custom form for app: UI page, service portal widget or Agent Workspace component?

[Michael Culhan1]

Kind of a basic question here: I would like to build a simple employee check-in application where users mark their presence for each day in a given week and these records are then sent to back office for further processing.  The entry of records will be achieved with an SP widget which lines up the days horizontally, similar to the the SNOW Timecard app.  In terms of back office processing, the interface will be very similar to the widget with some additional functions.  So my questions are:

• For the backoffice users, do I need to rebuild the widget in a ui page? 
• Or should I have the app live in its own service portal and have the back office users access it from there (though it seems I would then have to duplicate the other platform ui functions like lists)? 
• I've read a bit about Agent Workspace components, are these a viable option for the back office part of the app (which will involve some data entry)?

Many thanks for the help.

[DirkRedeker · Accepted solution]

Hi

If you want to customize a Service Portal, you can create or copy an existing Portal Header for your endeavour.

To modify logic of Widgets, you need to CLONE them first. Then place them on existing or NEW pages within your portal.

For the Agent Workspace, this is also an option, because you can show your backend forms in Agent workspace as well, which means when you have backend forms that fits to be used in that layout in Agent Workspace, you can do so, by calling the Form view "Workspace" in your backend.

But if you want to have a complete custom layout - as you wrote above with a horizontal line-up - you would need to create NOW UI Experience Components, which is a quite new technology in Servicenow (as of 02.10.2020 - today, dear future readers :-)).

I would not recommend to start for this scenario on the (still a bit limited - for customers - technology). Also, the learning curve to there is a bit steeper.

If you want to jumpstart there, refer to my artikle on starting with UI Experience (on Agent Workspace):

Article #11 - Fast Track to your first "Now Experience UI Framework Component"

If you go the Service Portal path, you do not need to re-build this app in the backend, because all backend users can also access the Service Portal. The Service Portal offers access to backend and NON-backend users - which may be an additional benefit for you.

You can also build you completely custom UI Pages in the backend, but they will only be available in the backend, for backend users - and not in Agent WOrkspace and NOT in the Service Portal.

So, for your current requirement, maybe it is best to go the Service Portal path.

Let me know if that answers your question and mark my answer as correct and helpful.

BR

Dirk

BR

Dirk

[Runjay Patel]

Learn Agent Workspace from scratch to end with real world implementation and get live project hands-on.

Step by Steps implementation: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIGcZxQaeEoj0XXBqTfReQwR44OeDYYb0

This Series help you to understand below topics

1. How to setup Agent Workspace
2. Plugins required.
3. Create Studio application for Agent Workspace.
4. Lading Page configuration in details.
5. List Layout and Categories configuration.
6. Form Layout, Header and Ribbon configuration
7. UI Actions and notifications.
8. Global search and Agent assist.
9. Live Agent chat configurations.
10. Integrate Connect Support with Agent Workspace
11. Difference between Agent Workspace and ITSM Agent Workspace?
12. Custom form for app: UI page, service portal widget or Agent Workspace component?
13. View and Create Reports in Agent Workspace
14. For LIVE AGENT where the service desk can access to the chat in back-end? via AGENT WORKSPACE OR CONNECT SUPPORT
15. Agent Workspace - convert incidents to Request Items and vice-versa
16. Add Knowledge search in Agent Workspace to Contextual form
17. UI Action to pop up Email from Agent Workspace
18. Bar Graph
19. Open frame API in Agent Workspace
20. How to use Assignment workbench in Agent Workspace?
21. Viewing Interaction Records in Agent Workspace
22. Agent Chat in Service Portal without Virtual Agent
23. And many more.

[J_ DeLuna]

Yes you CAN do this. I've been doing this for two years now and have implemented Google Maps/Places linked to integrations that then open new Workspace tabs for any record.

Record searches...anything.

Here's the catch. You have to create a custom Workspace component that will also accommodate two more parameters. You will need the table parameter and the record id parameter to pass through to your custom iFrame. 

Also, you cannot tell it's an iFrame. This is currently implemented for one of the largest corporations in the world.