ServiceNow

The ServiceNow connector lets you perform insert, delete, update, and read operations on ServiceNow database.

Before you begin

Before using the ServiceNow connector, do the following tasks:

• In your Google Cloud project:
  • Ensure that network connectivity is set up. For information about network patterns, see Network connectivity.
  • Grant the roles/connectors.admin IAM role to the user configuring the connector.
  • Grant the following IAM roles to the service account that you want to use for the connector:
    • roles/secretmanager.viewer
    • roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor

    A service account is a special type of Google account intended to represent a non-human user that needs to authenticate and be authorized to access data in Google APIs. If you don't have a service account, you must create a service account. For more information, see Creating a service account.

  • Enable the following services:
    • secretmanager.googleapis.com (Secret Manager API)
    • connectors.googleapis.com (Connectors API)

    To understand how to enable services, see Enabling services.

  If these services or permissions have not been enabled for your project previously, you are prompted to enable them when configuring the connector.

• Provide access to the following tables in your ServiceNow instance:

  • sys_db_object
  • sys_dictionary
  • sys_glide_object

  This permission is required for the connector to connect to your data. To provide the access, do the following steps:

  1. In your ServiceNow application, go to System Security > Access Controls (ACL).
  2. Select New to create an access control object.
  3. For Type, select record.
  4. For Operation, select read.
  5. For Name, select Table [sys_db_object] in the first drop-down and --None-- in the second drop-down.
  6. In the Requires role section, double-click the Insert a new row.... text box, and then search for and select your desired role.
  7. Click Submit to create the ACL object.
  8. Assign the role which has the created ACL to the authenticating user. To do this, go to User Administration > Users > Select authenticating user > Roles > Edit... > . and, then add your role from your collection.

• Get the ServiceNow instance URL, username, and password.

Configure the connector

Configuring the connector requires you to create a connection to your data source (backend system). A connection is specific to a data source. It means that if you have many data sources, you must create a separate connection for each data source. To create a connection, do the following steps:

1. In the Cloud console, go to the Integration Connectors > Connections page and then select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Go to the Connections page

2. Click + CREATE NEW to open the Create Connection page.
3. In the Location section, choose the location for the connection.
   1. Region: Select a location from the drop-down list.

      For the list of all the supported regions, see Locations.

   2. Click NEXT.
4. In the Connection Details section, complete the following:
   1. Connector: Select Servicenow from the drop down list of available Connectors.
   2. Connector version: Select the Connector version from the drop down list of available versions.
   3. In the Connection Name field, enter a name for the Connection instance.

      Connection names must meet the following criteria:

      • Connection names can use letters, numbers, or hyphens.
      • Letters must be lower-case.
      • Connection names must begin with a letter and end with a letter or number.
      • Connection names cannot exceed 49 characters.
      • For connectors that support event subscription, the connection names cannot begin with the "goog" prefix.
   4. Optionally, enter a Description for the connection instance.
   5. Optionally, enable Cloud logging, and then select a log level. By default, the log level is set to Error.
   6. Service Account: Select a service account that has the required roles.
   7. To use the connection for event subscriptions, select Enable event subscription. Selecting this, displays the following options:
      • Enable event subscription with entity and actions: Select this option to use the connection for both event subscription and connector operations (entities and actions).
      • Enable only event subscription: Select this option to use the connection only for event subscription. If you select this option, click Next, and then configure event subscription.
   8. Include System Tables: Select this option to retrieve system tables that store security data and metadata. Only admin-role users have access to these tables.
   9. Filter Tables: Specify the tables as a comma-separated list. Use this field to filter the tables that you want the connection to retrieve instead of retrieving all the tables.
   10. Display Value: Specify whether the connection must retrieve the display value, actual value, or both the values from the database.

   Note: If you decide to set this connection property to "true", then all the returned fields will be of type "String" due to Servicenow API limitations.

   • TRUE: Returns display values for all fields.
   • FALSE: Returns actual values from the database.
   • ALL: Returns both actual and display values.
   11. Optionally, configure the Connection node settings:
       • Minimum number of nodes: Enter the minimum number of connection nodes.
       • Maximum number of nodes: Enter the maximum number of connection nodes.

       A node is a unit (or replica) of a connection that processes transactions. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection and conversely, fewer nodes are required to process fewer transactions. To understand how the nodes affect your connector pricing, see Pricing for connection nodes. If you don't enter any values, by default the minimum nodes are set to 2 (for better availability) and the maximum nodes are set to 50.

   Note: You can customize the connection node values only if you are a Pay-as-you-go customer.
   12. Optionally, click + ADD LABEL to add a label to the Connection in the form of a key/value pair.
   13. Click NEXT.
5. In the Destinations section, enter details of the remote host (backend system) you want to connect to.
   1. Destination Type: Select a Destination Type.
      • Select Host address from the list to specify the hostname or IP address of the destination.
      • If you want to establish a private connection to your backend systems, select Endpoint attachment from the list, and then select the required endpoint attachment from the Endpoint Attachment list.
        Note: To understand how to create an endpoint attachment, see PSC service attachment and endpoint attachment. After you have created the endpoint attachment, it will be visible in the Endpoint Attachment list.

      If you want to establish a public connection to your backend systems with additional security, you can consider configuring static outbound IP addresses for your connections, and then configure your firewall rules to allowlist only the specific static IP addresses.

      To enter additional destinations, click +ADD DESTINATION.

   2. Click NEXT.
6. In the Authentication section, enter the authentication details.
   1. Select an Authentication type and enter the relevant details.

      The following authentication types are supported by the Servicenow connection:

      • Username and password

   To understand how to configure these authentication types, see Configure authentication.

   2. Click NEXT.
7. If you have enabled event subscription, the Event Subscription Details section appears on the connection creation page. To understand how to configure event subscription details, see Configure event subscription.
8. Review: Review your connection and authentication details.
9. Click Create.

Configure authentication

Enter the details based on the authentication you want to use.

• Username and password
  • Username: The ServiceNow username to use for the connection.
  • Password: Secret Manager secret containing the password associated with the ServiceNow username.

Configure event subscription

If you have enabled the event subscription, enter the following values in the Event Subscription Details section:

• Authentication Token: (Optional) Select the Secret Manager secret of your authentication token, and the corresponding secret version from the Secret Version drop-down.
• HMAC Algorithm: Select the HMAC algorithm for encrypting the response payload.
• HMAC Secret Key: If you have selected a HMAC Algorithm, select the Secret Manager secret of the HMAC key, and the corresponding secret version from the Secret Version drop-down.
• Enable private connectivity: Select this option to listen to events securely via a private connection.
• Enter the following dead-letter configuration:
  • Dead-letter project ID:: The Google Cloud project ID where you have configured the dead-letter Pub/Sub topic.
  • Dead-letter topic: The Pub/Sub topic where you want to write the details of the unprocessed event.

Post connection creation steps

To complete the event subscription configuration, you must register the webhook URL with your ServiceNow application. Therefore, after the connection creation is successful, perform the following additional steps:

1. Go the connection details page of the newly created connection, and copy the webhook URL for event subscription.
2. Log in to your ServiceNow application and do the following:
   1. In the All > Business Rules > When to run page, select the operation for which you want to listen.
   2. Click the Advanced tab. This opens a script editor.
   3. Enter a JavaScript that sends a request to the callback URL. The request contains the payload that is triggered whenever any of the enabled operation occurs. A sample JavaScript is as follows:

      Template

      (function executeRule(current, previous /*null when async*/ ) {
      var request = new sn_ws.RESTMessageV2();
      request.setEndpoint('WEBHOOK_URL'); // here you must the listener url where you want send the event payload
      
      request.setHttpMethod('POST');
      
      var authToken = "AUTHENTICATION_TOKEN"
      request.setRequestHeader("authorization", authToken);
      request.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json");
      request.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
      
      request.setRequestBody("{\"eventType\":\"" +
      "EVENT_TYPE" + CUSTOM_FIELDS "\"}");
      
      var data = request.getRequestBody();
      var secretKey = "SECRET_KEY";
      
      var signature = SncAuthentication.encode(data, secretKey, "ENCRYPTION_ALGORITHM");
      request.setRequestHeader("hmacauthorization",signature);
      var response = request.execute();
      
      })(current, previous);
      

      Replace the following:

      • WEBHOOK_URL: Webhook URL for event subscription that you would have got from the connection details page of Integration Connectors.
      • AUTHENTICATION_TOKEN: The actual text for authentication token that you have configured for the connection.
      • EVENT_TYPE: The actual text for event type that you have configured in the ServiceNow trigger.
      • CUSTOM_FIELDS: The request body must always have the eventType field. In addition to this field, you can add other fields based on your requirement.
      • SECRET_KEY: The actual text for secret key that you have configured for the connection.
      • ENCRYPTION_ALGORITHM: Should be any one of the following values:
        • HmacSHA224
        • HmacSHA256
        • HmacSHA384
        • HmacSHA512

        The algorithm should be same algorithm that you have configured for the connection.

      Example

      (function executeRule(current, previous /*null when async*/ ) {
      var request = new sn_ws.RESTMessageV2();
      request.setEndpoint('https://webhook.site/bb37937e-24ea-19b3-9dcd-84eca77f60eg'); // here you must the listener url where you want send the event payload
      
      request.setHttpMethod('POST');
      
      var authToken = "YWRtaW46ZkVpNypxVzhCL3VY"
      request.setRequestHeader("authorization", authToken);
      request.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json");
      request.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
      
      request.setRequestBody("{\"caller_id\":\"" +
      current.caller_id + "\",\"eventType\":\"" +
      "service_now_event_type_1" + "\",\"company\":\"" +
      current.company + "\",\"number\":\"" +
      current.number + "\",\"description\":\"" +
      current.description + "\",\"FirstName\":\"" +
      current.u_firstname + "\",\"LastName\":\"" +
      current.u_lastname + "\",\"status\":\"" +
      current.u_status + "\",\"Element\":\"" +
      current.getElement() + "\",\"category\":\"" +
      current.category + "\",\"opened_at\":\"" +
      current.opened_at + "\",\"opened_by\":\"" +
      current.opened_by + "\",\"location\":\"" +
      current.location + "\",\"salesforceId\":\"" +
      current.u_salesforceid + "\"}"); //fields you want
      
      var data = request.getRequestBody();
      var secretKey = "YWRtaW46ZkVpNypxVzhCL3VY";
      
      // var MAC_ALG_4 = "HmacSHA384";
      var MAC_ALG_3 = "HmacSHA256";
      // var MAC_ALG_5 = "HmacSHA512";
      // var MAC_ALG_2 = "HmacSHA224";
      
      var signature = SncAuthentication.encode(data, secretKey, MAC_ALG_3);
      request.setRequestHeader("hmacauthorization",signature);
      var response = request.execute();
      
      })(current, previous);

Tip: To understand how you can use event subscription in your integrations, see ServiceNow trigger.

Connection configuration samples

This section lists the sample values for the various fields that you configure when creating the connection.

Basic authentication connection type

Field name	Details
Location	us-central1
Connector	Servicenow
Connector version	1
Connection Name	google-cloud-servicenow-conn
Service Account	Your_Project_Number@serviceaccount
Display Values	True
Minimum number of nodes	2
Maximum number of nodes	50
Destination Type	Host address
host 1	https://Your-domainname.com
Username	User_name
Password	Password
Secret version	1

Connection configuration samples

This section lists the sample values for the various fields that you configure for creating the ServiceNow connection.

ServiceNow web connection type

Field name	Details
Location	us-central1
Connector	ServiceNow
Connector version	1
Connection Name	gcp-servicenow-conn
Service Account	SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@serviceaccount
Minimum number of nodes	2
Maximum number of nodes	50
Destination Type	Host address
host 1	https://host_name.com
Username	username
Password	password
Secret version	1

Entities, operations, and actions

All the Integration Connectors provide a layer of abstraction for the objects of the connected application. You can access an application's objects only through this abstraction. The abstraction is exposed to you as entities, operations, and actions.

Note: You can view the entities, operations, and actions of a connector in the Connectors task.

• Entity: An entity can be thought of as an object, or a collection of properties, in the connected application or service. The definition of an entity differs from a connector to a connector. For example, in a database connector, tables are the entities, in a file server connector, folders are the entities, and in a messaging system connector, queues are the entities.

  However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support or have any entities, in which case the Entities list will be empty.

• Operation: An operation is the activity that you can perform on an entity. You can perform any of the following operations on an entity:
  • List
  • Get
  • Create
  • Update
  • Delete

  Selecting an entity from the available list, generates a list of operations available for the entity. For a detailed description of the operations, see the Connectors task's entity operations. However, if a connector doesn't support any of the entity operations, such unsupported operations aren't listed in the Operations list.

• Action: An action is a first class function that is made available to the integration through the connector interface. An action lets you make changes to an entity or entities, and vary from connector to connector. Normally, an action will have some input parameters, and an output parameter. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

Note: All entities and actions will have a schema associated with them. For example, an action schema will have the parameter details such as; the parameter names, and its corresponding data type. The schema (metadata) for entities and actions is fetched by the connection at runtime from your backend. If there are any updates to the schema, such updates won't be automatically reflected in your existing connections; you must manually refresh the schema. To refresh the schema for a connection, open the Connection details page of the connection, and then click Refresh connection schema.

Actions

This section lists all the actions supported by the Servicenow connection.

UploadAttachment action

This action Upload a file as an attachment to a specified record.

Input parameters of the UploadAttachment action

Parameter name	Data type	Required	Description
Content	String	No	String Content to upload as file.
ContentBytes	String	No	Bytes content to upload as file.
HasBytes	Boolean	No	Whether to upload content as bytes.
TableName	String	No	Name of the table to attach the file to.
TableSysId	String	No	Sys_id of the record in the table specified by TableName that you want to attach the file to.

Output parameters of the UploadAttachment action

This action returns set of parameters from the uploaded entity

For example on how to configure the UploadAttachment action, see Examples.

DownloadAttachment action

This action Download a file attachment from a specific record.

Input parameters of the DownloadAttachment action

Parameter name	Data type	Required	Description
SysId	String	Yes	Sys_id of the attachment file.
HasBytes	Boolean	No	Whether to download content as bytes.

Output parameters of the DownloadAttachment action

This action returns whether download is True or false through Success Parameter and if True, outputs the Content of DownloadAttachment

For example on how to configure the DownloadAttachment action, see Examples.

Examples

This section describes how to perform some of the entity operations and actions in this connector.

Example - Upload an attachment for an incident

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the UploadAttachment action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
     "Content": "File is uploaded",
     "TableName": "Incident",
     "TableSysId": "018f4057473ae5104593a6b5316d4357"
   }

This example uploads the Content value from Payload as attachment and return the set of Parameters for the entity uploaded . If the action is successful, the UploadAttachment task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

{
"SysId": "a667f5d1939be110ff87352d6cba10fc",
"FileName": "7043426257788756581.connector.txt",
"TableSysId": "018f4057473ae5104593a6b5316d4357",
"TableName": "Incident",
"DownloadLink": "https://gcp.service-now.com/api/now/v1/attachment/a667f5d1939be110ff87352d6cba10fc/file",
"ContentType": "text/plain",
"SizeBytes": "16",
"ChunkSizeBytes": "700000",
"Compressed": "true",
"SizeCompressed": "36",
"SysTags": "",
"ImageHeight": "",
"ImageWidth": "",
"AverageImageColor": "",
"SysModCount": "0",
"Hash": "807e96c2942c41ad699d004a9d6a74595c84fab09111d479b6bbe013d5debff6",
"State": "pending",
"SysUpdatedBy": "gcp2",
"SysUpdatedOn": "2023-06-07 07:23:34",
"SysCreatedBy": "gcp2",
"SysCreatedOn": "2023-06-07 07:23:34",
"encryption_context": ""
}

Example - Download an attachment of an incident

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the DownloadAttachment action, and then click Done.
3. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
     "SysId": "440c3995471fe1104593a6b5316d4384"
   }

This example returns whether download is True or false through Success Parameter and if True, outputs the Content of DownloadAttachment. If the action is successful, the DownloadAttachment task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
"Success": "True"
},
{
"Content": " A Simple Text File \r\n\r\n\r\n This is a small demonstration .txt file - \r\n just for use in the Virtual Mechanics tutorials. More text. And more \r\n text. And more text. And more text. And more text. \r\n And more text. And more text. And more text. And more text. And more \r\n text. And more text. Boring, zzzzz. And more text. And more text. And \r\n more text. And more text. And more text. And more text. And more text. \r\n And more text. And more text. \r\n And more text. And more text. And more text. And more text. And more \r\n text. And more text. And more text. Even more. Continued on page 2 ...\r\n Simple PDF File 2 \r\n ...continued from page 1. Yet more text. And more text. And more text. \r\n And more text. And more text. And more text. And more text. And more \r\n text. Oh, how boring typing this stuff. But not as boring as watching \r\n paint dry. And more text. And more text. And more text. And more text. \r\n Boring. More, a little more text. The end, and just as well. "
}]

Entity operation examples

This section shows how to perform some of the entity operations in this connector.

Example - GET single record for Entity "Incident"

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Incident from the Entity list.
3. Select the GET operation, and then click Done.
4. Set the entity ID to "0c5f3cece1b12010f877971dea0b1449", which is the key to be passed. To set the entity ID, in the Data Mapper section of the Data Mapping, click Open Data Mapping Editor and then enter "0c5f3cece1b12010f877971dea0b1449" in the Input Value field and choose the EntityId as Local variable.

Note:

The value for the Entity Id must be passed directly, such as "0c5f3cece1b12010f877971dea0b1449". Here "0c5f3cece1b12010f877971dea0b1449" is the unique primary key value.

There are certain cases, where passing single Entity Id might throw an error due to the presence of two composite keys.

To fetch the comment field details under the incident entity, mark the display value as true at the connection level.

System limitations

The ServiceNow connector can process a maximum of 10 transactions per second, per node, and throttles any transactions beyond this limit. By default, Integration Connectors allocates 2 nodes (for better availability) for a connection.

For information on the limits applicable to Integration Connectors, see Limits.

Note: The number of Integration Connectors nodes will autoscale dynamically based on your usage. However, if you want to reserve capacity for large volumes without waiting for autoscaling, you can adjust the minimum node value for a connection. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection. Conversely, fewer nodes are required if a connection processes fewer transactions. To configure the node values, do the following:

• If you are a pay-as-you-go customer, configure the minimum and maximum node value in the edit connection page.
• If you are a subscription based customer, contact support.

The maximum transactions that a node can handle depends on various factors. So, before adjusting the minimum nodes for better throughput, it is recommended you check if your backend systems are set up optimally to handle the required traffic.

Use terraform to create connections

You can use the Terraform resource to create a new connection.

To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands.

To view a sample terraform template for connection creation, see sample template.

When creating this connection by using Terraform, you must set the following variables in your Terraform configuration file:

Parameter name	Data type	Required	Description
proxy_enabled	BOOLEAN	False	Select this checkbox to configure a proxy server for the connection.
proxy_auth_scheme	ENUM	False	The authentication type to use to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy. Supported values are: BASIC, DIGEST, NONE
proxy_user	STRING	False	A user name to be used to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.
proxy_password	SECRET	False	A password to be used to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.
proxy_ssltype	ENUM	False	The SSL type to use when connecting to the ProxyServer proxy. Supported values are: AUTO, ALWAYS, NEVER, TUNNEL
include_system_tables	BOOLEAN	False	Controls whether to expose the system tables or not.
filter_tables	STRING	False	Specify the tables you want in a comma-separated list.

Use the Servicenow connection in an integration

After you create the connection, it becomes available in both Apigee Integration and Application Integration. You can use the connection in an integration through the Connectors task.

• To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Apigee Integration, see Connectors task.
• To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Application Integration, see Connectors task.

Get help from the Google Cloud community

You can post your questions and discuss this connector in the Google Cloud community at Cloud Forums.

What's next

• Understand how to suspend and resume a connection.
• Understand how to monitor connector usage.
• Understand how to view connector logs.