ServiceNow - STOP words: why certain search words may not work in virtual agent

Example: a search in virtual agent on "issue" did not result in the raise an issue record producer being returned, even though this was defined as a search word in the topic

solution would be to add the stop word to the sys_cs_topic group and set the stop mode to Not a Stop Word. Note: you may need to click the 'regenerate text index' UI action afterwards and this action might not get picked up in the update set so a manual step

Explanation:

Searching the 'issue' keyword will not bring any result in this instance because 'issue' has been set as a 'Stop Word' 

https://<xx>.service-now.com/ts_stop.do?sys_id=5d302ad6db02120074abffa9bf961943

VA uses global search functionality to return any matching topic and it doesn't return any result for 'issue'. You can quickly test this behavior from the sys_cs_topic table as well. 

https://<xx>/sys_cs_topic_list.do?sysparm_query=GOTO123TEXTQUERY321%3Dissue&sysparm_view=

https://<xx>/sys_cs_topic_list.do?sysparm_query=123TEXTQUERY321%3Dincident%5Eactive%3Dtrue%5Ekey_phrasesLIKEincident&sysparm_view=

*'issue' is set as 'Not a stop word' for sys_metadata text index. Therefore, you can only see results from sys_metadata-extended tables (i.e. sc_cat_item). 

https://<xx>.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=%2F$sn_global_search_results.do%3Fsysparm_search%3Dissue

https://<xx>.service-now.com/ts_index_name.do?sys_id=c134e69adb02120074abffa9bf9619d5

https://<xx>.service-now.com/ts_index_stop.do?sys_id=8afdd15edba033000346f68dae961924

Please either keep the current configuration in place and remember that 'issue' keyword will not bring any results or mark 'issue' as 'Not a stop word' for sys_cs_topic text index. 

https://<xx>.service-now.com/ts_index_name.do?sys_id=23f4ad08db0a20509fce4705059619e8

(ServiceNow )