Assigning knowledge workflows to an OT knowledge base

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Assigning knowledge workflows to an OT knowledge base

    ServiceNow allows you to assign specific Knowledge Management workflows to each Operational Technology (OT) knowledge base for managing publishing and retiring of knowledge articles. This enables tailored control over the approval and lifecycle of knowledge articles within OT knowledge bases.

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    Key Features

    • Default Workflows: Several predefined workflows are available for OT knowledge bases, including:
      • Knowledge - Approval Publish: Requests approval from a knowledge base manager before publishing articles. Articles move through states such as In Review, Scheduled, Published, or remain Draft if rejected.
      • Knowledge - Approval Retire: Requests manager approval before retiring published articles, with rejection keeping the article Published.
      • Knowledge - Instant Publish: Publishes draft articles immediately without approval, or schedules publication if specified.
      • Knowledge - Instant Retire: Retires published articles immediately without approval.
      • Knowledge - Publish and Retire Subflows: These subflows move articles to Published or Retired states respectively and can be used in custom workflows.
    • Approval Configuration: You can customize which users can approve or reject by modifying the getApprovers() function in the KBWorkflow script include.
    • Ownership Groups: If enabled, approval notification emails are sent to ownership group members; otherwise, notifications go to knowledge base managers.
    • Email Notifications: Approval workflow notifications inform approvers about pending articles and authors about approval status. This feature is controlled by the glide.knowman.enableapprovalnotification property.

    Practical Use for ServiceNow Customers

    By assigning appropriate workflows to OT knowledge bases, customers can enforce structured approval processes for publishing and retiring knowledge articles, ensuring content quality and governance. The ability to customize approvers and enable email notifications enhances collaboration and transparency for content authors and managers. Immediate publish and retire workflows provide flexibility for less formal scenarios.

    To enable email notifications for approval workflows, ensure the glide.knowman.enableapprovalnotification property is set to true. This is enabled by default in releases from New York onward, but must be manually enabled in earlier releases. Before enabling, disable any custom approval notifications to avoid conflicts.

    You can assign different Knowledge Management workflows to each Operational Technology (OT) knowledge base for the publishing and retiring processes.

    Knowledge workflow overview

    You can use the default Knowledge Management workflows in the following table for Operational Technology Knowledge Management and apply them to OT knowledge bases.
    Note:
    For the workflows that require approval, you can configure which users can approve or reject by editing the getApprovers() function in the KBWorkflow script include.
    Table 1. Default Knowledge Management workflows
    Workflow Description
    Knowledge - Approval Publish Requests approval from a manager of the knowledge base. Articles in approval have a state of In Review before moving to a Published state after approval. If they're set to publish later, they’re moved to a Scheduled state. If the manager rejects the request, the workflow is canceled and the article remains in the Draft state.

    If theownership groups option is enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to the ownership group members for approval.

    If the ownership groups option isn't enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to the knowledge base managers for approval.

    A notification is also sent to the authors or the revisers of the articles to inform them that their article has been approved or rejected.

    To turn on the approval email notifications, set the glide.knowman.enable_approval_notification property to true.

    Note:
    Only the active user receives the notifications.
    Knowledge - Approval Retire Requests approval from a manager of the knowledge base before moving the article to the retired state. If any manager rejects the request, the workflow is canceled and the article remains in the Published state.

    If the ownership groups option is enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to the ownership group members for approval.

    If the ownership groups option isn’t enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to the knowledge base managers for approval.
    Knowledge - Instant Publish Immediately publishes a draft article without requiring an approval, or publishes on the scheduled publish date if set to publish later.
    Knowledge - Instant Retire Immediately retires a published article without requiring an approval.
    Knowledge - Publish Knowledge Subflow that moves the knowledge article to the Published state. You can use this subflow when defining your own workflow.
    Knowledge - Retire Knowledge Subflow that moves the knowledge article to the Retired state. You can use this subflow when defining your own workflow.

    Email notifications for approval workflows

    You can send email notifications for approval workflows.
    • Notify approvers about the knowledge articles submitted for their approvals.
    • Notify authors about the approval status of their knowledge articles
    To send email notifications for approval workflows, enable the Send notification to approvers and authors in article approval workflow property (glide.knowman.enable_approval_notification). Beginning with the New York release, the property is enabled by default. Existing customers on release versions prior to the New York release can enable this property to send email notifications. Disable any custom notifications for article approvals before enabling this property. If the glide.knowman.enable_approval_notification property isn’t available, an administrator can create the property and set its value to true. For more information, see Knowledge Management properties.