Set up Configurable Portal widgets

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  • Updated March 12, 2026
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    Summary of Set up Configurable Portal widgets

    Configurable Portal widgets in ServiceNow enable you to tailor the behavior, content, and layout of your customer portals through instance options. These widgets allow you to modify widget behavior, visual appearance, and content dynamically, reducing the need for custom development and simplifying maintenance.

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    Key Features

    • Configurable Behavior: Adjust widget instance options to match specific business requirements and user interactions.
    • Reusability: Easily update existing widgets by changing instance options without creating new widgets.
    • Visual Experience: Customize colors, alignment, and styles to align with your organization's branding and improve usability.
    • Content Modification: Control displayed data by mapping widgets to data sets and applying filters or parameters.
    • No Code or Low Code Configuration: Make changes to data, behavior, and presentation with minimal coding effort.
    • Widget Instances: Configure widget placement, properties, and CSS specific to each instance for greater flexibility.

    Configurable Portal Widgets for Homepage Setup

    The following widgets help configure the portal homepage experience:

    • Portal Polaris Header widget: Displays key features like logo, search, profile, and menu items arranged in two header levels.
    • Portal Mega Menu widget: Hierarchical menu navigation on the portal header for easy page access.
    • Portal Browse Taxonomy widget: Shows taxonomy topics with related articles and catalog items.
    • Portal Banner widget: Displays announcements or highlights at the top of the page.
    • Portal Banner Carousel widget: Shows multiple banners in a rotating carousel format.
    • Portal Quick Links widget: Provides quick access links to articles, catalog items, custom pages, or external URLs with layout options.
    • Portal Knowledge Quick Links widget: Lists knowledge articles selected by criteria or manually.
    • Portal Catalog Quick Links widget: Displays important catalog request items based on filters.
    • Portal Case Cards widget: Shows filtered case records with key details in card format.
    • Portal Data List widget: Lists records like cases or work orders from any ServiceNow table in list or card view.
    • Portal FAQ widget: Presents frequently asked knowledge articles categorized by topic or product.
    • Portal Polaris Footer widget: Displays company info, site links, and social media links at the bottom of pages.
    • Portal Object widget: Shows key record information from ServiceNow tables with actionable options.
    • Portal Taxonomy Topic widget: Displays topics as cards linking to related knowledge articles and catalog items.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging configurable portal widgets, customers can efficiently customize their portals to enhance user experience, reduce development overhead, and maintain consistent branding. These widgets enable rapid adaptation to changing business needs with minimal coding, ensuring portals remain relevant and user-friendly.

    Configurable Portal widgets provide you with the ability to configure the behavior, content, and layout of a portal by configuring instance options.

    By using configurable widgets, you can configure widget behavior, visual appearance, and content to update the information presented on the widgets. Configurable widgets also reduce the amount of work required to implement and maintain widgets for your users.

    Configurable Portal widget benefits

    Configurable Portal widgets offer the following benefits:
    • Configurable behavior: Configure widget instance options to achieve behavioral variations tailored to your business environment.
    • Reusability: The ability to update instance options enables you to reconfigure widgets having to create new widgets from scratch.
    • Visual experience: Improve the usability and aesthetics of widgets and their conformance to your organization's look and feel by configuring visual aspects including colors, alignment, and styles.
    • Content modification: Control the data sources or content that you want to display on the portal by mapping the widgets to data sets and configuring filters or parameters to control the information presented.
    • No code or low code configuration: Update the data, behavior, and presentation of the widgets with minimal code or by updating the instance options.

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

    Widget instances

    You can use widget instances to configure the location, properties, and CSS specific to that instance. For more information, see Configure widget instances.

    The following are Configurable Portal widgets that enable you to configure the portal homepage.
    Widget Description
    Portal Polaris Header widget Display access key features and pages from any place in portal. It shows logo, search, profile, and others on level 1 of the header, and menu items on level 2 of the header.

    The appearance of menu items in level 2 of the header is determined by the Portal Mega Menu widget selected.
    Portal Mega Menu widget The menu on the header of the portal home page to navigate to different pages. It displays topics in a menu format organized hierarchically.
    Portal Browse Taxonomy widget Display taxonomy topics along with the articles and catalog items related to them.
    Portal Banner widget Banner to display the announcements, new product or feature highlights, and important information on the top of the page.
    Portal Banner Carousel widget Displays multiple banners in a carousel to display information on multiple announcements, features, and products.
    Portal Quick Links widget Display different links for quick access including links to a knowledge article, a catalog item, a custom page, or an external URL. You can also select different layouts for quick links cards.
    Portal Knowledge Quick Links widget Display a list of articles for quick access. Articles can be selected based on featured articles, most viewed articles and more criteria or can be selected manually.
    Portal Catalog Quick Links widget Displays catalog items for important request items based on the criteria.
    Portal Case Cards widget Displays case records according to the filter criteria. You can display case details such as state, update, date, and more in a card format.
    Portal Data List widget Displays a list of cases, appointments, work orders, or other records from any ServiceNow table in list or card format.
    Portal FAQ widget Displays a list of frequently asked articles from a selected knowledge table that are categorized based on knowledge article category or related product.
    Portal Polaris Footer widget Display important information at the bottom of each page. The information includes company information and logo, site links, external links, and social media links.
    Portal Object widget Display key information of a record from the tables available on ServiceNow® table. Your users can also take related actions on the selected record.
    Portal Taxonomy Topic widget Displays topics as cards on your portal page enabling your users to access knowledge articles and catalog items related to a topic displayed on your portal in a Portal Browse Taxonomy widget.