Managing CI Relationships in a workspace (Service Operations Workspace, CMDB Workspace)

Mike Rae
Kilo Guru

‎11-13-2024 01:35 PM

We are currently pointing our users to their Application Service records to create relationships to their dependent infrastructure (servers, databases, etc).  When looking at the application server records in either the Service Operations Workspace or CMDB Workspace, I noticed the Relationship formatter does not show up.  They can use the related list to add a relationship, but it is not nearly as user friendly as the existing relationship editor.  Is there anything in progress to bring the functionality of the relationship formatter to workspaces? 

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2 REPLIES 2

RobertB61064003
Tera Contributor

a month ago

Hey Mike, 

 

Did you get anywhere with this? It's been a few years since I worked with the CMDB, at which point then it was very easy to update the CMDB, with CMDB Workspace I'm scratching my head.  

 

Cheers

Rob

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AJ-TechTrek
Giga Sage
Giga Sage

4 weeks ago

Hi @Mike Rae ,

 

As per my understanding current Situation


* In classic UI forms (like Application Service, CI, etc.), we have the Relationship Formatter, which provides a nice graph-like interface to manage CI relationships.
* In Workspaces (Service Operations Workspace / CMDB Workspace):
* You only see the Related Lists (e.g., "Depends on / Used by") to add relationships.
* The Relationship Formatter is not natively available yet in Workspace record views.
* This makes it less intuitive for end users compared to the traditional UI.

 

Solution might be helpful-
1. Use CMDB Workspace’s CI Explorer
* The CMDB Workspace has the CI Explorer (similar to Dependency Views).
* From there, users can visualize and add relationships in a more user-friendly way.
* However, it is not embedded directly as a formatter on the record like in the classic UI.


2. Leverage CMDB 360 / CI Class Manager Enhancements
* If you enable CMDB 360 (latest releases), it gives an in-context visualization of relationships for CIs inside Workspace.
* This can be used as a near-replacement for the old formatter.


3. Customization with UI Builder
* You can embed the CI Relationship Editor component into your Workspace record view.
* ServiceNow provides UI Builder components for CMDB visualizations.
* If you build a custom form component in UI Builder → you can bring back relationship editing similar to the old formatter.


4. Roadmap from ServiceNow
* As of Washington/Yokohama releases, ServiceNow is working towards parity between classic UI and Workspace.
* Full relationship management directly in Workspace forms is not GA yet, but it’s on the roadmap (CSDM + CMDB alignment).

 

Things to Keep in Mind
* Out-of-box today: no relationship formatter in Workspace record views.
* User-friendly option now: train users to use CI Explorer in CMDB Workspace.
* If critical: implement UI Builder customization to add a relationship visualization/editor widget

 

Please appreciate the efforts of community contributors by marking appropriate response as Mark my Answer Helpful or Accept Solution this may help other community users to follow correct solution in future.
 

Thank You
AJ - TechTrek with AJ - ITOM Trainer
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