
subscription feature use the knowledge subscriptions feature and
[glide.knowman.enable_km_subscription.roles] subscribe to knowledge bases and articles.
List of workflow states (comma-separated) A comma-separated list of the article states for
that can have subscription feature which the knowledge subscription feature is
[glide.knowman.enable_km_subscription.workflow_state]
available. The default states include Draft,
Review, and Published.
3. Click Save.
The knowledge subscription feature uses email notification templates to send subscription
notifications to knowledge users.
Users with the admin or knowledge_admin role can customize these email notification
templates. To locate the template, navigate to System Notifications > Email > Notifications.
For more information about customizing a template, see Create an email notification.
Subscription notifications include a link at the bottom of the email to the user's Notification
Preferences page.
Subscribe to a knowledge base and receive notifications when articles are added to that
knowledge base.
Users can subscribe to a knowledge base from either the Knowledge Management v3 user
interface or the Knowledge Management Service Portal.
Procedure
Users can subscribe to a knowledge article from either the Knowledge Management v3 user
interface or the Knowledge Management Service Portal.
Note: Users who are already subscribed to a knowledge base are also subscribed
to the articles within that knowledge base.
Procedure
Users can unsubscribe from a knowledge base from either the Knowledge Management v3
user interface or the Knowledge Management Service Portal.
Note: If you subscribe to an article and then subscribe to the knowledge base,
unsubscribing from the knowledge base also unsubscribes you from the
article.
Procedure
Users can unsubscribe from a knowledge article from either the Knowledge Management v3
user interface or the Knowledge Management Service Portal.
Note: If you are subscribed to a knowledge base and you unsubscribe from an
article in that knowledge base, you must also unsubscribe from the parent
knowledge base.
Procedure
Users can set notification preferences from the Knowledge menu or from the Knowledge
Management Service Portal.
Procedure
Location Description
From the Knowledge application Click the Notification Settings module.
Location Description
From the Knowledge Management Service Click the user name in the portal header and
Portal then click Notification Settings.
Manage knowledge base and knowledge article subscriptions from the Notification Settings
page.
Users can manage knowledge subscriptions from the Knowledge application or from the
Knowledge Management Service Portal.
Procedure
Location Description
From the Knowledge application Click the Notification Settings module.
From the Knowledge Management Service Click the user name in the portal header and
Portal then click Notification Settings.
Assess the quality of knowledge articles with the article quality index (AQI). The AQI helps
maintain consistent quality of knowledge articles attached to a knowledge base where
articles are written by various authors.
Using AQI feature, a knowledge administrator (a user with knowledge_admin role) creates a
checklist and adds a set of true or false questions to the checklist to assess the quality of
knowledge articles. For each question, the knowledge_administrator assigns a weight based
on its importance to the quality measurement and then attaches the checklist to a
knowledge base.
Create a checklist of questions that reviewers can use to evaluate the quality of
knowledge articles.
• Assign an AQI checklist to a knowledge base
Before a knowledge reviewer can start performing the AQI review, you must assign an AQI
checklist to a knowledge base.
• Remove an AQI checklist from a knowledge base
Before you can edit a checklist that is assigned to a knowledge base, you must remove it
from the knowledge base.
• Delete questions from an AQI checklist
Deleting a question in a checklist deletes the text in the question of previously performed
AQI reviews that use the checklist. Deleting an AQI question from a checklist will not
affect the score of the previously performed AQI reviews. However, the text of the
question will not be displayed in the checklist.
• Perform an AQI review
View checklists of all users to monitor the pending and completed reviews.
Create a checklist of questions that reviewers can use to evaluate the quality of knowledge
articles.
Procedure
1. Navigate to Knowledge > Article Quality Index > AQI checklists, and click New.
2. Fill in the following fields:
Field Description
Checklist Name for the checklist.
Description Description for the checklist.
Note: The default AQI pass score is 70. You can change the pass score in the
Article Quality Index properties.
To add a question:
a. Click New.
b. Fill in the following fields:
Field Description
Note: • The combined weight of
all questions cannot
exceed 100.
• The sum of weights of all
questions in a checklist
must be equal to 100 to be
assigned to a knowledge
base.
c. Click Submit.
5. After you finish adding questions to the checklist, click Update on the AQI Checklist
form.
What to do next
Before a knowledge reviewer can start performing the AQI review, you must assign an AQI
checklist to a knowledge base.
You can only assign a checklist to a knowledge base when the weight of all questions in the
checklist is equal to 100. Each knowledge base can have one assigned checklist. However, a
checklist can be assigned to more than one knowledge base.
Procedure
What to do next
After you assign an AQI checklist to a knowledge base, you can start performing AQI
reviews.
Before you can edit a checklist that is assigned to a knowledge base, you must remove it
from the knowledge base.
A checklist with pending AQI reviews cannot be removed from the knowledge base until all
AQI reviews associated with the checklist are complete.
Procedure
Deleting a question in a checklist deletes the text in the question of previously performed
AQI reviews that use the checklist. Deleting an AQI question from a checklist will not affect
the score of the previously performed AQI reviews. However, the text of the question will not
be displayed in the checklist.
You can delete questions from a checklist if the following conditions are met:
• The checklist is not attached to a knowledge base. For more information, see Remove an
AQI checklist from a knowledge base.
• There are no AQI reviews using the checklist in progress.
Procedure
You can only perform an AQI review on the latest published version of an article in a
knowledge base. You can perform several AQI reviews for an article. If you perform several
AQI reviews for the same version of the article, the latest AQI score appears in the Latest
AQI field in the article.
Procedure
1. Navigate to Knowledge > Articles > Published, and click on an article to perform the AQI
review.
2. Perform one of the following actions:
Option Instructions
The AQI review is not yet started. Click Perform AQI in the form header.
The AQI review was started and is pending. Click Continue AQI in the form header.
Note: The cumulative weighted score of all answers set to true is applied to the
AQI score when you save or submit the review.
To Do This
Submit the completed AQI review. Click Submit.
The form refreshes and the total score of the
AQI review is displayed in the AQI score field.
To Do This
Note: The notification includes the
AQI review score and AQI
review result. You can
customize the content and
design of the notification
emails.
Save the pending review to complete later. Click Update and return to the Article Checklist
Summaries list.
The checklist with pending reviews is added to
the My Pending AQI Checklists queue. When
you want to complete the AQI reviews,
navigate to Knowledge > My Pending AQI
Checklists and complete the reviews.
What to do next
To view all the AQI reviews you completed, navigate to Knowledge > My Completed AQI
Checklists.
View checklists of all users to monitor the pending and completed reviews.
Procedure
Article templates have pre-defined fields structured in a specific order. These templates help
create a consistent structure for knowledge articles.
Using the Knowledge Article Templates feature, as a knowledge administrator (a user with
knowledge_admin role), you can create new article templates, add or customize fields in a
template, and activate or deactivate a template.
As a security administrator (a user with security_admin role), you can configure field-level
security in any template to make it visible to specific users.
As an author, you can create articles using pre-defined article templates or any newly
created article templates.
The table below lists the fields available in each template and the name of the template
table.
Create new article templates in addition to the pre-defined templates. Add new fields
based on how you want to customize and display your content.
• Restrict access to fields in an article template
Use encryption context to set field-level security in article templates and display the fields
based on user permissions.
Create new article templates in addition to the pre-defined templates. Add new fields based
on how you want to customize and display your content.
For each new article template, a child table of the Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table is
created. When you add a new field to the template, a new column is added to that table.
Procedure
1. Navigate to Knowledge > Administration > Article Templates, and click New.
2. Fill in the following fields:
Field Description
Name Name for the article template.
Description Description for the article template.
The Active check box is selected by default making the template available for use.
3. Right-click the form header and click Save.
4. In the Article Templates Field related list, add fields to the template.
To add a field:
a. Click New.
b. Fill in the following fields as required:
Name Description
Field Name Title to display on the template form.
Field Type Available field types:
• HTML
• String
• Integer
• Date
• Date and time
Order Position of the field in the article page view
and the article edit view.
Article Template (Read-only) Name of the article template
associated with this field.
Template Table (Read-only) Name of the table for this
template.
Template Field (Read-only) Name of the template column
associated with this field.
Name Description
Mandatory If checked, this field is mandatory.
Active If checked, this field displays in the template.
c. Click Submit.
The field is added to the template.
5. Configure the article template form to display the fields that you added to the template.
To configure the form:
a. Navigate to Knowledge > Articles > Create New.
b. Select the template in which you want to display the fields.
c. Right-click the header and select Configure > Form Layout
d. Select and move the required fields from the Available to the Selected list.
e. Click Save.
Use encryption context to set field-level security in article templates and display the fields
based on user permissions.
Activate the Encryption Support plugin to enable field-level security using encryption
context.
Procedure
1. Navigate to System Security > Field Encryption > Encryption Contexts and click New.
2. In the Name field, enter a name for the encryption context and click Submit.
3. Set the Type field for a table to Encrypted Text.
To set the Type field for a table to Encrypted text:
a. Navigate to System Definition > Dictionary.
b. Select the table to set the Type field to Encrypted Text.
c. In the Type field, select Encrypted Text.
d. Click Update.
The field is configured for encryption context.
4. Configure roles that can view the fields configured for encryption context.
To configure the roles that can view the fields:
a. Navigate to User Administration > Roles and select the role you want to assign
permissions to view this field.
b. In the Encrypted context field, select the name of the encryption context to apply
for this role.
Note: If the Encrypted context field is not on the form, configure the form to
add the field.
5. Click Update.
The field is displayed if the user has permissions to view the configured encrypted text
field.
Use the external content integration feature to integrate content from various external
sources and enable unified knowledge search results.
Users store and manage knowledge using various external sources and search each source
separately for relevant results. External content integration enables acquiring and searching
all WebDAV-compliant source content from a single location. This provides users with a
seamless search experience across multiple knowledge sources and drives more usage to
the platform.
Using this feature, knowledge administrators can define the external content to be imported
into a knowledge base and periodically run a job to import the content. Knowledge users
have a seamless user experience searching for relevant content across multiple knowledge
sources.
• Activate the External Content Integration plugin
The External Content Integration feature is activated with the Knowledge Management -
External Content Integration plugin (com.snc.knowledge.external_integration).
• Define an external knowledge source
Before you import content, create and configure the connection between the a Web
Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) - compliant external knowledge source
and the ServiceNow knowledge base where you want to import content. Define import
parameters for the external knowledge source.
• Import content from an external knowledge source
Run an import job manually or set up a schedule to process the integrated external
content.
• Open knowledge search results in source system
Configure the URL to the external source system to open articles from search results
directly in the source system.
The External Content Integration feature is activated with the Knowledge Management -
External Content Integration plugin (com.snc.knowledge.external_integration).
The Knowledge Management - External Content Integration plugin is not active by default.
The following plugins are automatically activated when the Knowledge Management -
External Content Integration plugin is activated:
The Knowledge > Administration module displays the External Knowledge Sources and
External Knowledge Jobs sub-modules when the Knowledge Management - External
Content Integration plugin is activated.
Procedure
If the plugin depends on other plugins, these plugins are listed along with their
activation status.
If the plugin has optional features that depend on other plugins, those plugins are listed
under Some files will not be loaded because these plugins are inactive. The optional
features are not installed until the listed plugins are installed (before or after the
installation of the current plugin).
Some plugins include demo data—Sample records that are designed to illustrate plugin
features for common use cases. Loading demo data is a good practice when you first
activate the plugin on a development or test instance.
You can also load demo data after the plugin is activated by clicking the Load Demo
Data Only related link on the System Plugin form.
5. Click Activate.
Before you import content, create and configure the connection between the a Web
Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) - compliant external knowledge source and
the ServiceNow knowledge base where you want to import content. Define import
parameters for the external knowledge source.
Define basic authentication credentials and create an HTTP connection to the external
source.
Procedure
1. Define the connection from the external source and the target knowledge base.
a. Navigate to Knowledge > Administration > External Knowledge Sources.
b. Click New.
c. Fill in the following fields:
Field Instruction
Name Enter unique name for the external source.
Target Knowledge Base Select the knowledge base in which you want
to create articles for the external content.
Connection Alias Select the connection alias to connect to the
external source.
d. Click Submit.
Run an import job manually or set up a schedule to process the integrated external content.
Each external source is associated with two handlers: the Acquire handler and the Process
handler, for running the import job. The acquire handler uses a WebDAV client to acquire
external content to create articles. You can customize the process handler to assign
categories to articles or populate additional metadata for the knowledge articles.
Procedure
Configure the URL to the external source system to open articles from search results directly
in the source system.
Make sure the Open search results in the original source system import parameter for the
external knowledge source is set to true.
Procedure