Making exact match false in AI Search Application Configuration

mickydash2001 · ‎01-15-2024

We are using AI search in our portal & in vancouver release, the 'Enable Exact Match field' has been enabled by default.

However, there is a info message at the top which says that users may experience navigation issue.

Could anyone please help me in understand if disabling the Exact Match will have any disadvantage or any downstream impact?

Priyanka_786 · ‎01-15-2024

Hi @mickydash2001 ,

By default, the "Enable Exact Match" feature is enabled in the search application configuration in ServiceNow. This means that when performing a global search, only exact matching records are displayed. This feature ensures that the search results are more precise and relevant to the user's query. Enabling exact match in the search application configuration helps users bypass the search results page and directly access the record they are looking for when the search query exactly matches the Number field value for a searchable record. This can improve the user experience and save time by reducing the need to navigate through search results.

When the exact match option is enabled, users may experience difficulties in finding the desired content or navigating to the correct page. This is because the search results will only display exact matches, and if the content or page they are looking for does not have an exact match, it may not be included in the search results.

So in my understanding, no impact if exact search is disabled in that case when users perform a search in a portal, the search results are typically based on relevance and may include partial matches or related content based on the search query, even if they are not exact matches.(Not specifically with exact match).

Please mark helpful/accepted if it helps.

Regards,

Priyanka Salunke

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Johan van den H · ‎09-11-2024

We are experiencing a similar issue.
When someone searches for a KB number on our ESC portal the result is in some cases a properly displayed knowledge article and in other cases a knowledge article displayed in the core UI.

It seems to be connected to the template which has been used to create the knowledge article but I am unable to find out what in the templates causes this.

michaelward · ‎09-12-2024

It might be a good idea to look at the EVAM bundles associated with your ESC portal, look specifically at the conditions of each view configuration. There may be more than one related to the knowledge table. Take note of the navigation definitions in the related lists of those view configurations. Then, look at the 'search results actions' (enter that in the nav filter) for your portal, look to see if the same navigation definitions are represented.

snowman11 · ‎05-12-2025

How to disable exact search? We've not been successful so far in allow partial entry in Global search i.e. 100345 instead of INC0100345.

michaelward · ‎09-09-2024

Just a comment about exact match in portals - Vancouver, Washington. I see where the generated URL is not properly encoded and any given widget trying to pick up on URL parameters may experience issues. There's a mismatch in encoding, some encoded (ampersands, equal signs), some parameters not encoded. If a widget were to use $sp.getParameter(), it may suck in a series of parameters as the value due to the encoding issue. I tried exhaustively to find where the URL is encoded and I think it is black box - more like how a non-AI Search uses SNC.SearchRequest(). The resulting response payload has a URL - generated from somewhere. Now, in my case, I do not have the native UI form navigation issue because I believe the portal search actions result configurations are picking things up. Well, that and page route maps, but you get the idea.

michaelward · ‎05-08-2025

There may also be an issue with exact matches bypassing the knowledge article content widget's instance option setting for 'Redirect to the latest article'. We are experiencing issues where even though the search source is only of published articles, the exact match feature (searching by KB number) will redirect to showing the latest draft article on the portal knowledge page (out of box). As a result, users do not have the correct permissions to see the article in 'draft', so they get a 'insufficient rights' message. Conversely, if they search such that they get a list of search results, clicking on the article takes them to the correct, published version. Disabling the 'Redirect to latest article' instance option seems to have no affect. Pardon for deviating from the OP post, but I thought this would be relevant information.