Migrating from the legacy Ideas application to Idea Portal

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Migrating from the legacy Ideas application to Idea Portal

    When upgrading to the Zurich release, ServiceNow customers must complete specific migration tasks to transition from the legacy Ideas application to the new Idea Portal. This migration involves updating idea states, categories, business rules, and user navigation to align with the enhanced capabilities of the Idea Portal.

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    Idea States

    The Idea Portal introduces new idea states such as Completed, Under Review, and In Backlog that map to legacy idea states. These states are now stored in the Idea [imideacore] table. Customers can continue using old and new states simultaneously or choose to delete legacy states from the Choice [syschoice] table to rely exclusively on the new states for managing ideas.

    Idea Categories

    Ideas can be organized by categories representing products, departments, or business units. If existing ideas lack categories, customers should either create new categories or use default ones provided by the Ideas application. Mapping legacy idea categories to new categories is possible through scripting to establish many-to-many relationships, which is essential for ideas to be visible in the Idea Portal.

    Converting Ideas to Work Entities

    The Idea Portal supports converting ideas into multiple work entities including projects, epics, stories, and demands using the Create Task button on the Idea form. This functionality requires the Agile Development 2.0, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), and Continual Improvement Management plugins. Customers who want to restrict conversion only to demands can disable the Create Task button and use the existing Accept button or disable both Accept and Defer buttons to enable other options.

    Business Rules

    Review existing business rules on the idea table post-migration and disable those that should no longer apply by setting them to False.

    User Navigation

    To encourage adoption of the new Idea Portal, remove navigation links to the legacy Ideas application from the application menu and deactivate the Submit an Idea option in the Service Catalog. This ensures users submit ideas through the updated portal interface.

    If you are upgrading to the Zurich release, complete the migration tasks after the upgrade to start using the new Idea Portal.

    Review the following information and make any necessary changes to your configuration:

    Idea States

    The new Idea Portal provides new idea states such as Completed, Under Review, and In Backlog, which are mapped with your existing idea states. The following tables provide a comparison to the existing idea states and the equivalent new states with their values.
    Table 1. Legacy Ideas application
    Idea State Value
    Draft -5
    Submitted 1
    NA NA
    NA NA
    Accepted 2
    NA NA
    NA NA
    Closed complete 3
    Closed skipped 7
    NA NA
    NA NA
    Table 2. Idea Portal
    Idea State Value
    Draft -5
    Submitted 1
    Under Review -1
    Need more information -2
    In Backlog 2
    Planned 4
    In Development 5
    Completed 3
    Unlikely to Implement 7
    Duplicate 8
    Already Exists 9

    Starting with the Zurich release, idea states are stored in and retrieved from the Idea [im_idea_core] table. You can continue to use your existing idea states along with the new idea states. However, if you want to use only these new states for managing your ideas, navigate to the Choice [sys_choice] table and delete the old idea states.

    Idea categories

    Organize your ideas using categories, for example, to group ideas that are relevant to a particular product, department, or business unit. If your existing ideas are not associated with any category, create new categories or select an existing table to define categories to which you can map your ideas. The Ideas application also installs a set of default new categories to which you can associate your existing ideas.

    If your ideas are already associated with categories and you want to use the new categories, you can map your existing idea categories to the default new categories. You then write and use a script to create m2m mapping between existing ideas and categories.
    Note:
    You must map an existing idea with appropriate categories for your ideas to appear in the Idea Portal.

    Converting ideas to demands or project, stories, initiatives, and epics

    You can convert an idea into work entities other than demands. The Create Task button enables you to convert an idea into a project, epic, or story as well as a demand becomes available in the Idea form.

    You must have the required Agile plugins Agile Development 2.0 and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and Continual Improvement Management installed to view these options.

    If you want to allow conversion of ideas only to a demand, disable the Create Task button and continue using the Accept button or disable the Accept and Defer buttons to use other options. For more information see, Using the form designer.

    Business rules

    Review the existing business rules in the idea table. Set the business rules that you don't want to apply as False.

    Navigation for legacy Idea application

    To encourage your users to submit ideas through the new Idea Portal, remove navigation for old Idea application from the application menu and deactivate the Submit an Idea option from the Service Catalog. For more information see, Enable or disable an application menu or module.