Knowledge block - how does that work?

[Cristina Silva]

How does it work to use knowledge block when creating a new article? Is the concept similar to parent-child? And I guess knowledge block is a function you need to activate in ServiceNow? I would like to hear you experiences with using knowledge block and what the benefits are

[Cristina Silva]

Hi Vickie,

Thanks for your input - I'm trying to enable knowledge block in one of my knowledge base but I have tried to do according to ServiceNow documentation but still can't add the checkbox :-(. San Diego version so it should work

[Vickie Runyon]

Do you have Knowlege Blocks enabled in your instance?  There is a plug in (com.snc.knowledge_blocks) that must be installed.

[mbernste]

Another thing to keep in mind with knowledge blocks is that they do not work across knowledge bases, so if you want to use the same knowledge block in another knowledge base, you have to make a copy of it for that knowledge base.  Maintenance, as others have mentioned, is still reduced due to the lower number of places where that content needs to be maintained.

[Gregg Grose]

As others have mentioned, Blocks are extremely useful for repeated content used within multiple Articles within a Knowledge Base. Concept is one Block to many Articles but a Block is unique to a Knowledge Base, a Block cannot be shared by multiple Knowledge Bases. 

We use Blocks for things like logos, icon images, contact information and boilerplate disclaimer information. We've had rebrands of logos/icons and also updates of contact information - Blocks were extremely helpful for these. We also use Blocks to contain CSS code used by various Templates but I think that's outside the bounds of normal usage.

Usage/Tips:

• On the Knowledge Base, check the Enable blocks toggle and Update/Save the Knowledge Base record.
• A Block's Short Description cannot be modified after creation so I've found it best to use either generic names like "Logo" or "Disclaimer" or specific names like "Help Desk Contact Information" - these Short Description are not visible on the end user's view of the Article, only the content of the Block.
• To add Blocks to a Template article, first create a regular Article and insert all necessary Blocks into it (and whatever layout/starting/template content), then copy the code of that Article into a new Template.
• If an Article needs to move to another Knowledge Base, all Blocks within the Article need to be removed (and Article saved) before the Knowledge Base field can be updated. 

[Rholmes007]

@Vickie Runyon @Cristina Silva @Gregg Grose @mbernste @Gunjan Kiratkar @jaheerhattiwale 

Thank you all so much for this chat. This clears up a few questions... but as is always the case, I have more questions. 

Does using Knowledge Blocks separate the Knowledge Base(s) then? Essentially resolving the "Why is my search not able to be filtered by Knowledge Base?" 

Is this a way to Separate Articles by Tier? I'm trying to create a KB for the Desktop support group. The Virtual Agent I configured is not searching the Knowledge Articles, but the Service Catalog. 

I'm wondering if this would be related. Is it possible to configure the Virtual Agent to search a specific Knowledge Block? 

For example, if I refine some articles in my Knowledge Base by using Knowledge Blocks, would that be something that would filter out content to the end user? 

I need to figure out how to separate Tech Support Knowledge and General Knowledge.

Tech will be using the Knowledge Homepage in Employee Service Center, and End User Employees, the Virtual Agent in the Portal. 

Would setting up Blocks allow this kind of filtration?