Clarification about service catalog variables attributes

[PoonkodiS]

Could anyone explains this topic with examples? About when to use it and how to use it.

Thanks,

Poonkodi

[Dr Atul G- LNG · Accepted solution]

Hi @PoonkodiS 

https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/xanadu/platform-administration/c_AutoCompleteForReferenceFields.ht...

The purpose of the configuration is to set up an auto-completion feature for a reference field in a ServiceNow form. This feature enhances user experience by providing suggestions based on user input, specifically for the department field.

Key components include:

- ref_auto_completer=AJAXTableCompleter: This parameter specifies that the auto-completion should be handled by the AJAXTableCompleter class. This class is responsible for fetching data asynchronously from the server to provide real-time suggestions as the user types.

The Reference Completer is working correctly: it shows your search term and displays names that match.

The Reference Choice shows the count of matching results. When you search for a user, it displays the first 25 matching entries. 

[Dr Atul G- LNG · Accepted solution]

Hi @PoonkodiS 

https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/xanadu/platform-administration/c_AutoCompleteForReferenceFields.ht...

The purpose of the configuration is to set up an auto-completion feature for a reference field in a ServiceNow form. This feature enhances user experience by providing suggestions based on user input, specifically for the department field.

Key components include:

- ref_auto_completer=AJAXTableCompleter: This parameter specifies that the auto-completion should be handled by the AJAXTableCompleter class. This class is responsible for fetching data asynchronously from the server to provide real-time suggestions as the user types.

The Reference Completer is working correctly: it shows your search term and displays names that match.

The Reference Choice shows the count of matching results. When you search for a user, it displays the first 25 matching entries. 

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

@PoonkodiS 

[Its_Azar · Accepted solution]

Hi there @PoonkodiS 

These attributes control how reference-type catalog variables behave, mainly in the Service Catalog desktop UI. ref_auto_completer decides how the reference suggestions are shown to users while typing. By default, ServiceNow uses AJAXReferenceCompleter, which shows a simple dropdown with only the display value. If you use AJAXTableCompleter, the results appear in a table format and can show extra columns (like email, department, etc.) defined using ref_ac_columns, which is useful when users need more context to pick the right record. AJAXReferenceChoice limits the dropdown to 25 results and switches to table view only if more results exist.

ref_qual_elements is used when your reference qualifier depends on other variables. It tells ServiceNow which variable values should be sent back to the server to dynamically refresh the reference results. This is commonly used with Lookup Select Box, Lookup Multiple Choice, or List Collector variables—for example, filtering users based on a selected department variable. In short, use ref_auto_completer to improve how reference results are displayed, and ref_qual_elements when reference filtering depends on other catalog inputs.