You'll want a background script that you can run and update the two below tables:
sc_item_option - the variable data
sc_item_option_mtom - the relationship between the variable data and the request item
//Populate historical variables
//variable ownership table sc_item_option_mtom
//variable data table sc_item_option
var stringQuery = ""; //Replace with your own encoded query to search for just the request items you want to update
var ritmGlide = new GlideRecord('sc_req_item');
ritmGlide.addEncodedQuery(stringQuery);
ritmGlide.query();
while(ritmGlide.next()){
//create a variable
var itemOptionGlide = new GlideRecord('sc_item_option');
itemOptionGlide.initialize();
itemOptionGlide.value = 'value_you_need_to_set'; //you could use the ritm you are currently gliding to, like ritmGlide.variables.another_variable_name
itemOptionGlide.item_option_new = 'b04922da1b5e59106bd037b5464bcb0a'; //SysID of the question from the cat item
itemOptionGlide.order = 5; //Or whatever order you need it to be, to display correctly
itemOptionGlide.insert();
//Create variable ownership
var mtomGlide = new GlideRecord('sc_item_option_mtom');
mtomGlide.initialize();
mtomGlide.request_item = ritmGlide.sys_id; //Current RITM we are making variables for
mtomGlide.sc_item_option = itemOptionGlide.sys_id; //sys id of the variable we made before
mtomGlide.insert();
}
From messing around in the past, I think you don't even need to have the variable in the catalog item (obviously you do because it's a new variable you've added to the item), but you can just insert a value in any variable and relate it to the request item.
But you are correct, basically adding a new variable to a catalog item doesn't create these records in these two tables for historical requests from that cat item, so you'd need to do it via script.
