Migrate your existing agent workspace to the new configurable workspace

[Nivedita Roy]

 This blog will highlight some of the key components which a developer has to take care during migrating from existing customized agent workspace to the new configurable workspace. A follow-up blog would be created to provide the details of migration of each component underneath.

Note: For a fresh implementation of Configurable Workspace, there is a guided set up available in now instance. This blog talks about only the migration from existing agent workspace to configurable workspace

What is Configurable workspace

Configurable Workspace is a customizable workspace that can be easily configured and extended using Now Experience UI builder. Unlike existing Agent Workspace, we will be able to create our own components and pages with the help of UI Builder. There will be more control over the designing, and we will be able to theme our workspace for different brands within the same instance. These themes can be structured as per our organizational needs

Why migrate to Configurable workspace at all??

The main reason for us to migrate/setup a configurable workspace is that we can bring in our customized unique experiences and extend the capability of the old workspace provided with CSM majorly. We get more than 100 OOB components available with the Configurable Workspace. Configurable Workspace-specific configurations are accomplished in the platform interface using lists and forms, while others are accomplished using the Now Experience UI Builder.

What you need to know before migration

• Understand the current Agent workspace and decide what needs to be moved to configurable workspace
• Most of the modules and functionalities must be recreated using the existing build components so ensure you do the effort estimation accordingly.
• Get familiar with the new tables which is coming along with configurable workspace
• Complex customizations require knowledge on UI/UX components, CSS and React.

Different components which require migration from Agent workspace to configurable workspace

• Themes
• Landing Page
• Record Menu Items
• List Menu
• Workspace Modules (Side Navigation BAR)
• Contextual Side Bar
• Form Actions
• Declarative Actions
• UI Changes
• Page

Some of my key lessons learnt---

• Understand your existing workspace & its changes is a must before you plan your migration.
• Explore the capabilities of the new components added as a part of Configurable workspace. There are tons trust me!!
• Alert!!!!!!! If you have heavy customizations in your existing workspace some may not work as is post migration. Please set the expectations with your customer before itself.
• To build custom components its required to have a specialist with React knowledge. Be sure you have that staffed before you start. Note that it’s still advisable to use OOB components and only if something has high business value and cannot be incorporated using OOB components you might go ahead to build the custom components.
• Based on your existing customization you might need to touch functionalities across various applications/scope be vigilant about it.
• Be aware of the changes brought in the latest version of ServiceNow w.r.t Workspace UI. You might see differences which needs to be aligned with your customer.

Note: In the next blog I will provide detail steps as how to migrate the various components listed above ????