Coping Change Request along with all visible variables attached to it/

mattmg · ‎03-05-2025

Hi friendly crowd,

I have thought nut to crack, and I hope someone might help me with it

We have a change request from where we have many additional questions that are attached to the main change request from as a variables.

I also have a Copy Change button on the back end form, to help submitting changes based on the previous same change. However I came across the problem, when the form is submitted via record producer and have variables attached, I can't copy these variables if I need to use Copy button, It there a way to duplicate the variables and reattach them at the new record?

Many thanks for meaningful answers

mattmg · ‎03-06-2025

Managed to do it without the use of Catalog UI policies, but with some exclusions, this is my current UI Action to Copy Change (with variables)

function OnCopyChangeClick() {
    try {
        // Get the Sys ID of the source change request
        var srcSysId = g_form.getUniqueValue();
        if (!srcSysId) {
            g_form.addErrorMessage('Source record not found.');
            return;
        }

        // Create a new change request record
        var newChange = new GlideRecord('change_request');
        newChange.initialize();
        
        // Copy relevant fields from the current form using g_form
        newChange.short_description = g_form.getValue('short_description') || 'Copy of Change Request';
        newChange.category = g_form.getValue('category') || '';
        newChange.priority = g_form.getValue('priority') || '';
        newChange.risk = g_form.getValue('risk') || '';
        newChange.impact = g_form.getValue('impact') || '';
        newChange.type = g_form.getValue('type') || '';
        newChange.u_location = g_form.getValue('u_location') || '';
        newChange.assignment_group = g_form.getValue('assignment_group') || '';
        newChange.assigned_to = g_form.getValue('assigned_to') || '';
        newChange.description = g_form.getValue('description') || '';
        newChange.justification = g_form.getValue('justification') || '';
        newChange.change_plan = g_form.getValue('change_plan') || '';
        newChange.risk_impact_analysis = g_form.getValue('risk_impact_analysis') || '';
        newChange.backout_plan = g_form.getValue('backout_plan') || '';
        newChange.test_plan = g_form.getValue('test_plan') || '';

        // Insert the new change request record
        var newSysId = newChange.insert();
        if (!newSysId) {
            g_form.addErrorMessage('Failed to create new change request record.');
            return;
        }

        // Get the question answers from the original change request
        var qaGR = new GlideRecord('question_answer');
        qaGR.addQuery('table_name', 'change_request');
        qaGR.addQuery('table_sys_id', srcSysId);
        qaGR.query();

        // If there are no question answers to copy, return
        if (!qaGR.hasNext()) {
            g_form.addErrorMessage('No question answers found to copy.');
            return;
        }

        // List of variables to exclude from copying
        var excludedVariables = [
            'additional_questions', 'initial_note', 'u_important_info', 'note', 'risk', 'impact',
            'justification', 'change_plan', 'backout_plan', 'risk_impact_analysis', 'test_plan',
            'u_implementer_s_contact_details', 'u_services_affected', 'user_has_itil_role',
            'description', 'u_network_monitoring_pause_details', 'type', 'change_request_created_by'
        ];

        // Process each question answer and insert it into the new change request
        var copiedVariables = [];
        while (qaGR.next()) {
            var questionGR = new GlideRecord('question');
            if (questionGR.get(qaGR.question)) {
                // Only copy variables that are not excluded and have a non-empty value
                if (excludedVariables.indexOf(questionGR.name) === -1 && qaGR.value && qaGR.value.trim() !== '') {
                    var newQA = new GlideRecord('question_answer');
                    newQA.initialize();
                    newQA.table_name = 'change_request';
                    newQA.table_sys_id = newSysId;
                    newQA.question = qaGR.question;
                    newQA.value = qaGR.value;
                    newQA.insert();

                    // Store the copied variable for the message
                    copiedVariables.push(questionGR.name);
                }
            }
        }

        // Generate the URL for the new change request
        var newRecordUrl = '/change_request.do?sys_id=' + newSysId;

        // Prepare the success message with a link to the new record
        var message = 'Change request copied successfully. <a href="' + newRecordUrl + '" target="_self">Click here</a> to view the new Change Request.<br>';
       
        // Show the success message
        g_form.addInfoMessage(message);

    } catch (e) {
        // Handle any errors that occur during the process
        g_form.addErrorMessage('An unexpected error occurred: ' + e.message);
        gs.error('Error in OnCopyChangeClick: ' + e.message);
    }
}

Two things I did not manage to do it, as it was breaking script, sort the added variables a-z, and redirect from to anew record at the end. Instead I decided to put link to a new CR in the message o top of the form, when coping is completed

View solution in original post

Vishal Jaswal · ‎03-06-2025

This is great and smart at the same time - Thank you so much for sharing this solution with the entire world 🙂

Hope that helps!