Using the new favourites widget effectively

[Barry_W]

I was really pleased to see the addition of a portal 'favourites list' for knowledge articles, in the Rome release. It's a really useful way for customers to bookmark specific articles, rather than search for them each time.

However, in testing, if you have version control activated, I've noticed if an article is updated, the previous (outdated) version remains in the favourites widget, meaning the hyperlink takes the customer to an old version. The only way to add the new version as a favourite is to navigate to that new version and click on the Star icon, then remove the old one. Very frustrating.

Has anyone found a way to configure this so the widget is updated to show only the latest version? Other widgets (e.g. Most Read) do this OOTB, so I cant understand the logic in this one not doing that. With version control in place, why would you direct customers to old versions?

The only documentation I can find on the subject is pretty brief: https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/rome-servicenow-platform/page/build/service-portal/task/create-a-...

Thanks in advance for any hints.
Barry.

[Leri Andrews]

KCS is often quoted as the reason for retaining links to old versions and indeed, when you are trying to keep track of which knowledge article was used to solve a case or establish the policy that was in place when an employee requested something it is important to link through to the version in place at that time.  I cannot see the value in it when saving a favourite though.  Related, I struggle immensely with the issue of people sharing the url that is in the address bar rather than the permalink and then complaining that they are sent to an old version.  I would dearly love portal to have a 'share' button rather than 'copy permalink' which means nothing.  I have voted on your idea!

[Henrietta T]

We have the same frustrations and struggles @Leri Andrews - people always copy from browser URL, still have seen anyone solve for this or find a workaround. As for the "copy permalink" we completely agree, so in an attempt to make it just slightly more meaningful we changed the text to "Copy Link" with the link icon included. We know that our employees will still overlook it or not full understand.

[Barry_W]

Hi All,

I've raised an idea on the SNOW portal, suggesting this behaviour is altered to only ever link to the latest, published version of an article.

Feel free to add votes.

You'll find the idea here.

Thanks,

Barry.

[Lucas Vieites]

Hi Barry, to me, this looks like a bug in the feature, so I'd suggest contacting Tech Support and opening a case for further investigation.

The Idea portal is more for requesting new features than reporting bugs.

Thank you for drawing attention to this issue.

Kind regards,

Lucas Vieites

[Barry_W]

Thanks for the input Lucas, much appreciated.

Seems a little odd to me that a bug like this, which affects the fundamental purpose of a favourites list, would make it through UAT, which was why I assumed it was designed this way.

I will log a case and take it from there. Thanks again for your help.