Knowledge articles versioning issue

[abroeglin]

Hi everyone,

We have started noticing that the version numbers of our Knowledge articles seem to have an issue, the numbers do not make sense (at the top, 1.0 is the most recent version, 0.01 at the bottom is the oldest):

How can we explain this?

Thank you!

[Simon Christens]

Hi,

Try adding the Created on column to the related list through the cogwheel.
Versions should be ordered by Created On (newest first)
The related list which is a relationship can be found here:
/sys_relationship.do?sys_id=fb55c83adb132200a042f278f0b8f562

In case that have been changed you probably what to undo that.

[abroeglin]

Hi! Thank you for your answer.

The Article Versions relationship was not modified.

Here is what we got for an article:

I don't understand the relationship between the version, the knowledge, the dates... Can you please help?

[Robbie]

Hi @abroeglin,

Are these versions all for the same Knowledge Article? I assume not.

As @Simon Christens advises, sorting by creation date per article should help clear the picture.

To answer your question directly, see the below ServiceNow support article re Knowledge Version numbering.

To help others (or for me to help you more directly), please mark this response correct by clicking on Accept as Solution and/or Kudos.


Thanks, Robbie

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/washingtondc-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-managemen...

To avoid link breakages for future usage, see extract below:

Knowledge article version numbers follow a specific pattern. Increments to the version number depend on the revision type.

Article version numbers follow this pattern: <major release number.minor release number>.

The type of revision being made to an article determines the increment. A minor revision increments the version number by 0.01. A major revision, such as publishing an article, increments the version to the next whole number, for example, from version 2.02 to 3.0.

The following example illustrates the life cycle of a versioned article and the changes to the version number.

User action	Article state	Version number
Knowledge author creates a new article	Draft	0.01
Knowledge author makes a change and updates the article.	Draft	0.01
Knowledge author submits the article for review.	Review	0.02
Knowledge author recalls the article to make another change.	Draft	0.03
Knowledge article submits the article for review	Review	0.04
Approver rejects the article and requests a change.	Draft	0.05
Knowledge author makes the change and submits the article for review.	Review	0.06
Approver approves the article	Scheduled for publish	0.07
Article is published	Published	1.0
Knowledge author checks out the published article.	Draft	1.01
Knowledge author submits the article for review.	Review	1.02
Approver approves the article	Scheduled for publish	1.03
Article is published When the version 2.0 article is published, the state of the version 1.0 article changes to Outdated.	Published	2.0

Any change to the state of an article results in a version increment, except to and from the Pending retirement, Retired, and Outdated states.

[Simon Christens]

As @Robbie say - and also ServiceNow

When you create a knowledge article it will stay in version 0.xx until till eventually published.
The next time its checked out it will stay in 1.xx until eventually published again.
I can see that you are filtering where the article number is xxxx - its not needed.
Also - can you note the dates / times on the changes in the version related list and then go to the knowledge article history (right click the header, history --> list and filter on the label "Workflow" - here you can see which states the article goes from and to which impacts the version.
Update number 0 is the first - creation - then update number 1 is the first update, then 2, then 3 etc.
There is a reason why the versioning is as it is im sure.