Knowledge articles: editing existing articles

[marskh1111]

We want to allow a user to edit an existing article but when that article is being edited we want the existing article to stay live and the new article to go through an approval process. The new article would then replace the old article once it has been approved. how can this be done?

[frankh_]

Jim - can you post a copy of the business rule you used?   I am curious how you implemented it.   I can think of a couple ways, but I am wondering what you found works best.   Thanks!

[Jim_Marchant]

Here's the code ... you may need some other pieces but I won't be able to respond until late in the month.

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gs.addInfoMessage('The modified knowledge article is being reviewed. Thank you.');

copyKBarticle(); // Copy the original KB

current.setAbortAction(true);

action.setRedirectURL(current);

//current.workflow_state = 'review'; // Set state to review

function copyKBarticle() {    

  //this function creates a copy record on the knowledge base table    

  var kbID = current.sys_id.toString();

  var kb_article = new GlideRecord('kb_knowledge');    

      kb_article.initialize();    

  kb_article.sys_id=current.sys_id;

  kb_article.number = current.number;  

  kb_article.topic = current.topic;  

  kb_article.u_genres=current.u_genres;

  kb_article.published=current.published;

  kb_article.valid_to=current.valid_to;

      kb_article.image=current.image;

  kb_article.sys_created_by=current.sys_created_by;

  kb_article.author=current.author;

  kb_article.article_type=current.article_type;

  kb_article.workflow_state='review';

  kb_article.roles = current.roles;  

  kb_article.display_attachments = current.display_attachments;  

  kb_article.category = current.category;  

  kb_article.short_description = 'Copy of '+current.short_description;  

  kb_article.text = current.text;  

      kb_article.insert();

  //Copy attachments for this change

  if (typeof GlideSysAttachment != 'undefined')

      GlideSysAttachment.copy('kb_knowledge', kbID, 'kb_knowledge', kb_article.sys_id);

  else

      Packages.com.glide.ui.SysAttachment.copy('kb_knowledge', kbID, 'kb_knowledge', kb_article.sys_id);

}    

[frankh_]

Jim, I tested your script and it is great!   Thank you for saving me so much time!   I did notice two things and I was wondering how you handled them:

1.   I notice that you aborted the update in order to prevent the current record from being overwritten - this causes a message to pop up that says "invalid update" - is there way to suppress this - or do we just teach the knowledge managers that this is expected?

2.   My system (Geneva P4) has an OOB global business rule running after insert that sets the workflow state back to draft - overriding what your script does.   Did you just turn off the BR or did you do something so that the BR wouldn't run when the inserts are caused by this edit script?

Thank you again for sharing your work - you saved me quite of bit of effort since I am just beginning to figure out the scripting thing.

Frank

[marskh1111]

But it says anyone with any role can create or view. All our users have roles so how is that going to prevent them from creating anything? I've used the can contribute functionality and all it seems to do is restrict or allow access to editing but not creating articles.

[Lonna Jacobsen]

Has an enhancement been made for this?