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Sidebar FAQ’s:
Table of content:
3. Sidebar is different than Connect Chat
9. Where can I learn more about Workspace?
Sidebar
What is Sidebar?
– Sidebar is a new collaboration framework in Next Experience. It enables Workspace Agents to have discussions with a specified group of people (agents or SMEs) to quickly resolve any ServiceNow task-based record or interaction record including cases, incidents, etc. Discussions allow agents to triage tickets, and exchange information and knowledge to help resolve Cases, Incidents, Problems, and Tasks, faster and with higher-quality outcomes.
Some of the highlights are:
- Agents to discuss and chat within the context of the case or interaction, and share information including relevant attachments, knowledge base, or files for faster resolution with higher quality outcomes.
- Agents can Search to quickly find items across discussions
- Record Based discussions
- Posting messages to Activity Stream
- Favoriting discussions
- Configurable Quick Actions
- Search through discussions
- Emojis
- Notifications and @mentions
- Sidebar with Teams Integration
Our Sidebar product documentation here
When is Sidebar available for Customers?
– Sidebar is available if Next Experience is enabled.
– Sidebar shares front end dependencies with Agent chat and Virtual Agent web client and these dependencies are on the family release. Outside of these dependencies, Sidebar is released as a store app in Tokyo. For Tokyo, Sidebar does not install OOTB, and customers will have to install the store app but starting in Utah the store app should be installed OOTB for all customers.
Available Features
What are the features that are available with Sidebar?
– Features include:
- Single/Multi discussions on a record
- Utility Menu and Docked Chat Windows
- Activity Stream conversation Tile
- Posting messages to Activity Stream
- Favoriting Conversations
- Configurable Quick Actions
- AI Search
- Drag and drop file sharing
- Emojis
- Notifications and @mentions
- Sidebar with Teams Integration
- Add Sidebar Discuss button for non supported Workspaces
What is meant by Record based conversations?
– An agent can initiate a group discussion from a task or interaction-based record. Only one discussion can be created per record at any given time till Utah. From Vancouver onwards multiple discussions can be created on a record. Find the Youtube Demo Video for multi discussions.
– An agent fills out preliminary information and context for the discussion.
– An agent adds other agents or users subject matter experts to help with the record.
Is this feature visible to the customer?
– This feature will be visible to all logged in users when the Next Experience is enabled. However, users can only join chats if they have read access to the associated parent records. In addition to inheriting ACLs of the task-based record that it was created from, Admin can configure user queries to limit the users who have access to Sidebar Discussions.
Is Sidebar connect with Teams users?
Yes, starting from Utah Sidebar can be integrated with Teams to add Teams users as participants in Sidebar discussions. Teams user can see all the participants in the discussions and exchange messages, emoji's and file. Sidebar discussions with Teams users are always initiated by Sidebar users only. Find Sidebar Teams overview here
Sidebar <-----------------------------------------> MS Teams
What steps to follow for Sidebar Teams integrations?
Follow these steps to integrate Sidebar and Microsoft Teams:
Sidebar is different than Connect Chat
Is Sidebar works along with Connect Chat and Connect Support?
– No. Connect Chat or Connect Support should not be used along with Sidebar at the same time. Connect Chat and Connect Support are not supported by Next Experience.
Is Sidebar an alternate product for Connect Chat and Connect Support?
– Sidebar is not an alternate solution to Connect Chat but some of the features are like Connect Chat. Sidebar is more advanced than Connect Chat.
– There is no migration path, Connect Chat and Sidebar cannot be used at the same time.
– Connect Support is not related to Sidebar. Workspace Agent Chat is the alternate solution to Connect Support.
Status of Connect Products
What is the status of Connect Chat and Connect Support?
– Connect Chat is in maintenance mode and no new enhancements will be built.
– Connect Support is deprecated and won’t be supported by ServiceNow from Utah.
What are the steps to follow to migrate from Connect Support to Sidebar?
– Connect Support and Sidebar are not the same use case. The migration for Connect Chat is to move to Next Experience and start using Sidebar. There is no option to import conversations from Connect Chat to Sidebar.
Where can I find more about Connect Support deprecation plan?
– Find the details below: Connect Support deprecation community announcements
Install Sidebar plugins
How can I install Sidebar?
– Navigate to All > System Applications > All Available Applications > All
Search for store app Omni-Experience Standard Feature Set
– For Tokyo, customers will need to opt-in and install the above store app. Starting in Utah, this store app will be trued up and installed OOB.
Is Sidebar a PRO feature?
– No. Sidebar is available in Standard.
What are the plugin dependencies?
– One family release plugin: glide.cs.collab
– Explicit Dependencies:
com.glide.cs.custom.adapter
com.glide.cs
com.glide.quickactions
Does it support self-hosted(on-Prem) instances?
– This feature does not add any impediments to on-Prem instances. Find Link for Community post about installing store apps on-Prem.
What other ServiceNow modules does it affect?
– Sidebar shares front end components with Agent chat and VA web client. To use Sidebar customers, Agent Chat and Agent workspace are activated.
What activities can a user do in Sidebar?
– Below is a list of what users can do with Sidebar:
- Create discussion
- Receive badge notification
- Pin the discussion panel
- Check unread messages
- Favorite discussion
- Search through discussions if AI Search is enabled
- Exchange messages, files, links, and emojis
- Add/remove messages from a discussion to Activity Stream
- Add other participants
- Leave a discussion
- Join a discussion from the Activity Stream conversation tile
- @mentions
- Collaborate with Teams users with Utah release
Advanced Configuration
Where can I find configuration product documentation for Sidebar?
– Configuring Sidebar member query
– Domain Separation and Sidebar
– Sidebar with Teams Integration
How do I access Sidebar in Agent Workspace?
– Sidebar is available on the Next Experience. After activating Sidebar, it will show Sidebar discussion Icon 
When you select the Sidebar discussion icon 
Find more details here for the Sidebar discussions panel components.
Is Sidebar domain separated?
– Yes, sidebar supports basic domain separation and since the chats are record based, they will have the same domain as their parent record
Does it need new roles or ACLs?
– There are no new roles, but basic ACLs have been added to allow users to have access to the new tables
Where is the Sidebar “Discuss” button added?
- CSM Configurable Workspace, CSM Manager Workspace, ITSM Manager Workspace, Vendor Management Workspace, HR Agent Workspace, and UI16.
- It will appear in the record view for all tables that extend task or interaction. In addition, the buttons will also show in the UI16 record view for tables that extend task or interaction.
How to add Sidebar Discuss button manually for the non supported Workspaces?
– Follow Product Document and KB article KB1213249 for the setup details.
How to add Sidebar Discuss button to SOW workspace?
– Follow Product Document and KB article KB1213249 for the setup details.
NOTE: Sidebar functionalities are being integrated in Service operations workspace collaborate tab from SOW v3.0. If SOW v3.0 is installed please skip this KB and utilise the collaborate experience being built under SOW.
What are the available configuration customizations?
– Admin Settings – requires admin role
- Accessible through the Conversational Interfaces Settings
- Currently, we can only disable/enable emojis, disable Sidebar, and modify user Query
– User Query Table
- Used to customize experience when adding users to a chat or creating a chat
- Can be configured through the table view or admin settings page
– Quick Actions
- Customers can create quick actions, the same as in agent chat
- Limited by sidebar scriptable API
- KB article search quick action should be available if AI Search is enabled.
– Theming – Sidebar theming can be changed by configuring a Next Experience theme
What are the available Sys properties customizations?
Some of the Sys properties are below:
- glide.cs.collab.enabled
– Enables/disables sidebar, removing it from the Polaris header
– Default: true
- collab.check_candidate_permission
– Controls whether to check permissions for TBR when building candidate list to add members
– Default: true
- collab.candidate_search_limit
– limits the number of search results when adding members to chat
– Default: 20
- collab.candidate_prefill_limit
– Limits the number of users that will pre-fill when a chat is created
– Default: 100
How many overflow menus can be configured?
– The overflow menu allows the agent to access windows that aren't fully displayed on the screen. The maximum number of windows in the overflow menu is 25 and this can be configured.
Are there any schema changes that may impact customer’s current use of the platform, data, customizations, or upgrade duration?
– No, all the tables are new so there will be no conflicts to use Sidebar.
Why can’t I add a user to a chat?
– It’s likely the user does not have permission to the TBR, check if the user can view the TBR in table view
– Verify sys_cs_collab_user_query records are correct
Why is KB Search quick action not working?
– KB Search is disabled OOB, go to quickactions_action and enable “Search KB Article” for the sys_cs_collab_chat table by setting it to active
– Ensure that AI Search is enabled and correctly configured
Why is chat search not working?
– Verify that AI search is enabled and correctly configured
How to enable logging for Sidebar:
Set glide.cs.debug sys_property to true
Run this script in the background
– GlideSessionDebug.enable("cs_debug");
Go to sys_logger_configuration and set the com.glide.cs.collab record to active
This will enable logging for Sidebar, which can be found in the system logs.
Example log:
“Exception sending message {0}”
{0} = sys_cs_collab_message.sys_id
Is the KB Search Quick action enabled OOB? How do you enable/disable it?
– It is disabled, set quickactions_action record to active
How many chats can be created per TBR?
– one in Tokyo, multiple discussions per task-based record is targeted for a future release.
How do customers configure the theming for Sidebar?
– By Configuring a Next Experience Theme
What tables support the Sidebar?
– Tables that extend tasks or interactions
What is the sys_cs_collab_user_query table used for?
– Customizes the experience when adding members to a chat or the pre-filled users when a chat is created.
Does CSM BU have any enhancements for Sidebar?
– Yes, Please check with CSM AE team.
How to turn off the Sidebar on Agent Workspace?
– Find Here
Useful resources
- Connect Support migration FAQ’s
- Connect Support deprecation community announcements
- Migration & feature Comparison Connect Support vs. Workspace Agent Chat
- Connect Support release notes
- YouTube 18-video workshop on Agent Chat & Advanced Work Assignment
For more Information
Where can I learn more about Agent Chat?
Visit the product documentation site: Workspace Agent chat
Where can I learn more about Advanced Work Assignment (AWA)?
Visit the product documentation site: Advanced Work Assignment documentation
Where can I learn more about Workspaces?
Visit the product documentation site: Workspaces
Visit the Community site: Workspace UI
Where can I learn more about Next Experience?
Visit the Community site: Next Experience
Next Experience Quick Start Guide
Community Forum
Hi,
I want to use sidebar on Service operations workspace. am able to add the 'Discuss' button (which is on task table ) on incident record however, when I click on the discuss button it doesnt pop up the start sidebar discussion window. Apart from this issue am able to configure all other side bar functionalities.
@Samyuktha Reddy - Any pointers to this issue would be a great help. PFA screenshots for the same.
Thanks for this great information. I am testing Sidebar with Teams using my PDI and I see the below error when I initiate a chat. Could you please assist what am i missing here? Appreciate your response!
@Samyuktha Reddy Thank you for the response!
Yes, my Microsoft teams setup is Active and also configured with Sidebar (as instructed in this KB Article - https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB1225842). I also took a free trial of Azure subscription for messaging charges but still I see all the below errors when I initiate a Discussion from workspace. Thank you!
Hello @Tian Ye , thank you for the article. That actually helped to resolve 402 error. I did add all the api permissions needed and the application has only one subscription but I still see the below errors including 403. I tried to find more info on these but no luck. Could you please provide any information on how to resolve these errors?
Hello @Tian Ye , thank you! I was able to resolve the 400 errors and now the integration seems to be working great but I still see 403 errors for every 30 min. I found that there is a scheduled job that runs periodically and I guess the error occurs when this job runs. Please correct if I'm wrong!
How can you get the discussion to appear in the ticket? I see the option to "Post to activity stream" and I added "Sidebar discussion" and "Sidebar posted message" to the activity stream, but the discussion is not showing up in the ticket.
