Hi Community,

While working on a configuration in ServiceNow’s Native UI, I encountered a use case where the requirement was to display the Department field value instead of the default Email in the search suggestions of a reference field.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to customizing the search suggestion list for a reference field using the ref_ac_columns attribute.

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Use Case:

Display the Department field value in the suggestion list of a reference field (e.g., Caller) instead of, or in addition to, the default Email value.

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Configuration Steps:

1. Navigate to the Reference Field:
   
   • Right-click on the reference field (e.g., Caller) in the form.
     
   • Select Configure Dictionary.
2. Add the ref_ac_columns Attribute:
   
   • In the Attributes field, add the following:
     in attribute Field.
     ref_ac_columns=department
     
   • This will ensure that the Department field value appears in the suggestion list when searching in the reference field.

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To Display Multiple Fields (e.g., Email and Department):

If you want to show both the Email and Department values in the search suggestion list, use a semicolon-separated format:

in attribute Field.

ref_ac_columns=email;department

💡 Note:

• Attribute values should be separated by commas when combining multiple attributes.
• Field values within the ref_ac_columns attribute should be separated by semicolon(;).

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Best regards,

Samaksh Wani

Rising Star 2023 & 2024