Allow Knowledge Reviewers to edit articles in Review state while keeping Managers read-only

[maryamalona]

Hi ServiceNow Community,

I need help setting up group-specific permissions on the kb_knowledge table during the Review workflow state:
Knowledge Reviewers Group: Needs to edit article fields (Category, Article Body, etc.) and Approve/Reject.
Knowledge Managers Group: Needs to Approve/Reject and Read only (fields must remain read-only). Keep in mind this is a new custom group. Different than the built in "managers" list field in knowledge base.

Approval logic is already built in Flow Designer.

I tried adding the reviewers to "can contribute" field in knowledge base but fields are still blocked for them through knowledge center:

What is the best way to grant write access to Reviewers while keeping Managers read-only ?

[KanteS · Accepted solution]

Hi ,

The root cause is mostly an out-of-the-box (OOB) Write ACL constraint on the kb_knowledge table.When an article enters the Review state, ServiceNow’s baseline security locks down record modifications for standard contributors. Because security ACLs always override "Can Contribute" criteria and UI policies, adding users to the knowledge base configurations alone won't unblock the fields.

To fulfill your requirement cleanly while keeping Managers group read-only, try the following :

• Identify which ACL or permission rule is preventing reviewers from editing the article. If the existing configuration does not meet the requirement, create or modify a Write ACL to allow the Reviewers group to edit articles only when they are in the Review state, while ensuring the Managers group remains read-only.
• Create a UI Policy targeted at your Workspace layout. Set the condition to Workflow is Review. and  Evaluate if the user is a Manager, and set the target fields (category, article_body, etc.) to Read-Only = True on the visual layoutEnsure the behavior behaves identically in both the Standard Core UI form and the Configurable Workspace view.
• Verify they can type in the category/body fields and click Approve/Reject.
• Verify the fields are grayed out (Read-Only) but the Approve/Reject headers remain active.
• Ensure the behavior behaves identically in both the Standard Core UI form and the Configurable Workspace view.

If this helps, please give a like and mark it as a solution

Thank you