Building Catalog Items & Record Producers
Collecting the user needs and demands is an important part of ServiceNow Catalog Management. Both catalog items and record producers help by offering users personalized forms on the Service Portals.
This topic focuses on how to create catalog items and add them to the service catalog. Also, we will focus on how record producers are created and when to use each.
How to Create Catalog Items?
ServiceNow catalog item is a requestable unit that represents services or entitlements. Submission generates a Requested Item record and triggers a fulfillment workflow. The Flow designer controls these. To create a service catalog item, follow the given steps:
- Open Catalog Items Lists from the service catalog option.
- Click New to open a blank sc_cat_item form.
- Add a name, assign a catalog container, and select the category.
- Set base price or recurring prices if needed.
- In the Process Engine tab, link the governing flow.
- Finally, click Submit to publish the catalog item.
Creating a Catalog item does not confirm that it will be visible to end users. To ensure that, it is important to add them to Service Portal.
Adding Catalog Items to Service Portal
The ways to add ServiceNow service catalog items to the Service Portal are:
- Add/Link items to Category assignment. Each item must be connected to an active category to be showcased in the Portal Catalog Widget.
- Configure access security in the item’s related list to determine which items can read and which cannot read it.
- Finally, ensure that the hide option is not selected and fill the meta title with the right keywords. This helps in optimising the search for users.
Record Producers
ServiceNow record producer is a portal interface that creates a record in a target table instead of a Request. It uses scripts to identify inputs, record fields, and define complex logic using the current object. To manage the different UI components of a record producer in Service Portal, the important settings are:
| Field Name | Purpose |
|---|---|
| 1. Hide Attachment | Removes the “Paperclip” icon and the attachment area from the Portal form. |
| 2. Mandatory Attachment | Forces the user to upload at least one file before they can click “Submit” or “Order Now.” |
| 3. Hide ‘Save as Draft’ | Removes the “Save as Draft” button from the portal view. |
Record Producers vs Catalogs
Choosing between a Catalog Item and a Record Producer is one of the most critical architectural decisions in ServiceNow Service Management.
| Attribute | Catalog Item | Record Producer |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Goal | Requesting goods, access, or services. | Reporting a problem or creating a task record. |
| Target Output | Creates a Request and Request Item. | Creates a record on any target table. |
| Fulfillment Engine | Flow Designer, Workflows, Execution Plans. | Business Rules, Assignment Rules, Data Lookup Rules on target table. |
| Shopping Cart / Quantity | Supported (Cart, Quantity selector, Price calculations). | Not supported (Single direct submission). |
| Primary End User Intent | “I need something new.” | “Something is broken” or “I need an HR case opened.” |
What’s Next?
In the next topic, we will discuss order guides and the rules that follow from them. We will also cover cascade variables in ServiceNow.
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