Mandatory field: Dictionary override or UI policies

[Leonel Sandroni]

Hi there

I've heard some people saying that Dictionary Overrides should not never be considered in order to make a field as mandatory.

My question is...WHY? what is the problem with dictionary overrides? 

thanks!

[Bert_c1]

Hi,

there is no problem with dictionary overrides. See:

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/utah-application-development/page/administer/data-dictionary-tabl...

That describes usage. And the same for UI Policies:

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/utah-platform-administration/page/administer/form-administration/...

That describes your use case for making a field mandatory when it is not defined that way in the system dictionary.

[Prinssi]

I don't think there is anything wrong with it per se, it is more to encourage caution.

A dictionary override will apply to everyone who interacts with records on that table (or multiple tables if adding the override on a parent table that is extended to create other tables).  An override on a parent table like task will ripple down to all the extended tables and has a larger impact on the instance than an override on incident.  This could be a hinderance to admins, and/or system operations that enforce table level rules.

On the other hand, UI policies are more flexible, and can be used to target specific roles and/or scenarios.

Before choosing one, be sure to read through the docs that @Bert_c1 provided.  Consider the requirements behind the request, and likelihood of impact on future extensibility.