Active field in the Knowledge Article header fields - what is it for exactly?
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12-02-2022 10:13 AM
I've searched high and low for information in the ServiceNow product documentation and community, but I can't find an answer to this question: what is the Active field for in the Knowledge Article header fields? Is it for making a previous version of an article active again?
Thank you for your insights and answers!
Stacey Cash
Documentation and Training Specialist at WestRock
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12-02-2022 10:43 AM
Hello,
Can you paste the screenshot of where exactly you see the field.
Thanks.
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12-02-2022 11:00 AM - edited 12-02-2022 02:20 PM
There is an Active field. But it is not used. The state field in knowledge decides, if it is retired or published. It is not recommended to use a retired article, so you should always create a new version for the article and publish it.
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12-02-2022 12:59 PM
Stacey,
That's a good question, I've questioned it's purpose as well. I did a little digging and can't find an answer either.
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12-05-2022 02:20 AM
In my knowledge base I can have articles that have passed their validity date (expired) and have been retired and yet they are still 'active'. See image attached. Before we moved to the latest version of knowledge and started using templates, we had an even more customised knowledge set up where retiring an article would also mark 'active' as false. This is not the case any more and it does lead to confusion when people us it in filters. When I want to unretire an article I have an instant unretire workflow that only the knowledge admin can use via a button at the top of the knowledge template.
So I'm not sure what it's used for now or what it does - though I'd assume if I changed it to 'false' then the article would no longer appear in search results.
