Book Image

Mastering ServiceNow - Second Edition

Book Image

Mastering ServiceNow - Second Edition

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. The book steps through the main aspects of the ServiceNow platform, from the ground up. It starts by exploring the core architecture of ServiceNow, including building the right data structure. To add business logic and control data, and interactivity to user interaction, you will be shown how to code on both server and the client. You will then learn more about the power of tasks, events and notifications. The book will then focus on using web services and other mechanisms to integrate ServiceNow with other systems. Furthermore, you will learn how to secure applications and data, and understand how ServiceNow performs logging and error reporting. You will then be shown how to package your applications and changes, so they can be installed elsewhere and ways to maintain them easily. If you wish to create an alternative simple interface, then explore ways to make ServiceNow beautiful using Service Portal. By the end of the book, you will know the fundamentals of the ServiceNow platform, helping you be a better ServiceNow System Administrator or developer.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Mastering ServiceNow Second Edition
Credits
Notice
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface

Serializing records to XML


As we saw in Chapter 1, ServiceNow Foundations, virtually everything in ServiceNow is a record. The database stores all configurations, such as business rules, UI policies, and contextual security rules in addition to all the data, such as users, groups, and tasks. And while Chapter 7Exchanging Data – Import SetsImport Sets, Web Services, and  Other Integrations, showed how data can be exported to CSV and Excel, those formats don't typically contain all the information of every field.

In order to get an exact representation of a database record, the platform can store data in an augmented XML schema called the unload format. This stores the entire contents of a record in a serialized manner, but with a few added instructions. Each field in the record is represented as an element, and the action attribute specifies what should happen when the data is read. As a truncated example, a business rule may be serialized as follows:

<unload unload_date="2016-06-09 07...