Setting role on Widget Instance does not affect the visibility

[Svetozar2022]

Widget name: Icon Link

Widget Roles (sp_widget.roles): snc_internal, snc_external

Widget Instance Roles (sp_instance.roles): custom_role1, custom_role2

There are 4 widget instances that are on the index page of the portal. I need one of them (widget instance with roles above) to not be shown unless these custom roles are on the user viewing it.

Constraint: Widget's server code to set data.show or similar and use it in ng-if in the HTML should not be used.

However, all widget instances will be are seen on the portal page even by a user without any roles. I am trying to find out why and this seems so basic and baseline from ServiceNow not to work. 

Does anybody know the order of importance for these roles fields?

[boteeuwen]

Role Resolution Order (most specific to least specific):

• Widget Instance Roles (sp_instance.roles) - Most specific
• Widget Roles (sp_widget.roles) - Less specific
• Page Roles (sp_page.roles) - Least specific

In your case, the issue is likely happening because:

• The Widget has snc_internal, snc_external roles (basic portal access)
• The Instance has custom_role1, custom_role2
• When a widget instance has roles specified, it should theoretically only show to users with those roles

Troubleshooting Steps:

1. Verify the custom roles exist and are properly assigned
2. Check if there's a portal property overriding role checks
3. Verify the role names are exact matches (case sensitive)

[Svetozar2022]

Thank you, this did help and is factual.

I have found the root cause, basically someone implemented two rows of exactly the same widgets and when looking at the page tree for widget instances I was updating the wrong row which was invisible (depends on some roles the user has). Because of this there were more than 4 widgets, 8 to be exact.

[boteeuwen]

Good catch on tracking down the root cause. These kinds of role-based visibility issues can be super tricky to spot, especially when you've got duplicate widgets involved😅.