Using permalinks in Service Portal for Knowledge Articles (versioned)

[SusanWinKY]

We're using version control for Knowledge and are using Service Portal.  The Service Portal formatted permalink for a versioned article changes each time it is updated because it's based on the article's sys ID.  For example:

Version 1.0:  https://<instance>.service-now.com/sp?id=kb_article_view&sys_kb_id=ab921c86db5453007ad45096dc961982

Version 2.0:  https://<instance>.service-now.com/sp?id=kb_article_view&sys_kb_id=96dbc040db6c93407ad45096dc96194e

We routinely link to an article from within another article.  So when we update an article, we're going to have "broken" links.  I understand the link will still work and the user can click the "An updated version of this article is available." link at the top of the downlevel article to get the latest version, but that's not an ideal user experience.

At this point, we may have to point our internal links to the platform article, which instead of the sys ID uses the KB #.  For example:

https://<instance>.service-now.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0010035

That's also not an idea user experience.

Has anyone dealt with this?  And if so, what did you do? 

[SusanWinKY]

Hi Michael,

We're using the Knowledge Management - Service Portal plugin.  The widget is available here:

https://<instance>.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=sp_widget.do?sys_id=a47ea1cb0b9432004ce28ffe15673a5b

[michaelzawacki]

Thanks Susan!

We aren't using the KM Portal Plugin... any ideas on how to make that sysparm_article attribute usable on the Service Portal without that plugin?

michael

[SusanWinKY]

Michael, I checked all of our service portal widgets and didn't find any others that reference permalink. 

However, you should be able to find out which widget you're using by opening an article, then Control + right-clicking the permalink.  At the top of the menu you'll see something like: 

• 'widget-name' generated in : 0.018

I know that works in Jakarta and Kingston; not sure about older versions.

[Carl Fransen1]

Hi Susan,

This is useful and may well use this when we move to the knowledge portal.

However I'm currently stuck trying to find a solution for the versioning and accessing articles using the /sp or /hrportal Portals with a static KB number.

Do you have any more wisdom on this one?

Thanks

Carl.

[SusanWinKY]

Carl, based on what I've seen of the kb_article page (which uses the KB Article Page widget), you would have to add the permalink functionality.  I don't see the 'Copy permalink' option when I view an article using that page.

I've attached the XML for the widget we use (kb_article_view page), which contains the permalink functionality.  Keep in mind:

1. We are using the Knowledge Management - Service Portal plugin, so there may be dependencies that you don't have.
2. This is our customized widget.  (see customizations described above)

Maybe you can merge this into your widget?  Hope this is of some help.