Choice vs Reference

She Sull · ‎06-06-2014

What is the difference between the Choice field type and the Reference field type? In Managed Documents, the Type (document type) field shows it is a reference field when you right click and select Show- 'type' , but it seems to be behaving like a Choice field and even provides the options Personalize Choices and Show Choice List.

Pradeep Sharma · ‎06-06-2014

Hi Sherry,

Here is my understanding

Type :Choice:

if field type is choice then you see Drop-Down list of choices.(It can be reference to the table)
The choice can be personalized

Type:Reference

Query that displays records from another table
Here we dont see the behavior of field as drop-down

I hope this helps

Thanks,

Pradeep Sharma

View solution in original post

harikrish_v · ‎06-08-2014

Hi Sherry,

If you want to put some something like a ref qualifier on a choice field, I would suggest using a client script.

You can put in whatever condition is that you want and then add or remove options from the choice list accordingly. Below is the wiki link on how to add/ remove options from a choice field using client side scripting.

GlideForm (g form) - ServiceNow Enterprise Wiki

http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=GlideForm_(g_form)#clearOptions

GlideForm (g form) - ServiceNow Enterprise Wiki

Hope this helps..

Thanks & Regards,

Hari

Slava Savitsky · ‎06-09-2014

You cannot have a reference qualifier on a native choice list. However, on a reference field that is only displayed as a choice list, reference qualifiers are possible. I have just tried this in one of the demosandbox instances: Adding order<=3 as a reference qualifier to the Type field on Document [dms_documents] table results in types "Policy" and "Guideline" (order 1 and 2 respectively) being displayed and types "Procedude" and "Contract" (order 3 and 4 respectively) hidden.

Blog: https://sys.properties | Telegram: https://t.me/sys_properties | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slava-savitsky/

She Sull · ‎06-09-2014

Thanks again, Slava. I just had an "aha" moment. I'll post feedback once I get this working.

ryadavalli · ‎03-06-2015

HI Slava,

I am actually trying to do this, make the one of the reference fields on my service catalog look like a drop down list, that way I can see the options I have and use the dot walking capacity as well. But I am not seeing that option specified in the link you mentioned.

Thanks,

Ravali

rajiv069 · ‎06-09-2014

Hi Sherry,

The reference fields are actually the fields where you can query your requirements by using either reference qualifier or by pushing the filter through a global BR or script include.

But in case of Choice field you can filter the values by using global BR or script include only. This is how this works in SNOW.

Thanks.