Search for Knowledge Blocks in Knowledge Articles

[Lauren Methena]

Hi, all! I posted this question in CMS as well, but really this is a knowledge manager question. I hope someone out there has some ideas. 🙂

Has anyone found a reliable way to look up articles that contain knowledge blocks - specifically, if I want to look up which articles contain a specific knowledge block that we want to delete? (So, for example, if Articles 1 & 2 both contain knowledge block A, how can I do a search that will bring up Articles 1 & 2 - and perhaps any other articles where the knowledge block may have been inserted?)

I 'thought' I'd found a way. I wasn't getting results when I searched using the full KBB#. But, when I used the last 5 digits of the KBB#, I would get results. So, for example, if I'm searching for knowledge block A KBB0010080, in the proper knowledge base, I would use search criteria: Content > contains > *10080; and Workflow > is one of > draft, review, published.

This was working - but then I just came across a situation where I used this criteria and it brought up 19 articles that do NOT contain the knowledge block (nor any knowledge block at all in some cases).

I at least finally figured out why I'm getting the results I'm getting for "10080." It's part of the sys_id for another commonly used link. Is it possible that there is some sort of character count or limit when search sequences of numbers in content? Just a theory I thought I'd throw out. 

I've also tried searching by the sys_id for the knowledge block, and that doesn't return results at all or occasionally it returns some wonky results.

Has anyone else run into this need - and has anyone else found a satisfactory solution? 

Thank you! I appreciate your help!

[Vickie Runyon · Accepted solution]

The Knowledge Block record's Related Lists will show all the articles that use the block. So, from the All list, go to Knowledge Blocks, Published. Open a KBB record, and scroll down to the Related Lists section (or tabs depending on your view choice). See the Articles tab and a list of the ones that use that KBB.

[Lauren Methena]

Hi, Mark! What are you searching with? Content? Or another field? When I search for the KBB# (searching by article number), all I get in the list view are the different versions of the same KBB#. I don't get any articles that contain that KBB.

[Mark Small · Accepted solution]

If I search from the global search bar at the top of ServiceNow, it searches everything, and under Knowledge & Catalog, I get the articles that contain that knowledge block.  

[Lauren Methena]

Haha! I was so focused on looking on the backend that I didn't even check to see if this would work in our customized portal. It totally works. THANK YOU!