Service catalogs allow you to create an ordered structure of internal and external services provided to consumers. Within the service catalog, deliver valuable benefits literally any time and from any device. Also, Service Catalog helps in standardizing corporate processes, in particular, request fulfillment.
Role required: admin, catalog_admin.
To create and configure a service catalog that is displayed on the Self-Service Portal, complete the following procedure:
- Create a service catalog record.
- Create a catalog category. You can create as many categories as you need.
- Create task templates or request templates, depending on your business needs.
The scheme below displays the catalog hierarchy:
- A service catalog record is in green.
- Service categories are in blue.
- Request templates are in yellow.
| Entity | Description |
|---|---|
| Catalog | A high-level entity that unites all other items such as categories and templates. |
| Category | A group of elements that have some common attributes. You can create a hierarchical structure of categories. Establish connection between categories via the Parent field. |
| Task template | A set of fields that allows you to make a request of any type based on it. For example, a vacation request or invoice request. |
| Request template | A particular case of task templates that implements a service request model and have an expanded set of fields. |
Create a service catalog
The service catalog record is the highest-level entity aggregating all other items below (categories, subcategories, items).
To create a service catalog record, complete the steps below:
- Navigate to Catalogs Configuration → Service Catalogs.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
- Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes.
Service catalog form description
| Field | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Name | N | Specify a catalog name. |
| Image | N | Specify an image for the decoration of a portal catalog record. |
| Description | N | Specify some description of the service catalog. |
| Active | N | Select this checkbox to activate the catalog. |
Create a service category
A catalog category is an entity containing child items such as subcategories and task templates of a similar theme, like a folder in a file system. For example, you can create the category "IT Assistance" and after that, you can create request templates "New Laptop Request", "Equipment replacement" in this category. So, this category is a container for these request templates.
To create a service category, complete the steps below:
- Navigate to Catalogs Configuration → Service Categories.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
- Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes.
Service category form description
| Field | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Y | Specify a category name. |
| Service Catalog | N | Specify a catalog to which this category relates. If a category is created out of any existing catalog related lists, this field populates automatically with the catalog name. |
| Parent Category | N | Specify a parent category if you create a multilevel category structure. If a category is created out of any other category, this field populates automatically with the parent category name. |
| Image | N | Add an image for the decoration of a portal category record. |
| Description | N | Specify a category description. |
| Order | N | Enter the number to define category order in a catalog. Catalog items sorting can be defined by the Category Condition field within the Portal Node record binding the Service Catalog page and the Self-Service Portal page. To define items sorting, just specify it in the condition, like shown on the screenshot below:
|
| Active | N | Select this checkbox to activate category. Items displaying conditions can be defined by the Category Condition field within the Portal Node record binding the catalog page and the portal page. |
Create a task template
If you have some daily business tasks, create a template for them and use it in your service catalog. For example, "New Laptop Request" or "Vacation Request" are relevant examples of such templates.
To create a task template, complete the steps below:
- Navigate to Catalogs Configuration → Task Template.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
- Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes.
Task Template form fields
| Field | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Y | Specify a task template name. |
| Table | Y | Specify a table to process by this template. The table permission should allow you to create new records in it. It should also contain all necessary fields that implements the business logic of the template. For example, the Absences and Vacations table. When the Create table checkbox is selected, a new table is created. This field becomes read-only and is automatically populated. To ensure the template works correctly, create a form view named SP for the table. Otherwise, when users open the template page in the service catalog, the following message appears instead of the form: Exception: Such SP view for request_table is not found. |
| Create table | Select this checkbox if you need to create a new table for catalog items in addition to the existing ones. The new table is only created when the template is ready to be use (State = Published). This table is a child of the table specified in the Parent table field. Thus, the child table contains a similar set of fields and, if necessary, can extend the parent table. The table title is the same as the task template name, so you can find this new table with these prerequisites in the tables list (System Definition → All Tables). | |
| Service catalog | Y | Specify a service catalog record parent for this task template. |
| Service category | Y | Specify a service category record parent for this task template. |
| State | Y | Task template state. Available options:
|
| Order | N | Enter a number to define the order of the item in a catalog. Items sorting can be defined using the Category Item Condition field of the Portal Node record that binds the catalog page and the portal page. |
| Active | N | Select this checkbox to activate this template. Items displaying conditions can be defined using the Category Item Condition field of the Portal Node record that binds the catalog page and the portal page. |
| Image | N | Specify an image for portal catalog record decoration. |
| Description | N | Provide a template description. |
Request templates
A request template is a particular case of the task template implementing a service request model and featuring an expanded set of fields.
To implement a request template used on the portal, complete the following steps:
- Create request description.
- Create request model.
- Create request category.
- Create request template.
Create a request description
Technically, request description is a Knowledge Base article that stores brief information about service delivered within a specific request.
See Set up Knowledge Base for more information.
Create a request model
A request model, like a request description, is a Knowledge Base article. Request models define approved steps (such as approvals, including canceled approvals management) that are performed for a service request of a particular type or category. The request model also contains rules for routing the request to the appropriate group.
To create a request model, repeat previous steps, but choose the Request Model value in the Content Item Class field.
Create a request category
Request categories help users organize request templates into groups.
See the Request categories article to learn more.
Create a request template
A request template is a key element of a service catalog that allows users to raise requests of different types and destinations, and efficiently operate service requests.
See the Request templates article to learn more.
