Domain separation and Sidebar

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Domain separation and Sidebar

    Domain separation in ServiceNow allows you to logically segregate data, processes, and administrative tasks into domains, controlling user access and visibility. For Sidebar, domain separation means that Sidebar discussions and features are accessible only within the context of the domain-specific records (such as tasks or interactions). Users can see and create Sidebar discussions only if they have access to the underlying record in their domain. This functionality requires a parent-child domain hierarchy setup and no additional complex configuration is needed.

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    Key Features

    • Standard Support Level: Includes domain-aware application properties and business logic tailored per tenant in multi-customer environments.
    • Domain-Specific Sidebar Activation: Sidebar can be enabled or disabled individually per domain via Conversational Interfaces settings or by inserting records in the syscscollabsettings table.
    • Version Requirements: Domain separation for Sidebar requires the Vancouver and August versions of the Sidebar store app (Omni Experience Standard Feature Set).
    • Known Issues: Emojis may not work correctly with domain separation; a workaround involves updating the Enable Emojis ACE Content block with the appropriate syscscollabsettings record ID.
    • Microsoft Teams Integration: When integrated with Sidebar, enabling or disabling Sidebar prompts manual activation or deactivation of the Microsoft Teams integration. Domain separation is not supported for multiple domains within Microsoft Teams, and pairing a unique Teams instance per domain is not supported.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    • Enable domain separation to ensure that Sidebar discussions and interactions are securely partitioned by domain, preserving tenant data privacy and process isolation.
    • Manage Sidebar activation per domain to control feature availability in multi-domain instances without complex configuration.
    • Be aware of the version prerequisites and known emoji workaround to maintain optimal user experience.
    • If using Microsoft Teams integration, plan for manual coordination of activation per domain and understand the limitation regarding multiple domains support.

    Domain separation is supported for Sidebar . Domain separation enables you to separate data, processes, and administrative tasks into logical groupings called domains. You can control several aspects of this separation, including which users can see and access data.

    Support level: Standard

    • Includes all aspects of Basic level support.
    • Application properties are domain-aware as needed.
    • Business logic: The service provider (SP) creates or modifies processes per customer. The use cases reflect proper use of the application by multiple SP customers in a single instance.
    • The instance owner must configure the minimum viable product (MVP) business logic and data parameters per tenant as expected for the specific application.

    Sample use case: An admin must be able to make comments required when a record closes for one tenant, but not for another.

    For more information on support levels, see Application support for domain separation.

    Overview of Domain separation and Sidebar

    To set up domain separation for Sidebar, enable domain separation for your instance. If your instance has multiple domains, you can turn Sidebar on or off for each domain. No special configuration is needed to configure a domain-separated environment with Sidebar. Domain separation for Sidebar is supported only when domains are set up using a parent-child domain hierarchy.

    Sidebar discussions are domain separated according to the base record (task or interaction record). You can see and create sidebar discussions only if you have access to the task or interaction record.

    For example, say INC00001 belongs to the record created in the ACME domain and the Cisco domain doesn't have access to INC00001. Users that belong to the Cisco domain can't interact with Sidebar discussions based on INC00001.

    Sidebar versions for domain separation

    To fully utilize domain separation, you must be on both the Vancouver version and August version of the Sidebar store app (Omni Experience Standard Feature Set).

    If you are a first time Sidebar user in Vancouver (you did not use Sidebar earlier and are not trued up to the Vancouver store app) and want to leverage domain separation, Sidebar is inactive by default. Navigate to the Conversational Interfaces settings page for each domain and activate Sidebar manually. Alternatively, you can access the sys_cs_collab_settings table and manually insert a new record for each domain.

    There is a known issue with emojis not working as expected when used with domain separation. A workaround for this issue is to go to the Enable Emojis ACE Content block and update the record field with the sys_cs_collab_settings record's sys_id for the given domain.

    Domain separation with the Sidebar and Microsoft Teams integration

    If Sidebar and Microsoft Teams are integrated and configured, activating Sidebar prompts a message stating that the Microsoft Teams integration must be manually turned on and deactivating Sidebar prompts a message stating that the integration with Microsoft Teams will also be turned off.

    Domain separation will not work with Microsoft Teams if multiple domains are configured. Pairing a unique Microsoft Teams with each domain is not supported.