Viewing related items on the Unified Map timeline

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Viewing related items on the Unified Map timeline

    The Unified Map timeline in ServiceNow provides a visual representation of Configuration Item (CI) history by displaying related items such as incidents, problems, and changes over a user-specified time period. This timeline helps you understand how events affect the topology of your CMDB and track the evolution of CIs and their relationships.

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    Key Features

    • Real-time and historical views: The map initially shows CIs and relationships as they exist now, but you can adjust the timeline to view data as of a specific date and time.
    • Synchronized map and timeline: The timeline and map update together based on the selected map time, showing CIs and related items relevant to that point in time.
    • Timeline navigation and customization: You can drag the map time marker to set the view, scroll through time, zoom to adjust the timeline span (up to six months in past or future), and use controls to quickly jump to the current time.
    • Related item markers and badges: Markers indicate related events on the timeline, with badges summarizing multiple items on the same date. You can hover over these markers to view details or manage them (replace, clear, or add markers).
    • Viewing options for related items: Selecting a CI shows its related items; selecting empty space on the map displays related items for all CIs currently shown.
    • Admin configuration: Administrators can define timeline properties globally, such as which related item details appear, tailoring the experience for all users.

    Practical Use and Benefits

    ServiceNow customers can leverage the Unified Map timeline to:

    • Visualize the impact of incidents, problems, and changes on specific CIs over time.
    • Understand historical and future states of the CMDB topology for better planning and troubleshooting.
    • Navigate temporal data intuitively to pinpoint events affecting service health and configuration.
    • Customize timeline views and markers to focus on relevant periods and events.
    • Enable administrators to control timeline information visibility, ensuring consistent user experience.

    This capability enhances situational awareness and facilitates informed decision-making about configuration management and incident resolution.

    The timeline indicates related items like incidents, problems, and changes over a specified period of time for the selected CI. You can use the timeline to visualize the history of changes to a CI and how they affect the topology of the CMDB.

    Viewing related items

    • When you first open a map, CIs and relationships appear as they are at the current moment in time. When you select a CI on the map, the timeline displays related items for the CI.

    • You can drag the map time marker (A in the image) on the timeline to specify the end date (the map time) for data that should appear on the map and on the timeline. The default map time is "now", but you can specify a particular date or drag the marker to a date.

    • The map and the timeline are synchronized. The map shows the selected CI and its connections as they existed (based on the creation date of nodes) at the specified map time. The timeline displays markers (B in the image) to indicate related items that happened at or before map time.

      The timeline indicates all related items for the CI within a time span that happened before the specified map time.

    • You can also specify the overall time span (C in the image) of the timeline view.

    • CIs that were created after the map time don't appear on the timeline and don't affect items on the timeline.
    • Multiple related items on the same date are indicated by a badge that shows the count of related items.

    Actions on the timeline

    Desired result Action
    Show or hide the timeline Select the Timeline icon .
    Set the map time marker (and therefore the items on the map) to the current time Select Now.
    Set map time to a particular date and time Drag the map time marker.
    Scroll the timeline toward the past or the future Select an arrow at the side of the timeline.
    View the date and time for a related item marker Move to the marker.
    View the details for a related item Move to the badge for the related item.
    Change the time span of the timeline

    Select a zoom icon or .

    The time span can range from six months in the past to six months in the future.

    A related item that has occurred or that will occur outside the range doesn't appear on the timeline. Such related items, however, still appear in the corresponding Related items panel. In addition, a badge in the map might show data for the related item.
    Manage a marker

    Select the marker, select the more actions icon , and then select one of the following actions:

    • Replace marker: Replace the current marker with a marker for the specified date.
    • Clear marker: Clear all markers.
    • Add marker: Add a marker for the specified date.
    View related items for all CIs on the map Select an empty space on the map.

    Configuring general timeline properties

    Admins can configure some properties of the timeline that affect all users, such as which related item details appear on timelines. For more information, see Configure how to display related items on the map.