Should Variable Editor be used for HR Cases ?

[servicenow_dev]

Hi HRSD community,

Variable editor section in HR Case form is not available OOB, but can of course be added by creating a formatter and adding it to the form view of HR table. After creating this and adding to HR Case form, from my small testing variables get captured and work as well as they do for RITMs where this is available OOB.
HR Cases have this alternative solution where variable name/values from record producer come to description field, but it has its limitations, like the checkbox field coming despite it being hidden or not in form.

So my question is why Variable Editor is not available OOB for HR Cases too ?
Why this other solution of copying variable name/values in description for HR Cases ?
Does HR having its own Scope make Variable Editor functionality not work correctly, does anyone have any experience on this, having variable editor active in HR Cases ?

Would be great to know what your thoughts are on this topic.

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@servicenow_dev 

Out of the box it's not available because variable information is already populated in the description field so that HR agents can see it.

You can customize it as per your need by writing an after insert BR on HR case table and populate it considering the fact to include only those variables which has value in it.

But you can definitely variable editor on your form.

Adding the variable editor will just make the form lengthy and it doesn't add any business value

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

[servicenow_dev]

@Ankur Bawiskar 
I would say having all variables in a Variable Editor section like fulfillment instructions ( so on the side, not necessarily adding length to form as you rightfully point out) is a much better experience for HR Agents than reading those as a list in description field.
Better source of truth than description field, if made Read-Only than it is definitely more reliable than description field in my opinion.
Also it gives the possibility to use description field for more than just storing variable values.
Sometimes Record Producer have around 30+ variables in my customer, it is not a nice experience to go through all in description. 

But I understand from your comment that Variable editor should have no issues in HR Cases right ?

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@servicenow_dev 

no issues. it's just that if the number of variables are more then agent might have to scroll much.

It all depends on your business requirement.

I have seen customers who don't want variable editor on HR case due to the reason I mentioned above

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

[Susan Britt]

Similar to what @Ankur Bawiskar said, I have some clients want it and others not.  It's not an issue to add it.  I would just say get all of your business requirements/use cases and understand how the agents use the system before deciding either way.  Do they want to change the selected values in some cases? If so, do you need that audit trail of changes? What's the agent experience in Agent Workspace with the new section?