Adding the 'description' to Catalog Item cards in catalog

[brandonjoyce]

When I go to the Service Catalog 

and click on something like "Software"

When you look at the category you see the 'name' and the 'short_description' displayed

name = adobe workfront

 short_description = software request - Adobe Workfront

I don't want it to display short description I want it to display the "description"

[abdulrehmanArif · Accepted solution]

Hi, 

Short answer to your question, NOT possible Out of the box. 

Reason for that is, servicenow's documented layout takes short_descripion on to this OOB widget. 
also, if you add description, it might get shortened or cut due to the allowed length of text displayed on the widget box. In the catalog listing/category page, ServiceNow’s documented behavior is that Short Description is the text shown on the catalog homepage/search-style listing, while Description is the full text shown after the user opens/selects the item or uses Preview.


Work arounds (customizations, go for it only if you have a strong business reason to do so):

Option 1: Clone the existing OOB widget that displays name and short description and in the html code replace it with description. Remeber to bind it back to the original page so that the custom widget displays. You might face difculties with controling the CSS if you would like to display the full length of text, the box height and width will have to adjust based on the descript text length, and, it is a customization that can effect your upgrades in the future. 

Option 2: Again - a customization that will effect ever single catalog item. 
Increase the max length of the short_description field. ServiceNow documentation states that a dictionary entry’s Max length controls how much text the field can store, and that when a string field is set above 254 characters, it becomes a multi-line text box in the UI. Doing so, you might be able to hold a longer text in the short description field. But again, you might face the height and width adjustment issue, and, it is a customization that can effect your upgrades in the future. 



Please ensure you consider these workarounds very carefully because they can effect the upgrade process and many other areas due to customizations involved. 

So I highly recommend sticking with the OOB approach and keep utilizing the short_description field. 


Hope this helps

Thank you.
Abdul Rehman Arif
XAAS Solutions. 

[lauri457]

How about just writing more descriptive short descriptions?

[Tanushree Maiti]

Hi @brandonjoyce ,

Its feasible but lots of effort is needed with Analysis.

High level Idea:

1. You have to clone SC Category Page (Id: sc-category)

2. Create your custom category page e.g  Id: test-sc-category

3. You can see following code snippet are in Body Html template. ( there could be other place on same code, you have to change one by one and need to check whether it is reflecting in portal page)

------------------------------------------------------------

4. From which components sc_category page has been called, you need to replace those by your custom component test-sc-category page ( this is very important..full analysis is needed)

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@brandonjoyce 

I will recommend not to do heavy customization for this as it will increase a technical debt for your platform.

Discuss with your customer and get proper short description to be added for each catalog item

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