Article versioning changes

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Article Versioning Changes

    Article versioning in ServiceNow’s Knowledge Management introduces new capabilities that enable users to create, revise, and manage multiple versions of knowledge articles. This enhancement adds new actions, fields, lists, and updates to the Knowledge form, list, modules, dashboard reports, and the Service Portal. It helps organizations maintain up-to-date knowledge content while tracking revisions and authorship effectively.

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    New User Actions

    • Checkout: Allows users to check out a published article and create a new version directly from the Knowledge form. Editing drafts is restricted to the author, knowledge base owner, and those with the knowledgeadmin role.
    • Recall: Enables recalling an article that is under review or scheduled for publishing.
    • Make This Current: Lets users select a previously published, outdated article version and make it the current published version.
    • Minor Edits: To edit a published article without creating a new version, enable the glide.knowman.versioning.enableminoredits system property.

    Changes to the Knowledge List and Form

    • The Knowledge list now includes a Version column showing the article version number and displays multiple versions of the same article.
    • The Workflow column includes a new Outdated state.
    • The Knowledge form features new fields: Version, Display number (combines article number and version, e.g., KB0010004 v1.02), Base Version (indicates the original article version), and Revised By (shows the user who created the new version).
    • An Article Versions related list displays all versions of an article, allowing users to view specific versions or their article page views. Form configuration may be needed to display these elements.

    Updates to Knowledge Modules

    • My Knowledge Articles: For knowledge users, this includes articles they authored or revised. For knowledge revisers, it includes articles published or revised by them.
    • My Flagged: Shows revisions made to articles authored or revised by the user, depending on their role.
    • Note: Customizations to these modules may prevent these changes from appearing.

    Knowledge Management Dashboard Report Enhancements

    Dashboard reports in the Knowledge Management Overview now incorporate article versioning data when the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin is enabled. Reports updated include:

    • Articles Flagged or Marked Not Useful in the Last 30 Days
    • Articles Used per Month
    • Knowledge Use and View Metrics
    • Knowledge Updated or Flagged in Past 30 Days
    • Knowledge by Workflow State
    • Knowledge Created by Author or in Past 30 Days
    • New Knowledge Articles Created in Last 30 Days
    • Knowledge Ratings for Past 30 Days

    Versioning Information in the Knowledge Management Service Portal

    • Search results display both article and version numbers when the glide.knowman.search.showarticlenumber property is enabled.
    • Accessing articles via URL requires specifying the version number to view the correct article version.
    • The article view page includes a version history section showing version numbers, update dates, and authors/revisers, with the ability to expand details and open specific versions.
    • When viewing an outdated article, users are notified with a link to the latest version.

    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.

    New user actions

    As part of creating article versions, users can:
    • Check out a published article and create another version by clicking Checkout on the Knowledge form.
      Note:
      Only the author, knowledge base owner, and users with the knowledge_admin role can edit an article in the Draft state.
    • Recall an article that is being reviewed or scheduled for publish 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 currentin the Knowledge form header.
    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.

    Changes to the Knowledge list

    The article versioning feature adds the following to the Knowledge list:
    • 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.

    Changes to the Knowledge form

    The article versioning feature adds the following to the Knowledge form:
    • The Version field displays the article version number.
    • 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.
      • Click 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.

    Changes to Knowledge modules

    The article versioning feature introduces the following Knowledge module changes:
    • 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.

    Changes to Knowledge Management dashboard reports

    The Knowledge Management Overview dashboard reports have been updated to include article versioning-related changes when the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin is activated.
    • Articles Flagged in the Last 30 Days
    • Articles Marked Not Useful in the Last 30 Days
    • Articles Used per Month
    • Knowledge use
    • Knowledge view
    • Knowledge updated in past 30 days
    • Knowledge flagged in past 30 days
    • Knowledge by Workflow state
    • Knowledge created by Author
    • Knowledge created in past 30 days
    • New Knowledge Articles Created in the Last 30 Days
    • Knowledge Ratings for past 30 days

    Versioning information available in the Knowledge Management Service Portal

    Knowledge search results show the article number and the version number for each article.
    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.

    If you are accessing an article from the base system or knowledge service portals using the URL to a KB article, you must also include the article version number in the URL. For example, to access the KB0000005 knowledge article, instead of using the https://<instance name>/sp?id=kb_article&sys_id=KB0000005 as the URL, you must use https://<instance name>/sp?id=kb_article&sys_id=KB0000005%20V1.0 to view the article.

    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.