Article versioning changes

Release version: Zurich

Updated July 31, 2025

3 minutes to read

Summarize

Summarized using AI

Summary of Article versioning changes

Article versioning in ServiceNow's Knowledge Management introduces new capabilities for creating, revising, and managing different versions of knowledge articles. This feature enhances control over article lifecycle, enables tracking of changes, and improves the accuracy of knowledge content presented to users. It impacts the Knowledge form, list views, modules, dashboards, and service portal experience.

Show full answer Show less

Key Features

New User Actions: Users can check out published articles to create new versions, recall articles under review or scheduled for publishing, and make previously outdated articles current. Minor edits can be enabled so certain fields can be changed without creating a new version by configuring system properties.
Knowledge List Enhancements: The list now shows a Version column with article version numbers and displays multiple versions of the same article. A new Outdated state is reflected in the Workflow column.
Knowledge Form Updates: New fields include Version (article version number), Display Number (combines article number and version), Base Version (indicates the version the current article is based on), and Revised By (user who created the new version). An Article Versions related list provides quick access to all article versions and their views.
Knowledge Modules: The "My Knowledge Articles" and "My Flagged" modules now include records for revised articles as well as authored ones, reflecting versioning activities. Customizations on these modules may prevent these changes from appearing.
Dashboard Reports: Knowledge Management Overview dashboards have been updated to incorporate article versioning data when the Advanced plugin is enabled. This includes reports on flagged articles, usage, workflow states, and ratings.
Service Portal and Search Enhancements: Knowledge search results display both article numbers and version numbers when enabled via system properties. URLs for accessing articles must include the version number to retrieve a specific version. The article view page includes a version history section with version details and navigation. Users viewing outdated articles receive notifications with links to the latest version.

What This Enables for Customers

ServiceNow customers can now more effectively manage knowledge content revisions without losing track of prior versions. Authors and knowledge managers can control the publishing lifecycle more precisely and provide users with clear indicators of article currency and version history. This leads to improved knowledge accuracy, better collaboration on content updates, and enhanced reporting on knowledge usage and quality.

Article versioning introduces new actions that allow knowledge users to create and revise versions of existing articles. It also introduces new fields and related lists to the Knowledge form, new columns to the Knowledge list, and updates to Knowledge dashboard reports.

New user actions

As part of creating article versions, users can:

Check out a published article and create another version by clicking Checkout on the Knowledge form.
Note:
Only the author, knowledge base owner, and users with the knowledge_admin role can edit an article in the Draft state.
Recall an article that is being reviewed or scheduled for publish by clicking Recall on the Knowledge form.
Select a previously published article in the Outdated state and make it the current published version by clicking Make this currentin the Knowledge form header.

Define minor fields so users can make some edits without triggering a new version. First, set the glide.knowman.versioning.enable_minor_edits property to true. Then, in the glide.knowman.versioning.minor_edit_fields property, specify the fields to define as minor. For example, set Valid To and Meta as fields that can be edited without creating a new version.

Changes to the Knowledge list

The article versioning feature adds the following to the Knowledge list:

The Version column displays the article version number. The Knowledge list displays multiple versions of an article.
The Workflow column includes the new Outdated state.

Changes to the Knowledge form

The article versioning feature adds the following to the Knowledge form:

The Version field displays the article version number.
The Display number field displays a combination of the article number and the version number. For example, KB0010004 v1.02. All references to a knowledge article use this display number.
The Base Version field displays the knowledge article number and version on which the current article is based.
The Revised By field displays the name of the user who checked out a published article and created a new version.
The Article Versions related list displays a list of all versions for an article. From this list,you can:
- Click the Version to view a specific version of an article.
- Click the View Article related link to see the article page view.

Note:

If necessary, configure the form to display the fields and the related list.

Changes to Knowledge modules

The article versioning feature introduces the following Knowledge module changes:

My Knowledge Articles
- For a knowledge user, this module includes records for the articles authored by the user as well as records for each article revised by the user.
- For a knowledge reviser, this module includes records for the articles published by the user as well as records for each article revised by the user.
My Flagged
- For a knowledge user, this module includes records for each revision made to articles authored by the user.
- For a knowledge reviser, this module includes records for each article revised by the user.

Note:

Users that have customized these modules do not see these changes.

Changes to Knowledge Management dashboard reports

The Knowledge Management Overview dashboard reports have been updated to include article versioning-related changes when the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin is activated.

Articles Flagged in the Last 30 Days
Articles Marked Not Useful in the Last 30 Days
Articles Used per Month
Knowledge use
Knowledge view
Knowledge updated in past 30 days
Knowledge flagged in past 30 days
Knowledge by Workflow state
Knowledge created by Author
Knowledge created in past 30 days
New Knowledge Articles Created in the Last 30 Days
Knowledge Ratings for past 30 days

Versioning information available in the Knowledge Management Service Portal

Knowledge search results show the article number and the version number for each article.

Note:

To display the article version number next to the article number in the search results, enable the glide.knowman.search.show_article_number property in the Knowledge Search Properties section of the Knowledge Management Properties page.

If you are accessing an article from the base system or knowledge service portals using the URL to a KB article, you must also include the article version number in the URL. For example, to access the KB0000005 knowledge article, instead of using the https://<instance name>/sp?id=kb_article&sys_id=KB0000005 as the URL, you must use https://<instance name>/sp?id=kb_article&sys_id=KB0000005%20V1.0 to view the article.

The article view page shows a version history section for articles that have been updated. This section includes the version numbers, date updated, and the name of the author or reviser.

Click Latest version or the version number and current state to expand the version history section.
Click the version number to open that particular version of the article.
When viewing an outdated article, a message informs the user that a newer updated version is available. The message includes a link to the latest version.