From SNCWiki

Functionality described here requires the Knowledge Management with KCS plugin.

Warning: This plugin will not install properly if the kb_view, kb_list or kb_find UI Pages or their associated UI Macros have been customized. See Installing the Plugin for a workaround.

Overview

The Knowledge Management with KCS Plugin is designed to enhance the knowledge base to allow for a process of continually improving the knowledge base's content. The plugin allows for:

• More specific feedback to knowledge base articles
• More advanced searching, and the ability to track search queries

The plugin also includes a series of out-of-box reports to track the quality and use of articles, and enhancements to the user interface.

Unpublished Articles in Portal and Search

Before the plugin, only published articles would be displayed in the portal:

With the plugin, users with the appropriate roles can see reviews in Draft or Review stage in the portal. The icons on the right, next to the article's date, indicate the state:

State icons:

• Draft:
• Review:
• Published:

Unpublished articles are also visible in search results, using the same icons to denote state:

This functionality can be enabled or disabled, and restricted by role in Knowledge Base > Properties.

Changes to Article View

Cleaner Metadata View

Before the plugin, the metadata was stored at the bottom of the page, and was more prominent:

After the plugin, the metadata is less obtrusive. Note that the article name, published date, and last modification date are at the top, but the permalink and views are at the bottom:

Feedback Box

At the bottom right of the article, there is now a feedback box to allow for more specific feedback to articles. Each section of the feedback box can be enabled or disabled, or restricted based on roles.

The first feedback option is the question "Was This Helpful?" If the user selects "Yes", a Thank You dialog appears, and the feedback field opens:

If the user selects "No", a Thank You dialog appears, the feedback field opens, and a "Create Incident" link is displayed.

If the user decides to create an incident, the incident will automatically note the knowledge base search that brought the user to the article.

This behavior can be modified by navigating to Knowledge Base -> Properties and modifying the "URL used for the "Create Incident" link after rating a Knowledge article not useful" property. The out-of-box setting is:

incident.do?sys_id=-1&sysparm_query=active=true^comments=(Created after Knowledge search: $[HTML:sysparm_search])&sysparm_stack=kb_home.do

The second feedback option is the five-star rating system. As the user hovers over the rating, the stars will preview the rating, until the user clicks. Once a user gives a rating, they cannot change it.

The third feedback option is the Flag Article checkbox. Once the flag article checkbox is checked, the feedback field becomes a mandatory field.

Affected Product / Recent Task Lists

The article view now supports displaying configuration items put in the Affected Product related list on the Knowledge Form, or the incidents which have the article on its Attached Knowledge related list:

New UI Actions

There are three new UI actions to aid with knowledge management, all available on the Knowledge Article form.

• Search for Duplicates - appears on draft articles, and enters the topic and short description field into the knowledge base search
• Mark Public - replaces the roles for the article with public.
• Mark Internal - replaces the roles for the article with itil and knowledge.

New Modules in Knowledge Base Application

The following modules are added to the Knowledge Base Application:

• Flagged Articles - A list of all articles that have been flagged by a user.
• Ratings - A view of the Knowledge Feedback table with a Ratings view that displays the new feedback fields.
• Search Queries - A list of the recent searches within the knowledge base by all users.
• Overview - The new Knowledge Management homepage and reports.

Knowledge Base Search

Search Header Interface

The old advanced search was accessible using the the magnifying glass icon on the left side of the knowledge search bar. It also inserted the Topic and Category drop-downs before the search bar:

The new Advanced Search is accessible using the Advanced Search link on the right side of the knowledge search bar, and opens below the search bar:

Refine Search Box

In addition to the change in interface, knowledge base searches now have a Refine Results section to the right. Results can be refined by category or subcategory:

Once a category is refined, the user can either refine further, or return to search all articles:

Knowledge Management Homepage and Reports

The following reports come out-of-box:

• Article Feedback Rating by Author - pivot table showing each author's average feedback rating for their articles
• Knowledge flagged in past 30 days - grouped list report of articles that have been flagged as inaccurate or incomplete
• Knowledge created in past 30 days - bar chart grouped by topic, stacked by category
• Knowledge created by Author - monthly trend chart of articles created by each person
• Knowledge views - bar chart grouped by topic, stacked by article
• Knowledge views by Author - monthly trend chart, grouped by author
• Knowledge use - bar chart grouped by topic, stacked by article
• Knowledge use by Author - monthly trend chart, grouped by author
• Knowledge updated in past 30 days -
• Knowledge by Workflow state - pie chart

Changes to Knowledge Base Security

This plugin does not alter any existing security preferences, but it does create new security options:

• Knowledge Base Navigation Add-ons can now be specified by role.
• In the Knowledge Base Properties module, it is now possible to designate certain roles which can view unpublished articles directly from the Knowledge Base front-end.
• It is also possible to designate certain roles which can view the rating section on knowledge base articles, or any particular rating system within the section.

Installed Components

Database Table Structure

The following tables will be added by installing the plugin:

• kb_use (fields: article, user, used, viewed, times_viewed)
• m2m_kb_ci (many-to-many table between kb_knowledge and task)

The following tables will be altered by installing the plugin:

• kb_knowledge (new fields added: flagged, author, use_count, rating, sys_domain)
• kb_feedback (new fields added: flagged, resolved, view_id, rating, query, useful, work_notes)

Properties

The following properties will be added to sys_properties:

• glide.knowman.affected_products.display (Show affected products when viewing an article)
• glide.knowman.create_incident_link (URL used for the "Create Incident" link)
• glide.knowman.create_incident_link.display Show ("Create Incident" link)
• glide.knowman.recent_tasks (Number of attached tasks displayed)
• glide.knowman.recent_tasks.display (Show tasks to which an article has been recently attached)
• glide.knowman.show_flag (Show article flag option to identify incomplete/inaccurate articles)
• glide.knowman.show_flag.roles (List of roles (comma separated) that can flag articles)
• glide.knowman.show_preview_popup (Show article previews in a hover popup)
• glide.knowman.show_rating_options (Show article rating section)
• glide.knowman.show_rating_options.roles (List of roles (comma separated) that can see an article's rating section)
• glide.knowman.show_refine_results (Show "Refine Results" section)
• glide.knowman.show_star_rating (Show five-star rating option)
• glide.knowman.show_star_rating.roles (List of roles (comma separated) that can use the five-star rating option)
• glide.knowman.show_yn_rating (Show yes/no "Was this article helpful?")
• glide.knowman.show_yn_rating.roles (List of roles (comma separated) that can use the yes/no "Was this article helpful?" rating option)
• glide.knowman.view_age.days (Number of days used when summing article views)

Scripts

The following scheduled job is installed:

• Count Knowledge Use - counts article views and uses daily

Getting Started

Dependencies

• Requires normal Knowledge Management plugin, installed by default on all instances

Impact

Plugin installation may not work properly if Knowledge UI Pages or UI Macros have been modified on the instance (the ones whose names begin with "kb_"). If this is the case, the instructions below can be followed to remove customizations from the instance.

Installing the Plugin

If the instance is using the out-of-box knowledge UI Pages and Macros, simply install the plugin as normal.

If the out-of-box knowledge UI Pages or UI Macros have been changed, some additional steps will be required. This is because the upgrade policy states that Service-now will not automatically upgrade any tables or elements which have been customized by the users, to avoid erasing user customizations during upgrades. Unfortunately, this means that the necessary changes for this plugin will not take effect if these elements has been changed. To fix this, it is necessary to erase the records of such changes from the system.

Note that this will overwrite any customizations made to Knowledge UI Pages and Macros.

1. Enter sys_update_xml.list into the Navigation Filter.
2. Find any records with type "UI Page" or "Macro" and the Target name or Name begins with "kb_", and delete them.
3. Once all such records are erased, install as normal.