I recently encountered a situation where I needed a variable in a variable set but the reference qualifier needed to vary based on the catalog item that it was currently being used in. I knew of absolutely nothing that would allow me to get this, so, naturally, I did some digging. I came across this blog post that uses “current.cat_item.sys_id” to pull the catalog item into a reference qualifier. What about that makes it work? Is there a better way to do this?
To dive in, I made a simple variable set “Office Variable Set” with a single variable “Catalog Item”. This variable is a reference to the catalog item table (sc_cat_item) and has a reference qualifier of javascript:'sys_id=' + current.cat_item.sys_id to start with. I added this variable set to all of the catalog items in a baseline instance that have a Category of Office. Here’s the result:
I also found a Community article that uses current.cat_item.toString() which seems more efficient to me since ServiceNow doesn’t need to get the current.cat_item record to identify the sys_id.
Changing the reference qualifier to javascript:'sys_id=' + current.cat_item.toString() yielded the same result, as expected. So, if “sys_id” isn’t needed, is “toString()”?
Changing the reference qualifier to “javascript:’sys_id=’ + current.cat_item” also yielded the same result, as expected.
This even works on catalog items within an order guide! This should also work for the default value on a variable, but I didn’t dig into that to verify.
So, what exactly is “current” in this scenario? To find out, I adjusted the reference qualifier to this:
javascript: new getCurrentFromCatalogItem(current)And wrote a script include that looks like this:
function getCurrentFromCatalogItem(current) {
gs.log('CURRENT: ' + JSON.stringify(current));
}The result of this adventure:
{
"sys_meta": {
"active": "1",
"array": "0",
"attributes": "",
"audit": "0",
"calculation": "",
"choice": "1",
"choice_field": "",
"choice_table": "",
"create_roles": "",
"default_value": "",
"delete_roles": "",
"dependent": "",
"dependent_on_field": "",
"display": "sys_id",
"dynamic_creation": "0",
"dynamic_creation_script": "",
"dynamic_default_value": "",
"dynamic_ref_qual": "",
"element_reference": "0",
"filterable": "1",
"foreign_database": "",
"function_definition": "",
"function_field": "0",
"groupable": "1",
"help": "",
"hint": "",
"i18n_sortable": "1",
"internal_type": "collection",
"label": "Item",
"language": "en",
"mandatory": "0",
"matchable": "1",
"max_length": "40",
"multi_text": "0",
"name": "sc_cart_item",
"plural": "Items",
"primary": "0",
"read_only": "0",
"read_roles": "",
"reference": "",
"reference_cascade_rule": "",
"reference_floats": "0",
"reference_key": "",
"reference_qual": "",
"reference_qual_condition": "",
"reference_type": "",
"sizeclass": "0",
"sortable": "1",
"spell_check": "0",
"staged": "0",
"sys_package": "c2e0ef8bd4040110d15219b32ee16c9e",
"sys_scope": "global",
"table_reference": "0",
"text_index": "0",
"type": "0",
"type_description": "collection",
"unique": "0",
"url": "",
"url_target": "",
"use_dynamic_default": "0",
"use_reference_qualifier": "simple",
"virtual": "0",
"widget": "",
"write_roles": "",
"xml_view": "0"
},
"variables": {
"copier_reams": {},
"pens": {},
"screen_wipes": {},
"additional": {},
"catalog_item": {},
"office_variable_set": {
"catalog_item": {},
"a66f8ae6970411107f97bfb3f153afb8": {}
}
},
"variable_pool": {
"copier_reams": {},
"pens": {},
"screen_wipes": {},
"additional": {},
"catalog_item": {},
"office_variable_set": {
"catalog_item": {},
"a66f8ae6970411107f97bfb3f153afb8": {}
}
},
"hierarchical_variables": {
"copier_reams": {},
"pens": {},
"screen_wipes": {},
"additional": {},
"catalog_item": {},
"office_variable_set": {
"catalog_item": {},
"a66f8ae6970411107f97bfb3f153afb8": {}
}
},
"quantity": {},
"hints": {},
"sys_mod_count": {},
"sc_catalog": {},
"active": {},
"sys_updated_on": {},
"requested_for": {},
"show_quantity": {},
"sys_tags": {},
"cart": {},
"sys_id": {},
"cat_item": {},
"sys_updated_by": {},
"sys_created_on": {},
"sys_created_by": {},
"order_guide": {}
}The 6th line from the bottom indicates that the cat_item property is empty. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But, we can at least see what “current” is: sc_cart_item
That’s a bit of a tangent from the original purpose of this article, but it’s more proof that ServiceNow’s documentation needs work and the ecosystem needs a thriving community of bloggers, Community members, and curious people willing to dig around until they get what they need.
tl;dr: You can use current.cat_item in variable reference qualifiers to get the sys_id of the current catalog item.