How to create custom UI actions on the KB article view page?

[SK07]

Hi Community,

I'm currently working on customizing the Knowledge Base in ServiceNow and had a question regarding UI Actions on the Knowledge Article view page.

Requirement:
I want to create a custom UI Action (button) that appears on the Knowledge Article view page (kb_view / Knowledge Portal view), and perform a specific action when clicked.

Any guidance, examples, or documentation links would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[sk7493]

Hi @SK07 

The approach depends on whether you want the button in the Native UI or the Service Portal, as they handle UI Actions differently:

1. For Native UI (kb_view.do)
Since kb_view is a UI Page and not a standard form, regular UI Actions won't always appear automatically. You have two main options:

Standard UI Action: Create a UI Action on the kb_knowledge table. To make it appear on the view page, ensure it is a Client button and use a condition like gs.getSession().isInteractive().

UI Macro Customization: If a standard UI Action doesn't appear where you want it, you may need to customize the kb_view_header_responses or kb_article_header UI Macros to hardcode a button.

2. For Service Portal (kb_article_view)
Service Portal does not support standard UI Actions out of the box. You have to:

Clone the Widget: Clone the "Knowledge Article Content" widget.

Add the Button: Add your <button> HTML to the widget's template and the logic to the Client Controller.

Server Logic: If the button needs to update a record, use c.server.update() to pass data to the Server Script.

3. For Configurable Workspace
If you are using the Knowledge Management Workspace, you don't use UI Actions; you must use UX Declarative Actions to add buttons to the action bar.

Pro-Tip: Check the KnowledgeUIActionSNC Script Include to see how ServiceNow handles the "Edit" and "Flag" buttons—it's the best reference for how they bridge these different views.

[Naveen20]

Customize the UI Macro

1. Navigate to System UI → UI Pages → kb_view. Open the Jelly source and look for <g:call> or <g:include> tags — these reference the UI Macros that render the button bar (commonly something like kb_view_article_actions).
2. Clone that UI Macro (never edit OOB directly). In your cloned macro, add your button:

xml

<j:if test="${gs.hasRole('your_required_role')}">
  <button class="btn btn-default" onclick="yourCustomAction('${jvar_article_sys_id}')">
    Your Button
  </button>
</j:if>

3. Update the kb_view UI Page to reference your cloned macro instead of the original.
4. Add your server-side logic via a Script Include, and call it from the button using GlideAjax:

javascript

function yourCustomAction(sysId) {
  var ga = new GlideAjax('YourScriptInclude');
  ga.addParam('sysparm_name', 'yourMethod');
  ga.addParam('sysparm_article_id', sysId);
  ga.getXMLAnswer(function(response) {
    alert('Done: ' + response);
  });
}