Difference in knowledge article views between sys_view_count and kb_use entries

[pascalfrencken]

We are extensively using knowledge bases on our ServiceNow instance, and statistics on the usage of the knowledge articles are essential for improvements on the content.

One of the statistics that we use is the number of views per knowledge article.There's two places where we can see this data:

1. In the sys_view_count field on the knowledge article.
2. In the kb_use table, where the viewed column indicates whether a knowledge article was viewed.

We do see an interesting difference here: the sys_view_count of a knowledge article does not correspond to the number of records with viewed = true for that same article in the kb_use table. Our expectation was that these would be the same. I general we see that the number of records in kb_use is significantly higher than the sys_view_count.

What is causing this difference?

Best regards,

Pascal Frencken
ServiceNow Platform Solution Architect
Philips Lighting

[Laura C]

The difference between view count and use count when analyzing kb usage is an important distinction. This community thread may provide your answer. 

How are knowledge article use count and view count added in kb_use table from attach to incident

As an aside, it's important to note that the relationship between article use and importance is not direct. While company leaders press us for data to show value, this misses the point because this assumes that every view of every article by every user has equal importance. In reality, the value of each view is relative. It is completely possible that a single view in a critical situation of an article that no one has viewed in 5 years saves the company thousands of dollars while 30 views of an article in a low risk situation saved the company $100.

[Michael QCKM]

AMEN!  I wish more people understood this.

[pascalfrencken]

Thanks for your reply, Laura. But my question was not about the difference between use count and view count, which I'm fully aware of.

My question was about the difference in count between the sys_view_count field in the kb_knowledge table, and the viewed column in the kb_use table. The kb_use table also contains a used column, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Logically I would expect the two "viewed" counts to be the same, but they're not. So far I have been unable to identify why this is.

[Swapnil20]

any solution for this issue as i am also facing the same issue.