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april_mcgehee
ServiceNow Employee

If you don't already know about the favorites functionality of the ServiceNow mobile UI or you just haven't gotten around to setting them up, you should because it will save you a ton of time and make you more efficient.

The mobile user interface Favorites feature is a list of icons that appears on your mobile homepage. These can be used to create a shortcut to any record, list, form or catalog item. When users log into the mobile UI for the first time, they'll see some instance generated defaults that can be deleted or modified without affecting any other users. This means that you can skip the filtering and breadcrumbing and go straight to the record you want. If it is a form or catalog item you view often, this can save a lot of hassle much like having your mom and dad on speed dial.

Favorites make accessing your frequently used customized lists easier. For example, let's say you have a list you use on a regular basis and every time you log back into your instance you have to reapply your filters. This can be really frustrating (especially if you have big ol' meaty fingers), using a mobile favorite can eliminate this process. Maybe you also have catalog items you use frequently or a specific record you need to keep an eye on, both of these are also great candidates for your mobile interface favorites list. The easiest way to think about it is like bookmarking and creating shortcuts on your desktop for the sites you use the most often, but in this case they are ServiceNow items.

How to setup your Favorites on your Mobile device:

  1. Browse to the desired record, list, form, or catalog item.
  2. Tap and hold the homepage button on the lower left of the screen. home icon.png
  3. A pop-up will appear where the Title, Color, and Icon of the new favorite can be set.
  4. Pick a color, name your favorite, and click save.

home favorites.png

Setting up default Mobile home page favorites

Your favorites can also be accessed directly through your instance by navigating to System Mobile UI → Home Page Favorites. This list records the favorites for all users. You may notice some records with a blank user field, these are default favorites given to all users.

You can create default favorites for your users by using the process above, then clearing out the user field in the System Mobile UI → Home Page Favorites settings in your desktop UI. You can also manually add favorites here by clicking the New button. Creating a new default favorite won't automatically push this to existing users. Though you can still manually add these favorites for existing users. This is done by either going to the record and using the Insert to duplicate the record, then adding the users name. Or you can delete the existing users current favorites which will reset them to new default favorites like they're a new user again.

Trying to add favorites to multiple accounts can be a difficult and time consuming process, which is why we don't recommend it. The favorites functionality is designed to set-up customization for individual user by the user. Not everyone accesses the same record, form, or list item throughout a 200-person company.

Setting up your Mobile UI favorites is quick and easy. Taking five minutes to set up your customizations can save you the pain and time of going in a reapplying those pesky filters and searching through your service catalog to find that frequently used item. Now you can use that time for other things, such as a quick game of ping-pong with the co-workers or having a walking a meeting with your team mate.

8 Comments
Chandresh
Tera Guru

Hi April,



Thank you for the article. I have also created a custom application and trying to add a custom table to favorite module.But it is not rendering any data on clicking the icon. I tested it with incident , Change it is working fine but the moment I change the table to my custom table it is not showing any record. Could you please help me here.


april_mcgehee
ServiceNow Employee

Hi Chandresh,



Thank you for your question! johna do you have any recommendations for him ?


John Armstrong
ServiceNow Employee

Hi Chandresh,


Do you have the issue when using favorites specifically, or does this always happen when loading lists or records for the custom table?   It might be that you have something executing when these elements load that's triggering an error.   If that's the case you should see an error in your browser's developer console when loading a record.



Chandresh
Tera Guru

Hi John/April,



Thank you both it got result. I forgot that I put on some ACLs restriction on it.


Thangamani
Giga Contributor

Hi John,


                I have added create incident module as my favorite and made it as default and it appers in favorites section after i login. But the issue is even a user with no role logs into to the mobile UI he is able to create incident from favorites. But anyhow in the navigations apps it is not visible. Is there any way to restrict default favorites based on roles.



Thanks,


Thangamani G


John Armstrong
ServiceNow Employee

Hi Thangamani,


It looks like there's not a role restriction option for mobile favorites.   While I haven't had a chance to test this, you may be able to limit which favorites appear by creating a "before query" business rule on the sys_ui_home_favorite table.   These types of business rules execute before a table is queried and can be used to limit which records appear/   Linked below is a docs page with a few examples of this type of business rule.



Example script: A default before-query business rule


Thangamani
Giga Contributor

Hi John,


            Thanks for your quick reply. I just tried creating ACL for create operation on incident table with 'itil' role. Then from mobile UI even user with no role sees create incidnet icon in favorite they are not able to submit the incident.


i will try this before query too.



Thanks,


Thangamani G


jonmulherin
Giga Expert

Hello All,



I see this is an older thread but I'm hoping people are still monitoring.   We've just upgraded to Helsinki and are just starting to configure the system to allow mobile.   When a user logs in they automatically see their desktop bookmarks on their home page as favorites.   We would like these not to be displayed at first, and instead set a standard homepage for ITIL and non-ITIL users, and then allow them to add favorites on their own once they've started using mobile. When I navigate to System Mobile UI / Home Page Favorites and search for my records I see Help, Catalog, and My Incidents; however, when viewing my Mobile Home Page I see only two icons, both are bookmarks on my Edge.   So, I'm missing something here and was wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction.



The items listed when viewing Home Page Favorites are coming from the sys_ui_home_favorite table.   Bookmarks are stored in the sys_ui_bookmark table so what I'm seeing in the mobile UI has me confused based on the articles I've read and the Helsinki documentation for setting up the mobile experience as an admin.



Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions / comments...