Service Portal/Widgets

Portal knowledge quick links

Allows users to quickly access important, curated knowledge base articles.

This widget is only available with the UI Components for Customer Portals application installed from the ServiceNow Store.

Overview

  • Release version
    Australia
  • Available sinceZurich
  • A11Y WCAG 2.1 AA

The Portal knowledge quick links widget provides users with a curated list of knowledge articles. Configured manually by an admin, the widget presents a fixed list of links—often displayed as cards—that bypass the need for users to perform a search or navigate category structures.

ServiceNow Docs link
Portal knowledge quick links widget documentation

Additional information about the widget

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When to use

Use when you need to promote a specific set of knowledge articles for users in a defined context, such as highlighting urgent information, top-requested guides, or essential policy documents. This widget is ideal for driving attention to a fixed number of high-priority knowledge assets, whether they are selected manually or pulled dynamically (e.g., most viewed, highest rated).

When not to use

Use when the portal homepage or a landing page needs to prominently feature a small number of essential knowledge articles that address common user needs, announcements, or immediate support issues.

Usage

Designers should consider its placement and content to ensure it effectively communicates its intended message without being intrusive. Keep the following suggestions in mind:

  • Content relevance: Manually curate articles that address current initiatives, high-frequency needs, or specific user roles to ensure the content remains a value-add.
  • Link quantity: Limit the number of links to no more than six to eight to maintain visual clarity and prevent cognitive overload.
  • Placement strategy: Place the widget in a prominent but secondary position on the page, such as a sidebar, a dedicated card slot on the homepage, or directly below the main header banner, to complement the primary search function.
  • Title clarity: Ensure the widget title (e.g., "Quick Links" or "Top Articles") clearly communicates its purpose to the user.
  • Link text: Use concise, descriptive link text that matches the knowledge article's title or clearly summarizes its content.

Examples

  • Total Rewards topic page: Examples of articles related to company benefits (e.g. "Pay", "Healthcare", "Paid Time Off")
  • HR Portal: “Quick links” to articles like “How to submit a PTO request,” “Understanding your health benefits,” and “Company holiday schedule.”
  • IT Portal: “Need to know” links for “Reset your password,” “VPN connection guide,” and “Reporting an outage.”
  • Facilities portal: “Facility information” linking to “Campus parking map,” “Visitor sign-in policy,” and “Submit a maintenance request.”

Anatomy

The Portal knowledge quick links widget consists of the following components:

Anatomy
  1. Widget title: A configurable heading that defines the contents of the widget.
  2. Container: The surrounding structure that groups the cards together.
  3. Pagination: Allows the user to navigate through multiple pages of curated quick links when the list exceeds the container's display limit.
  4. Knowledge quick link (card): An individual, clickable card that navigates directly to a specific knowledge article page.
  5. Icon: A visual indicator (e.g., a document icon or article type icon) to quickly identify the content type.
  6. Headline: The primary title of the knowledge article, serving as the main navigational link text.
  7. Description: A short, truncated summary or excerpt of the article content, providing context without requiring the user to navigate to the full page.
  8. Author: Displays the name of the user who authored the knowledge article.
  9. Metadata: A grouping of article metrics, which includes the Views, Timestamp (date of last update/publication), and Rating (star rating based on user feedback).
Vertical

Vertical

Horizontal

Horizontal

Instance options

Data

Field Description
Display articles Displays knowledge articles from the associated knowledge base. The available options are:
  • Manually select: Displays knowledge articles chosen in the Manually Select Articles field.
  • Dynamic query: Displays knowledge articles that meet the condition of a query in the Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table defined in the Dynamic Query field. If no query is provided, all knowledge articles are displayed in the widget. For more information, see Generate an encoded query string through a filter
  • Criteria based (default): Displays knowledge article based on the criteria Most viewed, Most useful, and Featured. The criteria is determined by the View field in the Knowledge [kb_knowledge] table.
    The default selection is Criteria based.
    Note: Currently, if you select None, the selection is set to Criteria based.
Criteria based Displays articles on the widget based on the selected criteria.
The available options are:
  • Most Viewed
  • Most Useful
  • Featured
This field applies only when Criteria based is selected from Display articles.
Note: Currently, if you select None, the criteria is set to Most Viewed.

Presentation

Field Description
Title Text that displays in the widget header and describes the purpose of the widget.

Behavior

Field Description
Show carousel Toggle to switch between carousel view and grid view.
Max Quick links to display Number of knowledge article quick links to appear by default on the widget.
Note: The default value is 10.
Glyph Glyph to appear on all cards chosen from a set of predefined glyphs.
Show author Toggle to display the author's name.
Show view count Toggle to display the total number of views of an article.
Show last updated Toggle to display the date of the last changes made to an article.
Show rating Toggle to display the rating received on an article. The appearance of the star rating is defined by the [glide.knowman.show_star_rating] system property.
Show preview Toggle to display of the description text.
Article view page The article page that opens when the article card is accessed.
By default, this field is set to the Knowledge Article View [kb_article_view] page.

Usability

This widget complies with all internationalization and accessibility requirements. Internationalization

Accessibility

Learn how to access the actionable elements of the widget through keyboard interactions and screen readers.

Widget tab order

Keyboard interactions

You can access the actionable elements of the widget with these keyboard interactions:

  • Tab: Navigate through each link, sequentially, within the widget using the Tab key
  • Shift + tab: Navigate backward through the links using the shift + tab key combination
  • Enter/spacebar: Pressing the enter key or the spacebar on a focused link will activate the link and navigate the user to the specified destination.