Order guide - dynamic rule base for client software distribution

[Jesper Slot]

Hi, 

In my company we use the Client Software Distribution integration with SCCM. We don't like how it appears on the portal - we got 100+ software items so you get a really long list, where you have to click "show more" xx number of times to see it all.

I'd like build an Order guide for this instead. My idea was to let the user select the software on the first page of the order guide and then fill in the related catalog item for the specified software on the next page.

I've build an order guide with a variable of the type "Lookup Select Box" for table: "sn_client_sf_dist_cat_item" - which is where the software items are located (the sc_cat_item table would also work, with some filtering). This seems to work fine when there are rule bases for it, but the problem is that I would need a rule base for each piece of software on the list, and this number grows all the time. We got another team for handling/creating the software items and they do not have access to modifying the order guide and I'd prefer them not to have, so ideally I was thinking there must be a way around this with a script. 

I've discovered that the order guide takes the script code: 

guide.add("sys_id of catalog item");

So adding this line will force the order guide to include the specified catalog item.
But here I lack some coding skills.. Can I combine this with the input from my variable? 

I've tried with numerous variations of:

guide.add("current.variables.variable");

but it doesn't work. I cannot fetch the variables from the Order Guide - and even if I could, the script field on Order Guides is running server side. So how do I pull the the value of the variable and insert into the guide.add(); ?

[Jesper Slot]

I guess the problem is that the script field on Order Guides are running server side. So how do I pull the the value of the variable (client side) and insert into the guide.add(); ?

[Andrew Albury-D · Accepted solution]

Hey Jesper, 

I've had a read through you problem and before we start digging in to code and hacky solutions, have you taken a step back and considered that swapping a list of 100+ items for a single item with a list of 100+ options in a Lookup Select Box may not be the quick fix you are after?

Are there any other options to increase the usability of your catalog items rather than the solution proposed?

Have you considered: 

• Pushing a Search-first approach to your catalog items / software? Make sure the Meta tags are accurate and users shouldn't need to look through a list of software
• Make a Dynamic Category based on the most requested items? Surely there would be 5 - 10 or so software items that get requested more than anything else, so using the 80/20 rule you could capture most cases with a quick sort, and for the edge cases push to search
• Create a useful and meaningful category tree? If you look at the items and think about how they could be categorised (e.g. Development Tools, Productivity Tools, etc) you may be able to come up with almost a decision tree in categories that each item could be placed in to make them easier to find.

There are always many ways to solve problems, and often the "let's fix it with code" response isn't going to get you the best outcome, and it adds maintenance issues of it's own. 

I hope this helps, 

Andrew

[Jesper Slot]

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for your reply, you have a valid point and I'm thankful of you giving this a broader perspective. I'm very pro "out of the box", data driven and dynamic solutions, but had this worked with a line as simple (or .. nearly as simple) as "guide.add("current.variables.variable");", I'd almost not consider this as code.

Our portal needs to be improved in general yes, this was more of a quick win, had it worked... "Search-first" definitely needs some promotion here but it will take quite some work on user behavior before we get there. The dynamic category combined with better categorization in general sounds like an idea.. I’ll play around with that to try to get a more clear picture of how it could work. There’s a lot of hard work in categorization but you're probably right that we cannot solve that with code. Thanks for those inputs.

Do you actually have something like that running?

I still think the idea with the Order Guide was good though. The lookup select box could maybe have been replaced by a list collector and more software could be added at a time, new hires and employees who swap computers would love that.
I also think that ServiceNow could improve the "rule base" items in order guides to make it work more dynamically. Maybe I should head over to the idea portal and submit those thoughts there.

/Jesper

[Andrew Albury-D]

We are just starting to split our items into specific software for automation, so unfortunately I don't have anything like this in our environment. I'll bet that in a year or two we run into the same problems though! The Order Guide for multiple software items is for sure a win, and don't discount it, I just didn't want you to spend ages on code for it to not solve your problem. The Idea portal is always open and hungry for suggestions! - Andrew