1. Reports
Till now, we have seen all the configuration-related elements. Let’s look at the reporting feature of Service Now. One of the best things about Service Now is its powerful reporting tool. We can have Service Now generate a variety of reports, such as bar charts, pie charts in pivot tables, list layouts, and many others, such as Donut scorecards. So many more reports are actually in service now. So, for that search for reports in the left navigation pane, we’ll go through those reports right now, and you can see that there is a new application called Reports in this click on “new,” “create new,” and then we can see this new report form. First of all, we need to give this report a name for this report.
Assume we want to query the incident record for this example and group by the assignment group field. So incidents by group The source type is table, and the table name is, as you know, incident. So this is how we actually create the initial set of choices for the report. Once we do this automatically, you can see that the table name has come and that the funnel icon, which is the condition builder, has come. We can set any conditions over here, like “there are many incidents; out of those, what reports exist?” What incidents do you want on your particular report? Let’s say for now that only two active reports are required. So I can meet the condition. You can create whatever conditions you want based on the requirements. Then, let’s say, we’ll go to the type. As I previously stated, there are many different types of reports, such as bars, horizontal bars, vertical bars, horizontal bars, and parity to histograms, PiS donuts time series, multi-dimensional scorecards, and even funnels. Even the pivot table is also available. Let’s go through some of the basic and important reports. The most frequently used report type is the bar chart. So we are going to use the bar chart now. Then let’s click on “Run.” You can see that if I hover over this bar, I can see that there are 34 active true records. Basically, if we go to Configure, we will be able to group by the fields. We can group by additional assignment group, and then click Run. Now, as you can see, there are 15 empty assignment group records.
Seven records, or seven incidents, are assigned to the software team, four incidents are assigned to the hardware team, the same way four incidents are assigned to the service desk, and three are assigned to the network. So this is how you can get a lot of information from the incident records. Let me minimise the left navigator. Now we can see the full view on top of it. We can actually have many types of COVID in the next few minutes. Let’s also try to change the style of this particular chart. The first thing we have is the color. You can use a single colour or a colour palette. Now, if I use the colour palette and run, the colours of the bars are different. We can set a different colour palette so that the colours we see will be different. Display data labels If I hover over any of the bars, we can see the number of records at the top, but only that number will be displayed. Only when I hover over the bar, what if I want that particular text? No, it’s not just hovering, but you want it all the time. If you always want those data labels, just check this and then click Run. As you can see, it is now at 15, 7, 4, and 4. The number is fixed. Likewise, you can make many changes. If you want, you can change the title; the title is actually coming from the name, which is the data that we have configured initially. But if you want a different name, you can change it over here. You can change its size, color, and position, which can be in the centre or on the right side.
As you can see, the name has moved to the right side. So you can align all these things. And, once again, you can change the title and title size even while on the axis. You can make it bold. It is already bold right now. You can make this particular measurement on the right side. If I click opposite, then run, it will move to the opposite side. Well, I am using the x axis. So that’s why earlier you could see that the assignment groups were displayed at the bottom, but now they have come up. The same thing can be done for the y axis. So you try making your own reports and experimenting with all of the report’s features. Another feature of the reports, particularly the bar reports, is that they are stacked, so to speak, by priority. Let’s see how it looks. See, you can see that this whole thing is actually MTE. Groups like these tickets are not assigned to anyone; they are assigned to software. However, four of the seven incidents are classified as critical. You can see the color. Four incidents are critical, two are nothing but moderate, and one is the magenta color. Magenta is five. Similarly, it is stacking based on priority. This is how stacking works. So, as I said, just experiment with all different types of reports. This is one of the major ones, and that’s the reason why I would like to show it. Let’s have a look at the pie chart also. So here, if we go to configure, we won’t be able to stack the stack because this is not a bar chart. We could have stacked it if it were a bar, but not a pie. And let’s see some other types of reports. So, all these are basically some of the usual ones, which you already know. But I would like to discuss the pie chart pivot.
Not sorry, not pi, but pivot. Assume I’ve chosen the pivot and am about to configure it. Let’s say the row is “priority” and the column is “Assignment group.” Let’s see how it looks. See, there is one ticket. There is one critical ticket with the database team, two critical tickets with the hardware team, and two critical tickets with the network team. Similarly, one high priority ticket with the hardware team and one planning ticket planning a priority ticket So this is how you can get a clearer picture of all the records in the incident table. Right now, as I have selected “incident,” I’m able to see the reports for the incident. But if you want, you can change it. You can select the task and many other things. And yeah, so this is what I would like to discuss with you regarding the reporting. Just before closing the session, I would like to discuss one thing about the reports. The view that we are seeing right now is actually the latest type of report that has been released very recently. Earlier, the version was totally different. If you see it, let me save the report first. The way we see the reports will change if I click the switch to Classic UI. The report will be the same. But the way we are going to configure the reports is different.
You can see all the fields right here itself.Earlier, when we were in the earlier version, we saw that everything was on the left side. On the left side, we were configuring. We were styling. Styling. You can do it by hovering your cursor over the gear icon. as this is pirated. There is no much styling over there. But if I select a bar, then I will have lots of options. The same options that we have seen earlier No options are actually modified. The only thing that has changed is the presentation of the report. So this is the earlier version. Yes, you will see this view if you are working in an earlier version of your current system. Otherwise, you’ll be seeing the latest view. If you want to switch back to the NewUI, just click on the switch to the NewUI button. Well, that’s it. Regarding the reports, in the next session we are going to discuss how these reports can be added onto the dashboards.
2. Share and Schedule Reports
In our last session, what we did was create a report. Now what if you want to go back to that report again? What we can do is just type reports or the left navigation pin, and we’ll be able to see the left navigation pin. Here you can click on “view” or “run” and you will be able to see all the reports that are present in the system. You can again filter based on these things. Let’s say my reports. This means the reports that I have created or that I can see. We have this setting icon. We can choose the most recently modified. We can now see how lost was modified.
If you click on this, it will sort by this. This is the one that we have created. This is how we can go to the reports that we have created. If we go to the reports, there is one more thing called sharing. If you see this, we have an option called “sharing.” Basically, the important thing regarding this sharing is that right now, as the report was created by me, it can be accessed only by me. If I want to share this report with all the other people, then I can click on sharing, and then I can share it with me or everyone. Or I can select a role here. If I’m not selecting, it means the report will be shared with everyone. Or I can select specific users or groups. That is sharing. And then let’s come back; let’s talk about the next topic, which is dashboards. Before we get into that, we should consider another option called scheduling.
You can schedule a report in the reports, and once scheduled, you can click “Show me” and the report will be shown to you every day or at a specific interval, after which it will be executed and sent to us. So yeah, this is a scheduled email report. What happens is that you can enter any email address or select users and groups from this page. You can set the subject and body of the email, and then we’ll set the timing. Every day at this particular time, this report will be executed and shared with all the users. The body is whatever we are mentioning here. And then the subject is this one. The report will be shared as an attachment. This is what is now being shared during the report. On demand, we can set it to daily or weekly. Whatever it is, it’s up to our requirements. Now, this is everything related to the reports. Reports are done. Now we are going to add these reports to the dashboards. First of all, we need to understand what the home pages are and what the dashboards are. Then we’ll look into adding the reports to the dashboards.
3. Homepages And Dashboards
We now understand how we can create the reports and modify them. We even scheduled the reports also.Now, the situation is that many people, like the ITL people, want those reports to be displayed within the browser itself. As you can see right now, this is our homepage. They might be requiring those particular reports to be displayed on the home pages. In that case, what they can do is, as this is a home page, first of all, create a new homepage. Just by clicking on this plus icon, we’ll be able to create a new home page. So, as you can see, this is the homepage. I can change the name. Also, let’s say incidents, incidents, and details. Now I can add content. Before adding the content, I can change the layout. How many? So first of all, let’s add a few contents.
Then we’ll understand exactly what that is that.I’m going to remove this content. We’ll be able to see all of the reports that are currently in the system in this new content. And on top of those reports, there are many other things, like the performance analytics or the content blocks. So, these are related to specific UI pages that use Jelly scripts; everything comes into play. But we can actually add all those things to this home page. For now, let’s go to the reports. And here we need to select the table. The table was set earlier. We have created it over the incident table. So I’m searching for the incident. Yes, and these are all the reports that are available on the incident table. These are completely unique.
Now we need to find out which one we have created. Ours are incidents that occur in groups. Yeah, this is the one that we created earlier. Now, I can add it to this homepage. Let’s say I’m adding it over to the left, and let’s say I want some other reports. Also, I can add it over on the right. So it’s all up to me, like, what reports do I want to see? So based on that, I can bring in all the reports. As you can see, these are all different reports that I can change or delete as I see fit. This is actually called a sort of widget. So if you want to delete it, you can just click on this button. It will be gone. And if you want, you can edit some of the widget preferences, like alignment, height, all these things, and all that. You just need to explore them, and you’ll get to know them. If you click on the Edit widget, what happens is that you’ll be redirected to the report page on the report. Again, you can modify the conditions or whatever it is.
Depending on your situation, you can modify the conditions. To come back to the homepage, just click on the logo, and it will redirect us to the homepage. Let’s see the new layout. As you can see, we have three rows. The second row is made up of two columns. In that way, we actually have different things. Three columns: two white, one narrow left column. So you can look into all the different types of list homepage layouts. Depending on your requirements, you can add them. Basically, what happens is that whenever I am adding content, you can see the way the ad here is available. The weightit display will change if I change the layout automatically. As you can see, all the reports are right now in a single column. If I add content now, you can see “add here.” There is no left; I mean, there are no columns. Everything is in a single column. Depending on the layout, those things will vary. And then we have this refresh icon. If you want to refresh it, you can just click on this so that the page will be refreshed. The other thing is that it automatically refreshing it.Many people like the service desk people, and all they want to see is their data—the most recent data. In that case, they can refresh it every 50 minutes for five minutes or every 1530 minutes for an hour. Okay, so this is one thing. One of the important things that I would like to discuss over here is a quite common interview question, the admin certification question.
So we have reports over here, and we have the refresh timing over here. What if I add more reports? If I add more reports, the time taken to load the page will increase, which means there will be some performance issues. So to improve the performance, we must keep the number of reports as low as possible. So reduce the number of reports so that the performance will be increased.And one more thing: do not refresh it very frequently. For example, don’t keep it for five minutes. If it’s required, it’s fine. But if we keep it for five minutes, what happens is that every five minutes it will run, and it will take some time to load. But if you are keeping it for an hour, it loads. Only after an hour will there be a minor impact on this thing and this thing, because if I choose a five-minute interval, it will reload more frequently.
As a result, as previously stated, performance will suffer. To increase the performance, either increase the refresh interval or decrease the number of reports. So that’s the situation regarding the home pages. If you want, you can change the setting or go to any other home page. Also, just go to the home pages over here. This is all actually the way people, like ITL users or end users, see the reports. But internally, all these things are tables and columns. Just type “home pages,” and you’ll see “homepage admin” underneath it. Go to these pages, and you will see all the home pages created in the system. The one we created is something with the name “incidents.” Yes. So this is the one that we have created. So whatever homepage is created, it will be shown over this particular table. Actually, a record is getting created over here. And if I go to the page that we have created, there is an option called Selectable.
So this is where one of the important things comes into play. So when we are on the homepage, let’s go back to the home page. You can see that you are able to select some other home pages. Also, if you want to enable this, make sure that whenever we are going to that page, that selectable option is stuck. Only when it is stuck can that page be selected. If it is not ticked, then the page cannot be selected. Let’s see some other features in these home pages. We can define the view; we can actually define the user who has the right to create or modify this whole report. Or if you want to set certain roles, the people with these particular roles can write, and the people with these particular roles can read. so you can add the roles. So this way, you can actually control the home pages. Limit who has access to the home pages.
So that’s it. Regarding the home pages, now there is one more thing called the dashboard. Home pages and dashboards are almost the same, but there is a slight difference. Let’s come back to the home page. So this is the homepage. Now, if I click on the gear icon, I have an option called “Create Dashboard.” This is one of the new features released in the latest version. If you are using an older version, such as Jaliva, you will not be able to see the Create dashboard version directly over here. If we click on this, what happens is a new dashboard will be created with all these. What do you say? The reports.
So I have clicked on “Create.” Let’s see if it will be loaded soon. Well, I guess there is some issue with this particular dashboard. Let me change the dashboard. Sorry. What shall we take from this homepage? Let’s take Enterprise CMDB. This is actually the same thing: the home page. Now go to Settings, then Create a Dashboard Version, and finally Create. So yes, it has created the dashboard. So the view and the way you see the dashboard are a bit different from the homepage. The major difference, which I would say is two things, The way the UI is the user interface, and you have an extra feature called, say, adding taps.
As you can see, only a few things have changed completely. Earlier on the home pages, you are able to see the gear icon, but here there is no gay icon and you are able to see the refresh button. Even though that is also not available over here, what you can do is go to the settings over here and you can change the layout. You can change the layout in the same way that we did earlier. But the interesting thing is creating a new tab, so you can see that a new tab is created. And in this tab, I can again, perhaps, set a quick layout before adding content. So let’s say we want to bring in the reports. The reports—this is the one that we created. So I can add it to this new tab in the same way we can add a number of reports. I’m just here to give you an example, like how exactly the dashboard is different from the homepage dashboard and homepage, but the usage is the same and is mainly used to bring in the reports or content blocks over on this homepage a place.The main difference between those two is how it performs and how the UI looks: we have tabs in the dashboards, but not on the homepage. Home pages.
I would say it is something like an older version. But dashboards are very new. Day by day, there will be more enhancements to the dashboard versions. So this is what the dashboard is. And as you already know, whenever we are talking about pages, home pages, we have seen that on the left navigation, if we type “home pages,” if we go to these home pages, we’ll be able to see all the lists of existing pages, home pages. In the same way, we can also type “dashboards.” On the dashboard, we can see the dashboard administration. This will also contain all the lists of records and dashboards that are created in the system. Earlier, we were talking about home pages. This is the dashboard. So that’s it. So you can use both the dashboards and the home pages to bring in the reports. And you can change the layouts and the number of taps. If you are in dashboards, you can change the number of tabs. This is the fundamental information about dashboards and home pages.
