Have you ever come across a ServiceNow article and thought to yourself, “Oh, I wish I’d learned these tips earlier?” If you answered yes, this blog will be a feast for you.
Connecting with peers and professionals online is an excellent method to exchange expertise and stay updated on the platform’s added technologies, especially as ServiceNow continues to release updates more often. As someone who values discussing and discovering new things about ServiceNow, we wanted to utilize today’s blog to offer the top seven ServiceNow tips and tricks you should attempt.
What is ServiceNow?
ServiceNow is a cloud-based platform for managing workflow and process automation. It is very flexible and may be used for a variety of applications. ServiceNow offers workflow solutions that significantly boost productivity and cost savings. However, these perks are only obtained if the company’s employees and admin staff are experienced enough with the technology to fully utilize its potential.
Top 7 ServiceNow Tips and Tricks to Work Effectively
1. Studio Code Lookup
If you’ve developed custom apps using ServiceNow’s Studio, you’re undoubtedly already acquainted with this functionality. However, system administrators have never had it easy to locate code regardless of its scope. This is an excellent tool if you’re seeking a certain shortcode, class, or function, particularly under the Global scope.
Navigate to the “Studio” component of the “System Applications” file menu to launch the Code Search function. You’ll need to choose an application first, but don’t panic; you won’t be modifying the custom app in any way, and you can alter the scope afterwards. Select “Code Search” in the top right of the screen. Enter your search phrase in the box that opens and check the option labelled “Search in all apps.“
2. Modify data using setWorkflow() and autoSysFields ()
Making changes to entries in your database, particularly in bulk, might provide a challenge if you have things such as Standard Operating Procedures, or Reporting that are meant to execute when a record is modified. To go around this constraint, ServiceNow added two essential functions: setWorkflow() and autoSysFields ().
- setWorkflow() – Activates or deactivates a set of rules, scripting engines, and auditing. By providing the Boolean value “false,” you can deactivate objects that are meant to run in response to a record change. This feature is accessible for apps that are scoped.
- autoSysFields() – This is frequently used to manually update parameter values on a database while preserving previous data. This is NOT a function that is available for Scoped apps. Utilize this function with great caution and thoroughly examine the documentation.
3. .list/.form/.do
Browsing through a full list of entries for a database can be challenging, even more so if the module responsible for accessing the data is difficult to locate or does not exist. If you identify the table’s name, you may go straight to the table’s list view by entering the table name.list in the filter navigation search box. For example – To access object tables, type object.list to get the desired fields of the table.
The same approach, as with table names, works for generating new records. Typing incident.do opens the form for creating a new Incident quickly.
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4. Filter List View to pre-filter Separate Tables
If your system has a very long table, such as an incident metric, activating the default list format may take a very long time or perhaps fail entirely! If you’re looking for a certain collection of data in a huge database, consider accessing the table’s filtering view to pre-filter data prior to making any queries.
To access the filter view for a table, put the following into the URL navigator of your browser: https://INSTANCE.service-now.com/TABLENAME list.do?sysparm filter only=true
Substitute INSTANCE for the id of your ServiceNow instance, and TABLENAME for the table value to retrieve.
5. With the JavaScript Processor, you may test the script
If you’ve ever dealt with the client-side codebase, you’re probably aware that testing a basic GlideForm message or a GlideAjax request isn’t as simple.
If you’ve been seeking a client-side counterpart of ServiceNow’s Background/Fix scripts, We have some excellent news for you. While in the system’s standard view, enter the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl + Alt + Shift + J” to launch the JavaScript Processor. Here, you may input any code (in an unformatted manner) and have it executed against the system’s stated position.
Additionally, if you switch the option from “Execute my code” to “Browse Vars,” you’ll be able to examine a collection of all browsing configuration files available on the recent configuration and study their set class and value. This functionality is quite handy for rapidly testing modifications to your client-side code before making adjustments to the system’s application on the backend.
6. Style Guides and System Icons for ServiceNow
Although it is less important now that the Web Content application has been phased out or Jelly scripting has been phased out of the network, knowing ServiceNow’s design principles is still a helpful ability for developing UI Panels, Modules, and other elements of the conventional UI.
The ServiceNow System Design and the ServiceNow Styleguide are two sets of references that offer information on a range of UI components and their related design principles. The Image Picker and Icon Library are useful additions to the ServiceNow implementation since they allow you to align with organizational icons that may be utilized in client-side scripting.
Navigate to the following URL to view the Image Picker: https://INSTANCE.service-now.com/image picker.do
7. Dashboards for Advanced Systems
As a ServiceNow network administrator, it is critical to have a complete awareness of the instance’s actual status of performance and health. Thankfully, the system has a number of widgets that provide data on the system’s design features, API usage, and instance security.
- ServiceNow Performance Homepage – This page displays a variety of performance indicators for the installation and the system on which it is hosted.
- Home Page for System Diagnostics – Gives an overview of specific diagnostic data regarding an operating instance and network nodes.
- Dashboards for REST and SOAP API Analytics – A collection of dashboards that display aggregated API usage statistics and API usage statistics per querying user.
- Instance Security Center – A dedicated interface for monitoring the compliance status of entity security controls, seeing security control surveillance metrics, and configuring and maintaining instance privacy controls.
Conclusion
We’ve outlined many strategies in which you may utilize ServiceNow. These are nuggets of information that will aid you in advancing your ServiceNow development career or in comprehending how ServiceNow works more deeply and organically.
Author Bio
Vinod Kumar Tanem is a Digital Marketer, and a passionate writer, who is working with MindMajix, a top global online training provider. He also holds in-depth knowledge of IT and demanding technologies such as Business Intelligence, Salesforce, Cybersecurity, Software Testing, QA, Data analytics, Project Management and ERP tools, etc. Follow him on LinkedIn.
