Knowledge Translation Behavior: New Translation Versions Created Instead of Updating Existing Transl

[Pavan S]

Hello All,

I'm investigating Knowledge Translation behavior with Knowledge Versioning enabled and would like to understand whether what I'm seeing is expected OOB behavior.

Scenario

1. A source article is published.
2. Translations are created for multiple languages.
3. Example translation:

1. The source article is then:
   • Checked out
   • Updated
   • Published again

Actual Behavior

Instead of updating the existing translation, a new translation version is created.

Example:

In the Translated Versions related list I see:

KB0032043 | Version 1.0 | Latest = false

KB0032043 | Version 2.0 | Latest = false

KB0032043 | Version 3.0 | Latest = true

The KB number remains the same, but a new version is created every time the source article is republished.

Additional Finding

While debugging, I found that translations are created by KBVersioningSNC.createTranslation() using:

JavaScript

translation.parent = source_article.article_id;

For example:

Source Article:

KB0027436

Show more lines

Original version:

KB0027436 v1.0

sys_id     = 289039ea9323c650092838518bba1013

article_id = 289039ea9323c650092838518bba1013

All translated articles point to:

XML

<parent>289039ea9323c650092838518bba1013</parent>

which corresponds to the original version (v1.0).

Even after newer source versions are published (v2.0, v3.0, v4.0, v5.0), the translations continue to reference the original article version through the Parent field.

Related Issue

We have custom Business Rules that retire child articles when the parent article is retired.

Because the translations still reference the original article version, once that version becomes retired, the translations are also retired even though a newer source version is still published.

So my questions are:

1. Is it expected OOB behavior that translation republishes create new translation versions instead of updating the existing translation?
2. Is it expected that translated articles continue to reference the original source article version (article_id / Parent relationship) even after newer source versions are published?
3. Has anyone implemented a mechanism to automatically re-associate translations to the latest source version?
4. Are there any OOB properties, plugins, or best practices for handling this scenario?

Any insights from customers using Knowledge Versioning together with Localization Framework/Translation Tasks would be greatly appreciated.

Can anyone help me on this.