Checkout an article via the Flow Designer

[Anish Reghu]

Dear experts,

What are the logics I should validate to Checkout an article from a Flow Designer?

My learnings are:

1. We need the article number (Input for the Custom flow Action)
2. We need to query the version (kb_version) table to find if there exists a 'Draft/Review' article for the knowledge article, then we should return the sys_id of that article via the custom action.
3. Otherwise, if the Workflow State is Published, we should do a checkout using the following:
   

   new KBVersioning().checkout(gr, false);​

   which will return a kb_version record and we can get the sys_id of that record.

Ultimately, I want to update the knowledge article body. And I am following this method because unlike an incident record or others, the KB article cannot be updated straightforward.

(function execute(inputs, outputs) {
    var kbNumber = inputs.articleNumber;
    var gr = new GlideRecord('kb_knowledge');

    if (gr.get('number', kbNumber)) {
        var knowledgeId = gr.getUniqueValue();

        // Step 1: Look for an existing active (unpublished) version
        var versionGr = new GlideRecord('kb_version');
        versionGr.addQuery('knowledge', knowledgeId);
        versionGr.addQuery('workflow_state', 'NOT IN', 'published,outdated');
        versionGr.orderByDesc('version'); // get latest draft/review version
        versionGr.setLimit(1);
        versionGr.query();

        if (versionGr.next()) {
            // Found an existing draft or review version
            outputs.draft_sysid = versionGr.getUniqueValue();
        } else {
            // No active version exists, so checkout a new draft
            if (gr.workflow_state == 'published') {
                var draft = new KBVersioning().checkout(gr, false);
                if (draft) {
                    outputs.draft_sysid = draft.getUniqueValue();
                }
            } else {
                // Article isn't published and no active version found — handle as needed
                gs.addInfoMessage('Article is not published and no active version found.');
            }
        }
    } else {
        gs.addErrorMessage('KB article not found: ' + kbNumber);
    }
})(inputs, outputs);

//OUTPUT : The article body of the Published article is changed to 'KB article not found: undefined'.

Instead I want the Checkout to Checkout the Published article and return me it's sys_id.
(Or) if there exists a Draft version of the article, return that sys_id.

Did I miss something?

Regards,

Anish

[Rafael Batistot]

Hi @Anish Reghu 

Why are you using flow designer to handle articles when the standard flow is via workflow editor?

https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/zurich-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/...

[Anish Reghu]

Hi @Rafael Batistot,

Thanks, I am aware of the KB workflows.

But this is for a specific use case that I am seeking help for.

I am executing a skill in the flow designer, which outputs a JSON string.

I need to update the KB article, with the skill output, for which I need to Checkout first. (according to the Workflow)

Hence, this script is to perform the Checkout the KB article first.

Regards,

Anish

[KrishnaMohan]

Hi @Anish Reghu 

also can you check below line is not valid query for kb_version table. I believe there is no such field in kb_version table.

 versionGr.addQuery('workflow_state', 'NOT IN', 'published,outdated');

  try below line

versionGr.addEncodedQuery('knowledge.workflow_stateNOT INpublished,outdated');