What is the use of getReference()?

[ishankaggarwal]

What is the use of getReference()?

[Shishir Srivast]

you can use the getReference() to glide that particular record from client side and access the related record of that Glide Object, you can find the more details here: GlideForm - Client

[Uncle Rob]

GlideForm - Client

Returns the GlideRecord for the field (must be a reference field) you specify in the parameters.

[Rajesh Mushke]

Hey Ishank,

GlideForm - getReference(String fieldName, Function callBack)

Returns the GlideRecord for a specified field.

If a callback function is present, this routine runs asynchronously, and browser (and script) processing will continue normally until the server returns the reference value, at which time the callback function will be invoked. If a callback function is not present, this routine runs synchronously and processing will halt (causing the browser to appear to hang) while waiting on a server response.

Important: It is strongly recommended that a callback function be used.

Callback function support for ServiceCatalogForm.getReference is available.

Note: This requires a call to the server so using this function will require additional time and may introduce latency to your page. Use with caution. See Avoid Server Lookups.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description
fieldName	String	Name of the field.
callBack	Function	Name of the call back function.

Returns:

Type	Description
GlideRecord	The GlideRecord object for the specified field. If the specified reference cannot be found, then it returns an initialized GlideRecord object where currentRow = -1 and rows.length = 0.

function onChange(control, oldValue, newValue, isLoading) 
{ 
var caller = g_form.getReference('caller_id', doAlert); // doAlert is our callback function } 
function doAlert(caller) { //reference is passed into callback as first arguments
 if (caller.vip == 'true') 
alert('Caller is a VIP!'); 
}

Please Refer: 
GlideForm - Client

https://my.metlife.com/teams/ServiceNow_AD/_layouts/15/osssearchresults.aspx?u=https%3A//my%2Emetlif...

[Rajesh Mushke]

getReference gets the record used in another reference field. For example you have the Caller ID (reference to the sys_user table) and with getReference, you will retrieve the User record and save this as a gliderecord into a variable. The main reason to use this function is to get more information from the referenced record.

Since this is used client side, it IS a call to the server which may impact performance if used too heavily.

Example:

var gr = g_form.getReference('caller_id');

alert('Caller Email is: ' + gr.email);

Since this is a server call, as already said above, I would recommend using the callback feature (new in Aspen):

var caller = g_form.getReference('caller_id', doAlert); // doAlert is our callback function

function doAlert(caller) { //reference is passed into callback as first arguments

alert('Caller Email is: ' + caller.email);

}

Please refer:

Client Script Examples — ServiceNow Elite