Purpose of the IsEmployee field in the PeopleImport

I just have a quick question on the purpose of the IsEmployee field in the PeopleImport.  I've noticed we have it set only for users who are Technicians and it appears to be essential for those who create KB articles.  Do you have a list of access this field grants if it's set to true?

Thanks,
Randy

Tags isemployee
Asked by Randy Riauka on Thu 3/2/23 11:00 AM
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Answer (1)

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Mark Sayers Thu 3/2/23 11:22 AM

Hello Randy,

The built-in person search fields will default returning type-ahead results to just folks who are employees. Other person search pages that don't currently use type-ahead search fields also default to returning employees.

It doesn't grant you special access to anything, but it does give an account preference in those situations to return results.

Also it is an auditing field to allow you to report on the users that are marked as employees of the organization.

Sincerely,
Mark Sayers
Sr Support Consultant, CS

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Thank you. Also, I noticed that users were unable to submit a KB article but could create one with the IsEmployee field being set to false. Can you confirm that as well? - Randy Riauka Thu 3/2/23 12:30 PM
Are you positive the person who couldn't submit the KB wasn't just missing a KB -related permission or wasn't missing like TDNext access? - Mark Sayers Thu 3/2/23 12:35 PM
I feel positive... :-) She could create a KB but couldn't submit. She shared her screen and I observed the issue.
Then, once I clicked the checkbox that states she is an Employee, she was fine. I then modified our PeopleImport to include that as an option for her to reflect what I learned.

I'd have to roll it back to test. Do you think that has value to try? - Randy Riauka Thu 3/2/23 12:44 PM
Probably not, unless you just have extra time and don't mind. Out of curiosity, what KB permissions *does* she have for her client portal security role? - Mark Sayers Thu 3/2/23 12:48 PM
I think our previous TDX admin setup a custom Security role called "Knowledge base drafters." I'm not sure of that is a standard role, now that I look at it. That is what she has assigned.

That contains:
Knowledge Base
Add Articles, Always Edit ARticles, Edit Owned Articles, Modify Shortucts, Review and Approve Drafts, View KB.

Service: Submit Ticket Requests, View Service Catalog - Randy Riauka Thu 3/2/23 1:03 PM
So it's not required to have the IsEmployee set to True in order to submit a KB article. You see the submission button when viewing the article (not on its Edit pages). Can you review and confirm? - Mark Sayers Thu 3/2/23 1:21 PM
Thank you. I confirmed that we are still able to submit after removing the IsEmployee being true.
But, when testing with the user we remembered, the issue was actually saving the KB. Saving wasn't available. It appeared that once the IsEmployee attribute was true she could save w/o a problem. Now with the new release of TDX maybe that issue was resolved there, or we just missed something during our troubleshooting.

Thanks for discussing with me!

Now everything is working with the IsEmployee field being set to False.

Thanks for your help,
Randy - Randy Riauka Fri 3/3/23 3:46 PM