How to update an array field for many records at one time?

[MG Casey]

I am needing to add a specific role to all of our 4,500 knowledge articles, however, I am prevented from editing the "Role" field when viewing these articles in List view.

That was the fastest way I could think to update them all - anyone else have some different ideas?

[rita_m]

I'd just do it in a background script.   Since it's a reference, you'll need to set the field to the sys_id of the role.   If it's a field that allows MULTIPLE roles and you want to keep the current values, then your script will have to be more complex.

[Dominik Simunek · Accepted solution]

The roles field in Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table is glide_list type which is restricted for list editing OOTB (there is a property for it called "glide.ui.list_edit_ignore_types"). Definitely better option how to update all these records is to use the background script (module "Scripts - Background"). So I think you should run a script similar to this one:

var roleName = 'test'; // name of the role to be added

var knowledgeGR = new GlideRecord('kb_knowledge');

// add more specific condition if you want to update only selected articles

// without any condition it will update all articles

knowledgeGR.query();

while (knowledgeGR.next()) {

      var current = knowledgeGR.getValue('roles');

      if (gs.nil(current)) {

              knowledgeGR.roles = roleName;

      } else {

              // there should be check if the role is already there and if so then it should not be added

              knowledgeGR.roles = current + ',' + roleName;

      }

      knowledgeGR.setWorkflow(false); // not run business rules

      knowledgeGR.setUseEngines(false);

      knowledgeGR.autoSysFields(false); // not update Updated on and Updated by fields

      knowledgeGR.update();

}

This example script can help you create the script that you need in your case.

[MG Casey]

This script worked great! Thank you so much.