We were excited to invite you to our recent Ask the Experts session, part of the highly anticipated Platform Analytics Academy series. This interactive event was packed with insights and offered attendees the unique opportunity to engage directly with our team of experts. Whether you were a seasoned participant or joining us for the first time, we hope you found it valuable!
Questions & Answers
Q1: Will drill down from a List view go to the Data Visualization Designer in the future, rather than the Report Designer?
Q2: Why was Platform Analytics moved from the Workspace, to the Filter Navigator?
Q3: Is the ability to navigate to the Indicator configuration from KPI Details, on the Roadmap?
Q4: Which visualization do we use in place of the workbench in platform analytics?
Typed Answer: We do not have a 1:1 replacement for Workbench, you could see if building different chart types like single scores and time series could give you a similar experience or if using the UI Builder could help solve the UI of Workbench
Q5: Can mixed chart types be used in a platform visualization? As in bar and line in one chart. I am on the Washington release.
Typed Answer: Not yet, hopefully in the future
Q6: I've been trying to create a PA Breakdown based on Catalog variables. I've been using older articles in the community as references. These are all based on older versions of SN. Should there be any reason why I've been unable to create these breakdowns?
Q7: After Platform Analytics migration....this table par_coreui_migration_bridge_dashboard shows the logs. My question is...the dashboards that did not migrate show 'next experience dashboard' field is empty? I'd like to send an 'exportable' list to leadership.
Typed Answer: All dashboards should have migrated to something, if the next experience dashboard field is empty something went wrong, please reach out to us via support if this is the case.
Q8: I was familiarizing myself with the migration-center using my PDI, I tried the full migration and then attempted to roll it back; the rollback did not work. All the dashboards remained in Platform Analytics and are no longer available to view in the CORE UI, is this a PDI issue? My PDI is on Xandau
Typed Answer: Rollback is done by the engineer via support, you should not be able to rollback without us. We can roll back you via support in about 40 minutes.
Q9: Would the sorting be available on the data visualizations list?
Typed Answer: Hi Maggie, list visualization allows you to sort by any exposed columns (during consumption). At the moment there are no options to configure default sorting.
Q10: If I understand what was said, in Xanadu, when you select Bar Chart in a list of records, it automatically opens in the new Platform Analytics. We just upgraded to Xanadu in our non-prod environments and this still launches the classic report.
Typed Answer: Have you done the full migration? if you have not it goes to the old view but if you are migrated or have a fresh instance it will take you to the new view. It is based on whether you have activated PAe . That’s a step needed after running the migration. By activating you are turning on PAe as the default.
Q11: Can a single Scheduled Email, either utilizing Scheduled Reports or Flow Designer, cover multiple Queries? We basically want to send an email with a list of Number charts to Sr. Managers covering multiple queries specific to their groups.
Q12: In my opinion, one of the best parts of ServiceNow is that "everything is a record in a table".
Why is platform analytics migrating away from that? Is it purely technical limitations?
Q13: We are thinking of moving historical data off of the Workfront SaaS environment simply for reporting. Migrating that data into ServiceNow SPM would be labor-intensive. Is there a way to use PA to point to Workfront or any other external data source provider?
Typed Answer: Right now no but there is a lot of demand for this and we are trying to support external connectors in the future, I can not say when this will come out though.
Q14: We need to display for the users the # of records during the month per month: 1. Active Demands and 2. Active Demands older than 1 year. We need a job running on the 1st of the month. Which conditions should be included in the Indicator Source? We can’t rely on Closed as it saves only the first date/time stamp, but a record could be reopened multiple times. Can we use the same Indicator Source for both asks? If yes, which condition should be added to the indicators?
Typed Answer: Wouldn’t you prefer to have the closed_on date get cleared when a record is re-opened? That entails just updating the workflow associated with the source record. You could also setup a metric definition that captures the time stamp of each state change for the record. You would then use the metric_instance as the Indicator Source. The condition would be based on the state value of the metric instance, as well as the date stamp for when the state did change.
Q15: We upgraded to Xanadu but want to leverage the new Platform Analytics once we feel everything is stable. We want to slowly migrate to the new technology.
Typed Answer: You can start migrating the Dashboards, so you can move some departments or teams in phases
Q16: When you migrate over content blocks, a message appears that says "This is a migrated content block. Behavior may be different". How long do those messages stay in migrated dashboards? I like this as a first reminder but will it be gone after a while?
Typed Answer: It is permanent but you can edit the dashboard and turn the message off in the config panel of the widget.
Q17: Are you going to make it possible to choose whether a visualization goes to the Agent Workspace list view vs the Native list view?
Typed Answer: We are looking into that possibility. If you have your own Workspace and not the Platform Analytics experience, you can customize the redirection to go to the Workspace/Next experience list view
Typed Answer: Are the inactive dashboards the ones migrated from the partial/list migration or after the activation of the platform analytics experience? In the case of the first one, yes users can still view the inactive CoreUI dashboards if they have access to it via URL.
Q19: Are you going to also make printing performance analytics records available? Currently, we do have the ability to print when navigating from widgets created in the classic widget, but not in platform analytics visualizations.
Typed Answer: We have the ability to export data visualizations from Vancouver already, Dashboard export to PDF is coming in Yokohama.
Q20: re: the "combo chart" that the previous person was asking... the classic case here is using two time-series charts in separate data sources in a single report: for example CHG and INC. there's a particular report that has been widely distributed by SN that is designed to show when changes lead to increases in incidents, but there are a lot of other examples but generally, you can use multiple time series visualizations for different data sources in a single report
Typed Answer: Indeed, if it is just a different variation of time series you can do it today and set one metric to be e.g. column and another line (any combinations of time series variations).
Q21: Has anyone been able to dot walk to a referenced fields on catalog item variable that is reference type? i.e. variables.[sys_user variable sys_id].active Even when selecting variable it does not display on list report. I had to script the columns to be able to show up on the list. However, I have been unable to display reference variable fields.
Live Answer: Pushed to the Community to ask the question.
Q22: We have upgraded to Xanadu, what is the Property to force the new Platform Analytics?
Q23: Also, it appears that we cannot add additional fields to the records on KPI details.
Typed Answer: This one is coming in Yokohama!
Q24: We are migrating Dashboards to Platform Analytics. Some reports have Interactive Filters and not working. How to fix this?
Typed Answer: Are the reports “Acting as filters”? This capability is supported in Xanadu
Q25: Combination chart - 2 metrics on the same view with different types of visualizations? Do you have this in your roadmap?
Typed Answer: If it is about having different data sources/metrics visualized differently in chart-like time series (e.g. on a column and one like) you can do it. If it is completely different charts that cannot be plotted together - it can be just done with 2 separate charts, we are looking for options to combine separate charts visually into the container, but not specific timeline yet.
Q26: Are we planning to support the sorting on the list of visualizations in the Visualization Library?
Q27: When you are trying a phased migration, there doesn't appear to be a way to make people's "home" page default to "par dashboards" instead of "pa dashboards". A lot of our users use pa_dashboards as their main landing page - is there a good way to get around the pa/ par divide?
Typed Answer: We are looking right now about the landinag page user preferences since we have found some challenges also from other customers. I will pass this question to the dev team and we will look into it.
Q28: Are there any sessions or documentation specifically about scatter plots? We have created a metric to show an incident duration metric, but it shows a qty of 0m when hovering over the plots but if you click on the actual plot, it will show an actual number (like 12 min.). Wondering if there is a setting or something that I’m unfamiliar with.
Q29: Can there be dynamic time aggregations at the visualization level for an end user? Like, move from week to month of a date on a chart from an end user with user role?
Q30: When I go to KPI Details and Show Records, is it possible to adjust the fields shown?
Typed Answer: We are building the support for Yokohama
Q31: I do not see an option to grant access to visualizations, does it mean anyone with ITIL should be able to view the visualization when I share the link?
Typed Answer: Anybody who has access to the Platform Analytics Dashboards will see the visualization underneath, they are automatically shared from the dashboard. ACLs will still apply on the data underneath. On the Visualization designer level, there is still a sharing option in case users want to view the visualization from that tool directly.
Q32: The dashboard had the iframe set up to display the knowledge article. once you convert it to the new pa dashboard it's bad.
Typed Answer: It sounds like its an iframe within an iframe, there is a fix for this coming to handle this scenario
Q33: Also, content blocks get converted to the pa dashboard and give a message. How do you create content blocks in the new PA dashboard and can you?
Q34: Is it possible to enhance the formula indicators output the dimension as well as currently it is limited to measure/number as an output?
Q35: Can you share again the slide that shows which new features in Platform Analytics come with which release? (E.g. Cascading filter migration in Xanadu) I especially would like to check when reports with multiple datasets will be possible to be migrated to Platform Analytics.
Typed Answer: It may be in one of these:
https://sn.works/analytics/academyWhatsNewInX-PlatformAnalytics
https://sn.works/analytics/whatsnewinwashington
Q36: Is there a way to create the reports on sys_history_line, sys_history_set, and Sys_audit tables not just a filter? If not, is there another way to get the values for the users if there are no metrics?
Typed Answer: You can read these docs on how to do this: https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/xanadu-now-intelligence/page/use/reporting/concept/c_ReportOnSyst...
Q37: When you go to the analytics hub in the classic widgets, you can right-click on the header and export, but in platform analytics, navigating to the hub, doesn't provide you with the option to export.
Typed Answer: We are building the support to export the new KPI details from Yokohama.
Q38: Bucket group supports only integers and Boolean, is it possible to group assignment groups in buckets or task types in buckets?
Q39: Are there any plans to be able to filter the Platform Analytics library by anything other than short desc or desc? Maybe a table filter - we have security incidents and incidents, so "incidents in last 30 days" could be confusing.
Typed Answer: There are plans on the roadmap to completely redo that UI which should solve those issues but I cannot say when it will be done. My recommendation for now is to use bookmark and certify to help single out the content you want vs the ones you dont.
Q40: Please remind me for the 100th time, that when we upgrade to Xanadu, we are forced into Platform Analytics or there is a migration path from legacy reports/PA.
Typed Answer: No you are not. We do not force migration on upgrade to Xanadu
Q41: What was the intention behind certification in Platform Analytics? The executive team tell admin/ dashboard_admin what is company-approved. Approve via catalog item? How many dashboard_admins did you intend to have?
Q42: global.mergePARFilters"]().v2 Does not filter correctly on List fields since it only stores the sysIds. I have a HI ticket open and they have reached out to the ServiceNow development team. Any information on what future releases would be updated?
Typed Answer: PARFilters do not currently integrate with the list component nicely, all you can do its output as an encoded query that you bind to the list.
Q43: We cannot use the tags in group by in any data visualization. Is that how it works or is it a glitch? If that's how it works why?
Typed Answer: It's a known limitation and we have been trying to resolve it since February already, thanks for the reminder to check up on that.
Q44: Is there a recommendation on how many widgets/visualizations are added to dashboards? Some of our users are adding a lot of visualizations, then sometimes they get a dialog box that the dashboard cannot be saved, however, it does save. I guess I need to know the best practices to convey to our users.
Q45: Could you share the highlights on AI integration on this module ?
Typed Answer: This session discussed and demoed where PA is with AI. https://sn.works/analyticsacademy/analyticsgeneration
Q46: Is there a visualization for word cloud? we currently use it on the core UI. I was trying to do the same on the platform analytics but didn't see any visualization to replicate the same.
Typed Answer: It's not supported in platform analytics and right now there is no replacement on the roadmap.
Q47: Is there any easy way to track the traffic of dashboards you have created? I always get asked if I can tell how many times a dashboard has been visited so that we can see if and how it’s being used.
Q48: Can there be the ability to import images on a dashboard from local repository?
Typed Answer: Where would you want to use that image, inside the dashboard? This capability should be available from the image component in the Platform Analytics dashboards in Xanadu.
Q49: Is there a best practice to control duplicate creation of Dashboards, Data Visualizations, Reports...etc?
Q50: Are there tables where we can monitor the performance of the dashboards, like load time, response time, and usage?
Typed Answer: Legacy dashboards have the Dashboard Statistics module.
Q51: We have not migrated to Xanadu yet, but are Database Views supported? Within Platform Analytics, I'm unable to build any Data Visualizations with any of my Database Views. I do see Technical Editor supports Data Binding. Is this where this needs to be done?
Typed Answer: Database views are fully supported. If they are not shown in the data source selection, it could be an access issue (ie. report_on, report_view, and table level read acls)
Q52: One other question.. when building a dashboard into in in-line editor and creating a simple list… when you add a filter that filter work with the simple list. However, when you create a simple list in Technical Editor and add create a filter, and apply to the simple list it doesn’t seem to work. Is there a different way filters need to be set up on list views vs single score/other graphs in the technical editor?
Q53: In the world of Workspaces coming with almost all the products - do we need a Dashboard module separately at all? How distinct are those use cases?
Typed Answer: Not everything is inside the workspace. Some workspaces have just a couple of dashboards, and most do not have the entire platform analytics product offering, so the separate module lets you work outside of the workspace’s limitations with all the features we are working on.
Q54: In the classic environment, we can search for filters applied in visualizations, but I don't see a way in the platform analytics, that would be helpful too when we want to manage the content.
Q55: Can we build ATFs for reports and dashboards in Platform analytics?
Typed Answer: I have not heard of anyone trying. My recommendation is not to get too in-depth in the testing because if we make a UI change your tests usually fail. That being said I understand why wanting to automate tests helps with upgrading confidence. So it's important to strike a balance between getting you that confidence and having maintainable tests when we make UI changes.
Q56: How to schedule a report in W to be sent dynamically only to the users that are on that report: for example, Incident.Assigned to.Manager?
Typed Answer: If you mean you have a list in the report and you want to schedule the report to be sent to the people in that list, this is not something we currently support, were you able to achieve this in the old Core UI?
Q57: In the future in Platform Analytics will it be possible in List views, to be able to click from one page to another page at the bottom of the widget in a similar way as this was in classic report builder?
Typed Answer: Yes, we are working hard on completely redoing the list to be closer to how it behaved in the core UI
Q58: I want to be able to add images in the same line as text to explain certain artifacts of a dashboard. not having the ability to add an image is blocking to make the dashboards self-explanatory
Typed Answer: I think you are using the Rich text component and you are not seeing the option from the TinyMCE to add images. From Xanadu, we added the option to go directly to the source code if that could help
Q59: Where is that technical editor vs inline editor
Typed Answer: When you go to create the dashboard in the new Platform Analytics if you have the UI Builder admin role you will be able to create also Technical dashboards, since is using the UI Builder technology
Q60: We just upgraded to Xanadu in our development environment. What should be our expectation for the current reports, scheduled reports, and dashboards to work in Xanadu?
Typed Answer: All should work the same until you start to Migrate to Platform Analtyics. Here are a couple of sessions that talk to this: https://sn.works/analytics/academyWhatsNewInX-PlatformAnalytics https://sn.works/analytics/academymigrationcenter
Q61: I noticed your response that there will not be a forced migration to Platform Analytics in Xanadu. Will there be a forced migration in Zurich or later that you're aware of?
Typed Answer: As of now the communication is for Zurich, we are reviewing internally the timelines and we will send a further communication in case they change.
Q62: So converted ones with content blocks that dont convert correctly I will have to create a new technical dashboard and rebuild the whole thing?
Typed Answer: Or you could roll back that specific dashboard to iframe the full coreUI dashboard, so you do not need to rebuild it immediately. https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/washingtondc-now-intelligence/page/use/par-for-workspace/task/rol...
Q63: Would the Configure Function field be available for list visualizations?
Typed Answer: Once you create a function field (e.g. from table administration or report designer) - you should be able to add it in any data visualization (as any other field), but as for allowing you to create a function field from visualization - we do have it on our roadmap, but we don’t have exact release yet.
Q64: But in a year I have no choice and we have a lot of content blocks. I have only converted one to start with and saw the issues, content blocks that display KB are not full screen and hard to read!
Typed Answer: Indeed, we are reviewing if migrating the dashboard with content blocks that are in compatibility mode is a good decision or not and we are checking the customer's usage. I think it would be interesting to see how you are using the content blocks and understand if we can support them better in the migration and dashboards
Q65: Do you have a training path in Now Learning?
Typed Answer: https://www.servicenow.com/community/performance-analytics-blog/reporting-performance-analytics-amp-...https://nowlearning.servicenow.com/lxp/en/pages/lxp-search?id=search&q=platform%20analytics&spa=1
Q66: With Zurich is new experience still obligatory?
Typed Answer: Based on the current timelines the migration is planned for Zurich, we are reviewing internally if we want to make changes to the timelines. We will communicate in case those changes are happening.
Q67: Do you mean not all platform analytics features are available in the workspace view? Can you name a couple?
Typed Answer: Well some workspaces only have the dashboard editor, so there is no dashboard library, no visualization editor, no visualization library, no filter creator or filter library etc. Some of the libraries but no dashboard editor and so on. Some workspaces have not set up the communication between all of this correctly while in our platform analytics experience, we can control everything and make sure its working as it should and everything is available.
Q68: In platform analytics, will an admin be able to change the created by or owner of a data visualization when an employee leaves the company?
Typed Answer: Yes, there is a specific field for all Dashboards and Data visualization that can be changed when an employee leaves
Q69: I understand workbench visualizations (in classic) are specific to Performance analytics, but would that be available to create in the Platform analytics?
Typed Answer: It's on the roadmap to redo the workbench but not available yet
Q70: Can we (or PAC members) upvote items on the roadmap, please? What's the best way to get what we want from your team? Support tickets?
Typed Answer: Right now roadmap is honestly largely decided by what gets people moved to platform analytics from CoreUI as quickly as possible, so that is largely driven by usage data on the current migration gaps. A lot of things like a workbench or some kind of admin/governance thing are migration gaps so they are prioritized by usage and how much they are blocking people from migrating over. Once those are resolved and we have everyone moved over we will have a more flexible roadmap.
Prior Platform Analytics Academy Sessions by Year
Click on the year below for all Platform Analytics Academy sessions held that year.
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