Reporting on ServiceNow Variables

Introduction

This page applies to list views using a ServiceNow data source.

Variables

ServiceNow has a special type of field called Variables. This field holds a set of multiple questions and answers.

Variables are commonly used in the Service Catalog. When a user makes a service request such as requesting the purchase of a new computer, they fill a form in which they answer questions such as the amount of memory required and the size of the hard drive. These questions and answers are placed in variables.

Variables may also be used in tasks such as incidents and in workflow. The name of the variables field in all these ServiceNow tables is "variables".

The Challenge with Variables in Reporting

Variables are not like normal fields. They are packed together into the "variables" field, but they need to be requested separately. To list several variables in columns of a list, you need to select "variables" multiple times, each time selecting another variable (question).

Support for Variables in Explore Analytics

Explore Analytics supports variables in List views. The following section shows an example of creating a list of Requested Items.

Using Variables in a List

To see how to use variables in a list, let's see an example, and then show how to create it. This example show Requests for computers. For each request, we show four variables (the last four columns in the list):

Memory
CPU
Hard Drive
Operating System

Step-by-Step: Adding a Variable to the List

To add a variable to the list, drag the "Variables" field from the list of fields to the Selected Fields below. This is depicted in the following picture.