The ServiceNow® Knowledge Management (KM) application enables the sharing of information in knowledge bases.

Knowledge bases contain articles that provide users with information such as self-help, troubleshooting, and task resolution. You can check out the FAQ on the following aspects of Knowledge Management to help use the application efficiently.

User Criteria FAQ (Click to Expand)

User criteria enable you to control access to knowledge bases or knowledge articles for users. As an administrator, you can utilize user criteria to define conditions that are evaluated against user attributes. When user criteria are defined, knowledge articles are only visible to users who pass the defined conditions.

The Support article (KB0550924) provides a video tutorial, basic principles, information on ACLs, recommendations, and example use cases that are currently relevant.

2. Why can't external or public users view articles after enabling the access controls?

3. What are the different parameters that can be added to user criteria?

Administrators can control access to knowledge bases and knowledge articles by defining user criteria based on role, department, group, location, or company.

For example, create a North America IT user criteria matching users who are both in the IT team and based in North America. Then apply this record to the IT Service Desk knowledge base, so only users matching the North America IT user criteria can access articles within the IT Service Desk knowledge base.

The Support article (KB0550924) provides recommendations and example use cases.

4. How are knowledge bases secured with user criteria?

At the knowledge base level, you can assign user criteria to control contribute and read access, where:

• Read access determines the ability to view knowledge articles in a knowledge base.
• Contribute access determines the ability to create, modify, and retire knowledge articles in a knowledge base.

For more information, see Managing access to knowledge bases and knowledge articles.

The following GIF shows the Can Read, Can Contribute, Cannot Read, and Cannot Contribute user criteria for the IT Service Desk knowledge base.

5. How are articles secured with user criteria?

At the knowledge article level, you can assign user criteria to control read access, where read access determines the ability to view the knowledge article. As an administrator, you can also configure the glide.knowman.apply_article_read_criteria property to secure knowledge articles from knowledge contributors not explicitly authorized through Can Read and Cannot Read user criteria.

Note: Enabling this property overrides read access to a knowledge article granted by the Can Contribute user criteria at the knowledge base level.

Note: If the Can Read and Cannot Read fields aren't visible, configure the Knowledge form to display them. For more information, see Configuring the form layout.

6. How do I troubleshoot an access issue for a knowledge article or knowledge base?

You can manage user access to a knowledge base or a knowledge article using user criteria diagnostics. For more information, see User criteria diagnostics for Knowledge Management.

ExampleThe following image shows an example of a diagnosis where the user Alene Reback does not have access to the IT knowledge base.

Alena can get access to the knowledge base if:

• Alena is added to one of the existing user criteria defined in the knowledge base.
• Alena is added to a new user criteria that is defined and added to the knowledge base.

Click the IT knowledge base link and provide access by adding Alena to a user criteria for this knowledge base.

Ensure that the user criteria you're working with are defined in the same scope you're currently working in. If not, change your application scope in the application picker to the scope of the user criteria.

First, use the User Criteria Diagnostics to troubleshoot the issue, by clicking the Run User Criteria Diagnostic on the article. If the diagnostic states "user does not have access" then check for any custom ACLs that may be on the kb_knowledge table that are overriding the user criteria.

On the Knowledge Homepage, users who do not have read access to articles that use a certain category, e.g. 'Restricted', can still see the category name in the list of categories (when all Knowledge Bases are selected). However, when they select the Knowledge Base that uses this category, they no longer see it in the list.

Can Read access to a Knowledge Category (kb_category) is determined by whether a user has Can Read access to to the Knowledge Base where the category is used. In this case, the user belonged to a group that had Can Read access to the Knowledge Base, so the category name appeared in the list on the homepage when "All" was selected in the Knowledge Bases field.

But when the user selected the Knowledge Base, the 'Restricted' category was no longer visible because they did not have Can Read access to at least one of the articles that used that category. Those articles had stricter User criteria defined at the article level.

If you do not want the 'Restricted' category to appear in the list of all categories, there are two options:

1. Create more restrictive User Criteria for Can Read access to the Knowledge Base.
2. Make the 'Restricted' category a sub-category of another category, and use article-level User Criteria to restrict read access to all articles that use the 'Restricted' category and its parent category.

This list will be maintained as time permits, if an article is no longer available then it has been retired.

Article Versioning FAQ (Click to Expand)

1. What is article versioning?

The Article Versioning feature allows knowledge contributors to create multiple versions of a knowledge article. They can create a new version of an 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.

Note: To enable the article versioning feature for Knowledge Management, your administrator must activate the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin com.snc.knowledge_advanced.

2. What happens to my existing articles if I enable the article versioning feature?

All existing articles are updated to version 1.0. You can continue editing the existing article by checking out and editing the latest published version.

See this product documentation on changes to expect on knowledge management forms, lists, actions, modules, dashboard reports, and in the Knowledge Management Service Portal.

It is recommended to review this product documentation prior to activating knowledge versioning in a sub-production environment.

4. What is the difference between editing a versioned article and a non-versioned article?

You can edit a versioned knowledge article by checking out and editing the latest published version. Checkout will create a new minor version and when you publish it, it will be published as a major version. However, for a non-versioned article, you can directly edit the article.

Procedure for editing a versioned article:

1. Navigate to Knowledge > Articles > Published.
2. Select the desired article from the list.
3. Click Checkout in the Knowledge form header.

Note: Only the author, knowledge base owner, and users with the knowledge_admin role can edit an article in the Draft state.

The system creates a new minor version of the knowledge article and displays a message to the user. The article number for the new version remains the same, the version number is increased by 0.01, and the state changes to Draft. The new version of the article is added to the Knowledge list and to the Article Versions related list on the Knowledge form. When you publish the article, the version is published with the major version number.

For more information, see Knowledge article version numbers.

Procedure for editing a non-versioned article

1. Navigate to Knowledge > Articles.
2. Select an article from the Published or Unpublished category.
3. On the Knowledge form, click Edit.
4. Click Update.

5. What article information or metadata is carried over when the version of an article is changed?

The following information or metadata is carried over when the version of an article is changed:

• Valid to date (only when the Article Validity field in the knowledge base associated with the article is blank)
• View count
• Use count (appears in reports)
• Feedback and feedback tasks
• Related products
• Related articles
• Attachments
• Translated versions

6. What fields can be edited without a version update?

The fields are included in the glide.knowman.versioning.minor_edit_fields property. The default field is the Valid to field. Admins can add more fields to the property as needed.

Note: To edit a published article without having to create a new version, make sure the glide.knowman .versioning .enable _minor _edits property is enabled.

7. How many versions of a knowledge article I can compare?

You can select and compare two versions of a knowledge article. For more information, see Compare two versions of an article, this will show you how to compare in the Classic Environment. You can also compare versions in a workspace by following this product documentation (valid for both Configurable and Agent Workspace). The workspace UI will show a side-by-side format and highlight differences.

8. As a knowledge author, why am I not able to edit an article in the Draft state?

If the article versioning feature is enabled and a knowledge article is already checked out by the knowledge contributor of the article, a knowledge author can't edit the article. As a knowledge author, you can edit the article only after a knowledge contributor completes editing and then publishing the article. For more information, seeEdit a knowledge article.

This is dependent upon roles. Users can see the knowledge article number and version number. See this product documentation for more information on version information per role.

This list will be maintained as time permits, if an article is no longer available then it has been retired.

Knowledge Management Service Portal FAQ (Click to Expand)

Users can use knowledge feedback in the Knowledge Management Service Portal, and workspaces. Feedback is not supported in legacy Knowledge V3 pages. For more information, see Enable actionable knowledge feedback.

AI Search is not supported on the Knowledge Management Service Portal, only Zing search is supported. AI Search is currently available for Service Portal, Employee Center (ESC), Consumer Service Portal, and Customer Service Portal. AI Search is used in the following widgets: Homepage Search widget, Typeahead Search widget, Faceted Search widget, Catalog Homepage Search widget, Knowledge Breadcrumbs widget. If these widgets were customized, they can be reclassified following this procedure.

For more information on AI Search see the AI Search FAQ.

Any portal based on the service portal framework, including but not limited to Customer Service portal, Consumer Service Portal, Service Portal, HR Service Portal, Employee Center, can use the Knowledge Management Service Portal article view page.

The Knowledge Management Service Portal article view page includes the following features:

• Multiple knowledge bases
• A Knowledge Management article view page with feedback options
• A Knowledge Management search results page with options to filter and sort search results
• A number of widgets to enable searches, display search results, display knowledge articles, and so on

After the New York release, by default, all knowledge articles in the Service Portal are redirected to the Knowledge Management Service Portal article view page.

The following table shows the requirements for enabling a feature.

Feature	Requirements
Feedback management	Enable the glide.knowman.feedback.enable_actionable_feed back_for_helpful property.
Knowledge subscription	Activate the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin (com.snc.knowledge_advanced). Enable the _glide.knowman.enable_km_subscription_property.
Related articles	Activate the Predictive Intelligence for Knowledge Management plugin (com.snc.knowledge_ml).

The following feedback options are available in the Knowledge Management Service Portal:

• Rate an article
• Flag an article
• Add comments
• Mark an article as helpful or not

Note: All these options are configurable, and you can select to enable or disable them by using the Knowledge Management properties. For more information, see Knowledge Management Properties.

6. Why can't I view a knowledge article in Service Portal even though I have access to the article?

or

Why can I view the article in Knowledge Management v3, but not in certain portals?

Verify that the knowledge bases are associated with the portal. Portals restrict articles based on the knowledge bases associated with the portal record. For more information, see Configure knowledge bases for a portal.

7. Why don’t I see all knowledge bases in a service portal?

or

After upgrading to New York, why don’t I see all knowledge bases in a service portal?

You can check which knowledge bases are associated with your service portal. You must have an admin or sp_admin role to verify.

1. Navigate to Service Portal > Portals.
2. In the Title column, click the link to your service portal.
3. On the Service Portal form, in the Knowledge Bases related list, check whether any knowledge bases appear. Note: If there are no knowledge bases selected in the Knowledge Bases related list, all knowledge bases are made available on the service portal.
4. (Optional) Make only specific knowledge bases available within the selected service portal.
   
   1. In the Knowledge Bases related list, click Edit.
      
   2. Select one or more knowledge bases from the Collection column and use the add icon ( > ) to add them to the Knowledge Bases List column.
      
   3. Click Save.

Note: The KB home page field on the Service Portal form defines which knowledge home page opens when the Knowledge Base link is clicked on the Service Portal Home page. For the Knowledge Portal (/kb), the portal home page and the knowledge home page are the same. For more information, see Associate a portal with a knowledge base.

Feedback Management FAQ (Click to Expand)

See this product documentation on the out-of-the-box methods for providing feedback and how administrators and knowledge managers can configure feedback options.

When an article has been flagged, it will create a feedback task record that can be assigned to an ownership group or individual. Flagging does not create a feedback record on the kb_feedback table. The feedback task will remain open until the author has resolved it with the user who has flagged the article. For more information, see Provide feedback for a knowledge article in Agent Workspace.

Feedback (kb_feedback) and feedback tasks (kb_feedback_task) are two separate tables. If you need to turn feedback into actionable tasks for authors or ownership groups, you can configure options to trigger feedback tasks aside from flagging articles. See this product documentation for more information on feedback tasks.

4. What reports are available for knowledge feedback and flagged articles?

By default, the following Performance Analytics indicators are available:

• % of published articles flagged
• % of published articles marked as not useful
• % of published articles marked useful
• Number of flagged knowledge articles

Also, the Knowledge Management dashboard includes reports like average monthly article rating, % of articles flagged.

For more information, see Knowledge Management dashboard.

5. Can I send notifications to end users regarding flagged articles?

Yes, the feedback tasks for flagged articles are integrated with notifications. The notifications are sent to the user who flagged a knowledge article either when the state of a feedback task changes or if there are any comments added to the task.

6. Can I track feedback tasks?

Yes, we have reports to track feedback tasks on our dashboards. Feedback task assignees will have modules in the All menu to track their assigned feedback tasks. You can track the progress on a feedback task and view the duration of time spent in each state. See this product documentation for more information.

7. Are there parameters for ratings, and other feedback that is controlled by number of days?

No, we do not have any properties to control parameters on the number of days for ratings, the rating field shows the overall average rating of the article.

This list will be maintained as time permits, if an article is no longer available then it has been retired.

Knowledge Management Microsoft Word Add-In FAQ (Click to Expand)

In a Safari browser, you need to disable the Prevent cross-site tracking option to login into the Knowledge Management-Add-in for Microsoft Word.

Navigate to Safari -> Preference -> Privacy and uncheck the Prevent cross-site tracking option.

You can also consider the other approved browsers to access the Knowledge Management-Add-in for Microsoft Word. To see the list of supported browsers, see Browser support.

See this Support article for resolving Microsoft Word Add-In errors.

3. Why does the Knowledge Management - Add-in for Microsoft Word fail to load?

If your administrator hasn’t configured the sn_km_word.glide.knowman.word.xframe property correctly, the Knowledge Management Add-in for Microsoft Word fails to load in the Word document.

For more information about resolving such errors, see the Knowledge Word Office Manifest fails validation [KB0860916] article in the Now Support knowledge base.

If the article content does not appear in the Document pane and the editing options are disabled, you might need to reload the Knowledge Management-Add-in for Microsoft Word by clearing or refreshing your browser cache memory. If the issue persists, contact the Customer Service and Support team for further help.

4. How to find the domain names that need to be entered in the system property (sn_km_word.glide.knowman.word.xframe)?

1. In your web browser, load the Knowledge Management Add-in for Microsoft Word.
2. Open the Knowledge Management pane element in the developer tools. For example, in the Google Chrome browser, right-click the Knowledge Management pane and select Inspect.
3. In the developer tool, navigate to the Console tab and select the add-in iFrame parameter starting with*{"baseFrameName" : _xmd_0_* as displayed in the following screenshot.
   
4. Select the domain from baseFrameName" : _xmd_0_ parameter and enter the domain name along with its parent domains in the sn_km_word.glide.knowman.word.xframe system property.

5. Why don't videos show up in knowledge articles created using the Knowledge Management - Add-in for Microsoft Word?

The videos don't appear because Document Viewer used by the Knowledge Management - Add-in for Microsoft Word to convert a Word document to HTML doesn't support videos. For more information, see Document Viewer.

This list will be maintained as time permits, if an article is no longer available then it has been retired.

Localization and Translation FAQ (Click to Expand) Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) FAQ (Click to Expand)

See our FAQ on the Support site for more information on how we're a KCS v6 verified tool. For more information on the KCS methodology, visit the Consortium for Service Innovation website.

Miscellaneous FAQ (Click to Expand)

1. Why is the Attachment link option behavior not replicated when an article with attachments is embedded as a link in another knowledge article?

The Attachment link option applies to knowledge article links accessed from the search results only. Therefore, you cannot download attachments of a knowledge article when the article is embedded as a link in another knowledge article. For more information, see Create a knowledge article in Agent Workspace. This product documentation applies to configure workspaces as well.

2. Why is there a delay in displaying search results for knowledge articles in a Service Portal?

One probable cause for search slowing down is the size and number of article attachments. The search index includes attachments; and therefore, the size and number of knowledge article attachments might slow down the search results for knowledge articles. For a faster search results display, set the value of the glide.knowman.search.attachment system property to Do not show attachment or Show only link for attachment. For more information, see Knowledge Management properties.

3. Can I use the machine translation feature to translate knowledge articles?

Yes, by a combination of the Translation management and Dynamic Translation features. You must activate both features. For more information, see Translation management and Activate Dynamic Translation.

4. Does the translation management feature require the article versioning feature?

Yes, you must have the article versioning feature enabled to use translation management. To enable the article versioning feature, ensure the glide.knowman.versioning.enabled property is enabled. This property is available when your administrator activates the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin

(com.snc.knowledge_advanced).

5. How do I manage duplicate article numbers?

To avoid inserting knowledge articles with duplicate numbers into a production environment:

• Do not import demo data articles in a production environment.
• Verify the numbers of the articles to be inserted to make sure they are not already in use.
• 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 Number field so that newly created articles do not conflict with existing articles:

1. Navigate to System Definition > Number Maintenance.
2. In the Table column, search for and select Knowledge.
3. In the Controls related list, in the Number field, update the count to a number greater than the largest value already in the system.
4. Click Update.

6. Why is the Valid to date of an article not derived from the default article validity value?

The possible reason could be that the default article validity value is modified or blank. To show the accurate valid to date for an article, you need to set the default value of the dictionary entry of kb_knowledge.valid_to column to javascript: current.kb_knowledge_base ? new global.KBCommon().getDefaultValidToDateFromCurrentDate(current.kb_knowledge_base) : '';.

7. Why is the Valid to date of a knowledge article updated to a random value?

or

Which date formats to avoid for using the article validity feature?

If the system date format or user preferences is set to use yy year format, you might face issues when the Valid to date is set to the default date. You can contact your administrator or modify the user preferences to use a date format with the yyyy year format.

For more information, see Global date and time field format and Personalize the system date format

.

8. Why can’t I find some knowledge articles?

9. Why doesn’t the view count in the Knowledge Use [kb_use] table match with the view count in the Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table?

The view count in the Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table is controlled by the Number of days (integer, default 30) used when summing article views property (glide.knowman.view_age.days). The default value for this property is set to 30, meaning only views in the last 30 days will be considered. Therefore, there's a discrepancy between the view count of both the tables. For more information about the glide.knowman.view_age.days property, see Knowledge Management properties.

10. Why am I not able to modify the Knowledge Management V3 UI or $knowledge.do ?

The Knowledge Management V3 UI or $knowledge.do is not available for customization. Use the Knowledge Management Service Portal for an easily configurable user experience. For more information on Knowledge Management V3 homepage, see Knowledge Management v3 homepage.

11. Why I do not see any images in a knowledge article?

The most probable reasons are:

• Images are missing from the Attachments [sys_attachment] table.
• The Exclude large attachment data option was selected when cloning an environment from production to sub-production. To resolve this issue, re-clone and clear the Exclude large attachment data check box when you submit a clone request. For information, see Request a clone.
• The Article body section of the knowledge article contains an invalid reference to the image.

12. Why I do not see articles in a knowledge base?

The glide.knowman.apply_article_read_criteria property determines read access to an article for a user with contribute access to a knowledge base. To enable read access at the article level, your administrator must enable the glide.knowman.apply_article_read_criteria property to override contribute access at the knowledge base level. For more information, see the Determining contribute access to a knowledge base and its articles using user criteria section in Managing access to knowledge bases and knowledge articles.

13. How can I set up and test the Self-Service Analytics/deflection configuration for any task type, such as case and incident?

You can set up and test the Self-Service Analytics/deflection configuration for any type of task in the context of a user table, such as User [sys_user], Contact [customer_contact], and Consumer [csm_consumer]. For more information, see theSelf-Service Analytics Implementation Guide for Incidentscommunity article_._

14. Can I associate multiple activity contexts with the same table for the Self-Service Analytics/deflection configuration?

Currently, you can associate only one activity context with a table in the Self-Service Analytics/deflection configuration.

15. Can you provide more information on glide.knowman.view_age.days?

This property is deprecated as of Vancouver, the recommendation is set the property to 0 and to not use it. This property does not apply to use counts, only view counts.

16. I have articles with 0 view counts, but has use counts.

When an article is attached to an incident from contextual search without viewing, the view count will not increase but the use count will.