By now, you've probably already used the Simple List widget. It is one of the default widgets on the OOB portal homepage. Similar to the Data Table widget, it is used to display a list of records from a table. However, there is a lot more to this widget than you might think. In this post, we will cover some of the secrets of the simple list widget. To give you a quick sample of its capabilities, there is an OOB demo page available at: https://yourinstance.service-now.com/sp?id=test_list Features Include: Display records from any table and filter Support for image fields Show primary and multiple secondary fields Limit the height with scrollable body Trigger an event Customizable actions To get started, let's first create a widget which shows the payload of the event that get's triggered when clicking a record. HTML: [crayon-6623464f6f9ec557570308/] Client Script: [crayon-6623464f6f9fe339848875/] Now if you place this widget on the same page as the Simple List widget, and if you don't specify a "Link to this page" in the Instance Options, you will see the JSON representing the record you clicked on. With this event, it'll be very easy to trigger a modal window or other user interaction, but for now let's proceed to adding some List Actions. LIST ACTIONS The Simple List widget supports adding additional actions for the records in the list. For some reason this related list is not visible on the form by default, so we'll need to add it: Pull up the Platform View of the Instance Record of the Simple List Click the hamburger icon > “Configure” > “Related Lists” Add "List Action -> Parent List" Now you should see the List Actions Related List When adding List Actions, you are able to include properties from the record in the URL field using double brackets: [crayon-6623464f6fa02092371326/] However, there are a couple of unfortunate limitations: You cannot link to an external URL You cannot use URL prefixes such as “mailto:” or “tel:” Clicking a List Action does not trigger an event This limits the List Actions to just linking to other pages, but hopefully this will get fixed in an upcoming release. DEMO Here is a quick video demonstrating how to configure some List Actions on the Simple List widget. FURTHER READING https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/london-servicenow-platform/page/build/service-portal/concept/simple-list-widget.html
SCSS Variables in Service Portal
Learn how to streamline your stylesheets in Service Portal by utilizing the full power of SCSS. In this tutorial, I'll walk you through how to use CSS Variables in your widgets, so that they can be overridden in the Theme and Portal records. This is very useful when creating highly reusable widgets, themes or in situations where you have multiple portals sharing a theme. SCSS is a subset of the Syntactically Awesome StyleSheets (Sass) specification and is an extension of CSS. Every valid CSS stylesheet is valid SCSS. SCSS supports the following: Variables Variables are a way to store information that you want to reuse throughout your stylesheet. You can store things like colors, font stacks, or any CSS value you think you want to reuse. SCSS uses the $ symbol to make something a variable. Nesting SCSS lets you nest your CSS selectors in a way that follows the same visual hierarchy of your HTML. Operators SCSS has a handful of standard math operators like +, -, *, /, and %. Mixins A mixin lets you make groups of CSS declarations that you want to reuse throughout your site. You can pass in values to make your mixin more flexible. Functions SASS supports the use of functions by providing some keyword arguments, which are specified using normal CSS function syntax. Quick note: The order of CSS that is shown in the video is based on the Kingston release. In Jakarta, the Theme variables were loaded before the Portal variables. For further reading, check out the following resources: https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/helsinki-servicenow-platform/page/build/service-portal/concept/scss-primer.html https://sass-lang.com/guide https://devhints.io/sass https://www.tutorialspoint.com/sass/index.htm
Widgets and Demo Portal from our K18 Service Portal Sessions
Due to popular demand, here is a quick video highlighting the portal and some of the widgets we showed during our CreatorCon sessions at Knowledge18. We've made the following widgets and applications available for download: Gamification for Service Portal https://serviceportal.io/gamification-in-service-portal/ Unlocking Service Portal Widgets https://serviceportal.io/downloads/k18-creatorcon-example-widgets/ If you've found this content useful or if you have any special requests for upcoming posts, please let me know in the comments below.
Featured Service Portal: Scripps Networks
NewRocket had the pleasure of collaborating with Scripps Networks Interactive to deliver an IT service portal to support their diverse company. Scripps Networks is a leading developer of lifestyle content for television and the Internet. The company's brands include HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel, DIY Network, Cooking Channel and Great American Country. The previous Scripps Networks CMS-based portal did not provide the usability they were looking for nor did it align with their new branding guidelines. Improving these key areas was critical for the redesign of the portal. “NewRocket delivered on a portal that not only fit our branding guidelines but packs in functionality with a design aesthetic that is visually inviting. Our end user experience has greatly improved by making our content and catalog offerings forefront and easily searchable all in an appealing display. The team was fantastic to work with and their expertise and guidance helped make our portal successful.” - Judy March, IT Service Delivery Manager Portal Features The new portal provides users with quick access to search, the IT service catalog, frequently asked questions and news. NewRocket embraced the extensive, yet flexible branding guidelines to visually identify different sections of the portal. These visual and structural changes help users quickly understand the page contents and complete the desired task. Some other highlights include: Quick access to open requests, incidents and approvals through My Items mega menu in header Direct access to the top level service catalog categories from the home page Consistent access to support options in footer Several custom developed widgets including news, sub-categories, and knowledge base homepage Responsive layout for mobile and tablet users Watch the video for a quick tour and leave us a comment about what you think of the portal.
SpaceRocket 404 Page for Service Portal
I'm always been a fan of creative 404 pages, especially when they include something interactive, like a game (hence the reason I developed the OOB breakout game). So when I saw ServiceNow post a 404 Page challenge, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to create a space/rocket themed 404 game. Given that I don't have a lot of free time, I pulled some of the game logic from a Github tutorial, and then spent the rest of the day integrating it into a Service Portal widget, and adding new functionality such as High Score tracking, and presenting it with some cool graphics. I think it turned out pretty cool for a quick weekend project. The game is live on our demo instance if you want to check it out: https://newrocketdemo1.service-now.com/$sp.do?id=spacerocket It's only been tested on Chrome, Safari, and iOS Safari... so if you find any bugs let me know. To submit your own 404 Page, or see some of the other submissions, head on over to the community: https://community.servicenow.com/message/1261738 Screenshots:
Opening Headers in the Widget Editor on Helsinki
A defect in some patches of the Helsinki Service Portal prevents header or footer widgets from opening in the widget editor. This video tutorial will walk you through how to fix this.
Announcing the Contextual Search Results Widget
UPDATE: Now with updated pricing! Available now in the ServiceNow app store! With the NewRocket Contextual Search Results Widget your company can achieve incident deflection in the Service Portal. As self-service users enter details about their issue, search results appear within the form, allowing the user to view relevant knowledge articles, catalog items, or social Q&A thread instead of submitting an incident. The result: less incidents submitted and more satisfied users. Key Features - Integrates with existing record producers - View search results while typing - View individual result items without navigating to a new page - Simple to configure to show relevant knowledge articles, pinned articles, social Q&A and/or catalog items https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HodilTSd6rg Click here for more details and pricing information!
Communicating between the Client Script and the Server Script of a widget
We've had a lot of questions about how the client side and server side of a widget can communicate, so this week I thought it would be a good idea to offer a quick demonstration. In this tutorial we will create a widget that allows the user to add or remove items from a list. In this case it's just a simple Array, but it could just as easily be using GlideRecord against a table. Here is the sample code used in the video: HTML: [crayon-6623464f71a51275728613/] Server Script: [crayon-6623464f71a5e833039316/] Client Script: [crayon-6623464f71a63447552325/]
Service Portal “Gothenburg” Theme
A quick demo of one of our themes for Service Portal. Features include: Shopping cart Multi-level categories (for both service catalog & knowledge base) Connect chat integration Create incident Contextual search Almost every page and widget has been redesigned to help improve the user experience. Let me know what you guys think.
Founder of 