Using search in Knowledge Management Service Portal

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Using Search in Knowledge Management Service Portal

    The Knowledge Management Service Portal allows users to efficiently search for information by utilizing a variety of sorting and filtering options. This functionality is consistent across different Service Portals, but note that filter selections are not retained between searches, requiring users to reselect filters each time.

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    Key Features

    • Search Bar: Located at the top, it enables users to enter search terms.
    • Sorting Options: Users can sort results by views, newest, alphabetical order, or relevancy.
    • Search Results List: Displays knowledge articles with details such as short description, author, views, and ratings.
    • Filter Facets: Includes options for language, knowledge base, category, author, tags, ratings, modification date, and view counts to refine search results.
    • Pagination and Infinite Scroll: Offers standard pagination for multiple pages or infinite scrolling to view additional results seamlessly.
    • Custom Widget Integration: Custom widgets can utilize the KnowledgeSearchService, requiring the sn.knowledgeApplication dependency.

    Key Outcomes

    By effectively using the search functionality, ServiceNow customers can quickly locate relevant knowledge articles, improve their information retrieval efficiency, and enhance user satisfaction with the Knowledge Management system. Administrators should ensure the search context remains unchanged to maintain search behavior integrity.

    View a list of search results as well as options for sorting and filtering the items in the list. You can also use knowledge search in other Service Portals.

    Note:
    When you perform a new search, the filters you selected earlier on the Knowledge Management search results page are not saved. You must reselect the filters that you want to apply for every search.
    Table 1. Knowledge Management Service Portal search results page
    UI component Description
    Search bar Use the search bar at the top of the page to search for additional information.
    Sort Sort the items in a knowledge base or search results list using the Sort by options at the top of the list.
    • Views: sorts by number of article views.
    • Newest: sorts by the date created or updated.
    • Alphabetical: sorts alphabetically by the article Short description field.
    • Relevancy: sorts by relevance to the search term.

    The header displays the number of search results, which updates as the user selects and de-selects filters.

    When you navigate away from the search results page and then return, your last sort selection is retained.

    Search results list View knowledge articles and pinned articles.

    Knowledge article search results include articles in which the short description, text content, or attached file content includes the search term.

    View the knowledge article short description, the knowledge base in which the article is stored, author name, number of views, and rating information.

    Language filter facet widget Language: lists the languages that have been activated. Select one or more languages to display search results in. Your selection is maintained across logins. If multi-language search is enabled, you can search for multiple languages simultaneously.
    Knowledge base filter facet widget Knowledge Base: lists the available knowledge bases
    Category filter facet widget Category: lists the available knowledge categories.
    Note:
    Shows a hierarchy of categories if the administrator configured the Show category hierarchy (valid for kb_category only) instance option for the facet widget.
    Other filter facet widgets Use filter facets to refine your search results.

    The selections you make filter the items displayed in the search results list. The search results list updates to display only those items that match your selections. Deleting a selection from the filter facet or breadcrumb reverses the filtering in the list.

    Clear selected filter options by:

    • Deleting a single option from the search results list header.
    • Clicking Clear all in the search results list header.
    • Clicking Clear in the filter facet widget header.
    • Author: lists the names of the authors for the knowledge articles included in the search results list
    • Tags: lists the available knowledge tags
    • Resource: lists the types of items available, such as knowledge articles
    • Rating: lists article ratings from 0-5 stars (clicking a rating displays articles that have the selected rating and higher)
    • Last Modified: lists selections based on the timing of knowledge item modifications such as Past Month or Past Week
    • View Count: lists the knowledge item view counts such as More Than 50 or Less Than 10. Set the number of days to consider when calculating view count using the glide.knowman.view_age.days property. For more information on this property, see Knowledge portal properties.
    View additional search results Depending on the system setup, view additional search results using one of these options:
    • Standard Pagination: displays the search results in multiple pages.
    • Infinite Scroll: displays the search results while scrolling.
    Note:
    If a custom widget on the knowledge search results page uses the KnowledgeSearchService angular service, you must add the sn.knowledgeApplication dependency to enable the functionality of the custom widget.
    1. Navigate to Service Portal > Dependencies.
    2. In the Name field, search for the sn.knowledgeApplication dependency.
    3. If a message appears, click here to edit.

      You have to be in the Knowledge Management - Service Portal application to edit.

    4. Click Update.

    The search functionality in Knowledge Management Service Portal pages uses the Knowledge Base Search search context to fetch results. As an administrator, you must not update the definition of this search context because it may impact the search behavior. For more information about contextual search, see Contextual search concepts.