Service Portal properties

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  • Updated February 5, 2026
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    Summary of Service Portal properties

    Service Portal properties are essential for configuring user experiences in ServiceNow. They allow administrators to customize the portal for both admin and end users. Most commonly used properties can be set directly from the Service Portal properties page, while others are available through the System Properties table.

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    Key Features

    • Default 404 Page: Set a specific page to display when a page fails to load (glide.serviceportal.default404page).
    • Admin Error Messages: Control visibility of error messages for admin users (glide.sp.showconsoleerror).
    • Stream Entry Limit: Limit the number of entries displayed in the ticket conversation widget (glide.serviceportal.streamentrylimit).
    • Notification Timeout: Define how long info and error messages persist before auto-dismissal (glide.service-portal.notificationtimeout.seconds).
    • Announcement Sort Order: Set default sorting for banner announcements (glide.serviceportal.announcement.defaultsortorder).
    • Debug Information: Enable or disable debug runtime information for performance tuning (glide.sp.debug).
    • User Criteria Management: Manage permissions for portal access based on user criteria instead of roles (glide.serviceportal.usercriteriaenabled).

    Key Outcomes

    By effectively configuring these properties, ServiceNow customers can enhance the user experience within their portals, ensuring relevant content is displayed accurately while maintaining performance. This customization supports user engagement and operational efficiency, ultimately leading to a more effective service delivery experience.

    Service Portal properties control aspects of the portal experience for admin and end users.

    The most commonly used Service Portal properties are set on the Service Portal properties page. Some less commonly used properties are available only from the System Properties [sys_properties] table.

    You can access the properties listed in the following table by navigating to All > Service Portal > Properties.

    Table 1. Service Portal page properties
    Property Description

    Default 404 page (page ID or sp_page sys_id) for Service Portal

    glide.service_portal.default_404_page

    Set the default page that your users see whenever a page cannot load properly.The string must match the name of the page exactly.

    Show a message to admin users in Service Portal pages if a browser error is encountered

    glide.sp.show_console_error

    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: true

    Maximum number of stream entries displayed in Service Portal (activity widget, conversation widget, and so on)

    glide.service_portal.stream_entry_limit

    Limit the number of entries users can see in the ticket conversation widget. Users only see the most recent entries and cannot go further back in the history than the max allowed amount.
    • Type: integer
    • Default value: 100

    Duration (in seconds) info and error messages persist in the Service Portal before auto-dismissal

    glide.service-portal.notification_timeout.seconds

    Set the duration in seconds that non-critical notifications remain on the screen before they are auto-dismissed. If set to 0, messages do not auto-dismiss and require that a user close them.

    • Type: integer
    • Default value: 5

    Critical notifications should be tagged with the sn-sticky-notification HTML class attribute to prevent them from being automatically dismissed.

    If the glide.ui.accessibility preference is enabled, messages do not auto-dismiss, regardless of the system property value. To set this preference, see Enabling accessibility features.

    Default sort order for announcements

    glide.service_portal.announcement.default_sort_order

    Define the sort order for banner announcements.
    • Type: choice list
    • Default value: Start Date Descending
    Options include:
    • Start Date Ascending: The oldest start date appears first.
    • Start Date Descending: The most recent start date appears first.
    • End Date Ascending: The oldest end date appears first.
    • End Date Descending: The most recent end date appears first.
    Enable debug runtime information

    glide.sp.debug

    Controls whether the Angular.js flag $compileProvider.debugInfoEnabled is set to true or false. This option allows debug runtime information in the compiler, such as adding binding information and a reference to the current scope on to DOM elements. This property is turned off by default to improve performance on the instance.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: false
    If user criteria [com.glide.service-portal.user-criteria] is enabled, the following properties also appear in the Service Portal properties page:

    You can access the properties listed in the following table in the System Properties [sys_properties] table.

    Table 3. Service Portal system properties
    Property Description
    glide.service_portal.enable_acls_for_encoded_query_in_list

    Option to always enforce read ACLs for filter conditions specified in Simple List widget instances. If false, the Enforce field-level Read ACLs on Filter query terms option in Simple List widget instances determines whether to enforce the ACLs.

    glide.service_portal.enable_human_readable_urls

    Option to allow configuring human readable keywords in portal page URLs for the instance.

    glide.service-portal.notification.threshold

    Specify how many notifications should appear before users have the option to clear all notifications at once.

    • Type: integer
    • Default value: 5
    glide.sp.portals.language_selector_enabled Allows any user to choose and view content in their preferred language.

    This property contains a list of portal sys IDs separated by commas. By default, the sys IDs for the Knowledge (/kb), Customer Support (/csm), and Customer Service (/csp) portals are included. For any portal specified, the language selector appears in the portal header if any languages are installed and active on the instance in addition to English.

    glide.sp.theme.parse_scss

    Option to allow compiled SCSS files to be loaded as links to improve repeat page view performance. If set to false, SCSS files are included inline in the page HTML instead.

    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: true