GOV.UK Design System Service Portal Widget Library

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated June 1, 2026
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of GOV.UK Design System Service Portal Widget Library

    The GOV.UK Design System (GDS) Service Portal Widget Library provides configurable widgets that enable you to customize the behavior, content, and layout of your Service Portal. These widgets serve as the building blocks for configuring pages and portals within the GDS framework on the ServiceNow platform. Base-system widgets come pre-packaged and are read-only to ensure you benefit from future updates, but you can clone and customize them as needed to fit your organization’s specific requirements.

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    Widget Categories and Their Uses

    • Service Catalog Widgets: Enable users to browse, search, request, and track services and catalog items within the portal. These widgets facilitate a streamlined service catalog experience by organizing services clearly and supporting request submission and tracking.
    • Knowledge Management Widgets: Allow users to search, browse, and interact with knowledge articles directly in the portal. These widgets improve self-service capabilities by providing easy navigation and access to relevant articles, ratings, and comments.
    • Service Portal Configuration Page Widgets: Designed for administrators to set up and manage the portal experience, these widgets assist with configuring portals, pages, themes, and widgets through visual editors and structured layouts. They power behind-the-scenes tools like the Portal Map and Branding Editor.
    • Service Portal Header and Footer Widgets: Used in configuring the layout and design of portal headers and footers, enhancing the branding and navigational elements of your portal.
    • Search Widgets: Provide powerful search capabilities across the portal, including predictive search, filtering, and context-aware suggestions to help users quickly find knowledge articles, catalog items, and records from a single search interface.

    Widget Instances and Configuration

    Each widget placed on a page creates a unique widget instance, which inherits logic and styling from its base widget but can be individually configured. This allows different widget instances on the same or different pages to be tailored for distinct purposes, such as targeting different knowledge bases or customizing display options.

    When you add a widget to a page, an instance record is created with references to the widget, its location on the page, and configuration details (including JSON-defined options). This granular configurability lets you control the widget’s behavior, appearance, and placement to best fit your portal’s user experience.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Quickly implement a fully functional, customizable service catalog and knowledge base within your portal.
    • Maintain up-to-date widgets by using base-system versions while customizing through cloning to suit specific needs.
    • Use configuration page widgets and visual editors to efficiently manage portal structure, themes, and design without deep technical intervention.
    • Enhance user experience with advanced search functionality to improve findability of services and information.
    • Leverage widget instances to deliver tailored content and features across different portal pages, improving relevance and usability.

    Configurable Portal widgets provide you with the ability to configure the behavior, content, and layout of the GDS Service Portal by configuring widget settings and instance options.

    Service Portal uses widgets for configuration. When you configure a page or a widget for a portal on the Service Portal Configuration page, you use Service Portal widgets to do so. The following is a list of base-system widgets that are included with the toolkit that enable you to configure various pages within the GDS Service Portal, and their instance options.

    You can use these widgets as is, or you can duplicate and edit them to suit your needs. For information on how to clone and edit a default GDS Service Portal widget, see Customize Widgets for GOV.UK Design System Service Portal pages.

    For more information on using configurable widgets in portals, see Using portal widgets.

    Note:
    Base system widgets are read-only so you can benefit from future updates. To make changes, you can clone base system widgets. However, cloned widgets are considered custom and don't benefit from future updates to the widgets they were cloned from. To learn more about cloning or creating widgets, see Developing custom widgets.

    There are five main categories of widgets available for use with the GDS Service Portal.

    Service Catalog widgets

    Service Catalog widgets let you browse, request, and track services directly from the Service Portal. They provide the building blocks for a complete Service Catalog experience, allowing you to find what you need and submit requests in one central place.

    Use Service Catalog widgets to do the following:
    • Browse available services and catalog items.
    • Search the catalog from the portal homepage.
    • View services by category.
    • Order catalog items and submit requests.
    • Track your requests and approvals.

    These widgets display service information in a clear, task‑focused way. For example, some widgets help you search or browse the catalog, while others let you view request details or check the status of items you have already ordered. For more information, see .

    Knowledge Management widgets

    Knowledge Management widgets let you search, browse, and read knowledge articles directly in the GDS Service Portal, so you can find answers to their questions and learn how to use services without contacting support. These widgets provide the core components for building a knowledge experience that helps you find answers quickly and consistently. For more information on creating and maintaining the articles that are shown on the Knowledge Management widgets, see

    Use Knowledge Management widgets to do the following:
    • Search the knowledge base for information and solutions.
    • Browse knowledge bases and categories.
    • View knowledge articles and related content.
    • See popular, featured, or top‑rated articles.
    • Interact with articles by rating or commenting, when available.

    These widgets organize knowledge content in a clear and easy‑to‑navigate way. Some widgets help you discover articles through search and filters, while others display article details and related information on the article page. For more information, see .

    Service Portal configuration page widgets

    Service Portal configuration page widgets help you set up and manage your Service Portal experience. Use these widgets when you configure portals, pages, themes, and widgets in the Service Portal Configuration workspace, rather than for end‑user interaction.

    Configuration page widgets are included as part of the Service Portal Configuration Pages plugin [com.glide.service-portal.config], which is activated automatically when you activate the Service Portal for Enterprise Service Management plugin [com.glide.service-portal.esm].

    These widgets support portal configuration tasks such as:
    • Navigating Service Portal configuration pages.
    • Viewing portals and pages in a structured, tree‑based layout.
    • Editing portal themes and previewing design changes.
    • Configuring pages and widgets using visual editors.

    Service Portal configuration page widgets run behind the scenes and are internal to the configuration experience. For example, they power tools like the Portal Map, Page Map, Branding Editor, and Widget Editor, helping you understand and manage how your portal is structured and displayed. For more information, see .

    Service Portal Header and Footer page widgets

    Service Portal configuration page widgets help you set up and manage your Service Portal experience. Use these widgets when you configure portals, pages, themes, and widgets in the Service Portal Configuration workspace, rather than for end‑user interaction.

    These widgets support portal configuration tasks such as:
    • Navigating Service Portal configuration pages.
    • Viewing portals and pages in a structured, tree‑based layout.
    • Editing portal themes and previewing design changes.
    • Configuring pages and widgets using visual editors.

    Service Portal configuration page widgets run behind the scenes and are internal to the configuration experience. For example, they power tools like the Portal Map, Page Map, Branding Editor, and Widget Editor, helping you understand and manage how your portal is structured and displayed. For more information, see .

    Search widgets

    Service Portal search widgets let you find information quickly across the Service Portal. Use these widgets to search for knowledge articles, catalog items, records, and other content without navigating through multiple pages.

    Search widgets help you to do the following:
    • Search for answers, services, and records from a single search bar.
    • See relevant results as you type with predictive search.
    • Filter and refine search results to find what you need faster.
    • Get suggested or context‑aware results while submitting requests.

    Service Portal search widgets work in different locations, such as the portal homepage, search results page, or within record producers. Some widgets display a simple search bar, while others show detailed results with filters and facets for easier discovery. For more information, see .

    Widgets and Widget Instances

    Each widget added to a page becomes its own instance. Because widgets are reusable and can appear on different pages to allow the user to do different things, the application of a widget on a page is referred to as a Widget Instance. The page loads with content represented by instances of a widget specific to that page.

    Widget instances get their logic from the base widget template, client scripts, server scripts, and depending on the widget, CSS.

    You can have several instances of the same widget on a page, and each instance of the widget you configure remains unique. For example, each instance of a Knowledge widget on a page could map to a different knowledge base, or be organized in a different way.

    Adding a widget to a page creates a new Widget Instance, as well as a record on the Widget Instances [sp_instance] table with the following information:
    • A reference to the widget
    • A reference to the column of the page where the widget is located
    • The configuration for a widget in the form of pre-defined form fields and an Additional Options field in JSON format

    You can use widget instances to configure the location, properties, and CSS specific to that instance of the widget.

    For more information on configuring widget instances, see Configure Widgets Instance Options for GOV.UK Design System Service Portal pages.