Contextual Search - Search as user returns no results

[Vegard S]

I've never tried to use this feature before, but according to this article:
https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/quebec-platform-administration/page/administer/contextual-search/...

I should be able to add this option so ITIL users can search knowledge articles as the caller, to filter out results from knowledge bases the caller doesn't have access to. 

However, after setting it up, I get "No matching results found". No matter what the search term is. 

If I impersonate that user and open the Incident and try it withing the My Results tab, then everything appears. So I know the user actually has access to the articles. 

The config is nothing special, just Search as field set to Caller:

Edit: 
So, it seems this feature actually starts an impersonation session (not quite sure), which for some reason resets elevated roles. This particular customer instance has an additional setting where even admin users needs to elevate roles to be able to actually get admin rights. 

I have no idea why this happens, but it's obvious this is what breaks the thing. 

[Musab Rasheed]

Check read ACL on sys_user table ? if any role or any condition or script added remove it and check again

[Vegard S]

I don't think ACL on sys_user would do anything. I did however notice that each time I open the tab for the user in question, the elevated roles are reset. 

This particular instance has a setting where even admin users need to elevate roles to get admin.



I suspect this is the reason it doesn't work. 

[Musab Rasheed]

Give a try by removing all conditions from read ACL for user table

[Vegard S]

What do you mean? Why would the user table impact anything? 

[Musab Rasheed]

I'm just guessing if user doesn't have access to user table then this might fail hence deactivate ACL like below and see if that works