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The following lines may not mean a great gain in knowledge, and I am sure that one or the other author has already written about this topic here in the community before me. However, since the result is quite interesting, it was worth a new article for me. |
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While this makes this field type perfect for data processing, in practice it comes with a few downsides. For example, in the list view, the search field in the table header is disabled. Furthermore, all values are written one after the other separated by a comma, which makes the list difficult to read. And last but not least, the list is truncated after 40 characters.
The Watch list should be presented a bit more user-friendly and also be enhanced with a few useful features. For example, it would be nice to be able to see at a glance if the specified user is disabled and/or locked out. Also, the names and email addresses should be linked so that clicking on them either opens the record view or an email client.
ServiceNow unfortunately doesn't know the concept of custom renderers (at least I haven't been able to find one yet). For this reason we need a new field that does not get the content from the user input but calculates it (so-called "Calculated Field").
For this purpose we can go to System Definition > Dictionary and create a new field for the table "task" as follows (the important configurations are marked with red arrows):
At the field "Calculation" the following script has to be entered:
(function calculatedFieldValue(current) {
if (current.watch_list && current.watch_list.toString().length > 0) {
var grUser = new GlideRecord('sys_user');
var arrOutput = [];
var arrUsers = [];
var arrEmails = [];
//write the sys IDs and the email addresses into two separate arrays
current.watch_list.split(',').forEach(function(value) {
if (value.indexOf('@') > -1) {
arrEmails.push(value);
}
else if (value.length == 32) {
arrUsers.push(value);
}
});
//the watch list contains Sys IDs of sys_user records
if (arrUsers.length > 0) {
grUser.addQuery('sys_idIN' + arrUsers.join(','));
grUser.query();
while (grUser.next()) {
var arrStyles = [];
arrOutput.push('<a class="linked" ');
if (grUser.locked_out) {
arrStyles.push('color: red;');
}
if (!grUser.active) {
arrStyles.push('text-decoration: line-through;');
}
if (arrStyles.length > 0) {
arrOutput.push('style="');
arrOutput.push(arrStyles.join(''));
arrOutput.push('" ');
}
arrOutput.push('href="sys_user.do?sys_id=');
arrOutput.push(grUser.getUniqueValue());
arrOutput.push('" target="blank">');
arrOutput.push(grUser.getDisplayValue());
arrOutput.push('</a><br/>');
}
}
//the watch list contains email addresses
arrEmails.forEach(function(strEmail) {
arrOutput.push('<a href="mailto:');
arrOutput.push(strEmail);
arrOutput.push('">');
arrOutput.push(strEmail);
arrOutput.push('</a><br/>');
});
//wrap generated HTML code into a [code][/code] block to be rendered accordingly
return '[code]' + arrOutput.join('') + '[/code]';
}
return '';
})(current);
That code performs the following steps:
- Split the value of the "Watch list" field into an array.
- Iterate that resulting array and separate the Sys IDs as well as the email addresses into two new arrays.
- Build the resulting HTML code by:
- Iterating over the sys_user records and formatting the user's display name depending on whether the user account is disabled and/or locked out.
- Iterating over the email addresses and building "mailto:" links.
- Wrap the resulting HTML code into a [code] [/code] block, which is necessary for the correct interpretation of the HTML code by ServiceNow
The resulting list looks as follows
User names and email addresses are linked.
Visual indicators for deactivated (crossed out) and/or locked out (red color) accounts.
Each value is written in a new line.
Nothing is cut off.
The given approach really only works for the list views in the UI16. In other experiences, the content is masked and printed as it is:
And it is also not helpful to place the new field on the record form:
