Is there any way to display Variables in a List View or Report from a Database View?

[dharam743]

Hello ServiceNow Community,

I’ve encountered a couple of challenges around displaying Variables for Requested Items (RITMs) in list views and reports when working with Database Views, and I wanted to see if anyone has come across a solution or workaround.

Issue 1: Show Variables in List View

When trying to display variables for a requested item in a list view, I found that this is not possible out-of-the-box (OOB). The Variable Editor, which is the specialized UI formatter responsible for displaying variable selections, is only available in the Form View. This limitation stems from the one-to-many relationship between a UI Formatter and a record, which makes it difficult to present UI Formatters (like the Variable Editor) in a list view.

I also discovered that this limitation is not customizable within a ServiceNow instance and requires a ServiceNow release update to work. However, I did see that a Database View could somewhat achieve this display of variables to a degree, though I haven’t found a clean solution yet.

Issue 2: Variable Columns in Reports (Database View)

When attempting to create a report with variables from the sc_task or sc_task_sla database view, I noticed that I was unable to display the variables in the report, even after selecting the requested variables from the dot-walked Request Item (sc_req_item) fields.

Steps I followed:

1. Created a report on the sc_task table or database view sc_task_sla.
2. Dot-walked to the Request Item (sc_req_item) and selected variables.
3. Added variables to the selected list in the report.

However, when I ran the report, the selected variables did not appear in the columns. Interestingly, when I created a report directly on the sc_req_item table, the variables showed up correctly in the report.

The workaround, as I’ve found, is that in all current releases, reporting on variables through a Database View is not supported. This behavior is by design, and the only viable option seems to be reporting directly against the table that contains the variables (like sc_req_item).

Question to the Community:

Given these limitations, is there any way to work around this issue and display variables in a list view or report when using Database Views? Perhaps a script, custom formatter, or something else I might be overlooking?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts or suggestions!

[kristinfarley]

It's disappointing there are no responses to this post. It would be great if ServiceNow had a solution for issue 1.