Book Image

ServiceNow: Building Powerful Workflows

By : Tim Woodruff, Martin Wood, Ashish Rudra Srivastava
Book Image

ServiceNow: Building Powerful Workflows

By: Tim Woodruff, Martin Wood, Ashish Rudra Srivastava

Overview of this book

ServiceNow is a SaaS application that provides workflow form-based applications. It is an ideal platform for creating enterprise-level applications, giving requesters and fulfillers improved visibility and access to a process. ServiceNow-based applications often replace email by providing a better way to get work done. This course will show you how to put important ServiceNow features to work in the real world. We will introduce key concepts and examples on managing and automating IT services, and help you build a solid foundation towards this new approach. You will then learn more about the power of tasks, events, and notifications. We’ll then focus on using web services and other mechanisms to integrate ServiceNow with other systems. Further on, you’ll learn how to secure applications and data, and understand how ServiceNow performs logging and error reporting. At the end of this course, you will acquire immediately applicable skills to rectify everyday problems encountered on the ServiceNow platform. The course provides you with highly practical content explaining ServiceNow from the following Packt books: 1. Learning ServiceNow 2. ServiceNow Cookbook 3. Mastering ServiceNow, Second Edition

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ServiceNow: Building Powerful Workflows
Tim Woodruff | Martin Wood | Ashish Rudra Srivastava
Aug, 2017 | 22 hours 10 minutes
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Table of Contents (39 chapters)
Title Page
Title Page
Credits
Credits
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Module 1
Module 1
Learning ServiceNow
2
The Interface
The Interface
Frames
Filter text box
Favorites
Important application menus and modules
Content frame
UI settings and personalization
Summary
3
Lists and Forms
Lists and Forms
List v2 versus List v3
Lists and Tables
Forms
Summary
4
UI Customization
UI Customization
UI15 versus UI16
Branding your instance
Custom themes
UI-Impacting system properties
Configuring service portal UI
Creating a custom homepage
Styling pages and widgets
Styling the CMS
Summary
5
Understanding Data and Relationships
Understanding Data and Relationships
One-to-many relationships in ServiceNow
Many-to-many relationships in ServiceNow
Enforcing one-to-one relationships
Defining custom relationships
Database table inheritance
Summary
6
Tasks and Workflows
Tasks and Workflows
Important task fields
Journals and the Activity formatter
Extending the task table
Workflows
Approvals
Assignment
Creating Task fields
Summary
7
UI and Data Policies
UI and Data Policies
UI Policies
Reverse if False
Scripting in UI Policies
UI Policy Order
Data Policies
Converting between Data and UI Policies
Data Policies versus ACLs
Summary
8
User Administration and Security
User Administration and Security
Groups and Roles
Emails and notifications
User preferences
ACLs - security rules
Summary
9
Introduction to Scripting
Introduction to Scripting
To script, or not to script?
Client side versus server side APIs
Where scripting is supported
Integrated development environment
Summary
10
The Server-side Glide API
The Server-side Glide API
The structure of an API class
Server-side APIs
GlideRecord
GlideElement
GlideDateTime
GlideSession
GlideSystem
GlideUser
Client-side APIs
GlideAjax
GlideForm (g_form)
Summary
11
The Client-side Glide API
The Client-side Glide API
Client-side APIs
GlideAjax
GlideForm (g_form)
GlideUser (g_user)
GlideRecord
Summary
12
Server-side Scripting
Server-side Scripting
Dot-walking and GlideElement
Script Includes
Business rules
Summary
13
Client-side Scripting
Client-side Scripting
Client Scripts
Security
Compatibility
Build for performance
UI scripts
Scripts files from the server
Summary
14
Debugging
Debugging
Logging
Client-side debugging
Server-side debugging
JavaScript debugger (Istanbul)
General Debugging
Summary
15
Pro Tips
Pro Tips
Admin Pro Tips
Scripting Pro Tips
What the pros wish they knew
Summary
16
Module 2
Module 2
ServiceNow Cookbook
17
Getting Started with Service-Now
Getting Started with Service-Now
Introduction
Service-Now prerequisites
Service-Now and the ITIL framework
Understanding Service-Now procurement
Understanding Service-Now roles and licensing
Understanding the Service-Now setup
Accessing the Service-Now application
Microsoft Active Directory authentication
Logging in to the Service-Now application portal or end user view
Creating service requests from the Service-Now portal
Understanding the Service-Now IT view
Understanding Service-Now's self-service application
Understanding Service-Now's service desk application
Understand unique record identifier
Using the incident management application
Using the related lists of applications
Using the problem management application
Using the change management application
Creating the change/problem task from the incident task
18
Performing Core Configuration and Management Tasks
Performing Core Configuration and Management Tasks
Introduction
Setting up basic configuration
Understanding LDAP servers
Understanding user administration
Understanding group administration
Using service-now plugins
Configuring the Service-Now form
Configuring UI policies on Service-Now forms
Configuring UI actions on forms
Understanding deployments or update sets
Getting into CMDB
Setting up an SLA/OLA/underpinning contract
Setting up system rules
Understanding the system dictionary
Understanding the Service-Now tables schema
Getting into system security
19
Building Data-Driven Application
Building Data-Driven Application
Introduction
Starting a new application
Getting into new modules
Getting into the client script
Getting into the server-side script
Understanding the team development plugin
Understand web services
Understanding development best practice
20
Configuring Alerts and Notifications
Configuring Alerts and Notifications
Introduction
Understanding the Service-Now system mailbox
Creating a new e-mail notification
Creating an e-mail template
Creating an e-mail notification script
Setting up an inbound e-mail action
Inbound e-mail action - new
Inbound e-mail action - forward
Inbound e-mail action - reply
E-mail Notification by event registry
E-mail notification troubleshooting
21
Building and Configuring Reports
Building and Configuring Reports
Introduction
Viewing and running reports
Creating new reports
Scheduling reports
Sending multiple reports in one e-mail
Creating a table-specific report module
Creating a dashboard
Including the date in a report's e-mail notification
Working with the report's header and footer template
Working with the report sources
Working with the report range
Creating a database view
22
Creating and Configuring Workflow Activities
Creating and Configuring Workflow Activities
Introduction
Understanding the Service-Now workflow
Attaching a workflow with the service catalog
Attaching workflows with current/new modules
Workflow troubleshooting
Setting up an approval activity
Working with condition activities
Working with task activities
Working with workflow utilities
Setting up e-mail notifications from workflows
How to configure a timer in workflows
Understanding the approval engine
23
Auditing and Diagnosing Service-Now
Auditing and Diagnosing Service-Now
Understanding auditing in Service-Now
Working with auditing tables
Understanding Service-Now upgrades
Working with system logs
System diagnostics
Working with background scripts
Working with Field Watcher
Working with JavaScript logs
24
Module 3
Module 3
Mastering ServiceNow
25
ServiceNow Foundations
ServiceNow Foundations
Diving into the infrastructure
Exploring the database
Storing data
Reference fields
Building the interface
Making the most of the UI
Summary
26
Developing Custom Applications
Developing Custom Applications
Developing applications in Studio
Scoping out limits
Enforcing the separation
Building hierarchical tables
Many-to-many relationships
Cascading with reference fields
Summary
27
Server-Side Control
Server-Side Control
Deciding to write code
Running background scripts
Using GlideRecord (and its friends)
Counting records with GlideAggregate
Scripting in scoped apps
Business rules
Script Includes
Enforcing data
Scripting reference qualifiers
Rhino - the JavaScript engine powering ServiceNow
Summary
28
Client-Side Interaction
Client-Side Interaction
Building a modern interface
Choosing a UI Action
Managing fields with UI Policy
Running client-side scripts
Manipulating forms with GlideForm
Client-side scripting
Efficiently transferring data to the client
Controlling lists with Context Menus
Customizing and extending the platform
Taking control of the browser
Summary
29
Getting Things Done with Tasks
Getting Things Done with Tasks
Introducing tasks
Organizing groups and users
Using additional comments and work notes
Understanding the State field
Drag-and-drop automation with Graphical Workflows
Approving tasks
Using the Service Catalog
Understanding Request Fulfilment
Service Level Management
Summary
30
Events, Notifications, and Reporting
Events, Notifications, and Reporting
Dealing with events
Scheduling jobs
Sending e-mail notifications
Delivering an e-mail
Receiving e-mails
Recording metrics
Flattening data with Database Views
Reporting
Building homepages
Summary
31
Exchanging Data – Import Sets, Web Services, and other Integrations
Exchanging Data – Import Sets, Web Services, and other Integrations
Beginning the web service journey
Bringing it in using Import Sets
Importing users and groups with LDAP
Building web service Import Sets
Connecting to web services
Building custom interfaces
Working inside the data center - introducing the MID server
Authenticating and securing web services
Designing integrations
Summary
32
Securing Applications and Data
Securing Applications and Data
Understanding roles
Protecting data with contextual security rules
Building security rules
Using Scoped Administration
Encrypting data
Introducing Domain Separation
Authenticating users
Securing web services
Summary
33
Diagnosing ServiceNow – Knowing What Is Going On
Diagnosing ServiceNow – Knowing What Is Going On
Building a methodology
Looking at the system log
Using the debugging tools
Enabling the JavaScript client side log
Tracking each page request
Going through other logs
Finding slow database transactions
Dealing with other performance issues
Auditing and versioning
Optimizing hardware resources
Accessing the system internals
Summary
34
Packaging with Applications, Update Sets, and Upgrades
Packaging with Applications, Update Sets, and Upgrades
Using your instances
Serializing records to XML
Recording configuration in Update Sets
Cloning instances
Packaging with applications
Sharing with Share
Selling on ServiceNow Store
Adding more with plugins
Configuration and customization
Upgrading ServiceNow
Managing instances
Summary
35
Making ServiceNow Beautiful with Service Portal and Custom Interfaces
Making ServiceNow Beautiful with Service Portal and Custom Interfaces
Making it self – service
Starting with Service Portal
Digging into Jelly
Using Angular and Jelly
Including Jelly in the standard interface
Summary
36
Bibliography
Bibliography

To script, or not to script?

Once you learn how powerful scripting can be in ServiceNow, it would be easy to try and do everything with custom scripts. However, this is quite often not the best solution for a few reasons:

  • If the functionality or API are updated or deprecated, any unnecessary custom code means more maintenance costs during upgrades
  • Increased custom code increases complexity, increasing the cost of development overall
  • Custom code being used in lieu of out-of-box functionality can make it more difficult to identify the source of a given behavior, making troubleshooting cumbersome

In the Where scripting is supported section of this chapter, we'll learn about the various fields and records in which scripting is supported. However, it is important to keep in mind that custom scripts do carry a small cost to offset their benefit, in terms of performance, upgradeability, and future stability.

With that said, the benefits of a custom script are very often far greater than the costs; primarily...

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