Set up Configurable Portal widgets

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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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 help you efficiently update and maintain portal elements without extensive coding, allowing you to deliver a personalized and consistent user experience that aligns with your organization's branding and operational needs.

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    Key Features

    • Configurable Behavior: Adjust widget instance options to customize widget actions to fit your business processes.
    • Reusability: Modify instance options to reuse widgets instead of creating new ones, streamlining development and maintenance.
    • Visual Experience: Enhance usability and branding by configuring visual aspects such as colors, alignment, and styles.
    • Content Modification: Control displayed data by mapping widgets to data sets and applying filters or parameters.
    • No Code or Low Code Configuration: Update widget presentation, behavior, and data with minimal coding effort.
    • Widget Instances: Configure specific widget locations, properties, and CSS per instance for granular control.

    Configurable Portal Widgets for Homepage Setup

    The following widgets support homepage configuration by providing key portal features and content presentation:

    • Portal Polaris Header widget: Displays access keys like logo, search, profile, and menus arranged in two header levels.
    • Portal Mega Menu widget: Organizes navigation topics hierarchically in the portal header menu.
    • Portal Browse Taxonomy widget: Shows taxonomy topics with related articles and catalog items.
    • Portal Banner and Banner Carousel widgets: Display announcements and highlights, with the carousel supporting multiple rotating banners.
    • Portal Quick Links widgets: Provide configurable quick access links to articles, catalog items, pages, or external URLs in various layouts.
    • Portal Knowledge and Catalog Quick Links widgets: Present curated lists of knowledge articles or catalog items based on selected criteria.
    • Portal Case Cards widget: Show case records in a card format with details like state and update date.
    • Portal Data List widget: Display records from any ServiceNow table in list or card views.
    • Portal FAQ widget: Lists frequently asked questions from knowledge bases, categorized by article category or product.
    • Portal Polaris Footer widget: Displays company info, logos, site and external links, plus social media links at the page bottom.
    • Portal Object widget: Shows key information and enables actions on selected ServiceNow table records.
    • Portal Taxonomy Topic widget: Presents taxonomy topics as cards, linking to related knowledge articles and catalog items.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging configurable portal widgets, ServiceNow customers can quickly adapt portal user interfaces and content to meet evolving business requirements while reducing development complexity and maintenance efforts. These widgets empower portal administrators with flexible, low-code customization options that enhance user engagement through relevant content, intuitive navigation, and consistent branding across the portal environment.

    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.