Exploring Embedded Help

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring Embedded Help

    Embedded Help in ServiceNow provides targeted, role-based assistance directly within UI pages, enhancing user experience by delivering relevant help content. This feature includes preloaded help topics from the base system, which organizations can customize by adding or replacing content to better align with their specific applications, processes, languages, or user roles.

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    Customizing Embedded Help

    Organizations can create or modify help topics to:

    • Support custom applications.
    • Provide detailed instructions or embedded videos tailored to business processes.
    • Add help content to pages lacking existing topics.
    • Offer content in languages other than the default English.
    • Deliver role-specific help content.

    The UI page name (identified from the URL’s table name) links help content to pages. Base system topics are read-only; to customize, copy the topic to clear the read-only status, then edit and save your changes. Customized topics override the default ServiceNow help content for users.

    Embedded Help Workflow

    Embedded Help content is stored in a CDN and synchronized with each ServiceNow instance’s local embedded help content table. The synchronization occurs every 30 days, with a default check every 15 days for updates, configurable by administrators.

    When a user opens a UI page, the system:

    • Displays a custom topic if available for the user's role.
    • If no custom topic exists, checks the browser cache and local embedded help table for relevant content.
    • Queues requests for content updates if the last synchronization is older than 15 days or if the topic is missing locally.
    • Within a minute, processes these requests by checking the CDN and updating local content if necessary.
    • Requires the user to refresh the page to see updated help content.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging Embedded Help, you can provide your users with relevant, up-to-date guidance tailored to their roles and languages, improving adoption and reducing support inquiries. The system’s automated synchronization ensures help content remains current, while allowing your organization to maintain control over customized content without affecting the base system.

    Embedded help provides targeted help content to a user in a UI page, based on their role. Some embedded help content comes with the base instance. Your organization can add or replace embedded help content.

    Embedded Help overview

    Embedded Help enables you to provide the help that your users need, as well as benefit from help topics available in the base system. You can add new embedded help content or replace content. Replacing content involves deactivating the existing topic and adding a topic.

    Your organization may want to add or replace Embedded Help content for some of the following reasons:
    • To provide help for custom applications.
    • To provide more specific instructions or embedded videos to describe your business process.
    • To provide embedded help content where none exists for a page.
    • To provide embedded help content in languages other than English (default).
    • To provide different content for different roles.

    The UI page name identifies embedded help content. To find the page name, look for the table name in the URL for that view. For example, the page name for the list view of Assessment Metric Types is asmt_metric_type_list and is found in this address: instancename.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=%2Fasmt_metric_type_list.do%3Fsysparm_userpref_module%. The page name for the form view is asmt_metric_type.

    You cannot edit the content in a base system topic. In base system topics, the read-only ServiceNow Help check box is selected. If you edit the content and try to save changes, you see an error message. To change the information that appears in a base system topic, make a copy of the topic, which clears the ServiceNow Help check box. Modify the topic with your content and save it. Customized content takes precedent over ServiceNow help content and is displayed when a user opens help for that UI page.

    Starting this release, Embedded Help also supports non-English content import without overriding the last uploaded language content.

    Embedded Help workflow

    The ServiceNow datacenter contains the Content Delivery Network (CDN) where embedded help content is stored. Topics in the local (instance) Embedded Help content [sys_embedded_help_content] table are populated from the CDN. Help content in the CDN is refreshed every 30 days.

    When a user accesses a UI page, the embedded help process displays a custom topic if one exists for the user's role. If there is no custom topic, the following steps are performed.
    1. Checks the browser cache first, and displays the content if found in the cache. It then checks the Embedded Help content [sys_embedded_help_content] table for the corresponding embedded help topic with the role and qualifier, if applicable.
      • If a topic is found, it checks the date in the Last sync field. If the date is 15 or more days old, it places a request in the Embedded Help Queue [sys_embedded_help_queue] table with the last sync date and the resource ID.
      • If a topic is not found, it places a request in the Embedded Help Queue [sys_embedded_help_queue] table with the current date and the resource ID.
    2. Within a minute of the page being viewed, the system processes the request and checks the CDN. In the first case, it checks whether the topic was updated since the Last sync date. In either case, after a minute, refresh the page to see the content.
      • If the topic was updated, it pulls the updated topic into the table and updates the Last sync date.
      • If the topic was not updated, it displays the local cached or database topic, and updates the Last sync date.
    3. If the topic was not in the local database, it pulls the topic into the table if it exists on the CDN. If it does not exist, there is no action.

    The administrator can modify the default 15-day synchronization duration in system properties.