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Use Case 1: Auto-populate Requested For variable

The most common use case we get is auto-populate the requested for field with current logged in user.

You can do that my setting the default value of the variable to javascript:gs.getUserID();

Use Case 2: Auto-populate Requested For's details

Now there could be cases, where based on selection of the user, you want to auto-populate the user's details, such as manager, email id, company etc. You can utilize this example in other scenarios as well where you have a reference variable and you would like to auto-populate additional information about that reference based on selection of the reference variable.

In this example, I have 3 variables on the request form, which is related to Requested for.

-Email is a string variable.

-Manager is a reference variable to sys_user table, since manager is a user record.

-Department is a reference variable to cmn_department table

I would like to auto-populate these field on selection of Requested For.

Client Script:

I will need an on-Change client script to run when the requested_for changes. This script calls a script include using glide-ajax method. The reason for using GlideAjax is, it is asynchronous and doesn't impact the UI performance. You shouldn't use GlideRecord in client script since it is not a best practice and could impact performance of the UI.

Type: onChange

Field: requested_for

function onChange(control, oldValue, newValue, isLoading) {
    if (isLoading || newValue == '') {
        return;
    }

    var ga = new GlideAjax('SCUserUtil');
    ga.addParam('sysparm_name', 'getDetails');
    ga.addParam('sysparm_user_id', newValue);
    ga.getXML(responseParse);

    function responseParse(response) {
        var answer = response.responseXML.documentElement.getAttribute("answer");
        var res = JSON.parse(answer);
        g_form.setValue('email', res.email);
        g_form.setValue('manager', res.manager);
        g_form.setValue('department', res.department);
    }
}

Script Include:

Name: SCUserUtil

Client Callable: True

var SCUserUtil = Class.create();
SCUserUtil.prototype = Object.extendsObject(AbstractAjaxProcessor, {
    getDetails: function() {
        var user_sys_id = this.getParameter('sysparm_user_id');
        var user = new GlideRecord('sys_user');

        var result = {
            email: "",
            manager: "",
            department: ""
        };

        if (user.get(user_sys_id)) {
            result.email = user.email.toString();
            result.manager = user.manager.toString();
            result.department = user.department.toString();
        }

        return JSON.stringify(result);

    },
    type: 'SCUserUtil'
});

And the result is, on selection of Requested for, Email, Manager and Department are auto-populated.

Use Case 3: Using reference qualifiers

You can use advance reference qualifier to add a filter to a Lookup Select Box or a Reference field. There are different types of reference qualifiers such as

Simple

Advance

An example for a simple reference qualifier is 'Show only users from company ACME South America'

An example for an advance reference qualifier is 'Show users based on another variable on the catalog form'. In below screenshot, I want to show all users based on a variable on the form called 'manager'.

Use Case 4: Using advance reference qualifier with script include

You can also use a script include in advance reference qualifier to build a filter.

For ex, here I want to pull a list of groups, the requested for is part of.

So I will create a Reference variable 'group' with reference to Group Table with below reference qualifier. Here I am calling a script include 'SCUserUtil' and passing the 'requested_for' as parameter to the function 'getGroups'

javascript:'sys_idIN'+new global.SCUserUtil().getGroups(current.variables.requested_for)

Below is the script include which I have used Use Case 2 as well. I just added another function to it.

Name: SCUserUtil

Client Callable: True

var SCUserUtil = Class.create();
SCUserUtil.prototype = Object.extendsObject(AbstractAjaxProcessor, {
    getDetails: function() {
        var user_sys_id = this.getParameter('sysparm_user_id');
        var user = new GlideRecord('sys_user');

        var result = {
            email: "",
            manager: "",
            department: ""
        };

        if (user.get(user_sys_id)) {
            result.email = user.email.toString();
            result.manager = user.manager.toString();
            result.department = user.department.toString();
        }

        return JSON.stringify(result);

    },

    getGroups: function(user_id) {
        var grpList = [];
        var grp = new GlideRecord('sys_user_grmember');
        grp.addQuery('user',user_id);
        grp.query();

        while(grp.next())
        {
            grpList.push(grp.getValue('group'));
        }
        return grpList.toString();
    },
    type: 'SCUserUtil'
});

Use Case 5: Using advance reference qualifier in a Lookup Select Box

The above filter in use case 4 works fine when the Group variable is a Reference type.

But when using a Lookup Select Box, the select box doesn't refresh with new values automatically. You need to add a variable attribute to refresh it automatically.

The variable attribute should be as below. You need to assign the variable name to the ref_qual_elements, based on which the Lookup Select box should refresh. For ex, here I want the Group variable list to refresh its list based on 'requested_for' variable.

ref_qual_elements=requested_for

Let me know, if you think any other use case can be added which could be helpful to everyone.

Labels:

• Best Practices
• Service Catalog