On service portal child topic catalog item is visible under parent topic
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06-18-2025 01:45 AM
Hi Everyone,
In the Service Portal, when I click on a parent category, It is showing all catalog items from its child categories under the parent category.
In the above screenshot, there is a parent topic called "Service Catalogue" with three child categories highlighted:
Linux Software
Mac OS Software
Windows Software
However, the catalog item "Ammoniate (Linux)", which belongs to the child topic "Linux Software", is also showing under the parent topic "Service Catalogue", which is incorrect.
Can anyone suggest how to fix this issue?
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3 weeks ago
Hi @rmaroti ,
What you’re seeing is expected behavior in the Service Portal by default — when you click a parent category, the portal shows items from that category and all of its child categories. That’s why your “Ammoniate (Linux)” item is also showing under the parent topic.
This usually comes from how the SC Categories / Category Page widget is configured in the Service Portal.
If you want the parent category to only display items directly assigned to it (and not from the child categories).
1. Check Widget Instance Options
Go to Service Portal > Pages and open the page where your Service Catalog is displayed.
Identify the widget (likely SC Categories or a customized version).
Open the widget instance options.
Look for a setting such as “Show items from child categories”, “Include child items”, or “Recursive search” and disable it if enabled.
2. Review the Widget Script
If no option is available in the UI, you’ll need to adjust the widget’s server script. In your script, the issue is caused by this line inside getCategoryDetails():
This adds child items into the parent’s total.
To fix it, only keep the parent’s own count:
This ensures the parent shows only its own items, while child categories remain independent.
3. Verify Category Setup
Go to Service Catalog > Categories.
Make sure no catalog items are directly assigned to the parent category if you don’t want them to show there.
Confirm that items like “Ammonite (Linux)” are only assigned to the Linux Software child category, and not the parent as well.
By doing either the widget option change or the script adjustment, you’ll stop parent categories from displaying child items.
Hope this helps!
Thanks & Regards,
Muhammad Iftikhar
If my response helped, please mark it as the accepted solution so others can benefit as well.