How to change the text for Search bar placeholder in Faceted Search Widget

[TroyP0581187515]

You can change the search box text on the search widget where AI is enabled (i.e. ctrl + right click > instance options) by changing the “placeholder” field.

However, if you would like to include a dynamic value such as current logged on user's name, for example:  

Create a UI message in the classic view: All > System UI > Messages

In this example "Search1" where {0} in the message text refers to the user variable we will replace in widget's code in the next step. 

Clone the “Typeahead Search” widget and modify the following code at line 52:

options.placeholder = options.placeholder ? gs.getMessage(options.placeholder) : gs.getMessage('Search1', gs.getUser().getFirstName());

Code from the original unedited widget below as a reference:

Then replace the search widget on your portal with your cloned widget.

[Rahul RJ]

Hi  @TroyP0581187515 ,

Thank you for the post, but ServiceNow never recommends cloning the widget to make changes since we have instance options available. Is there any Out-of-the-Box option to retrieve translated text from `sys_ui_message` based on a key and the user's language without modifying the widget?

Regards,

RJ

[TroyP0581187515]

You're right that cloning isn't ideal for simple cases, and instance options cover most static placeholder needs well. But for dynamic, user-contextual, translated text — there's no OOB option that avoids widget-level code. Cloning is the pragmatic workaround until ServiceNow exposes a richer instance options binding model. If anyone knows of one, genuinely open to it.