Dot-walking from reference fields in a data visualization

Dot-walking provides access to fields on extended, or related, tables, enabling you to create data visualizations on fields from those tables.

You can access references on extended tables from the Metric, Group by/Stack by, column/row, or Trend by fields in the Configuration panel, or when you add custom conditions when you choose the data source. The Sorting option also enables you to configure the sort order of applicable reference fields on extended tables. Tables that reference other tables are denoted with an arrow () icon.

Dot-walking references a field by building a chain of field names separated by dots (periods). For instance, incident.assigned_to.company references the company of the user assigned to an incident. The recommended limit for chain length is three levels.

Note:

Dot-walking applies only to visualizations of table data sources.

Related topics

• Dot-walking examples

Dot walk fields in Visualization Designer

Learn how to dot walk table fields in a data visualization of table data. See how to start from a parent table, such as Task, and dot walk to include data from extended tables, such as Indicator and Problem.

Before you begin

Role required: itil, report_user, report_group, report_global, report_admin, or admin.

About this task

Note:

If you cannot dot-walk from any of your fields, check with a ServiceNow AI Platform administrator whether the system UI property glide.ui.list.allow_extended_fields is enabled on your instance.

Procedure

1. Navigate to All > Platform Analytics > Library > Data Visualizations.
2. Select New.
3. Create any of the data visualizations, selecting a table data source.
4. Open one of the following sections of the configuration tab, depending on the visualization type:
   • The condition builder that opens with + Add custom conditions on the data source.
   • Metric
   • Group by
   • Trend by
   • Columns
5. Edit or add an item in the section
   For a metric, select an aggregation other than Count.
6. Under Field, navigate to the desired reference field.
   Reference fields have an Expand arrow .
7. Select the Expand arrow to show a list of fields in the table that the reference field points to.
   
   
   
8. Select a field, or continue to dot walk across reference fields until you find the desired field.
9. Select OK or Apply.

Dot-walking to two tables that extend Task [task]

In this example, you create a simple list of data from the Task table and include fields from the Indicator [indicator] and Problem [problem] tables, which extend Task.

1. You navigate to the Data Visualizations list in the Platform Analytics library and select New.
2. In the Visualization type field, you select Simple list ().
3. In the Configuration tab, you keep the default Task [task] table.
   
   
4. In the Columns field, you select +Add and scroll down to Incident.
5. Next to Incident, you see an Expand arrow that indicates you can dot-walk. So you click that arrow, and scroll down through the fields on the Incident table until you reach the Category field, which you select.
   
   
6. You repeat this process to add the Problem.Related incident field.
7. Add the Number, State, Assigned to, and Short Description fields, and move them into the order you want.
8. To see only relevant entries, you add the following filters:
   • Active is true AND
   • Category [Incident] is not Null OR
   • Related Incidents [Problem] is not empty
9. You save the visualization and title it Active Incidents and Problems.

The final visualization shows either Incident.Category values, Problem.Related Incidents values, or both.

Figure 1. Active Incidents and Problems data visualization showing Incident.Category content

Figure 2. Active Incidents and Problems data visualization showing Related incident.Problem content