KCS Confidence level visibility (Validated / not validated) and search filtering

[Chris Armstron1]

Hi all! 

We're looking to run with KCS at my company and I have a question about the article confidence field and how Contributors interact with it. and a further question about configuring search filtering in Self-Service > Knowledge.

Would users of the knowledge base benefit from being able to see whether an article has been validated or not? I think they might... and if so, is it possible to configure the search within Self-Service > Knowledge to allow you to filter by validated or not validated? In addition to this, if they would benefit from it, is article confidence something that can be displayed on the resulting articles themselves? Before and after they are opened?

I ask because I plan to train our knowledge workers on what the confidence levels mean, but if they never seen the confidence level when they interact with the article (Unless they update the article and see the field in the back end) I think it will be difficult for them to grasp it. 

[David Kay]

Typically in KCS, we set the audience to Customer or Public only after an article has reached the Validated level of confidence.  While doing something different is in no way a violation of KCS principles, it's pretty uncommon.  (Exception: Progress Software shared WIP and Not Validated articles with customers way back in the day.)

It is important that licensed people (Contributors and Publishers, if you use both those levels) see and adjust the Confidence.  Coaching and the Content Standard Checklist can help with that, but people also need to see it.  Someone with the necessary rights can use Configure > Form Layout to display Confidence.

[shloke04]

Hi @Chris Armstrong 

Couple of things to note here Chris:

The confidence state of an article indicates where the article is in its life cycle. Only users with the knowledge_coach, knowledge_admin, kcs_contributor or kcs_publisher role can modify the value of the Confidence field.

For articles existing before the Knowledge Management KCS Capabilities plugin (com.snc.knowledge_kcs_capabilities) was activated, the Confidence field is automatically set to None.

If an article is created after the Knowledge Management KCS Capabilities plugin (com.snc.knowledge_kcs_capabilities) is activated, the Confidence field is automatically set based on the workflow state of the article.

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/rome-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/concept/managing-kcs-article-states.html

To answer to your second query, OOB it does not show to the users if the article has been validated or not neither in Native view which you have shared in your screenshot nor in portal.

If this data need to be shown then it will be a customization to the core components required in this scenario.

Hope this helps. Please mark the answer as correct/helpful based on impact.

Regards,
Shloke

[Chris Armstron1]

Hi Shloke,

Thanks for your answer. Do you have any links or guidance on how to customise the core components to make this possible? For both the filtering and displaying if it is validated on the article.

[shloke04]

Hi @Chris Armstrong 

Please have a look on below thread which should get you started on this on how to proceed further:

https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=c96fcd89db81d894414eeeb5ca961935

https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=a145565f1b6380d4fff162c4bd4bcbaa

https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=fc3fcfdddb6a77c014d6fb2439961998

Hope this helps. Please mark the answer as correct/helpful based on impact.

Regards,
Shloke