How to customize the Knowledge Article preview popup in Service Operations Workspace?

[ViniciusLuz]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to customize the Knowledge Article preview popup/modal in Service Operations Workspace (SOW).

This is the modal that opens when an agent selects a Knowledge Article from the contextual search/OneSearch panel while working on an Incident.

Currently, the modal displays the article title and content, followed by the Helpful? Yes/No section.

My requirement is to display additional metadata at the top of the preview, such as:

• Article Number
• Knowledge Base
• Author
• Last Updated

I've been investigating the UX components and found the Attach and share article macroponent in sys_ux_macroponent, which appears to use the Knowledge Content component and a Get Preview Fields data resource. However, this component isn't normally exposed as a page in the SOW UI Builder experience, and opening the macroponent directly doesn't provide the runtime context/test values needed to reproduce the popup.

Has anyone customized this specific Knowledge Article preview experience in SOW?

In particular, does anyone know:

1. Which UI Builder page/macroponent actually controls the Knowledge Article preview opened from contextual search?
2. How to access/edit that experience through UI Builder?
3. Whether there is a supported configuration for controlling the fields displayed in the preview, rather than modifying the OOTB macroponent?
4. How the Knowledge Article sys_id and other runtime properties are passed into this component?

I'm trying to avoid modifying protected/OOTB components directly if there is a supported extension/configuration point.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

[ben_hollifield]

Hey @ViniciusLuz - My name is Ben Hollifield, and I'm the product owner for OneSearch at Yansa Labs. From your screenshot, I can see that you are using our search and the custom Knowledge preview modal that ships with OneSearch. This is part of the OneSearch product and not an OOB component in ServiceNow.

In terms of configuration, you are able to control the ability to comment, rate, and flag articles using the OOB sys_properties in ServiceNow. However, there is no configurable ability to add fields like number, knowledgebase, author, etc - that would require customization of the OneSearch code. You can add those fields to the search results list, so the user can see that information prior to the click. However, the modal view simply displays the KB content and feedback section.

[ben_hollifield]

Hi @ViniciusLuz - I added some contact details, but those were removed by Community. Feel free to reach out to me directly here if you'd like to follow-up. We're happy to help however we can. You can also find details for support on the Yansa Labs website. Thank you!

[musislam]

Hi Vinicius,

Adding to Ben's point - worth knowing the OOB path has the same ceiling, so moving away from OneSearch wouldn't get you there either.

Checked in my PDI: Contextual Search > Search Result Display Configurations (cxs_search_result_fields), Table = kb_knowledge, UI type = Workspace. That record has a Card View section only - Card title field, Card additional fields, Card description field. The Incident / Change / Problem Workspace records have a second Detail View tab; Knowledge doesn't.

So even OOB you can surface number, kb_knowledge_base, author and sys_updated_on on the result card, but the preview body itself isn't field-configurable. Same conclusion Ben reached - the card is where that metadata belongs.

If that's useful, mind marking it as the recommended solution? Helps me support these better for the community.

[ben_hollifield]

Hi @musislam - Thanks for doing the extra work to understand the possibilities OOB. I've been working with @ViniciusLuz via email, and we've found that we can support his needs through OneSearch's capabilities. OneSearch implements things like the KB modal, attaching knowledge, triggering workflows, etc from search results via the concept of OneSearch 'Actions'. The 'Action' that is triggered for the KB modal contains the full definition of the KB modal view, including all content. For this reason, it is possible for a customer to edit or completely rewrite the contents of the modal to meet their custom needs.

Hopefully @ViniciusLuz can comment here once he has had a chance to play around with this capability, but I expect he should be able to do exactly what he's after with OneSearch.

Thanks again, @musislam - this is helpful to understand what is possible both in the platform and via Yansa Labs OneSearch!