ServiceNow is a powerful and versatile cloud-based IT Service Management (ITSM) platform that supports Incident, Problem, Change, and Knowledge management, as well as a great many other IT processes. With Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes baked right in, powerful workflow-driven processes, and a robust scripting engine for both client-side and server-side customizations, ServiceNow can provide fairly comprehensive ITSM functionality right out of the box, or it can be extensively customized to suit the needs of any business.
If you're reading this, then there's a good chance you are, or aim to be, a ServiceNow administrator or developer. This means that it'll be your responsibility to extend and modify ServiceNow's existing functionality to meet the needs of your business' users. This book will help get you up to speed on how ServiceNow works, what its capabilities are, and how to customize its functionality and appearance!
While expert ServiceNow developers, administrators, and architects can expect to learn much from this book, it is geared toward people with less than 2 years of experience as ServiceNow developers/administrators.
Whether you're getting the hang of things, are just starting out, or even if you haven't yet begun your ServiceNow career, this book is for you.
Chapter 1, The Interface, learn about the different interfaces of ServiceNow (including UI15 and UI16), and pick up pro tips on how to fly around the interface like a seasoned pro.
Chapter 2, Lists and Forms, see the differences between the new and old style of lists (both of which are present in ServiceNow), and learn how to customize them as well as the form view and related lists.
Chapter 3, UI Customization, customize your ServiceNow instance's user interface, using themes, System Properties, UI Properties, and custom CSS.
Chapter 4, Understanding Data and Relationships, understand table inheritance, and the different types of relationships that go into the underlying ServiceNow relational database structure; including one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many relationships.
Chapter 5, Tasks and Workflows, expanding on the data relationship concepts we learned in the previous chapter, this chapter teaches specifically about Tasks in ServiceNow, and best practices surrounding their use. Herein, we also learn about workflows - closely tied with the Task table - and how to leverage them effectively.
Chapter 6, UI and Data Policies, learn about UI Policies, Data Policies, and best practice guidelines surrounding them. Pick up "Pro Tips" from industry experts, and learn how to debug potential issues.
Chapter 7, User Administration and Security, ServiceNow's security and access rights are determined by Access Control Lists (ACLs) also known as Security Rules. Learn to utilize these rules to define permissions for your users in your instance.
Chapter 8, Introduction to Scripting, scripting in ServiceNow has its own quirks and best practices. In this chapter, learn how (and when) to use custom scripted functionality.
Chapter 9, The Server-Side Glide API, learn about the server-side ServiceNow API, also known as the Glide API, built on top of Mozilla Rhino: a Java-based implementation of JavaScript.
Chapter 10, The Client-Side Glide API, see real-world examples while learning about the client-side Glide API, including how to avoid the major performance pitfalls using AJAX and asynchronous scripting.
Chapter 11, Server-Side Scripting, now that you understand the server-side Glide API, learn about scripting best practices, how and when to use server-side scripts, and what types of scripts are available.
Chapter 12, Client-Side Scripting, learn all about client-side script types and best practices, including how to access server-side data and functionality asynchronously, while preserving client-side performance.
Chapter 13, Service Portal Scripting, learn how to write and interact with scripts in the Service Portal, including some of the pitfalls to avoid in Service Portal code.
Chapter 14, Debugging, now that you know enough to be dangerous, this chapter teaches you how to debug your scripts to make sure they'll run without error, and handle potential issues as, or even before, they arise.
Chapter 15, Pro Tips, get tips and advice on how to avoid common pitfalls. Learn advanced tips, and what industry pros wish they'd known when they were first starting out as ServiceNow administrators and developers.
There are a couple of things you'll need, before you set off on your journey toward becoming a ServiceNow developer:
JavaScript is the language that's used to interact with ServiceNow on both the client, and the server. While an administrator can do a lot of customization within ServiceNow without any code at all, any scripting you do will be done in JavaScript.
ServiceNow is kind enough to provide a free development instance to anyone who wants one.
To request an instance, simply register for an account on https://developer.servicenow.com, and then click the Request Instance link on your account page.
When requesting an instance, you may select which version of ServiceNow you'd like. You can change this at any time down the road, but it often takes a few hours to do so.
This book deals primarily with the Jakarta, Kingston, and London versions of ServiceNow. If you're going to follow along in your own instance, we recommend doing so in either Jakarta, Kingston, or London.
We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/LearningServiceNowSecondEdition_ColorImages.pdf.
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. For example; " Here is an example of a scripted condition field using gs.hasRole()"
A block of code is set as follows:
var GetPropertyAjax = Class.create();
GetPropertyAjax.prototype = Object.extendsObject(AbstractAjaxProcessor, {
getProp: function() {
var propName = this.getParameter('sysparm_prop_name');
return(gs.getProperty(propName));
},
type: 'GetPropertyAjax'
});When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
var GetPropertyAjax = Class.create();
GetPropertyAjax.prototype = Object.extendsObject(AbstractAjaxProcessor, {
getProp: function() {
var propName = this.getParameter('sysparm_prop_name');
return(gs.getProperty(propName));
},
type: 'GetPropertyAjax'
});Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, also appear in the text like this. For example: "Select System info from the Administration panel."
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