CSA Doubts

[DheerajS1805]

1. Knowledge Article Lifecycle
What exactly controls the publishing and retiring of knowledge articles?
Is it the workflow assigned to the knowledge base, or does the state lifecycle or approval definitions play a role too?

2. Copying a Report Safely
While using the Report Designer, what is the best practice for making a copy of an existing report before modifying it?
Is "Insert and Stay" the correct approach, or are there other recommended methods?

3. Impersonation Restrictions
If a user has the impersonator role, are there specific types of users they cannot impersonate?
For example, are roles like Security Incident Response, HR Admin, or Scoped Admin roles restricted from impersonation?

[mayankkumar · Accepted solution]

Hi @DheerajS1805,
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Answers to your questions: -

1. Knowledge Article Lifecycle

The lifecycle of a knowledge article is influenced by a few key components:

• Knowledge Base Workflow:
  If a workflow is attached to the knowledge base, it becomes the central mechanism managing the article’s journey—moving it from Draft to Review, then to Published or Retired, based on conditions and approvals defined in the workflow.

• Article State:
  Each knowledge article has a state field (Draft, Published, Retired, etc.) which indicates its current phase. The workflow updates this field during transitions.

• Approvals:
  If approval steps are configured (either via workflow or manually), those define which users or groups need to approve an article before it progresses to the next state.

In summary, it's a coordinated effort between the workflow, state lifecycle, and any approval requirements that drives the publishing and retiring process.

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2. Copying a Report Safely

When working in the Report Designer, it’s always a good idea to avoid modifying original reports directly. Instead, to safely create a working copy:

• Use the “Insert and Stay” option. This duplicates the current report and keeps you on the new version for editing. It’s a simple and safe way to avoid impacting existing reporting.

• You can also use right-click > Insert from the report list view or look for a “Save As” button if available in your UI.

Bottom line: Always work on a copy—this keeps your changes isolated and prevents unintentional updates to live reports.

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3. Impersonation Restrictions

Even if a user has the impersonator role, there are certain accounts that cannot be impersonated, typically due to privacy, data sensitivity, or scoped access restrictions.

Examples include:

• HR roles (e.g., HR Admins)

• Security roles (e.g., Security Incident Response roles)

• Scoped application admins
  These roles often involve access to sensitive or confidential information, and ServiceNow restricts impersonation to uphold security and compliance.

Standard roles like ITIL users, developers, and typical end users can be impersonated without issue. Further restrictions can also be enforced using ACLs or domain separation settings if your instance is configured that way.

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Hope this clears things up!
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If this helped, please consider marking it as Helpful and Accept as Solution so it can benefit others too.
Let me know if you'd like further detail on any of the topics.

Best regards,
Mayank

[mayankkumar]

Hi @Dr Atul G- LNG  and @DheerajS1805 
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The response I shared was "Rephrased" using ChatGPT and it hallucinated my response
it was my mistake to not take a look again 
@DheerajS1805 Please ignore ---> 'You can also use right-click > Insert from the report list view or look for a “Save As” button if available in your UI.'
coming to the question as I already mentioned you can use Insert & stay to copy an existing report
and thanks @Dr Atul G- LNG for pointing it out.
And yes, Starting from Xanadu Release Reports module are deprecated
follow this article for better understanding -
Platform Analytics Migration in Xanadu Release - Support and Troubleshooting
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If this helped, please consider marking it as Helpful and Accept as Solution.
Thanks & Regards
Mayank

[DheerajS1805]

Thanks @mayankkumar !

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @mayankkumar 

"Appreciate the positive attitude. Even though I’m using ChatGPT for rephrasing, since it's machine-generated, human intervention is always needed.

[prerna_sh]

Hi @DheerajS1805 

1. Workflow calls State lifecycle or approvals, for controlling the publishing and retiring knowledge articles.

2. "insert and stay" is a best way, so that existing report stay safe and you can edit the duplicated one.

3. If user have "impersonation" role still have restrictions. e.g. "scoped application admin"

If my response solves your query, please marked helpful by selecting Accept as Solution and Helpful. Let me know if anything else is required.
Thanks,
Prerna

[Dr Atul G- LNG · Accepted solution]

Hi @DheerajS1805 

1. Knowledge Article Lifecycle
What exactly controls the publishing and retiring of knowledge articles?
Is it the workflow assigned to the knowledge base, or does the state lifecycle or approval definitions play a role too?

Atul: workflow assigned to the knowledge base

2. Copying a Report Safely
While using the Report Designer, what is the best practice for making a copy of an existing report before modifying it?
Is "Insert and Stay" the correct approach, or are there other recommended methods?

Atul: Insert and Stay is right approch.

3. Impersonation Restrictions
If a user has the impersonator role, are there specific types of users they cannot impersonate?
For example, are roles like Security Incident Response, HR Admin, or Scoped Admin roles restricted from impersonation?

Atul: Scoped Admin roles