Configuring Service Portal

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated April 27, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Configuring Service Portal

    This guide outlines the key steps for planning and setting up a self-service portal using Service Portal in ServiceNow Australia release. It covers creating or updating portals, branding, page and widget configuration, search setup, and access management to deliver an effective user experience for employees or customers.

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    Key Features

    • Portal Creation and Customization: Define the portal record to set URL extensions, knowledge bases, catalogs, homepages, header menus, and branding. You can create new portals or update existing base system portals to meet your organizational needs.
    • Branding Configuration: Use the Branding Editor for real-time style and theme adjustments with live previews. Advanced users may also create CSS style sheets, but changes in the Branding Editor override these. For further customization, creating a portal theme is recommended.
    • Page and Widget Management: Pages control layout and mobile responsiveness, organizing widgets that define page content. Customers can use base system pages and widgets as templates or build new pages and custom widgets for tailored user experiences.
    • Search Configuration: Configure search sources to retrieve data from single or multiple ServiceNow tables or external sites. Enable AI Search to enhance query intelligence and help users find answers quickly.
    • Access Management: Control portal security by setting pages as public or restricted, configuring user login and single sign-on, enforcing multi-factor authentication, and applying advanced user criteria for granular access to pages and widgets.
    • Approval Configuration: Customize the Service Portal Approval Configuration record to optimize AI-assisted approval workflows and widgets for your specific business scenarios.
    • Upgrade Considerations: After upgrading from earlier releases, additional tasks may be necessary to leverage new or enhanced Service Portal features.

    Practical Outcomes

    • Deliver a branded, responsive self-service portal that aligns with your company’s requirements and enhances user engagement.
    • Efficiently organize content and functionality through pages and widgets to create intuitive user experiences.
    • Implement powerful, AI-enabled search capabilities to improve information discovery.
    • Enforce robust access controls ensuring the right users have appropriate permissions.
    • Leverage approval configuration to streamline and improve approval processes within the portal.
    • Ensure your portal remains current and functional by performing necessary post-upgrade steps.

    Plan and set up a self-service portal for your employees or customers.

    Configuration overview

    This workflow provides a high-level overview for configuring a portal. However, there may be use cases where performing these steps in a different order is preferred.

    1. Upgrade Service Portal

      If you upgraded from a previous release, you may have to perform additional tasks to take advantage of new or updated functionality in Service Portal.

    2. Create a portal or update a base system portal

      A portal is the engine that houses all the references to content for your site. The portal record defines the URL extension for a site, as well as things like the knowledge base, catalog, and homepage. You can also use the portal record to define the header menu and the portal branding. You can create a portal or update an existing base system portal to suit your needs.

    3. Configure portal branding

      With the Branding Editor, you can configure the styles and theme of your portal in a view with real-time updates. You can see how your portal appears to users. More advanced users still have the option of creating CSS style sheets for the portal theme. However, they won't take advantage of the real-time update that the Branding Editor provides. Changes made in the Branding Editor or to specific components of the portal (such as a widget or a page container) override any customizations made to the theme. If you need more customization than what the Branding Editor can provide, see Create a portal theme.

    4. Create new pages or update base system pages and configure widgets

      Pages are the centerpiece of the end-user experience. Page definitions not only control the layout of the content, they craft the experience for the user. Pages also help define mobile responsiveness, which is a key component in the user experience. Use any existing base system pages as an example for your own creation or create new pages from scratch.

      Widgets are what define the content of your pages. You can use the base system widgets provided with Service Portal to get started configuring pages.

    5. Configure search in a portal

      Search data displays within a widget on the search page. To make data searchable from a portal, create a search source that fetches data from a single table within your instance, from multiple tables, or from an external site. Enable AI Search to take advantage of intelligent query features and quickly find the answers they need.

    6. Manage access to a portal

      Manage who can access your portal by making pages public, configuring user logins and single sign-on, limiting page access by role, or enabling multi-factor authentication. You can also use advanced user criteria for access to pages, widgets, and more.

    Common portal configurations

    The following video shows examples of common portal configurations.