Map To Field on Request Items and Request Items in General

[raprohaska]

I know about mapping Record Producer variables to form fields via naming convention. Use the name of the field as the variable name and it automatically fills in on the resulting record. Does this not also work for Requests Items? If not, why? What is the difference between producing general records and request items?

Also, I am confused as to why "Opened By" is at the Request Item level and "Requested For" is at the Request level. If I'm the user putting things in the cart, then I'm the Opened By which would apply across all items in the cart. Where as each item could be requested for other users, making requested for specific to each request item. I'd love to understand.

Thanks in advance,

AA

[Ankur Bawiskar]

Hi Aaron,

Record producers and Catalog Item are somewhat different.

Record producers allow users to create record directly into the target table whereas Catalog item allows users to raise request from service catalog.

Regular Catalog Items vs. Record Producers

Mark Correct if this solves your issue and also hit Like and Helpful if you find my response worthy based on the impact.

Thanks

Ankur

[raprohaska]

Though they do function different, I don't see a business reason as to why. My service catalog can expose both record producers and standard catalog items. It can also expose order guides and wizards. Some of the concepts even extend and reference each other. Record Producer extends Catalog Item and Wizard Variables and Variables extend Questions. Questions have a field called "Map to Field" yet that field is not always applicable, so why put it on the base class? It even display on   the variable form when tied to a Catalog Item OOB.

The thing I like about ServiceNow is the consistency between table to table, form to form, field to field. They all work very similar in most modules. But, then we have the Service Catalog, and all that surrounds it and its not clear where functionalities reside. On top of all that, they don't have the best documentation. In the end, I have not seen a good reason why the functionality differs. Request Items get grouped under a Request, fine there is a difference there from a Record Producer, but the Request Item itself is a produced record, it is simply a record in the sc_req_item table. Request Item table is task just as incident, problem, and change are tasks and the catalog is just a facade placed over the top to help users pick the right values.

Bottom line is I now I have to go train our catalog builders on the fact that these functions are not consistent and that it takes some guesswork as to if a variable attribute will work between a record producer and catalog item.

Sorry for the rant, thanks for the response.