What is the best practice for removing/deleting variables from catalog items?

[johnnyw]

We have quite a few catalog items that have different variables on them.   There have been some requests to update the catalog items to remove some questions (variables) since some are no longer needed.

To accomplish this, I have been deleting the variable from the catalog item setup to keep it clean.   However, I see an issue with this since any already submitted Request Items that had this variable populated before will no longer have this variable show and will make the request item look incomplete.  

So my question is, what is the best practice for removing any catalog item variables that are no longer needed?

Thanks,

Johnny

[ccajohnson]

A good rule of thumb is that if the variable was ever used for submission, to not delete it. It would make more sense to just hide it from the new submission form and determine what date range the variable should be visible on Requested Item and Catalog Task records.

Let me know if you want to pursue this path and I can give you some samples of ways to hide it through form based UI Policies.

[johnnyw]

Thanks Christopher.

I understand the logic and reasoning, but does this become difficult to manage?

[ccajohnson]

I believe that Sean may have a simpler solution. If he is correct, then variables keep their active attributes on the form after submission and do not need to be handled through a UI Policy as I suggested.

[jo_2016]

Please advise if there is any solution for this - I've been creating a copy of the catalog item and removing it then publishing the new catalog item as a messy work around.