Login

Communities
Groups
Resources
Events
Blogs
Knowledge17
Skip navigation
JiveSIGN IN / JOINMORE SITES
Can we help you with something?
HOMEMY VIEWCOMMUNITIESGROUPSRESOURCESEVENTSBLOGSKNOWLEDGE17
In Platform and 2 other places
Platform
Previous postNext post
1 ENDORSEMENTEndorsed by Rohan Tyagi May 5, 2017 11:35:15 AM
Bharath Padaki
Service Catalog on Service Portal
Posted by Bharath Padaki Employee in Platform on May 5, 2017 11:22:30 AM
Let's focus on the Service Catalog experience in Service Portal for the Jakarta
release. Before we begin, there are a few aspects of the catalog you need to hav
e a solid grasp on in order to better understand Service Catalog on Service Port
al.

Catalog Client Scripts, Catalog UI Policy and Data Lookup support

Supported Variables
Order Guides
Catalog Item/Record Producer layouts
Approach on aligning with the Service Portal way
Catalog Client Scripts, Catalog UI Policies and Data Lookups
There is no support for Data Lookups. As for Catalog Client scripts, only UI Typ
e options "Mobile / Service Portal" and "All" will be supported. UI Type "Deskto
p" catalog client scripts will not execute on the Service Portal. For complete l
ist of APIs supported, see Service Portal & Client Scripts.
Finally, all Catalog UI Policies will be supported as long as the APIs listed ab
ove are used, when using scripts.
Supported Variables
Within the Service Portal, all Service Catalog variables will be supported excep
t for UI Macros, for which you will need to create a new widget and include the
same as part of your catalog item. Any validations set up as part of the System
Definition > Validation Scripts for variables will not be supported in the Servi
ce Portal. The only validations supported are -
Mandatory variables
Read-only variables
Variable visibility - Show/Hide
Order Guides
Using Order Guides, customers can submit a single service catalog request and re
ceives a set number of requests. For example, if a manager takes on a new hire t
hey can select multiple items that all new hires can order with one request.
For the order guides, we do not support the following in Service Catalog within
Service Portal:
3-step checkout
Attachments
Catalog Item/Record producer Layouts
In my experience, I have seen our customers build both simple and complex forms.
 A simple form, in my opinion, is one consisting for no more than eight to ten v
ariables requesting information from the requestor. The variables are usually la
id out in a single column layout or a two-column layout, with tab ordering pre-d
efined so the requestor is guided intuitively through the form. A complex form w
ould consist of more than ten variables, multiple sections built out using conta
iners and complex Client scripts and UI policies which control the user experien
ce on the form.
I am a huge proponent of simple forms. There are some advantages to keeping your
forms simple:
Simple and intuitive experience for our end users or requestors.
Easy to maintain on a day-to-day basis; as well as, through upgrades.
The experience translates well on different form factors such as desktops, table
ts or smartphones
Our approach with the Service Portal, and by that I mean Service Catalog on the
Service Portal, is to keep the experience simple. Going back to my earlier defin
ition of a simple form, This means that we intend to only support specific aspec
ts.
Two-column layouts.
Any support for Catalog Client Scripts or Catalog UI Policies would be similar t
o the mobile experience.
Containers and Variable sets within catalog forms will be translated back to the
two-column layout.
Service Portal catalog layout1.png
Service Portal catalog layout2.png

Service Portal catalog layout3.png

The following GIFs demonstrate the different layout examples captured based on o
ur analysis of the various layouts we have seen across our customers. We have at
tempted to share the most common layouts to utilize. and the GIFs show how these
will be rendered within the Service Portal. First, a few of ground rules -
Only the top level container settings will be honored
If there are other containers within the top level container, these will be rend
ered as a single column layouts
If there are container splits within these additional containers, these will be
rendered as single column layouts as well.
Variables Sets are treated as containers and the above rules apply to Variable S
ets as well as containers within them.
Variable Default Size feature coming in Jakarta is not supported on the Service
Portal
Different types of Service Catalog layouts
The layouts showcased below are also available as part of the attachment to this
blog. The file is named "Service Catalog Layouts on Service Portal".
Layout example 1: Two containers with variables laid out in single column layout
s
Layout 1.gif

Layout example 2: Two containers, first container has 2-column layout and the se
cond will be single column container
Layout 2.gif
Layout example 3: Nested containers
Layout 3.gif

Layout example 4: Nested containers with variable sets

Layout 4.gif

Layout example 5: Variable sets with nested containers

Layout 5.gif

Layout example 6: Complex nested containers

Layout 6.gif

How do I adopt Service Catalog on Service Portal?

The Service Portal is not a replacement for the CMS or the Platform UI, it is on
ly an alternative. The intent with Service Portal is to enable our customers to
provide modern, easy-to-use, device agnostic experiences for their end users or
requestors. We do not intend to provide full feature parity between the Platform
experience and the Service Portal experience.
Having said that, we do understand that you may have built out catalog item form
s that are fairly complex and do not render well in the Service Portal today. Ho
pefully, the updates provided above will help you overcome some of those challen
ges. If they do not, the following is an option that you might find useful.
Before we get into the details, I'd like to clarify:
This approach is not a product offering, but only provided as an option that you
can use, if you choose to do so. There will be NO SUPPORT for this.
This is intended to be a short-term option so you can continue to use the Servic
e Catalog on the Service Portal, while you set in motion plans to transform your
catalog item forms to fit the Service Portal experience.
Lets get into the details now. What we are offering isn't new, it is the age old
iFrame solution, but we have made some additional changes that are targeted at
masking the iFrame experience, so the difference to the end users is as subtle a
s possible. The solution consists of the following:
Update Set named "iFramedItem.xml" - As part of this update set, we are adding 2
new fields to the sc_cat_item table -
iFrame on Portal - This is a True/False field, with the default value set to fal
se.
Support on Portal - This is a String field with max length set to 1000.
Export of Script Include named "Analyzer Script.xml" - Importing this file will
add a new Script Include named "PortalCatItemAnalyzer".
Once you have applied the update set and imported the script include, you can ru
n the following commands using Background Scripts:
var analyzer = new PortalCatItemAnalyzer();
analyzer.analyze();
This will only analyze the catalog items (catalog item/record producer/order gui
de) in your environment and output the results without making any actual changes
.
var analyzer = new PortalCatItemAnalyzer();
analyzer.analyzeAndSetCatItemFields();
This will make updates to your catalog items (catalog item/record producer/order
guide). The script will analyze every catalog item to see if it can be rendered
on the portal as it was designed in Platform. The parameters include: Nested Co
ntainers or Variable Sets, complex scripts which may include either unsupported
APIs or ajax calls. If an item is found to be meeting any of these criteria, the
n the script will set the iFrame on Portal flag to true and update the Support o
n Portal field with the details of the analysis. Once the flag has been set to t
rue, this item will be displayed within an iFrame on the Service Portal automati
cally. The following video shows how a catalog item, a record producer and an or
der guide will be rendered within an iFrame on the Service Portal.

We have taken care to ensure that all user interactions with these items in the
Service Portal continue to keep the user within the portal without exposing the
Platform view to them. This includes ordering items, adding them to the cart, ed
iting the cart or clicking on Continue Shopping. Some of the disadvantages with
this approach as you might have noticed in the video above:
On catalog items and record producers, you will lose the ability to see the atta
chment icon. As a result, users will not be able to attach any files during the
submission. On ServiceNow Share, please review the Add Attachment Button share f
rom Cloud Sherpas. This provides a way to add a "Add Attachment" button to your
forms.
Click-through for the hover-over icon has been turned off and will not be availa
ble.
My recommendation would be to install the update set and the script include in y
our dev or sandbox environments first to get a better understanding of how it wo
rks. Once the script has been run, depending on how complicated your environment
is, the script may take a long time to execute. If you are happy with the outco
me, I would suggest installing only the update set in the Production environment
and move the updates to the actual items as part of a separate update set.
We will continue to enhance the Service Catalog experience on the Service Portal
through our next few releases. This will include a combination of bringing exis
ting features on the Platform to the portal and defining newer, more modern UI e
xperiences for the catalog. Stay tuned!!
Service Catalog Layouts on Service Portal.pptx
623.2 K
Analyzer Script Export.xml.zip
2.2 K
IframedItem Update Set.xml.zip
14.7 K
-
bPad
If the reply was informational, please like, mark as helpful or mark as correct!
2012 Views Categories: Service Catalog, Service Portal Designer Tags: cmsConten
t tagged with cms, catalogContent tagged with catalog, iframeContent tagged with
iframe, service catalogContent tagged with service catalog, service portalConte
nt tagged with service portal, service-portalContent tagged with service-portal,
module:service catalogContent tagged with module:service catalog, service catal
og layoutsContent tagged with service catalog layouts, service catalog layoutCon
tent tagged with service catalog layout Show 1 LikeEndorsers Show 1 Like(1)
2HELPFULMOST LIKED
Comments
5 Comments
Darius Koohmarey
Darius Koohmarey Employee May 5, 2017 6:26 PM
Great post! Thanks!
If the reply was informational, please like, mark as helpful or mark as correct!
2 of 2 people found this helpful
Like Show 3 Likes(3) Actions
Thilo Grobe
Thilo Grobe May 22, 2017 3:16 AM
This explains a lot of the confusion we've had with nested variable sets. Great
post! However, will Platform- and Portal UI behave the same at some point in the
future?
Like Show 0 Likes(0) Actions
Bharath Padaki
Bharath Padaki Employee May 22, 2017 9:12 AM (in response to Thilo Grobe)
Thank you, Thilo. Eventually, something I would like to get to, will be a Visual
Designer for the catalog forms. Using the designer will help design forms once,
for the Platform as well as the Portal. This is an item on our backlog to addre
ss for the future.
-
bPad
If the reply was informational, please like, mark as helpful or mark as correct!
2 of 2 people found this helpful
Like Show 2 Likes(2) Actions
Harry Campbell
Harry Campbell May 26, 2017 3:03 AM
This is a brilliant post and will finally allow me to proceed with my Service Po
rtal deployment - even if i do still have to use iframes for some of my larger o
rder guides.
I do still get a scrollbar in my iframe, what is the best way to disable this?
Like Show 1 Likes(1) Actions
Bharath Padaki
Bharath Padaki Employee May 26, 2017 12:01 PM (in response to Harry Campbell)
Thank you, Harry! shouvik, would you please help Harry with this?
-
bPad
If the reply was informational, please like, mark as helpful or mark as correct!
Like Show 0 Likes(0) Actions
Filter Blog
By author:
By date:
By tag:
catalog cmdb cms import javascript km knowledge knowledge base knowledge managem
ent knowledge_base knowledge_management mobile podcast security support
Recent Posts
URL Navigation Tips
The Total Economic Impact Study of Developing Applications on the Now Platform
What's in a name.do?
Service Now dancing with Azure
Service Catalog on Service Portal
The Enterprise Cloudcast: Episode 9: Data Sovereignty by Allan Leinwand
Formatting the Journal Field with the [code] tag
Grey Imports
Automatic update fields based on selection
Best practices for avoiding memory leaks in Service Portal when using Internet E
xplorer
Incoming Links
Re: Helsinki ServiceCatalog - The "Shipping Address" is not updated automaticall
y when Requested For is changed.
Re: form displays incomplete in portal
Copyright 2017 ServiceNow. All rights reserved.
Terms of Use |Privacy Statement |Trademarks
Help |Contact Us