Modify the ordering of the Dashboards as displayed in the Dashboard pulldown list - Support and Troubleshooting

Modify the ordering of the Dashboards as displayed in the Dashboard pulldown list Issue  Description It is sometimes asked how to adjust the ordering of the Dashboards as displayed in the pull-down list in the view dashboard form. While not necessarily intuitive, this ordering can be changed to allow a custom ordering of these objects as they appear in the list.

Procedure Before beginning it helps to understand how the system organizes these dashboards by default. As will be noticed by reviewing the dashboard list the dashboards are usually categorized into one or more Dashboard Groups. Individual Dashboards associated with this specific group will then appear under this group heading in the list. Thus, the user should be familiar with two types of orderings. The first type of ordering is that of the Dashboard groups that appear in the list, and the second ordering is the order of placement of the individual dashboards as listed under a specific dashboard group. If a particular Dashboard is not associated to any specific Dashboard group it will be added to a special Other group which will appear at the bottom of the list. The Other group is not associated with an actual Dashboard Group record on the instance, but will be the container group for any Dashboards that are not associated to a Dashboard group.

Thus, we will first describe the steps used to order how these Dashboard Groups can be ordered relative to other such groups in the same list.

Ensure you are logged into the instance with an account having admin rights to the instance.

In the Filter Navigator text box, type pa_dashboards_group.list and press the Enter key.

A list of the current Dashboard groups found on the instance will appear.

Locate the Dashboard group you want to re-order from the list and click the Information icon to the right of that record to open the record for editing.

Set the Order field in this record to an integer number corresponding to the oder you want this Dashboard Group to appear in the list relative to other such Dashboard Groups. After setting this Oder filed as necessary, click the Update button to save the change to this Dashboard Group record. The Dashboard groups will appear (with the dashboards found in that group under the listing) in ascending order, from lowest number to highest. If this value is left blank, the system will attempt to place this at the beginning of the list of Dashboard Groups. If two Dashboard Groups have the same Order value (or multiple Dashboard Groups have the null value) the system will attempt to order them based on the name (in ascending alphabetical order). It is a good idea to not use directly sequential numbering for the Order for records in the same category but rather leave a gap of several numbers before the next Dashboard. This will thus enable you to, at a later time, insert a new Dashboard Group as needed in the middle of the list without having to re-order other Dashboard Group records.

Note that this ordering not only determines the ordering of the Dashboard Group in relation to other Dashboard Groups in the list of Dashboards, but it also determines the ordering of these Dashboard Groups as they appear in the Dashboard Group Selector on the main Dashboard selection screen on versions which feature the tile based Dashboard list display.

Repeat these steps for each Dashboard Group in the list until you have the specific ordering you want these Dashboard Groups to appear in these lists.

Once you have the Dashboard Group ordered as needed, you can then order the individual dashboards as listed under a specific Dashboard group in this list. The process used for doing this is similar to that used for updating the Dashboard Groups.

To begin, ensure you are logged into the instance with an account having an admin account to the instance.

Type pa_dashboards.list in the Filter navigator and press the Enter key.

A list of all Dashboard records will then appear in a list view. It may be helpful to filter the list based on the Dashboard Group field to assist in visualizing the specific ordering of the Dashboards will appear in Dashboard lists.

Select the Dashboard you want to modify the order of from the list and click the Information icon for that record in the list to open that record for editing.

Modify the Order field for the Dashboard record to contain the precise ordering you want for that record. The individual Dashboard records will appear, under the subheading of the Dashboard Group in ascending numerical order, as per the value set in the Order field for each record. After modifying the Dashboard record, click the Update button to save the change and return to the list of Dashboard records.

Repeat these steps for each Dashboard for which you want to change the ordering for.

Additional Information Note : With some of the newer versions of ServiceNow (Kingston, London, etc), the default dashboard selector list is displayed in a tile based format. The Dashboards displayed on this form will always be displayed in alphabetical order from left to right then top to bottom. Note however, that the list of Dashboard Groups as displayed in the Dashboard Group list will be ordered based on the ordering specified in the steps above for these Dashboard groups.