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Getting Started
1. What is WEP?
WEP stands for Web Experience Platform. It is our encompassing term for the technology stack used within Next Experience experiences such as Workspaces. The WEP technology stack is comprised of:
- Next Experience UI Framework
- ServiceNow CLI
- Next Experience Components and Custom Components
- UI Builder
2. What is a WEP or Configurable Workspace?
A workspace created with the technology stack listed above is a WEP Workspace. You may also see these workspaces referred to as Configurable Workspaces and these terms are interchangeable. Agent Workspace is a product from ServiceNow and is the predecessor to WEP Workspaces, but the products are not the same and the terms are not interchangeable.
A WEP or Configurable Workspace is a workspace that can be configured and extended using UI Builder. ServiceNow products are launching their own WEP Workspaces and it is advised that customers explore the solutions of using product-created workspaces before creating custom workspaces. If a product solution does not meet specific business needs, customers can create WEP Workspace Experiences via App Engine Studio.
Configurable Workspaces provide agents, case managers, service desk professionals, and managers with tools to help answer customer questions and to resolve customer problems. From a single view, agents get full context, analytics, and AI-assisted recommendations to resolve issues quickly – they are the command centers for taking action. The core features include Advanced Work Assignment with Agent Affinity, Playbook Experience, Analytics Center, Agent Assist, automatic interaction logging, a flexible layout, tabbed interface, global search, and a seamless handoff from chatbot.
UI Builder enables customers to create pages for WEP Workspaces created by ServiceNow such as CSM Configurable Workspace, and custom App Engine Studio generated workspaces. WEP Workspaces also have configurable attributes that are not configurable within UI Builder currently.
3. Why would I use a Configurable Workspace versus Agent Workspace?
Agent Workspace is the first iteration of our efforts to re-imagine in the user experience for Tier 1/2 agents and fulfillers but we quickly heard feedback that Agent Workspace was not configurable enough for our customer's needs. This prompted our teams to go back and refactor workspaces so that customers can configure pages to their needs and have more control over components via properties and styling.
4. Why did ServiceNow decide to launch Configurable Workspaces when they had Agent Workspace?
As mentioned in Question 3, Agent Workspace was a good start for a new agent interface, but did not provide the flexibility that customers needed. Configurable Workspaces are our answer to providing new user interfaces for agents and fulfillers while providing a configurable solution.
5. What's happening to Agent Workspace?
Agent Workspaces will be deprecated once a replacement configurable workspace encompasses all of the features of the workspace. See your workspaces product documentation for specific information. For example, users using ITSM Agent Workspace should check the release notes and product documentation on when ITSM Agent Workspace is being deprecated and make plans to move to Service Operations Workspace.
6. Should I implement an Agent Workspace or Configurable Workspace?
Customers thinking about implementing a workspace solution should begin with Configurable Workspace and not Agent Workspace due to the product no longer receiving enhancements. We have many product workspace solutions as of the San Diego release and are continuing to release more workspaces and will focus our enhancement efforts on the Web Experience Platform tech stack and business units will continue enhancing their Configurable Workspaces.
7. Can I migrate an Agent Workspace to a Configurable Workspace, is there a migration tool?
There is no migration path at this time for Agent Workspace or custom workspaces created prior to Quebec. Customers should explore the out-of-the-box Configurable Workspace options to see if it fits their needs. Customers can also create Configurable Workspaces using App Engine Studio but should check with their account representative regarding any licensing questions when creating applications in App Engine Studio. For more information on the differences between Configurable Workspaces and Agent Workspace see our resource hub. For information on migrating from a product-line agent workspace to a product-line Configurable Workspace, see the product's specific product documentation.
8. I want to replicate the customizations I made in Platform UI in Configurable Workspace, should I do a lift-and-shift?
We've created our product-line workspaces with the agent and fulfiller experience in mind, rather than trying to replicate the Platform UI/Core UI in a new tech stack. You may have existing customizations on the Core UI that you want to shift over to workspace to have parity between both user interfaces. Our guidance is to start comparing existing processes with out-of-the-box functionality, and making configuration changes to a Configurable workspace that aligns with how agents interact with a process, rather than trying to reproduce the Core UI in a Configurable Workspace. Migrating to a Configurable Workspace is a great opportunity to re-imagine and improve the agent experience. Your organization may have made customizations to the Core UI, due to the one-size-fits-all approach and limitations of the technology that are no longer necessary in a Configurable Workspace that can meet the needs of multiple personas.
9. Do Configurable Workspaces have parity with Platform?
See Question 8. While we've included some parity with how users interact with lists and forms, the goal of Configurable Workspace is to create a user experience that fits the needs of agents, fulfillers, and other process workers. Our business units are taking advantage of this new technology stack to reimagine how they deliver their products as well, and will not be simply lifting and shifting their Configurable Workspace products from Platform to a new tech stack. If you're thinking of launching a Configurable Workspace for a product, learn about the workspace from the product documentation and see how it aligns with your processes, rather than viewing it as a new overlay to an existing user interface.
10. What if a feature isn't in a Configurable Workspace, how does my user access it?
Our product teams are hard at work ensuring their Configurable Workspace meets the needs of customers processes, while also envisioning how their workspaces provide the best experience for its users. While we work on our continued innovation, we're aware that some users may need access to elements in the Platform UI, and that's why we launched the Next Experience UI.
Next Experience UI is our latest user interface introduced in the San Diego release. The purpose of Next Experience UI is to not only provide a modern visual uplift to the Platform UI versus UI16, but to provide a seamless navigation experience to users who may be using Configurable Workspaces and the Platform UI.
As of San Diego our focus is on improving the user experience for Service Delivery teams such as Agents, and Fulfillers - the users who spend most of their working day within the Now Platform. Configurable Workspaces are the solution to Tier 1 & 2 agents, and process users (i.e. Project, etc.) but these users may still need features found outside of the Workspace UI while our teams are continually improving our Configurable Workspaces.
For example, our new Service Operations Workspace released in San Diego has full parity with ITSM Agent Workspace, but Problem Managers still need to manage the Problem Lifecycle outside of Service Operations Workspace (until that functionality has been added) so they can switch to the Platform UI in Next Experience from the Configurable Workspace to do so, without having to open and work out of multiple browser tabs.
11. Should I use Agent Workspace or a Configurable Workspace with Next Experience UI?
We encourage customers who have not adopted Agent Workspace to adopt a Configurable Workspace instead. Customers who are using Agent Workspace should begin migrating to a Configurable Workspace. Existing Agent Workspace customers can use Agent Workspace with Next Experience UI, but will not see the features of a unified navigation experience or integrating theming as Agent Workspace will continue to open in a separate browser tab with it's own theme.
12. Do I need a Workspace in order to turn on Next Experience UI?
Having a workspace is not a prerequisite to turning enabling Next Experience UI. Customers that are not currently utilizing Agent or Configurable Workspaces do not need to enable these features in order to upgrade to Next Experience UI. For more of a deep dive on activation, see the Platform Foundations Academy - Activating Next Experience UI session.
13. Now that I am being encouraged to use Configurable Workspaces with Next Experience UI, will I lose access to my existing Agent Workspace when upgrading to San Diego or turning on Next Experience UI?
No, you will not lose access to Agent Workspace UI. You can continue to use Agent Workspace after upgrading to San Diego and activating the Next Experience UI. Agent Workspace users will not see the features of a unified navigation experience or integrating theming as Agent Workspace will continue to open in a separate browser tab with its own theme.
14. How do I manage the visibility of Workspaces within the Unified Navigation menu in Next Experience?
You can configure the visibility of a particular workspace in the Workspace menu in Unified Navigation, see this support article on how to configure ACLs for workspace visibility.
15. I think I have a bug or defect with a Configurable Workspace, what do I do?
If you believe you have a defect with Next Experience, log a case using the Now Support portal.
16. There is functionality missing that I would like in a Configurable Workspace, where can I communicate this?
For functionality you wish to be implemented, log an idea on our Idea portal.
Configuration
17. Is there overall product documentation that tells me how to configure a Configurable Workspace?
No. As mentioned in the getting started article, each business unit is designing their configurable workspace to best meet the needs of their processes and users, so workspaces may be built differently depending on the process and product. Customers should refer to the specific product documentation for their configurable workspace for configuration instructions. For customers who are using workspaces generated in App Engine Studio, we've included some general configuration documentation in our Center of Excellence Configurable Workspace Resource Hub. Customers should refer to UI Builder documentation when configuring or creating pages for their Configurable Workspaces.
18. When using UI Builder for Agent Workspace, I do not have options to create pages, variants, and use the components I see in the product documentation.
Agent Workspace and custom workspaces built prior to the Quebec release use a classic version of UI Builder that does not offer administrators the same configuration options as the new UI Builder released in Quebec that is used with Configurable Workspaces. Admins can only configure Landing Pages in the Legacy version of UI Builder for Agent Workspace with a limited set of components available. For customers who are wanting to use the full version of UI Builder to create pages, use over 130+ out-of-the-box components, create page variants, and more should migrate to a product-line workspace from Agent Workspace or create a new custom workspace in App Engine Studio (contact your account representative for licensing questions) or UI Builder for custom application scenarios that are not covered by product-line workspaces.
19. How do I configure what shows in the header and sidebar in a Configurable Workspace in UI Builder?
If Next Experience UI is enabled, the Configurable Workspace inherits the Unified Navigation header, which is currently not configurable by customers. The sidebar can be configured in the Experience settings within UI Builder for basic use cases, for more advanced use cases customers will need to edit JSON in the chrome_toolbar UX Page Property for the experience.
If Next Experience UI is disabled then the Configurable Workspace header displays. The header can be configured in the Experience settings within UI Builder for basic use cases, for more advanced use cases customers will need to edit JSON in the chrome_header UX Page Property for the experience. The sidebar can be configured in the Experience settings within UI Builder for basic use cases, for more advanced use cases customers will need to edit JSON in the chrome_toolbar UX Page Property for the experience. For more information see our Center of Excellence article on Migrating to Configurable Workspace.
20. Is the new UI Builder capable of configuring pages in Agent Workspace?
No. Existing Workspaces are only compatible with the legacy UI Builder (released in Orlando). This legacy UI Builder only supports configuring Agent Workspace Landing Pages.
21. If a user created a page in the legacy UI Builder, after upgrading to the new UI Builder in Quebec, can they edit that page in the new UI Builder?
No. Existing pages will open in the legacy version of UI Builder. If a user wants to get the new functionality, they will need to re-create the page in the new version of UI Builder.
22. Is the new version of UI Builder limited to configuring Workspaces only?
No, in addition to configuring pages for workspaces, the new UI Builder can create/edit Portal experiences from App Engine Studio, custom experiences, and Landing Pages utilized in the Next Experience UI.
23. Is Agent Workspace and legacy UI Builder no longer available?
As of the San Diego release, users can still utilize Agent Workspace but no longer create workspaces based on the Agent Workspace framework as of Quebec. The legacy UI Builder is still available for configuring landing pages in Agent Workspace, but Agent Workspace landing pages are not available for configuration in the new UI Builder.
