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.

[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]

Thanks, Vickie! That'll work. Would be nice to be able to do a search - I can see a use for this in the future - but this takes care of this now! Thank you! Have a great day!

[Mark Small]

Lauren,

I'm able to do a search, both in our portal, and using the Global Search in ServiceNow.  If I search for the specific KBB #, then all of the articles that use that knowledge block are returned in search results.

[Vickie Runyon]

I am also able to search using the exact KBB# in the Service Portal and get a resultant set of KB articles. However, comparing the search results to the list of articles found in the KBB's Related List, the data differs. The difference is any Retired articles that use the KBB - since Retired would not appear in search results in the Service Portal.