How to get employee number of logged in user in UI Action script

[now_dev]

Hi All,

I wanted to fetch employee number of logged in user using UI Action script. Can please anyone suggest !

[Kalaiarasan Pus]

Doesn't work in Fuji.

[Jim Coyne]

Just be aware that getUser() fetches a cached version of the user's information.   Try this out in a dev instance by modifying your first name and employee number and then running the following code in a Background Script or James.Neale's excellent Xplore tool:

(function(){
   var userObj = gs.getUser();
   gs. ­print( ­userObj. ­getDisplayName());
   gs.print(userObj.getRecord().getValue("employee_number"));

   gs.print("");
   userObj = userObj. ­getUserByID( ­gs.getUserName());
   gs. ­print( ­userObj. ­getDisplayName());
   gs.print(userObj.getRecord().getValue("employee_number")); 
})();

Here's my result in Helsinki:

*** Script: Jim Coyne

*** Script: 123

*** Script:

*** Script: Jim Updated Coyne

*** Script: Updated 1234

As you can see, getUser() returns my old information, as it was when I logged in.   You can retrieve the updated info by using getUserByID() on the resulting getUser() object (line 7).   You can "shorten" it by using gs.getUser().getUserByID(gs.getUserName()).getRecord().getValue("employee_number")  

By that point, you are probably better off performing a GlideRecord query directly.

[now_dev]

Hi Abhinay,

My UI action is client side and can you please help in provide client side code.

[VigneshMC]

try

var userid = g_user.userName;

[Jim Coyne · Accepted solution]

Because your UI Action is client-side, you could use Session Client Data as explained in this blog post - Two ways to Reduce Client Side lookups

Or, as kalai mentioned in that blog post, a display Business Rule to add the Employee Number to the scratchpad - Client Script Best Practices - ServiceNow Wiki

Your Business Rule could look like:

Table:           whatever table the UI Action is on

Advanced:     checked

When:             Display

Script:

(function executeRule(current, previous /*null when async*/) {
   //add the Employee Number to the scratchpad
   var gr = new GlideRecord("sys_user");
   if (gr.get(gs.getUserID().toString())){
       g_scratchpad.u_employee_number = gr.getValue("employee_number");
   }

})(current, previous);

And then you should be able to access the value in your UI Action with g_scratchpad.u_employee_number.

NOTE: I modified the Business Rule to ensure compatibility with all versions of the platform.