Content types

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Content types

    Content types in ServiceNow CMS provide site-specific control over how system data, defined by templates, is rendered on webpages. Each content type corresponds to a specific table and defines how documents from that table appear in lists, links, and detailed views across the site. This enables different pages within a site to display various types of content such as knowledge articles, catalog items, or incidents, each potentially with distinct themes and user interactions.

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    Key Features

    • Content Type Association: Each content type is linked to a database table and defines the presentation of its records on the site.
    • Site-Specific Customization: Content types can be customized per site, allowing different sites to use unique detail pages for the same content type.
    • Control Over Display: Content types determine how links to documents look, how list entries appear, and which detail view page displays the document content.
    • Integration with CMS Components: Content types govern how content is shown in search results, Current Document blocks, and links on lists.
    • Default Content Types: Common content types for tables like Catalog Item ([sccatitem]), Gauge ([sysgauge]), and Page ([contentpage]) are preconfigured in the base system.
    • Content Type Management: Users with the contentadmin role can create and customize content types; site administrators can override defaults using the Content Types related list on site records.
    • Advanced Customization: Changing content types at the template level requires knowledge of Apache Jelly scripting.
    • Support for Gauges: Content types can include graphical gauges to visually represent instance data.

    Practical Application

    For ServiceNow customers, understanding content types is essential to effectively control how various data records are displayed across different parts of their CMS sites. This enables tailored user experiences by applying distinct themes and detail pages for content types on a per-site basis. For example, a service catalog item list uses the sccatitem content type to control its display, and clicking an item shows a detail page defined by that content type's template.

    Customizing content types allows organizations to:

    • Ensure consistent and appropriate rendering of records across site pages.
    • Apply different visual styles and interaction models per site or content category.
    • Leverage default content types for common record types while tailoring others as needed.
    • Manage content presentation without changing the underlying data.

    Next Steps

    To tailor content display, ServiceNow customers should review and configure content types via the Content Types related list on site records, leveraging the contentadmin role for creation and modification. For advanced layout changes, familiarity with Apache Jelly scripting is necessary. Additionally, understanding related CMS concepts such as content sites, pages, templates, blocks, styles, and meta tags will support comprehensive content management.

    Content types provide site-specific control of how system data defined by templates is rendered.

    In the site, one page displays a list of knowledge articles, and another page displays catalog items or incidents or a combination of the two. Different themes can be used for types of content and each theme can provide different user interaction. Content types define the pages that display content from a table. Each content type corresponds to a table.

    Every type of document that the CMS displays has an associated content type. Changing the content type requires knowledge of Apache Jelly scripting. However, the common content types (such as service catalog or knowledge base) come in the base system. Content types can be associated with particular sites. This association allows different sites to use different detail pages for the same content type.

    Content types define three features of associated documents.
    • What does a link to one of these documents look like? For example, if a list of these documents is displayed on a page, how does each entry appear?
    • What does a detailed view of one of these documents look like?
    • What detail page is used to display the document? This decision is important and is often an area of confusion for new CMS users.

    The document content type determines the page that a list of documents points to, the list itself does not determine the page. The content from a link is displayed in a detail content block on a page. The content type determines in which detail block on a page the document content is displayed.

    For example, the list block Catalog Top 5 displays the top five items in the Service Catalog table [sc_cat_item]. Because the table is [sc_cat_item], the content type sc_cat_item controls how the Catalog Top 5 list is displayed. Clicking any item in the list displays the Service Catalog Detail page with the item displayed on it according to the detail template script. These content types are applied:
    • in search results to link to the correct page.
    • in the Current Document block to display the current record.
    • in links on lists and other places that link to record types.

    Several content types are available by default for tables such as Catalog Item [sc_cat_item], Gauge [sys_gauge], and Page [content_page].

    Content type defaults that are set for CMS can be overridden for individual sites. Use the Content Types related list on the site record to customize content types.