In Knowledge Article, what are the purposes of / differences between the fields Image, Attachment Link, & Display Attachments?

[meganphares]

Hi -

One of my knowledge managers would like to be able to add images to the article body AND would like to attach a document to the article - but would like to present only the attached document to the article as  an attachment....not the snippets included in the article body.  Can this be done?

As I have been researching this question, I've found I'm not clear on exactly what the uses/differences are with regard to the 3 image-type fields in the article header, and I'm hoping someone can provide clarity:

• Image
• Attachment Link
• Display Attachments

Thanks-

Megan

[Allen Andreas · Accepted solution]

Hi @meganphares 

You can always test this out yourself pretty easily by creating a demo knowledge article (even if you don't have appropriate access in your company's SN instance, you can get a free SN developer instance) and then running through those curiosities and see how it all works. You can also refer to the documentation for the knowledge article form such as: https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/rome-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/task/c...

This explains:

Attachment link

Option for downloading an attached file automatically when a user accesses the article, instead of opening the article view. Add one or more attachments to the article to use this option. Note: You may attach multiple files, but most web browsers permit users to download only the first one. To ensure download of all the files, bundle them into an archive, such as with WinZip, and attach the archive. The Attachment link option applies to articles accessed from search links only. Articles accessed as links within other knowledge articles will not replicate this behavior.

Display attachments

Option for displaying attachments to users viewing this knowledge article. Attachments appear below the article text. Add one or more attachments to the article to use this option.

As far as putting an image inside the knowledge article body, but having an attachment be something else, that is doable as well...

So there's an image in the article, but the attachment is completely separate and is a JSON file.

This is done by embedding the image via:

and then:

And then finally:

Please mark reply as Helpful/Correct, if applicable. Thanks!

[Lauren Methena]

Hi, @meganphares ! Absolutely this can be done! Here's how we do it where I work.

• Add images to your image library instead of pasting them in as attachments. (There are best practice reasons for doing this anyway, including that you'll have more control over the images and the article will operate more cleanly - particularly if you have attachments and images.)
• To make this happen, you need to have a role - I believe the image_admin role.
• See attached how-to image reference guide.
• There are a couple of ways you can add attachments. You probably know the basic way already: Attach docs; check the Display attachments box; the Attachments widget displays your documents.
• This method confused a lot of our users. (Let's just ignore that fact for a moment and press on ...) 
• To make attachments act more like regular links, we discovered that you can go to the customer-facing portal > right click and copy link to the attachment you want > copy and paste that link into the article content/coding (code it as a regular link either using HTML source code or the link content tool)> uncheck the Display attachments box before you publish.
• Turns out, the link to your attachment will still work! This means, you can have your content/attachment available, and it will look and operate like a regular web page. It looks super clean.
• Option B: You can code your attachments as attachments using the link tool and choosing Attachment instead of URL in the Type dropdown menu.

I'm attaching a guide with all of these instructions in detail. Some of our interfaces look a little different, but I'm sure it will be close enough that the basic steps should work for you, too.

This combination of methods should help you make your articles cleaner. 

For example, say you don't want to use the image library (which I still highly recommend!), you could use this method for linking to your attached articles and turn off Display attachments. Then, nothing that's attached (images, docs, etc.) will show (because the Attachments widget will be off) but all the content will show or be linked and available in your article. 

Here is a related thread:

Images in articles vs Attachments

Good luck finding the right combination of methods for your articles! (And making it a standard - it's always fun getting everyone to follow the same practices, right?) 

[meganphares]

Thank you - 

I didn't know it at the time of this post, but this became my second question!

Regards,

Megan