Dot-walking got its descriptive name because, when dot-walking, you reference a field by building a chain of field names separated by dots. For example, incident.change_request.state references the state of the change request associated with an incident. Dot-walking is commonly used when personalizing forms, so I'll discuss the two together in this post.
Dot-walking is one of my favorite ServiceNow terms
If you are using ServiceNow, chances are you have right-clicked a form header and selected Personalize > Form Layout (beginning with the Fuji release, you'll select Configure > Form Layout). This magical feature enables administrators and users with the personalize_form role to customize a form. The base system Incident form not working for you? Configure it. Use the slushbucket to move fields on and off the form and arrange them. For example, select the Business Duration field in the Available list and click the Add button to move the field to the Selected list.
In the slushbucket, notice that some of the entires in the Available list are displayed in green and have a plus sign next to them. These entries represent related tables. Click the plus sign to dot-walk and access all the fields on the related table. For example, click Change Request [+] and then click the green plus sign above Add.
The Available list now shows the Change Request fields:
Select any field in the Available list and click Add to add the field to the Incident form. This enables you to, for example, more closely track change requests created from incidents. Note that the next time you open the slushbucket, the Change Request fields are not expanded and shown in the Available list - to view them again you need to click the plus sign again. To list the fields on the Incident form again, click Incident fields at the top of the Available list.
Tips for dot-walking
The dot-walking possibilities are endless when you are personalizing forms. Here are some tips.
- Users frequently ask about the gear feature as compared to the Personalize List feature. They are different. When a user clicks the gear icon, the slushbucket only lists fields on the current table. With the Personalize List feature, the slushbucket lists related tables and allows you to dot-walk to them. Also, if you make changes using the gear, the changes are visible only to you, but if you personalize a form, the changes are seen by all users with access to the form and view.
- In order to dot-walk, you must have read access to the target table and field. It is a good idea for administrators to impersonate an intended user and check that the user can access the target fields.
- In the community, Jessica Luerkens asked if it was possible to dot-walk to related fields when creating a personal list.Mark Stanger came through with the correct answer - unfortunately, it is not possible at this time.
- If you use UI policies, it is critical that any condition fields are visible on the form. Personalize the form, dot-walking if necessary, to add the fields. maja jovanovic wrote a great blog post about this issue just last month.
- In addition to forms, you can dot-walk in field drop-downs, list collectors, variables, a tree picker, and in script. For more information see Dot-Walking in the product documentation.
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