Knowledge Article Versioning - Why does the KB number increment?

[MarkD]

We would like to enable Article Versioning so that previous versions of articles are available to be referenced, however we've noticed the following behavior.

When you've checked out an article, the KB number changes.  

KB0024898 3.0 will become KB0024899 v4.0 once published - why?

This also changes the sys_id of the article and URL used to reference it, which means that if we've linked to articles from catalog items or widgets on our portal, we will also need to update those.

Is there a way to enable versioning, while not incrementing the article KB numbers for each update?

[Allen Andreas · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The reason is because a new record is created. A new record is created, because the old version is retained and can be used to revert back to, if you ever needed to.

If a user click an "old" link, it will auto-direct them to the new article.

How do you get a link to the latest version of the article regardless of which version the article is in?

 Accessing the article based on the sysparm_view parameter renders the latest version of the article accessible to the user:

• Knowledge V3: /kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KBXXXXXXXX
• KM Service Portal: /kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KBXXXXXXX

https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0713200#mcetoc_1fihli4m54s

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

[Barry_W]

Perhaps I'm missing something obvious, but....

It makes perfect sense that each version has a unique sys-id, otherwise how would you identify different versions of the same article, but... MarkD has stated the KB number is changing when creating a new version of the same article. Surely this can't be correct?! 

If the system is incrementing the KB number each time it is checked-out then it's effectively creating a brand new article each time (not just a new version), which would render versioning completely ineffective.

For example, using the numbers MarkD has provided, you'd end up with the following sequence each time a new 'version' was published...

KB0024896 1.0
KB0024897 2.0
KB0024898 3.0
KB0024899 4.0

Surely this can't be OOB behaviour?

[Allen Andreas]

Hi,

The KB number changing, when checking out an article and publishing a new version, is not out of box behavior. My reply was focused on the sys_id changing and the author's worry about the link, etc.

The number would remain the same, such as:

If checkout is being clicked, you'll see this one info message:

and the .01 on the version, the fact that they also see an info messaging telling them their number has been set to something else, indicates a possible customization causing this on their end.

Once published is clicked, then the version fully updates to the next number (i.e., v7.0) and the KB Number still remains the same:

Good article out of UChicago: https://uchicago.service-now.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB06000613

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

[MarkD]

Good to know that its not OOB behavior, and thanks to Barry for catching that.

I'll have to figure out why this is happening on my instance now that I know it's not normal.