Embedded Help system properties
Summarize
Summary of Embedded Help system properties
Embedded Help is enabled by default in your ServiceNow instance, providing contextual assistance directly within the user interface. Administrators can configure how Embedded Help behaves by adjusting system properties accessible under Embedded Help > Properties or in thesyspropertiestable. These settings allow customization of content delivery, visibility of videos, synchronization with content updates, and interaction behaviors.
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Key Features
- Auto-close help pane: Automatically closes the help pane when users start a tour or return to Guided Setup, enhancing user navigation (enabled by default).
- Content Delivery Network (CDN) timeout: Controls the maximum wait time for retrieving help content from the CDN (default 2000 milliseconds).
- Enable or disable Embedded Help: Administrators can turn Embedded Help on or off for the instance.
- Video content control: Allows embedding videos with descriptions in help content. Videos are displayed only if this property is enabled. Videos must be wrapped in a
<div class="video">tag. - Content synchronization: Enables the instance to check and update help content from the CDN based on the last sync date and a configurable sync frequency (default every 15 days).
- Self-hosted sync option: Specifies if a self-hosted instance will sync Embedded Help content with the CDN (disabled by default).
- URL and version control: Defines the source URL for dynamic help content and the instance version for which help is displayed, allowing alignment with specific platform releases.
- Guided Setup action persistence: When enabled, Guided Setup actions such as "Mark as Complete" persist across all pages in the Embedded Help panel rather than only on the initial setup page.
Practical Benefits
By leveraging these system properties, ServiceNow administrators can tailor the Embedded Help experience to improve user adoption and engagement. This includes controlling how and when help content is updated, managing multimedia content visibility, and streamlining user workflows with guided actions. Proper configuration ensures that help content remains current, relevant, and unobtrusive, supporting efficient user onboarding and ongoing support without requiring separate documentation.
Embedded help is active by default on your instance. The administrator can change system properties to modify how the instance interacts with embedded help.
The administrator navigates to to change these properties.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| com.glide.embedded_help.auto_close | Auto-closes the help pane when the user clicks Start a
Tour or Back To Guided Setup.
|
| com.glide.embedded_help.cdn_timeout | Duration in milliseconds at which a content pull from the Content Delivery
Network (CDN) is timed out.
|
| com.glide.embedded_help.enabled | Enables the embedded help plugin for activation.
|
| com.glide.embedded_help.enable_video | Enables users to see embedded videos in help content. The administrator can
embed video and a description, but if this property is
false, the video and description are hidden in the help
pane.
Note: When you embed video content, enclose the video embed code and
description inside a <div class="video"> tag. If you disable
the property, the content inside the <div class="video"> tag
is hidden when the content is displayed. |
| com.glide.embedded_help.sync | Enables the instance to look in the CDN for updated content when a user
accesses a UI page. The instance checks the Last sync date
in the topic against the specified frequency to determine whether to look in the
CDN for updated content.
If the property is disabled (false), the embedded help content is never synced with CDN topic updates. |
| com.glide.embedded_help.sync_frequency | Specifies how many days must pass from the Last sync
date in the topic for the embedded help process to look for updated content in the
CDN.
|
| com.glide.embedded_help.sync_self_hosted | Specifies whether a self-hosted instance syncs content with the CDN.
|
| com.glide.embedded_help.url | Lists the location from where embedded help is dynamically retrieved.
|
| com.glide.embedded_help.version | Specifies the instance version for which help is displayed.
If blank, displays the help for the version the instance is currently running. |
The following system property is available by navigating to the [sys_properties] table.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| com.glide.embedded_help.guided_setup.persist_actions | Enables Guided Setup actions in the embedded help
panel that are based on states to display on all pages. An example is the
Mark as Complete action. The default behavior (false) is
to only show actions on the initial Guided Setup page.
|