Overview
While enabling “IT Service Management Advanced” in an existing ServiceNow environment, we encountered an unexpected impact to the existing Employee Center portal navigation and taxonomy experience.
The Employee Center implementation already had an established taxonomy structure with customized topics and subtopics. After installing the IT Service Management Advanced plugin, the portal navigation behavior changed more specifically with in the employee center.
This article shares the issues we encountered, the technical reason behind the behavior, and the approach we followed to preserve and restore the existing Employee Center navigation structure.
Plugin and Environment Details
Plugin: IT Service Management Advanced
Plugin ID: sn_itsm_adv_cont
Environment Stage: Operational Environment
Before plugin installation:
- Employee Center was already implemented.
- A customized taxonomy was associated with the portal.
- Topics and subtopics were configured according to business requirements.
- The portal navigation was already functioning with the required information architecture.
- Catalog and other content had already been associated with the appropriate taxonomy topics.
Issue Details:
After enabling the IT Service Management Advanced capabilities, we observed changes in the existing Employee Center navigation experience.
The taxonomy itself remained an important part of the Employee Center information architecture; however, the way the taxonomy was presented through portal navigation was now influenced by Advanced Portal Navigation.
This resulted in the existing portal navigation no longer appearing exactly as it did before the plugin installation.
Root Cause
The IT Service Management Advanced capabilities introduce additional configuration related to Advanced Portal Navigation.
When these capabilities are activated in an instance that already contains an established Employee Center taxonomy, the activation process can introduce or update related out-of-box configuration.
As a result, the taxonomy/navigation configuration used by the existing Employee Center implementation may no longer appear or behave exactly as it did before the plugin activation.
BEFORE
AFTER
Resolution Approach
The approach we followed was to preserve the existing Employee Center configuration before enabling the advanced capabilities and then reconcile the configuration afterward.
Step 1 – Document the Existing Employee Center Architecture
Before installing the plugin, document the existing Employee Center configuration.
Capture the current: Taxonomy , Topic
, Connected content
It is also useful to capture screenshots of the existing portal and Advance Portal Navigation.
This provides both a technical reference and a visual baseline for post-installation validation.
Step 2 – Back Up the Existing Taxonomy Configuration
Before activating the advanced plugin, preserve the required existing Employee Center taxonomy configuration.
In our implementation, the relevant configuration was captured in updateset so that it could be restored if the plugin activation changed the expected portal behavior.
These configurations can be captured either through an Update Set or XML files.
Step 3 – Install IT Service Management Advanced
Install/activate:
IT Service Management Advanced
sn_itsm_adv_cont
Step 4 – Validate the Employee Center After Installation
Open Employee Center and verify the navigation.
Compare the portal against the screenshots and configuration captured before installation.
Particularly validate following content:
- Navigation menu structure, Topics hierarchy.
- Connected content.
Key Changes observed are around following tables
- sp_portal
- sn_ex_sp_portal_extensible_navigation
- taxonomy
Step 5 – Restore Existing Taxonomy
Restore the previously captured configuration in order to bring the Employee Center taxonomy back to original state.
Before activate the existing APN Records, we need to ensure the newly enabled APN record from the plugin activation is inactivated.
Inactive the newly activated taxonomy structure
Activated the Existing one
Report and xml related to sp_portal table, most important ensure the configuration related to employee center is restored just like the previous one.
Step 6 – Sync the Hierarchy
After confirming the taxonomy configuration, use the appropriate Sync Hierarchy action within Advanced Portal Navigation.
The synchronization retrieves the applicable hierarchy from the configured taxonomy/navigation source and updates the APN hierarchy.
After synchronization, review the generated navigation items.
Do not assume that synchronization alone completes the configuration.
Verify that the required navigation records are active and correctly ordered.
Step 7 – Validate the Final Employee Center Experience
Finally, open Employee Center and perform an end-to-end functional validation.
Validate:
- Primary navigation
- Root topics
- Subtopics
- Topic ordering
- Topic pages
- Catalog items
- Knowledge articles
- Quick links, where applicable
- Connected content
- User Criteria / audience visibility
- Navigation behavior across applicable user personas
The final portal navigation should now reflect the intended taxonomy architecture while operating through the Advanced Portal Navigation framework.
Our Learning form this activity :
The key learning from this implementation was that enabling advanced capabilities in an existing Employee Center environment should not be treated simply as a plugin installation.
When Employee Center already contains a mature taxonomy and customized information architecture, the impact of Advanced Portal Navigation needs to be included in the implementation and testing plan.
The underlying taxonomy and the navigation presented to users are closely related, but they are not necessarily managed in exactly the same way after APN is enabled.
Therefore, preserving the existing taxonomy, understanding the APN configuration, synchronizing the hierarchy, and performing end-to-end validation are important steps when introducing these capabilities into an established Employee Center environment.
