Agent Workspace VS Configurable Workspace (WEP)

[Jeremy Duncan]

SEE Updated content in our new COE, as mentioned by @Amanda.Joslin in the comments below. 

I wanted to take a moment to de-mystify the differences between "Agent" and "Next Experience" Configurable Workspace and share some of the fun findings i've found over the past couple of weeks! This pertains to those who have upgraded to Quebec (or are planning to) and have heard all the many wonderful things about managing Workspaces in UIB (UI Builder)! I've laid out some of the findings that I think will help as you navigate the management of both Workspace types.

I also highlight some of the differences in our latest TechNow episode (84). 

You can also find a great Creator Con lab on the Now Experience build of a Workspace.

Quick Tips:

• UIB: While both Agent Workspace and Configurable Workspace can be managed using UI Builder (UIB), they are not equal. 
• • Agent Workspace landing pages can still be managed in UIB, but you will NOT see the ability to add new variants with all of the fun new components available to you in Quebec (yet). 
  • • 
    • 
• App Engine Studio: New applications built with App Engine Studio (AWESOME NEW FEATURE BTW) will create Now Workspace Experiences by default, NOT Agent Workspace. You would need to create the workspace in UI16 as Agent Workspace is no longer in the Dev Studio Guided App Creator as a UI Experience.
• Workspace Brand: To do fun things like brand the Agent Workspace, check out a cool series of videos created by some Now Experience gurus to help you out. 
• Nav Modifications: To modify the right-hand navigation in Now Experience Workspace, check out this guide (Scroll to the bottom to see the how-to).
• • 
• AppShell Cheat: A useful AppShell UI Cheat Sheet can be found here. Props to @Akash Rajput for sharing this out on LinkedIn!

I'll post more findings as I come across them, and would LOVE to hear any findings you have as responses here! I've been building on this platform of platforms for over 9 years and couldn't be more excited about where the UI is taking us. With so many options at our fingertips, we have the opportunity to forge new paths for our customers!

If you found this helpful, please mark as such.

Thank you!

Jeremy

[Amanda_Joslin]

Thanks, Jeremy! There are great new features in UI Builder for Configurable workspaces in Quebec. We published a quick blog with the resources for getting started!

[Roman Haas]

Nice post Jeremy thank you. We are currently setting up the Agent Workspace. But we would like to use the Now Experience Workspace.

Now what I would like to know is if I can rebuild the Agent Workspace tabbed experience in the custom Now Experience Workspace? Is there an easy way?

[Jeremy Duncan]

Hey Roman, 

You can rebuild the experience from Agent in Now Experience Workspace. Here are some Now Experience components that you might consider when re-building your Agent experience in UIB: https://developer.servicenow.com/dev.do#!/reference/now-experience/quebec/components?categories%5B%5D=&query=tab&npm=false&uib=false 

Easy is a relative term :). I wouldn't call this configuration fully WYSIWYG quite yet. 

Best!

[Jeremy Duncan]

Thanks Amanda!

[Nilakantan V1]

Hi Jeremy,

Episode 84 was really cool.. i loved it. I have a query - I have created a new configurable workspace using Now UI Builder. I am able to add list filters. However, I am not able to add UI actions on records. I have tried adding a new UI action with the 'Workspace form button' checkbox ticked, as we used to do in the Agent Workspace, but it does not reflect on the record. Could you please guide on the way to get UI actions on the configurable workspace?

[Jeremy Duncan]

Hey @Nilakantan V 

A few things i'd check:

• Make sure you're setting the UI Action against the right table when creating, else it won't show on the correct form. 
• Role Requirements
• Conditions
• Hidden Details and UI Actions <-- My bet would be this one :).  

Please mark as helpful or correct if so. 🙂

[Nilakantan V1]

Hi Jeremy,

Thank you so much for your inputs. I tried all the above, it's not working. I checked on another instance, there is a custom UI action visible in the Agent Workspace for Case, but it's not showing on the new Configurable CSMFSM Workspace. 

Do you have any guide to migrate UI actions from the agent workspace to Configurable workspace?

Regards
Neel

[Jeremy Duncan]

Hey @Nilakantan V - check out this CC Lab for UI Action insight. 

[Robert Duca]

Hi Jeremy, question on approach for you. BTW I used to work with you back at your previous gig 🙂 

I have a customer who was an early adopter of Agent Workspace, the CSM group was the first to go forward with it. They in turn heavily customized if for their needs. 

I now have the ITSM organization wanting to use Agent Workspace, we are now on Rome. 

My concerns is how to move forward here... i wanted to avoid having to 'coexist' with the existing Agent Workspace as there is a so much to navigate around and to avoid. It doesn't help that a lot of the CSM agents have ITIL roles as well so trying to make the experience specific for an ITIL Agent vs. a CSM agent becomes problematic in my mind. Im thinking mainly about the interaction form and the agent assist requirements we have for ITSM vs CSM are completely different, literally night and day. None of the same fields, knowledge bases to search etc.

Also there is no funding to make this a joint effort to move CSM forward with their existing implementation (ie: migrate to CSM cfg workspace or UI builder)

Essentially we need to try and implement this for ITSM as if it were an OOTB pre-cfg and then configure for the ITSM specific needs only.

Is there anyway to completely break away from the things the CSM folks did as early adopters so we aren't tied to dance around their configurations and negatively impact their current experience?

I was hoping the ITSM Agent Workspace plug in would introduce some of that autonomy we are looking for but it still seems to try and coexist with CSM and doesn't really create its own workspace specific for ITSM agents.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated here. 

BTW.. we did experiment with simply performing an insert and stay on the OOTB agent workspace record in our personal instances and at first it looked promising but then we started running into issues trying to associate landing pages to it, having lists and categories show up, not being able to launch to it from the nave by changing the url path, etc. so we stopped and are now re-thinking that approach.

[Artemis15]

It's good to know that cheatsheet is spreading knowledge. Keep checking ninjabytes blogs to get hold of new untapped information.

P.S: I am going to update the cheatsheet to include more information about workspaces as well....

[Amanda_Joslin]

For the latest on Best Practices and FAQs on Web Experience Platform including Configurable Workspace, please check out the Center of Excellence. This Community Sub-Forum is monitored by ServiceNow Product Team so feel free to ask us questions there! Or attend one of our upcoming Academy sessions to get the information straight from ServiceNow product teams.

[Jeremy Duncan]

Thanks Amanda! I totally forgot to update this article, but you're keeping me on my toes!

[Jeremy Duncan]

Hey Robert! Short answer is that Agent will give you limited functionality and far fewer components, so I do recommend configurable workspace as a go-forward. 

I recommend some of our COE FAQs around this topic. One here specifically. 

The longer answer is that Agent and Configurable (WEP) are two different technologies (while they look similar) and can't be used interchangeably. 

You'll experience similar decision points around Angular Portal vs Next Experience Portal, but for now Service Portal is the go-to for enterprise end-user experiences. 

[Jeremy Duncan]

I have, and continue, to benefit greatly from this wonderful resource. Thanks for sharing!

[Jeremy Duncan]

Sorry for the delay in this response. Check this out!

[Jeremy Duncan]

Lookie how much it's grown from ~12 months ago!!

[Robert Duca]

thanks Jeremy great stuff and yes thats what we wond up doing... we limited scope to just agents and will look to try and port what we did over to Service Operations Portal in 2023 when we roll in L2/3 operations to the experience.