Setting up sections in the Catalog

The Catalog in BMC Helix Digital Workplace enables you to make requestable services, items, and knowledge articles from any configured providers available in a single location. You can group requestable services, items, knowledge articles, and HR solutions into different sections for users to request. HR solutions can include eForms, which replace paper and PDF forms.

The catalog can be populated from multiple sources. The following diagram illustrates those sources and the enablement tasks you must complete before you can set up the catalog sections.

Configure integrations with the sources for items in the catalog, as described in the following topics:

• Enabling and configuring the enhanced catalog for BMC Helix Digital Workplace

Catalog section examples

BMC Helix Digital Workplace includes predefined catalog sections that you can display in your catalog. You can also create new catalog sections to group items by category or by individual items.

When a section does not include any items (for example, if a user is not entitled to any of the items included in a section), the section is hidden.

The following illustration shows an example of a section named Mobile Device Requests. The shopping cart in the illustration is available only with BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced.

Predefined catalog sections

BMC Helix Digital Workplace includes predefined catalog sections based on the products you have integrated with BMC Helix Digital Workplace. You can configure the name, item layout, and number of items displayed for each of these predefined sections. You cannot modify the sort order of items in the predefined section. While you cannot permanently remove a predefined catalog section from the Admin console, you can prevent a predefined catalog section from being visible in the catalog.

To create a new catalog section

In the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console, you can create sections to hold service requests and other self-help items from all providers.

1. On the Service Requests tab, select Catalog > Catalog Sections.

2. Click Add.

3. Using the language of the default locale, in the Section name field, enter a name for the catalog section.

4. (Optional) From the Section name locale list, select alternate locales and enter the name in the language of the corresponding locales.
   The label you add is saved when you select a new locale, and all locale labels are saved when you save the section.
5. From the Section type options, select one of the following options:
   1. Items—Include service items one at a time or to link to a specific category. Select one of the following options:
      • Link Predefined Groups to this Section —Associate this section with BMC Service Request Management or BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog.

      • Choose items to add to section—Add items from any available category to this section.

        These options are not available when you modify a catalog section.

   2. Banners—Include banner sections that promote services and campaigns.

6. Add items or banners:
   1. Add service items or service categories as described in To add individual service items to a catalog section.
   2. Add banners as described in To add individual banners to a catalog section.

To add individual service items to a catalog section

You can add services from any configured service providers, such as BMC Service Request Management. If you have BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced, you can also add services that you build in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog. You can add How-to items (which are configured in BMC Helix Digital Workplace) and Quick Links (which are populated from BMC Service Request Management). You can add knowledge articles that are configured in BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management. A custom catalog section can contain services, knowledge articles, or a mix of service types from one or more providers.

If you are adding a section to contain BMC Service Request Management, BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog, you can link to a predefined category instead of individual items.

1. On the Service Requests tab, select Catalog > Catalog Sections.
2. Select the catalog section to which you will add items.

3. If not selected, select Choose Items to Add to Section.

4. From the Item categories list, select the service category that has the items you want to add.
   (Optional) You can also search for categories that contain service items with names that match the text you enter. Multiple words are searched as a phrase.
5. Select the items.
   • If you are adding items from the Knowledge articles category, you are prompted to search for knowledge articles. Search for knowledge articles and select them.
   • For other categories, from the column on the right, select items.
6. Click Add Selected.
7. Repeat steps 4 through 6 until you are finished adding items to this catalog section.
   To avoid issues with performance, do not add more than 1000 BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog services in a custom section. If you must add more than 1000 items, consider using a dynamic section linked to a service category, or refer to the All Items and Services section.

To add individual banners to a catalog section

1. On the Service Requests tab, select Catalog > Catalog Sections.
2. Select the catalog section to which you will add items.
3. From the Available banners list, select the banners you want to add,
4. Click Add selected to add the banners to the Selected banners list. Click Add all to add all the available banners to the Selected banners list.
5. Set the layout options as described in To configure the layout options for banners.

To link a predefined service category to a catalog section

By linking a predefined service category to a catalog section, you create a dynamic section that automatically displays all services associated with the category.

1. On the Service Requests tab, select Catalog > Catalog Sections.
2. Select the catalog section to which you will link categories.

3. From the Available Items list, select a service category to link.

4. Click Link Selected Category.

   The predefined category will be available on the Catalog page when you configure it to be displayed in the BMC Helix Digital Workplace end user console:

To configure the layout options for sections

1. Select a section for which you want to configure the layout options.

2. You can configure any of the following options: 

   

    Field descriptions

   Sort Order

   This selection affects the sort order of the main catalog page only.

   • To have the system automatically sort the catalog tiles, select Alphabetically.
   • To manually arrange the items by using the Move Up and Move Down buttons, select Custom.

   Catalog Sections

   This selection affects the layout of items in categories on the Catalog page.

   • Small displays the logo, title, ratings, and price. Select Small if the section has many items.

   • Large displays the logo, title, approval, type, category, description, SLA, ratings, and price. Select Large if the section has featured items.

   Number of items displayed on desktop

   • To display service item tiles for a section on the main catalog page, select Carousel. By default, this option is set to maximum of 16 items.
   • To limit the number of service tiles for a section on the main catalog page, select 8, 12, or 16. The Carousel view displays 3 items of the row. Use left and right arrows to see the remaining ones.
     (The user clicks View All to see all section tiles.)

   Full page view on desktop

   This selection affects the layout of items in the section on the Full page view:

   • Small displays the logo, title, ratings, and price. Select Small if the section has many items.
   • Large displays the logo, title, approval, type, category, description, SLA, ratings, and price. Select Large if the section has featured items.
3. Click Save.

To configure the layout options for banners

1. Select a banner for which you want to configure the layout options.

2. Configure any of the following options:
   
   
   

    Field descriptions

   Sort Order

   This selection affects the sort order of the main catalog page only.

   • To have the system automatically sort the catalog tiles, select Alphabetically.
   • To manually arrange the items by using the Move Up and Move Down buttons, select Custom.

   Banner size

   This selection affects the layout of items in categories on the Catalog page.

   • To display large number of banners in a carousel section, select Small.

   • To feature or highlight a campaign or service, select Large (Hero).

   Auto-cycle

   • To automatically rotate the banner section added to the top of the page, select Auto.
   • To enable auto-rotation irrespective of the size or placement of the banner section, select On.
3. Click Save.

To display a catalog section in BMC Helix Digital Workplace

You can add catalog sections and arrange them in the order that you prefer.

1. On the Service Requests tab, select Catalog > Settings > Catalog layout.
2. From the Available Sections list, select the catalog sections to display, and move them to the Selected Sections list.

3. As needed, reorder the catalog sections in the Selected Sections list.

4. Click Save.

To hide a catalog section in BMC Helix Digital Workplace

You can hide a catalog section and BMC Helix Digital Workplace will retain the services it contains.

1. On the Service Requests tab, select Catalog > Settings > Catalog layout.
2. From Selected Sections list, select the catalog section to hide.

3. Click Remove.
   

4. Click Save.

To remove a catalog section from the Admin console

You can remove a catalog section and the list of services from its configuration, but the services that were contained in the section will be retained.

1. On the Service Requests tab, select Catalog > Catalog Sections > Catalog layout.
2. Select a catalog section to remove.

3. Click Remove.

   

4. Confirm all prompts.

To configure the category page layout

Predefined categories of services are retrieved from all systems that are integrated with BMC Helix Digital Workplace. End users can view predefined categories by selecting Catalog > Browse categories, and browsing for a category. The selected category displays all services associated with it, which is configured in a connected external system.

In the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console, you can configure the following settings:

• The size of the service tiles
• The category page style

To configure the category page layout, perform the following steps:

1. In the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console, go to Service Requests > Settings > Category settings.

2. In the Service Tiles section, select Small (Recommended) or Large.
   By default, the size of the service tiles displayed in categories is small. If you select Large , the size of the service tiles is bigger, and the tiles include additional available information: logo, title, ratings, and price.
   
   

3. In the Page style section, select one of the following options:

   • View page by Services —Shows service tiles for the selected category.

   • View page by Category —Shows the tiles of the categories. Items are filtered out as the user selects categories to display.
     If you select the View page by Category option, you can configure the following additional settings:

     • Select the Carousel (Recommended) or List category tile layout.

     • Select No background or Use variants of the primary brand color for the category tile background.

4. Click Save.

The following example shows the page view by services:

The following example shows the page view by category with the carousel tile layout and no background:


The following example shows the page view by category with the carousel tile layout and the primary brand color as the background:


The following example shows the page view by category with the list tile layout and no background:


The following example shows the page view by category with the list tile layout and the primary brand color as the background:

To configure the Browse categories drop-down

To configure the browse category drop-down, perform the following steps:

1. In the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console, go to Service Requests > Settings > Category settings.

2. In the External categories settings (SRM/HRCM) section, configure the following settings:

   • Show in Digital Workplace—Select Yes if you want to display the category settings for other products in the BMC Helix Digital Workplace end user console.

     This configuration replaces the Business Request Category feature setting that was available from the Application Features list.

   • Group external categories under Business Requests—Select Yes if you want to display the external categories under the Business Requests category. If you select No, the external categories will be displayed as part of the existing list under Browse Categories.

   • Show categories—Select No if the categories in HRCM and SRM are well-defined. Select Yes to display additional configuration that allows you curate the list of categories by adding or removing the root branches from external categories.

     You cannot segregate categories from multiple integrated applications. The categories are displayed in a single alphabetically sorted list.

     If you integrate with multiple applications or instances of applications with categories that use the same name, you will see only one instance of these categories in the configuration list. However, end users will see all the instances of categories that use the same name. If you hide a category that uses the same name across integrated applications, all instances will be hidden from your end users.

Required licensing

SaaS subscribers who use BMC Helix ITSM or BMC Helix Virtual Agent Basic service are entitled to this feature.

Where to go from here

To create separate top-level categories for HR requests and IT requests, see Creating separate top-level categories for HR and IT requests .