Configure variables in a record producer for appointment booking

Create specific variables in a Service Catalog record producer to capture essential details such as location and contact information when users book appointments.

Before you begin

Role required: appointment_booking_admin

Ensure you have an existing Service Catalog record producer to configure.

About this task

By configuring catalog item variables for appointment booking, you can:

• Clearly prompt users to specify accurate details like location and contact, ensuring efficient scheduling.
• Ensure appointment details are precise and complete, reducing errors or rescheduling.
• Simplify the booking process by guiding users with clearly defined variables and questions.

Procedure

1. Navigate to All > Service Catalog > Catalog Definitions > Record Producers.
2. Click the desired record producer.
3. In the Variable related list, click New.
4. On the form, fill in the fields.

Table 1. Variable New Record

Field	Description
Application	(Read-only) Automatically populated based on the application scope.
Type	Choose a supported variable type. If you use unsupported variables, Service Catalog might not integrate the data in the right format.
Catalog item	Catalog item that uses the variable.
Order	Define the display order of variables. Lower values appear first. For example, a variable with an order value of 1 is placed ahead of other variables with higher-order values.
Active	This is a read only field and is enabled based on the Publish, Retire, or Edit actions.
Mandatory	Select if users must provide a response when requesting the service. Note: You can adjust this dynamically through client scripts or APIs.
Question	Question that you can ask users ordering the catalog item, to obtain related information. For example, "Enter appointment location".
Name	Name to identify the question. Note: If this field is empty, its value is auto-populated based on the Question field for all variable types except Break, Container Split, and Container End.
Tooltip	Tooltip text to display when users point to the variable. Enter a brief note to describe the purpose of the question.
Example Text	Question field hint that appears before a user enters a value. You can use a hint for the following variables: Email URL Single Line Text Multi Line Text Wide Single Line Text
Type Specification	Provide additional information or configuration specific to the selected variable type.

5. Click Submit.
6. Optional: Repeat steps 3 through 5 to create additional variables for the same catalog item record producer.

Result

The service catalog record producer creates the new variable record in the selected table.

What to do next

After creating your variables, link them to the Appointment Booking table so they appear correctly in the booking calendar interface. For more information, see Create a business rule to automatically generate appointment records from catalog item variables