Search knowledge base in a multi language environment

[Marc_Heyvaert]

Hello,

We are setting up knowledge management as the next phase in the service-now roll out. We have English as standard languages and also French and Dutch. Currently I have the following problem with the page that has the search box on top (with the drop-down boxes for Topic, Category, Language and choice of database (Knowledge, wiki or Google):
1. The drop-down box defaults to English, ideally it should default to the user's language. Also, when I change it manually, this chang is not persistent, the next time I visit the page it defaults again to English. I also fear that this default behavihour is the same when using the search icons (suggestion and knowledge) next to the short description field. If a user enters a short description in French this will yield no results if the search engine uses the default (english) language to come up with suggestions and help.
2. There really should be an option to search in all languages at ones. Some articles may only exist in English, or French or Dutch. As many ICT terms are English anyway, I feel that an 'All' should be available and that the default value for a search should be this 'All'.

Is it possible to tweak the system so that this can be realized. Currently the 'out-of-the-box' behavihour of the product is a no-go for us.

Kind regards

Marc

[Marc_Heyvaert]

I feel that I am getting closer to a solution, but I need some help really.

I have found this line in the the Business Rule "knowledge query' that is added when you activate Knowledge Management Internationalization:
current.addQuery("language", gs.getUser().getLanguage() );
Commenting out this line solved part of the problem. When a user clicks the book icon next to a 'short description' results come up in any language and without being restricted by the language preference of the user.

As for the second problem, I have found a screenshot in the wiki (http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=I18N:_Knowledge_Management_Internationalization) that clearly shows the dropdown box (advanced search options) where you can choose the language. In the screenshot I see All, English and French as defined choices. The wiki also tells me : "The language box is generated by the UI macro kb_languages." I have found this macro, but the code is beyond me. And it also doesn't explain why the 'All' option is not appearing on my system while in the documentation it seems to be the rule.

Marc

[Marc_Heyvaert]

I seem to have misunderstood. The ui macro defines the language box on the article page. I can see no way to control the dropdown box. So why is the 'All' option not appearing on my instance?

[DanielHC]

Since you got three languages, I asume that you have active the MultiLanguage PlugIn.
This plugin enables creating related knowledge for diferent languages. The drawback is that a knowledge article can only have one languaje, if you want it available in all the languages you may need to copy it and change the asigned language.

Dont know if there is a more funtional solution.

More info:
http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=I18N:_Knowledge_Management_Internationalization_Plugin_v2