Setting up dynamic field rendering for incidents and service requests in Remedyforce Console

Remedyforce provides dynamic field rendering feature for Incident and Service Request forms in Remedyforce Console. To enable this feature, administrators must define the field display criteria in the Incident and Service Request layouts respectively. By doing so, the Remedyforce Console forms will render relevant fields based on the entered inputs.

For example, you can enable dynamic field rendering as follows:

For the service request forms, you can render the fulfillment fields dynamically based on the request definition.
For the incident forms, you can render the relevant fields dynamically based on the category.

Thus, the fields can be made available based on the service request too, instead of just profiles. Also, the configured field display criteria are applied while creating, editing, or copying the forms.

Scenarios for dynamic rendering

The following examples or scenarios help you to understand the dynamic rendering feature in Remedyforce.

Max is the Remedyforce administrator. He wants the staff members to:

Have dynamic rendering of fulfillment fields on the service request form, based on the request definition.
OR
Have dynamic rendering of fields on the incident form based on the category they select.

Jack is the client who uses the Self Service portal to request a service or raise a ticket.
Karen is the Remedyforce Console staff member who works on completing submitted requests or submitted tickets.

Scenario 1

Jack logs on to the Self Service Portal and submits a service request to onboard a new employee.
This request is assigned to Karen who then requires fields such as Employee ID Allotted and Office Location Allotted to fulfill Jack's service request.
Hence, Max performs configurations such that for the service request console layout assigned to Karen, the layout's fieldsets contain these fields. Then it is on these fields that Max defines dynamic rendering conditions by selecting the request definition as Onboard a New Employee. Thus when Karen opens Jack's service request, she sees that the Employee ID Allotted and Office Location Allotted fields are dynamically rendered.

Configuring layout	Defining conditions	Viewing fields on the form

Scenario 2

Karen wants to raise a ticket on behalf of Jack who requires his printer to be set up. For doing so, Karen requires certain fields such as Device Type and Describe Issue Related to It.
Hence, Max performs configurations such that for the incident console layout assigned to Karen, the layout's fieldsets contain these fields. Then it is on these fields that Max defines dynamic rendering conditions by selecting the category as IT-Infrastructure. Thus when Karen opens Jack's service request, she sees that the Device Type and Describe Issue Related to It fields are dynamically rendered upon selecting the IT-Infrastructure category on Jack's incident form.

Note that, in case of incidents, Max can utilize dynamic rendering of fields with multiple layouts as well.

Configuring layout	Defining conditions	Viewing fields on the form

Fields that cannot be dynamically rendered

You can define conditional rendering only for the fields that are required at the fieldset level. You cannot define conditional rendering for fields that are required at the object level. (The checkbox in the Configure Dynamic Display column will appear greyed out).
The Multiselect picklist, Geolocation, Time, Text Area, Rich Text Area, and encrypted fields cannot be controlling fields. You cannot add conditions for any field based on these fields. These fields are not displayed while defining conditions.
When defining the field display criteria, you must exclude the following read-only fields:
- Layout Type
- Auto Number
- Smart View
- Opened Date
- Resolution
- Has Attachments

Guidelines for the dynamic rendering feature

The Winter 21 fresh install users or the users upgrading to Winter 21, both require the administrator to enable the dynamic rendering setting for them.
It is not enabled by default.
Dynamic rendering works with Multi Layout and Incident/Service Request segregation functionality.
If you convert an incident to a service request and save it, the dynamic field rendering is seen as per the Incident layout configuration.
However, when you close and reopen the service request record, the dynamic field rendering is seen as per the Service Request Layout configuration.
Comparisons for text, email, and string fields are not case sensitive.
For example, if the defined condition is Account name = "Acme" and the staff user types "ACME" or "Acme" then in both cases, the dependent field will be visible.
If a logged in user does not have access to the controlling field or the controlling fields are removed from the fieldset, the user cannot see the dependent fields.
If the parent field is hidden, the child field will not be visible even if the criteria are matched.
If a hidden field gets updated through Workflow Rule, Process Builder or any other backend processes, even then its value will not be retained.
When a lookup field is part of defining criteria, administrators have to manually clear conditions from the UI and later delete from the record.
If a record is updated from the Service & CI slider or Smart View, the dynamic rendering feature will update the layout in case conditions are created for it.
Dynamic rendering is not supported for fields available in SmartView, CI Slider and Activity fields.

To enable dynamic field rendering

Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
Click the Application Settings tile, and from the menu, select Consoles.
Select the required record type from the Console View list. For example, Service Requests.
For the selected profile, click Create/Edit Layout.

On the Layout: Service Requests tab, select the Service Request Console Default Layout to configure the field display criteria.
Select the available fieldsets.
Click Save.
Select the Enable dynamic field rendering check box.
The Define Conditions link is enabled.
Click Define Conditions.
On the conditions tab, select the Configure Dynamic Display check box for the required field.
The Display if link is displayed.
Note
If you clear the Display if check box for a field and click Save, the defined conditions are cancelled.
To define the field display criteria for the field to be dynamically rendered, click Display if.
On the conditions window, from the Field list, select Request Definition.
From the Operator list, select the required operator.
The list of operators is displayed based on the field type that you selected from the Field list. For example, if you select a date field, the following operators are displayed:
>, >=, =, !=, <, <=
Click the Search icon and select the required request definition.
Select the required logical operator.
Click the Add icon. You can define a single condition or multiple conditions.
Click Add Advanced Rule Logic to modify the field display rules.
On the conditions tab for the selected layout, click Save.
To verify if the defined field display criteria are applied, create or edit a record in Remedyforce Console with the configured request definition.

Considerations for the dynamic rendering feature

You can define criteria only for the fields that get rendered before the dependent field.
For example, if you select the Account field from the field list view of a layout, the value you select from the condition window's Field dropdown can include only the fields listed above the Account field and not below it.
Hence the first field displayed in the list view cannot have any conditions on it.
While dynamically rendering fields on an incident form based on the category, if you happen to update the existing account name, the category field gets hidden on the form. Hence, the value of that category does not get saved.
When fields in both the columns (in a two column layout) get hidden, the fields below them move up. However, for any field hidden in a single column, a blank space is seen.
If all fields from a particular fieldset are hidden, the fieldset as a whole gets hidden on the form.
Depending on the input field data types, the input fields are rendered as follows:
- Picklist field is rendered as a dropdown with all the options.
- Text and Number fields are rendered as input fields.
- Date/Date Time fields are rendered with the date picker whose date is shown in user's locale.
- Reference field is rendered as a lookup.
- TextArea and Rich Text Area fields are rendered as an expandable TextArea box.