Best way to remove a dashboard tab from a scoped application

[mikkojuola]

Hello all reporting and dashboard experts!

We have a Built on Now application available in the ServiceNow Store and these scoped apps have some "limitions" on what should and should not be done when developing them and we've found dashboards to be a bit tricky.

Now I have one specific question where I hope someone could provide quick guidance.

How to remove a tab from a dashboard that has multiple tabs?

In scoped apps, one should not just delete records, since deletions are not passed on to the install base with upgrades. One cannot "break" the link between a dashboard tab and a dashboard since Dashboard reference on a tab is a mandatory field.

So, how should we do it? The only option I know would work 100% is to recreate the whole dashboard and not include the tab we'd like to remove.

Best regards,

--Mikko

[Mark Manders]

Never tried it, but I think you will end up with 2 dashboards, since the existing one will still be on the target instance (sys_id and all)? But this is an assumption of mine, not completely clear on how an app upgrades (I also assume customizations will stay on the target and if the 'old' dashboard is not in the app, it's seen as a customization).

Can't you delete it via script? Create a fix script that runs after an upgrade of the app, deleting the tab.  

If my answer helped you in any way, please then mark it as helpful.

Mark

[mikkojuola]

Hi,

I suppose fix script should work, but for some reason I'm not a big fan of that approach. And yes, this would result in two dashboards and that's another issue to address either by deactivation or renaming etc.

Looking forward to start developing dashboards with new UI/Dashboard Builder, hoping that those would manage upgrades better, but they are not quite there yet to do what we've done so far.

Cheers,

--Mikko