View article not the same and customer view

[SRegier]

I am being told that the view article option (checkout or update) cannot be set to show exactly what the external customer sees.

With our current setup, I have to publish the article, go to another browser window, and review it using my external customer URL, which looks and formats completely differently. 

Is there a solution to this inefficient process that our implementation is unaware of? Is there a setting for this option somewhere?

Thanks in advance - Sherri

[Rahul Kumar17]

Hi,

Yes, there is a solution to this issue. You can use the "Preview" option within the ServiceNow knowledge base to see how an article will look to external customers without having to publish it or go to a different browser window.

To use the "Preview" option, follow these steps:

1. Open the article that you want to preview.
2. Click on the "Preview" button located in the top right corner of the article editor.
3. In the preview window, click on the "External" tab to view the article as an external customer would see it.
4. You can then review the article and make any necessary changes before publishing it.

Using the "Preview" option allows you to see how the article will look to external customers without having to publish it or go to a different browser window. This can save you time and help ensure that the article is formatted correctly before it is published.

Thanks,

Rahul Kumar

[sushantmalsure]

Screenshots can help us understand your issue better.

[Amit Gujarathi]

Hi @SRegier ,
I trust you are doing great.

Firstly, I would suggest checking if your implementation has the "Preview as Customer" feature enabled. This feature allows you to preview the article as it would appear to a customer, without having to publish it and view it in a separate browser window. To use this feature, simply click on the "Preview as Customer" button on the article form.

If this feature is not enabled in your instance, you can enable it by following these steps:

1. Go to System Properties > Customer Service > Properties.
2. Set the "glide.cs.customer_portal.preview_as_customer" property to "true".

Once this property is set, you should be able to use the "Preview as Customer" feature.

Additionally, if you want to ensure that the article appears exactly as it would to an external customer, you can use the "Preview in Portal" feature. This feature allows you to preview the article as it would appear in the customer portal, including any customizations that have been made. To use this feature, simply click on the "Preview in Portal" button on the article form.

Here's a sample code snippet to enable the "Preview as Customer" property:

gs.setProperty("glide.cs.customer_portal.preview_as_customer", "true");

[Renee12]

I go into an existing article that is already published and click "Copy permalink".  I paste that link into the browser and change the article number at the end of the URL to the one I want to see then hit enter.  We have the same issue, because if I use the View Article option, it doesn't include our theme, so it looks completely different.