Navigation action cancellation

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Navigation action cancellation

    The Navigation action cancellation feature in ServiceNow’s Request Manager enables users to interrupt and cancel slow-loading navigation actions by selecting another link in the application navigator. This capability improves user experience by eliminating the need to wait for previous transactions to complete before starting new ones.

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    Cancellation is governed by system properties and transaction settings that determine when and how navigation actions can be canceled.

    Key Features

    • Cancelable Transactions: Both the ongoing and new transactions must be marked as cancelable (sysparmcancelable=true), or the ongoing transaction must be on an always cancelable allow list while the new one is cancelable.
    • Always Cancelable Allow List: Administrators can specify modules (typically read-only pages like dashboards or reports) that users can always cancel by navigating away, using the glide.requestmanager.alwayscancel system property.
    • Reference Field Query Cancellation: Users can cancel ongoing auto-completer queries in reference fields by typing additional input; this behavior is controlled by glide.requestmanager.cancelreferencecompleter.
    • System Properties Control: Main properties include:
      • glide.requestmanager.cancelothertransaction — Enables or disables cancellation of navigation actions by others.
      • glide.requestmanager.alwayscancel — Lists modules that are always cancelable.
      • glide.requestmanager.cancelreferencecompleter — Controls cancellation of reference field queries.

    Practical Use Cases

    • Canceling a slow-loading module (e.g., homepage) when navigating to another module (e.g., incident list).
    • Canceling read-only data modules (e.g., reports) when switching to other modules.
    • Canceling ongoing AJAX reference searches by updating the search input before completion.

    Administration and Configuration

    • Administrators can add UI pages or modules to the always cancel list to allow users to cancel those navigation actions freely.
    • Cancellation can be prevented for specific modules by modifying their module definitions to disallow cancellation.

    By leveraging these controls, ServiceNow customers can optimize navigation responsiveness, reduce waiting times, and tailor cancellation behavior to their organizational needs.

    The Request Manager allows users to cancel any navigation action they select from the application navigator by clicking another application navigator link. System properties work with settings for the table to allow navigation action cancellation.

    This allows users to cancel slow loading transactions without having to wait for the previous transaction to complete.

    One of the following conditions must be true for the Request Manager to cancel a transaction.
    • Both the original transaction and new transaction are cancelable (both transactions have the setting sysparm_cancelable=true).
    • The original transaction is a member of the always cancelable allow list (the module is listed in the glide.request_manager.always_cancel system property) and the new transaction is cancelable (has the setting sysparm_cancelable=true).
    • Both the original and new transaction produce an auto-completer query in a reference field.

    Cancellation workflow

    The Request Manager uses the following workflow to determine whether to cancel a transaction.
    Figure 1. Cancel navigation actions
    Workflow diagram of the cancellation flow
    Table 1. Navigation cancellation system properties
    Property Description
    glide.request_manager.cancel_other_transaction Enables or disables automatic cancellation behaviors. When true, users can cancel one navigation action with another navigation action.

    Type: true | false

    Default value: true

    Location: sys_properties table
    glide.request_manager.always_cancel A comma-separated list of URIs that users can always cancel by clicking another navigation action. Typically items on this list are modules that provide read-only data such as dashboards, reports, or knowledge articles.

    Type: string

    Default value: home,sys_report_template

    Location: sys_properties table
    glide.request_manager.cancel_reference_completer Cancels a user query in a reference field when the user enters more information. For example, if the user starts an AJAX search in the Problem number field by entering PRB and then enters PRB000, the second query cancels the first query.

    Type: true | false

    Default value: true

    Location: sys_properties table

    Use cases

    There are three use cases where administrators can control user cancellation actions.

    1. A user clicks a module, such as the homepage (home.do), and while waiting for the module to load decides to navigate to another module, such as the list of open incidents (incident_list.do). The system property glide.request_manager.cancel_other_transaction controls this use case.
    2. A user clicks a module that displays read-only data, such as a report (sys_report_template.do?sysparm=sysid), and while waiting for the module to load decides to navigate to another module, such as the list of open incidents (incident_list.do). The system properties glide.request_manager.cancel_other_transaction and glide.request_manager.always_cancel control this use case.
    3. A user starts typing a query in a reference field, such as entering PRB in the related Problem field and while waiting for the auto-completer to display results, decides to enter more information, such as PRB000. The system properties glide.request_manager.cancel_other_transaction and glide.request_manager.cancel_reference_completer control this use case.