Some issues with the update to Service Catalog and Custom Fields.

Update: API Mapping of Request Variables is now broken.

The "request_variables" array received from making a GET request on https://api.samanage.com/incidents.json?layout=long for Service Requests is now an empty array. All of the previous "request_variables" are now listed under the "custom_field_values" array.

This is contrary to the expected behavior:

SolarWinds Service Desk April 2022 Release Notes

It's not too bad to update your code to support the custom fields since they're both formatted as Lists of Dictionaries. Just make sure to keep code in to support the "request_variables" as older tickets will still have these values.

Another thing to note is that some of the field values from the API are in different formats in custom fields than they were in request variables. An example would be the date format:

request variable format: 2022-04-01

custom field format: Apr 01, 2022

Yeah, this is one that we should have caught and added to the documentation so you could easily make adjustments. We are looking at adding the "request_variables" back for the old tickets but moving forward all fields will be under the custom fields area. Same goes for the date format. We are working to add the old variable format for tickets that are already created but all new tickets will have the new format. 

We will update the documentation to reflect these changes and sorry that it was missed at release. 

The request_variables array should still be there for service requests created prior to 4/3, just not new service requests.

To keep backward compatibility for v2.1 of the API it would be better to keep all of the new fields in the custom fields variables array and add back a copy of them to the request_variables array. Then deprecate request_variables in some way to be removed in a future release.

If that's not the plan, the API version should be incremented, and have the change documented in the Version History:

Rough Example:

2.X: request_variables array has been deprecated and will be removed in vX.X. New custom field types will not be backported to the existing request_variables array.

X.X: request_variables array has been removed.

To make sure we are on the same page, when you say service requests created before 4/3 are you saying the actual catalog items or the requests that were created from the catalog items?

Our plan is to bring back the request_variables array for the requests that were submitted before 4/3 and all newly created requests will have the inputs in the custom_field_values. 

We will be updating the API documentation and the release notes while these changes are being made. 

I'm saying the service requests that were created from the catalog items, before 4/3, already have the request_variables array present.

Happy to jump on a teams call and do a screen share if you need examples!

I'm saying the service requests that were created from the catalog items, before 4/3, already have the request_variables array present.

Happy to jump on a teams call and do a screen share if you need examples!