How do you retire a Knowledge Block when it exists in multiple versions of an article

[Jeff Montgomery]

We have knowledge blocks that have been added to KB Articles that have been versioned multiple times. In some of these blocks we are looking to modify the short description field so it is represents the content of the block more clearly. I have tried checking out the latest article version and remove the block but still cannot make changes to the Short description. This block only exists in this 1 article. I have also created the scenario in my dev instance.

Our plan was to retire the block and create a new block and add to the existing article, but we cannot retire or delete the block as it still exists in previous versions which we can't remove. Even as an admin i cannot delete or retire.

We can still create the new block and add to the article, but without the ability to retire or delete the old block, it can still be selected and added to an article. 

I can delete all old versions of the articles but this doesn't make any sense. 

[Monica11]

After asking the same question in the Now Platform forum, I was pointed to this thread.

The manual workarounds are convoluted and customization is, by VP directive, to be avoided as much as possible. Two follow on questions:

1. Are there any other options out there besides these two manual workarounds?
2. In the event I can get a customization approved ... What customization was performed (I'm a biz architect and not skilled in coding)? I assume it follows SN's best practices?

[Stephanie L_]

I just noticed I have a "force retire" button option. Does anyone else have this? I was able to use this and it retired the block and no longer visible in articles. However, I still don't think it automatically removes the block itself in articles, just makes the content unpublished. 

Although the “force retire” and “valid to” options/workarounds unpublish the block content from articles, the caveat is that it doesn’t automatically remove the block itself in the articles. So, I think this is why it’s intended to work that you manually remove the blocks and then retire, otherwise, you’re still going to see that KBB inserted when you checkout the article and it could be confusing that it still exists even though it’s retired.

[Monica11]

No Force Retire button here. What version/patch are you running? Did one of the admins/support in your organization create and/or display it?

There is no workaround that I have found. Removing the block from the KA only removes it from that version, it is still embedded in previous versions making it 'forever' in use and un-retirable. I suppose one could completely delete the KA record and relationship entries from the tables but we don't allow that to users and our support teams have other, higher priority work.

I see the need to retain for historical purposes and because there isn't a way inherently in the platform to hide the block if it gets retired while the KA version it is embedded in is still active/published. But not having a lifecycle for certain content is counter to knowledge management. It would be good to address this in a future family.