Service Request Form Elements

When a user requests a new service, the service request form that's displayed for the user will be comprised of two form pages:

  • Service form page — These settings apply to a service as a whole. For information on how to create the service-level portion of the request form, see Create New Service Requests.
  • Component form page — Settings are component-specific and may include information such as CPU, memory, network, and credentials. You configure these component-level settings on the Form tab of the service catalog blueprint. For more information, see Component blueprints.

When you design the service-level and component forms, you can add the elements listed in the table below to the form pages These form elements will determine the appearance and content that's presented to users when they make a new service request.

You can access request form values through workflow variables. See Example: Map Request Form Fields to Variables.

Form Elements Available for New Service Requests

Standard

Header

Adds heading text to the form.

Text

Adds explanatory text to the form.

Input Text Field

Allows the requester to enter a value, such as a note or a password.

Important: If users will enter a password on the request form, enable Hide User Input. When Hide User Input is enabled:

  • Asterisks (*) are displayed for this field value in the Request Details dialog, emails, and landing pages.
  • The password is stored, encrypted, in the Commander database.
  • The plain-text password can be accessed through the approval workflow variable #{request.services[x].settings.inputField['field name']}. For example, if you set the Display Label for the Input Text Field to "Password", you would access the password in an approval workflow script with the variable #{request.services[1].settings.inputField['Password']}.
  • If a request containing a password is copied, the password is blanked out.

Dynamic List

Allows the requester to select options from lists that are updated in real time from an external source. If the lists can depend on other form elements, the selection of one form element can dictate the available choices for another list. For more information, see Add Dynamic Lists to Forms.

Required By

The date the requester requires the service.

In the Default Lead Time (in days) field, enter a number if you want a default Required By date to be displayed on the form. Users can adjust this date.

Service / Component Properties

Primary Owner

Allows the requester to specify a primary owner for the service, or, if you enable the Display Only option, displays the primary owner on the form. For more information, see Set Resource Ownership.

Custom/Placement Attribute

Allows the requester to specify a value for a custom attribute or placement attribute. Select an attribute from the list. The (Placement) suffix distinguishes placement attributes from custom attributes.

You can click Create New Attribute to configure a new custom attribute or placement attribute. See Work with Custom Attributes or Configure Placement Attributes.

You can create relationships between custom attributes, so that the value selected for one attribute affects the selectable values for other attributes. See Create Relationships Between Attributes Used on Forms.

All custom attributes that are configured to be available for VMs and virtual services are available for services as well. Note that in general it's best not to include the same custom attribute on both the Service form and the blueprint form; if a custom attribute is included on both the Service form and the blueprint form, the Service form takes precedence.

Important: Don't include text-type custom cost attributes on the request form because they allow the requester to specify the cost of the service they are requesting. Rather, include list-type custom cost attributes, so that you can control the values that a requester can specify.

To ensure accurate cost calculations, don't include custom cost attributes on the Service form; include them only on the blueprint form. For more information, see Work with Custom Attributes.

Expiry Date

Allows the requester to specify the expiry date for the service.

  • Allow "Never Expires": Displays the Never Expires checkbox on the service request form.
  • Default lifespan (in days): Controls the default expiry date displayed on the form.
  • Maximum lifespan (in days): Limits the expiry date the user can specify. If you don't provide a maximum lifespan, the user can choose any expiry date.
  • Override Cost Period: Displays the estimated cost for the entire lifespan of a requested service, rather than for the cost period configured for the Estimated Cost element. When enabled, the Lifespan Cost is shown in the service catalog entry details, the shopping cart, the request form, and approval emails. For example, if you configure a default lifespan of 2 years (730 days), the service catalog entry details display the cost for 2 years. On the request form, if the user changes the default expiry date to three years, the three-year lifespan cost is shown.

    When you enable this option, you must also enter a value for Default lifespan (in days).

    When using lifespan cost, you shouldn't enable the Allow "Never Expires" option because if a user adds two services to the shopping cart and sets one to never expire but sets an expiry date for the other, the Estimated Cost label in the shopping cart may be confusing.

  • Lifespan Label: This label is displayed only in the service catalog entry details. If you enable Override Cost Period, it's a good idea to include the default lifespan in the Lifespan Label. For example, if you configure a default lifespan of two years (730 days), enter "Lifespan Cost for 2 Years" in the Lifespan Label field.

Quantity

Allows a user to request multiple identical services more easily. It also allows you to limit the number of each service that can be requested.

Don't include the Quantity form element when Commander is in single-service request mode, because in this mode, Quantity displays "1" for a value, rather than allowing users to select a number. For more information, see Set Single-Service Mode.

Estimated Cost

Displays the estimated annual or monthly cost for a VM or virtual service. Users will see costs in their preferred currency.

If the Override Cost Period option is enabled for the Expiry Date element, the Lifespan Cost is displayed on the form instead of the Estimated Cost.

Destination

Allows the requester to select from all deployment destinations available to this user and valid for the requested service.

Service Catalog costs are updated to reflect the selected destination, so that requesters can understand the cost impact of their decision. Users will see costs in their preferred currency.

To control what destinations users will see, if a user belongs to multiple groups, only the most specific assignment is used, with the following order of precedence:

  1. Destinations assigned directly to this user
  2. Destinations assigned to a group in which the user is a direct member
  3. Destinations assigned to a parent group (that is, a parent group of a group in which this user is a direct member)

When a user selects Let the system decide and multiple destinations are available for the selected service, the destination with the highest rating is displayed as the expected destination. If only one destination is available, a read-only field is displayed instead of a drop-down. When no destinations are available to the user, Let the system decide is selected.

If you don't make this element mandatory, the default selection on the form is Let the system decide.

If you make this element mandatory, you must choose from the following options:

  • Force Selection: The Destination menu is blank by default, so the user must select a destination.
  • Provide Default: The best-suited destination is preselected in the Destination menu, so the user can accept this default without making a selection.

If this element isn't mandatory and the user selects Let the system decide, Commander recalculates the target destination based on the user's storage tier and network zone selections on the component blueprint form.

If you add this element to the Service form and enable the Limit Selections option, the storage tiers and network zones configured for the selected deployment destination are shown on the form, rather than those you configured for the Storage element and the Network element. The Limit Selections option ensures that users don't select a storage tier or network zone that's unavailable on the target destination. The Storage element and the Network element appear on the blueprint form, which you configure in the Service Catalog.

Multi-Select

Allows the requester to select multiple values for a custom attribute. Use this form element to add any list-type custom attribute that's configured to apply only to forms.

This element works only with form attributes, so the values selected on the form are not applied as metadata on deployed services. Therefore, you should use this element only when you need users to be able to multi-select values on the form, but you don't need the metadata to be applied on deployed services. Use the regular Custom/Placement Attribute form element for metadata that persists on deployed services.

To configure a new custom attribute, can click Create New Attribute.For more information, see Create custom attributes .

To allow users to multi-select values, enable Select Multiple.