Comment Field in Data Certification policy in CMDB Workspace not editable

[Jim Teller]

We are in the early stages of using the CMDB / SGC Workspace for data certification.  The self-service nature of it is great because with the old process, our people would have to check a box and type in a comment regarding what they wanted done with the field, and then hope that it was read and that the change was eventually made.  The issue I am having with the new process now though is that it's almost completely the opposite..... The certification task has a 'Comment' field that our users cannot access, and even I cannot access.  The field is blank and you cannot double click on it to type in anything.  We would like for our app owners to be able to put in comments if they want to provide info to us in advance on anything like, forthcoming decoms, or upcoming ownership changes, or whatever the case.  If this just isn't possible, then I would like to know what we would need to do to make that column disappear from the certification tasks altogether.  

[Vikram Reddy · Accepted solution]

Hey @Jim Teller,

Okay, that tells me something useful actually, because there are two different "Certify/Fail" buttons in that workspace and only one of them ever shows a comment box. Worth double checking which one you're hitting.

• If you're selecting the row(s) at the record list level and clicking the Certify or Fail buttons sitting above the grid, that's the bulk action. It certifies or fails every field on the selected record(s) in one shot and it does not prompt for a comment at all, by design.
• The comment prompt only lives inside the Review records flow. You select the record(s), click Review records, that opens the field-by-field panel, you check the box next to the specific attribute you're working, and then hit Certify or Fail from inside that panel. That per-field action is what triggers the comment box to pop up.

So if you've been working from the grid-level buttons, that's almost certainly why nothing opens, there's genuinely nothing there to open. Try going through Review records instead and see if it behaves differently.

One more thing to rule out: if the person certifying doesn't have write access to the target field/CI, the platform will auto-fail that attribute and throw a banner about insufficient permissions rather than letting you interact with it at all, comment box included. So if your app owners are certifying CIs they don't have edit rights on, that's a separate reason the row would look locked to them even inside Review records.

And honestly, worth flagging: even when the comment box does work as expected, there have been reports of the comment not reliably surfacing back on the certification-review screen afterward, it just isn't wired to redisplay in that grid consistently. The actual value does get written to sn_cmdb_ws_dm_certification_attribute_status behind the scenes though, so if you want to confirm whether comments are actually being captured for your policy, pull that table directly rather than trusting what the grid shows you.

Let me know which of the two flows you were using and whether the permissions banner shows up, that'll narrow down which of these it is.

Thank you,
Vikram Karety
Octigo Solutions INC

[Vikram Reddy · Accepted solution]

Hey @Jim Teller,

Okay, that tells me something useful actually, because there are two different "Certify/Fail" buttons in that workspace and only one of them ever shows a comment box. Worth double checking which one you're hitting.

• If you're selecting the row(s) at the record list level and clicking the Certify or Fail buttons sitting above the grid, that's the bulk action. It certifies or fails every field on the selected record(s) in one shot and it does not prompt for a comment at all, by design.
• The comment prompt only lives inside the Review records flow. You select the record(s), click Review records, that opens the field-by-field panel, you check the box next to the specific attribute you're working, and then hit Certify or Fail from inside that panel. That per-field action is what triggers the comment box to pop up.

So if you've been working from the grid-level buttons, that's almost certainly why nothing opens, there's genuinely nothing there to open. Try going through Review records instead and see if it behaves differently.

One more thing to rule out: if the person certifying doesn't have write access to the target field/CI, the platform will auto-fail that attribute and throw a banner about insufficient permissions rather than letting you interact with it at all, comment box included. So if your app owners are certifying CIs they don't have edit rights on, that's a separate reason the row would look locked to them even inside Review records.

And honestly, worth flagging: even when the comment box does work as expected, there have been reports of the comment not reliably surfacing back on the certification-review screen afterward, it just isn't wired to redisplay in that grid consistently. The actual value does get written to sn_cmdb_ws_dm_certification_attribute_status behind the scenes though, so if you want to confirm whether comments are actually being captured for your policy, pull that table directly rather than trusting what the grid shows you.

Let me know which of the two flows you were using and whether the permissions banner shows up, that'll narrow down which of these it is.

Thank you,
Vikram Karety
Octigo Solutions INC

[Jim Teller]

This is all great info... really appreciate it!  So, I do see that when I'm at the record list level, there is no ability to put in comments... it just doesn't function there at all, as you stated.  Within the 'Review Records' area, you can select a field, enter a comment, and hit pass or fail...BUT, those comments do not seem to show up anywhere in the certification screens after that.... at least not from the tests I've run thus far.  I'm going to run a few more, but so far I am only able to find the changes by going into the app record and looking at the history tab.

[Jim Teller · Accepted solution]

Actually, there is a way to see the cert activity within the cert task.  Within the 'Review Completed' tab, if you click on the name of the application (or whichever field is primary for your task that would have a hyperlink), it takes you to a Summary screen.  The fifth selection down on the list gets you to the Activity screen, which shows all of the details of what was changed in the task for that record.  It's not the most intuitive thing ever, but it is in there, which is helpful, given how many of these we need to review.  Thanks again for your help!