Order Guide items not visible under "SP: Open Order Guides (SP)" step in ATF

[SanjayG51334468]

Hi, I’m unable to see any Order Guide items when I try to add the “Open an Order Guide (SP)” test step in ATF. Could you please help me understand what might be causing this issue?

[kmohammed]

Hi Sanjay,

The Order Guide list in the "Open an Order Guide (SP)" step is not a raw list of sc_cat_item_guide records. It is evaluated the same way the Service Portal evaluates it at runtime - as the user the test executes as, against the portal the step targets. So an empty list means the guide is being filtered out in one of three places, and it is worth checking them in this order:

1. Portal and catalog match. SP test steps run against the Service Portal configured for the step/test (by default the OOTB Service Portal, "sp"). The guide only appears if its catalog is one of the catalogs assigned to that portal (Portal record > Catalogs). A guide that lives in a catalog attached only to Employee Center/another portal will be invisible to this step, even though you can see it in the back end. Either point the test at the right portal or confirm the guide's catalog is on the portal the step uses.

2. The guide itself must be orderable in the portal. Check on the guide record (sc_cat_item_guide, which extends sc_cat_item): Active = true, and it has at least one included item (sc_cat_item_guide_items) whose item is also Active. A guide with no active items renders as an empty guide page and is excluded.

3. User criteria as the test user. ATF executes the step in the context of the test's user - if the test impersonates a user (or runs as the default test user), the guide's "Available For / Not Available For" user criteria are evaluated against that user, not against you as the test author. The classic symptom is exactly yours: you see the guide in the back end, the selector is empty in the step. Give the test a user who can see the guide in the real portal (log in as that user and open the portal - if the guide is not visible there, it will not be visible in ATF either), and check the same user criteria on the included items, because an item the user cannot see is dropped from the guide.

A quick isolation test: temporarily pick a known OOTB/sample guide that is in the Service Portal catalog with no user-criteria restrictions and add the step again. If it appears, your step and ATF are fine and the issue is the filtering above on your guide. If even that does not appear, the step is pointing at a different portal than you think - recheck the portal set on the test's earlier "Open a Service Portal Page" / SP step configuration, because all SP steps in the test inherit that portal.

Regards,

Karimuddin

[sachinvic]

@SanjayG51334468 

Hi Sanjay,

One quick way to isolate this is to test with a known OOTB Order Guide that is available in the Service Portal.

If that guide appears in the ATF step, check the following on your custom guide:

• Confirm that the catalog containing the Order Guide is associated with the portal configured in the ATF step.

• Ensure the Order Guide is active and has at least one active catalog item.

• Check the Available For / Not Available For User Criteria on both the Order Guide and its included catalog items. Make sure the ATF test user meets those criteria.

Also, verify that the Portal field in the Open an Order Guide (SP) step points to the same portal where the guide is available.

If the OOTB guide appears but your custom guide doesn't, focus on catalog association and User Criteria first.

Helpful? Please mark the response as Accepted Solution ✅ and close the thread  — this helps future readers find the solution faster.

Regards,
Sachinvic
✨ ArchX Certified | ✨ 16x ServiceNow AI MVP