CHAPTER ONE ServiceNow essentials. In this chapter we'll be talking about ServiceNow user interface, configuration elements, managing lists, filters, and forms, user interface and configuration elements. A typical ServiceNow instance page is divided into four main areas. First, is the banner frame. This is the area, which contains the logo, along with few navigation controls that perform operations globally within the application. Second, is edge.

This is the leftmost panel within ServiceNow instance, that displays bookmarks, tag Documents List and form view, toggle navigator and the homepage button. Third, is application navigator. This is the panel that usually exists on the left Well next to the edge and provides accessibility to different modules and application menus. Fourth, is the content frame. This is the area where all the content related to this specific module, such as lists, forms, reports, homepages, knowledgebase articles, and service catalogs are displayed. Banner frame.

There are several controls and options available within the banner frame. These include user menu, it shows the name of the current system user logged into the ServiceNow instance, along with the link to view user profile, impersonate user. This option provides the capability to view the ServiceNow controls and operations by switching into other user roles. This way without logging out a user can impersonate and check access privileges of other users and can perform operations. This option is only provided to system administrators elevate roles. This option provides the user capability to elevate to a higher security role, which can be returned back to the normal role when needed.

The role is elevated for the current session itself. search search bar provides the ability to perform global search for specific text across the whole ServiceNow application. Toggle Connect sidebar. This capability is mostly used for internal enterprise communications. We can filter existing conversations using the search box provided in the generated pane or connect with coworkers and work simultaneously with them. System gear This menu provides the option to change theme, access homepages, use application picker, select forms, manage notifications, etc.

It is also worth noting that in case the overall look and feel of your ServiceNow instance, is different from what is shown. Then we'll be switching to ui 15 mode, which is available in the system gear of the banner frame itself. Edge. There are several functionalities supported within the edge panel. These include creating and managing the favorite bookmarks, switching the application navigator to on or off displaying help display homepage of the logged in ServiceNow instance and divide the screen into list and form panes. Application navigator.

Application navigator helps us in pointing to the correct application or model linking to the specific pages within. Applications are nothing but several functionalities supported within ServiceNow such as incidents, assets, inventory, change, etc. administrators have the authority to decide the accessibility of applications to different users authorized to access the ServiceNow instance. In application navigator, we are provided with the filter search box above, to display only relevant application in modules needed for current job in hand. along each application, we are provided with a star option to mark the corresponding application as favorite. We usually Mark items favorite in application navigator if we frequently access them.

We're provided with the option to display only favorite applications by clicking on toggle favorites option provided next to the filter text box. Furthermore, We can enable the option to automatically select the application we click as favorite by enabling the same option under navigator Options menu, which as you can see is provided next to the filter textbox. mobile and tablet version. Service now interfaces with smartphones and mobile environments in a very sophisticated fashion. major features supported in the desktop version are also supported in mobile platforms, such as application filtering, change, navigation lists, forms, favorites, etc, etc. The most tangible difference is the user interface elements such as tags and favorites provided within the homepage, journal streams etc.

To simulate the mobile version of ServiceNow instance on a desktop, simply replace the nav page.do from URL to dollar m dot from the list menu provided at the bottom It can be viewed that applications such as self service, incident reporting and user administration, are supported within smartphones. Smartphones also support an app version, where the ServiceNow instance can be accessed by providing the URL along with the login credentials of an authorized user or administrator. Along with this mobile version access via a browser on a cell phone, tablets have a separate version with pretty much same features and user interface. It can be simulated in a desktop environment by simply appending, the URL with dollar tablet doctor plugins. plugins are the software components which are added to an application to provide extended functionalities on top of the core application capabilities. Users of a ServiceNow instance have the authority to control the functionalities of a plugin.

It is up to them to activate or disable them. plugin based on their usage. Many plugins support demo data on which the operations supported within the plugins can be performed. It's always a good practice to load the sample data for testing or increased reliability purpose. Most plugins are in published state, meaning ready to be activated and used by system users. Once in a while, you may encounter plugins that need to be explicitly requested from the ServiceNow tech support due to operational restrictions catering to their specific access.

Depending on the project you're involved in. branding. There are ways in which ServiceNow instance can be customized and branded the form implementing this application solution. There are ways in which logo of an application can be changed from default ServiceNow to the company's specific logo. This can be achieved by changing the banner image Under System Properties, and within it the basic configuration module. similar to this, we can change the page header caption from System Properties application, and the system application module within it.

All these parameters are easily managed by configuring the my company module system properties, where we can provide name, address, and other company details to cater the ServiceNow instance to our companies specifically. Similarly, we can provide CSS code parameters to make formatting changes to the text color of the banner, change font name, size, borders, etc. These changes will be reflected across all the pages globally within the ServiceNow instance. Sample use case 1.1 managing bookmarks bookmarks are usually added to the edge for faster in repetative navigation of application modules, right to add a bookmark, we simply search for the module within the application navigator and drag and drop it to the edge. So for example, if we want to add live feeds to the edge, we simply search for it and drag and drop it here. Right.

Okay, so to view the content of the bookmark module as a sub menu, right, so if we click here, in the content frame, we get the particular module, right, the company features are being shown, but rather, if you want to show it as a sub sub menu, right, then we simply hover over it, we go to add in bookmark, and we choose flyout. Right? We hit the update. And now just to show you how it looks like, if we click here, we get a separate sub menu right? All together, where that particular module and the information within it is displayed. Okay.

All right, next is the branding exercise. So in this exercise we'll provide details of our company to the my company module, including addition of a logo and page header to our ServiceNow instance. So let's access the my company module which is under the System Properties and we need to update the my company. So here it is. And let's add some information like this. Okay.

Any any any city, I mean anything I feel like Okay And next, okay. So, we are trying to make this ServiceNow instance specific to our own the vj core company, hypothetical company, right? We will also change the banner image. So this is the banner image being shown which we discussed in the PowerPoint presentation right now which shows ServiceNow. Right. And I want to it to display my company's specific logo, right.

So we go to configuration under the System Properties, right. And in here, we get all this information right the page header captioning service management, I want to put my name right, and we can change the images. Let's change the banner image and I have my company's logo on desktop. So you have to have an image. And once you choose that upload is this has been completed, I just have to save it to commit the changes. Right.

And once I do that service now insert the service now I'll see my company's specific you know, and there it goes, the new image and the page headers can be seen right away on the top right, it is worth noting that you know, you can explore other options that you know, like changing the background color, if you see this background color, it changes right. So anything that you may want to based on your whatever suits your company requirements, you can definitely make those changes. A few other things that I want to ensure that you guys understand. In case once you are choosing a new image and you're not able to, you know, get that reflected in your in, in this banner frame of yours, right, then what you're supposed to do is instead of nav page.do, put it as cache ca ch e.vo. What it will do is it will clear off the cache memory.

And right for those who don't know what cache memories cache memories, like, you know, when you're doing certain activities for for faster access for the next time, there is some cache memory like runtime memory that is stored by the systems by the applications these days, for for much for better efficiency and throughput, right. So sometimes when you need to make some, you know, usual changes, like the appearance and everything for me In cash usually doesn't deal with the data part. But with the with these, you know, cosmetic changes in your application, if you need to do that, then it's better to clear up the cache memory so that your changes could be reflected on your instance. Right. This is a concept, again, not specific to ServiceNow. But in general, I've seen it in other Oracle and enterprise level applications as well.

So simply put the CA ch e.do, it will clear it off. If still, you're not able to do that. Then another thing that I'm going to ask you to do is you have to go back to your mic company module, right and in there, you'll have to see if the banner image is the same as your basic configuration image or not, right. So to get this image, or to get any new field added to this form, I'm gonna go through the steps later in the tutorials, but you This is something that is worth noting. And if you're not able to see the changes, don't panic, just, you know, make these changes and I'm sure you'll be able to get your, like the required response. All right.

Next, we're gonna talk about managing lists, filters, and forms. A few quick definitions. lists. Lists are the editable data tables, where data is arranged in rows and columns. We can apply filters on it, sort the data elements, search for the relevant data, or edit them to make change to its values. forms.

Forms are used to display records within the data tables. The user with the required access privileges can create records, view them, or edit them as per meet. tables. Tables are the display of information in tabular form, stored in or retrieved from a database field, a field is a single entity within a data table. It is the intersection of a row and column record. A complete set of associated fields corresponding to the row of a data table forms a record.

System ID. It's a unique 32 bit unique identifier that is allotted to each record of a table. All tables have a system ID for their records, which can be accessed as you can see on this figure, by simply right clicking on the record and choosing the copy sis underscore ID option. We can also copy the URL to clipboard the option which is right above the caucuses ID where the URL will contain SIS ID in it. Right. So a field that is the change number request is also highlighted in here, as you can see, and answered Simply right clicking on the record and choosing the corresponding option we can obtain the SSID for any me any of the records in here, right, and our system ID is alphanumeric in nature, and typically looks something like this, you know, just random characters altogether.

List editor, we have the capability to choose field values of a table without having to edit it all together and access the form. Rather, we can use list editor to make ad hoc changes to record values. To do this, simply double click on the field item, make changes to it, and click on this green Save button and the record is saved. It is also worth noting that system administrators have the right to restrict the capabilities to edit records of tables by other ServiceNow application users. Correspondingly, there could be mandatory fields fields that can be prevented from being edited. Like the one is shown here, it's grayed out and nobody can make change to less menus.

There are several menus that are provided within a table to access various level of controls. List control. Lists control options can be accessed by clicking the hamburger icon on top left of any list. The options selected from this menu are applied to the entire list. You can apply filters such as active or closed or group the records based on parameters such as company created by user approval, etc. It's also worth noting that we can also access the list control menu by simply right clicking on the list control menu bar, and we get the same option like this.

Just for the reference sake, this hamburger icon I was talking about, it is also called context menu. Next is column control. There are control options that can be applied to a complete column within a table. We can sort the data values, group them by type, configure data based on the rules or UI policies, etc. Same as before, we can access this menu by either clicking the context menu, that hamburger icon which is next to the column headers, or simply right clicking on the header label, as you can see in the picture. Row control.

Row control options provide capabilities such as showing all records matching a field value, copying system ID for unique identification of each record, assigning cases to the currently logged user etc. These can simply be accessed by right clicking on any field of the record. Additional information that the default sorting sequence that is implied on a list is visible by the coloring scheme. The column header. So I'm going to go back and in here you can see, right these blue, so the increasing and decreasing sign next to the column header can show the default sorting sequence. Right in here, like the list is shown with decreasing numbers and the fact that it can be corroborated with the records are shown beneath it.

You can see in decreasing order four triple 0740006, and so on. The list will go on to list views. A list view is like a virtual table consisting of rows and columns set by the user. It looks and works pretty much like a usual table does providing multiple ways such as customized layouts, field etc, in which a list or a phone can be seen. Usually, system administrators create views for different user roles thus providing data access catering to their specific needs. We can have countless number of views within a ServiceNow instance.

And the different views can be viewed in the in this manner as shown in the picture. So we have the view and we can see the major incidents or the mobility portal views are the Self Service view. List layout configuration, any visible list can be configured to add or remove fields needed by the user. For this, we simply right click on the list header, choose configure and from the Configure options, we choose list layout. Inside the list layout, we are going to get what we call is a ServiceNow slash bucket where all the available fields like the columns along with the selected fields are shown as separate things. We can add fields to the current list view by selecting them from Available area and clicking this right icon and getting it into the selected pane.

So similarly, the fields can be removed from the selected pane as well, right we select them from here, we choose this left arrow, and it's taken out from the current list or the form view. The order in which fields are made visible within the list is exactly the same as shown in the configuration menu. And this can be altered by clicking up or the down arrows which are right next to the selected pane. And that way these columns these headers can be configured personalizing lists while viewing the list. current user has the authority to personalize it, depending on data access rights provided by the system administrator of course. Make it customized with layouts and columns catering to his or her requirements.

This personalized list will only exist for the individual user and not for the entire instance. To access this option, simply click the blue system gear icon, which is available on top left corner of the list. You can check that out, and we are provided with the slash bucket which is pretty much Same as before, where lists can be configured. It is also worth noting that once the list is personalized, it can be seen that the system gear icon will appear with the blue dot sign. So you can check that out in the instance yourself. And it will confirm that the current view is personalized.

Same as layout configuration, we can always roll back our changes and reset to the default list fields and layout by clicking the reset to column defaults button. So what I'm going to ask is, like probably stop here. And as I was talking when we were making the changes to the banner image and the banner text, right. In the previous section when I was talking about adding the fields by list layout, the configuration options, I would ask you to go back to my company, add the banner image and the banner text and select the ones that you want to include in the basic configuration module. Like the way we showed him the use case 1.1. make those changes, save those changes. Again, go back to the system configuration, get the same logo, make sure the logos are same, in case the change is not reflected, do the cache cache or do to clear out the cache memory and see if you're able to personalize the instance based on your particular form brand or not?

Right this is a challenge exercise for you guys to please feel free to try that out. breadcrumbs and better. is the current hierarchical sequence of filters applied to a list. breadcrumbs are shown next to a funnel icon on top left corner above the list headers. We can access or modify the filters applied to a list by clicking this funnel icon and running the query using and or Boolean operations. So as you can see in this figure, this is what the breadcrumb is all active equals to true or assigned to equal system administrator or active equals to true again, so sort of repeating the condition here it's not going to make a difference but not a good approach.

And the options displayed after clicking the funnel icon constitutes the Smart Filter condition builder. It comprises of three parts. First is field. This is the first input area within the Smart Filter, where the field within the list where the filter needs to be applied is selected. Right so second is the operator. operator is the company Or comparison implied on the operands to filter out the undesired result, right like is or not are not empty is empty or starts with or contains.

All those options are going to be in this second box. And the third part is the value. This is the data against which operation is performed, it is expressed as a value or as a range of several values. Additional information. Once a filter has been applied, a user may save it for future use. This can be done by simply clicking the Save button next to the run option within the Smart Filter condition builder.

This saved filter can be user specific, accessible to a user group, or made available globally by the administrator. The saved filter is then access the same way as other default filters from the ListView and within the ListView. We can also edit personal filters who Where the currently saved filters can be modified and saved locally for specific users. forms. A form is simply the access of one record of a list as all editable fields. users with authorized access can view and or make changes to the data within that record.

We can access the form by simply searching for the number field, such as like the incident number, change number, etc. in global search text box or clicking the number field displayed on a list. system administrators have the authority to customize form layouts, adding or removing fields from them, making fields read only or mandatory etc. Once the updates are made to the form, we can save changes by clicking Submit or update button in case of new form, like shown while creating new records for incidents or change requests using create new module, the Update button is rather shown as the submit button. So in order to save changes to the current form and stay on the form itself, then rather than directing back to the list view, we can simply right click on the header of the form and choose Save option, like shown here. If we need to create a duplicate of the current record displayed as a form, we can simply right click on the form header or the context menu which is on the left, the top left corner and we can choose the incident or change option.

Right. So you can see like copy incident here, that's what is needed to create the duplicate. Field status indicators. Many fields in a form are added next to an asterisk symbol. This symbol marks the different states a field can be To so if the asterisk symbol is dark red, that means it's called an unpopulated, and it means it's a mandatory field that is currently empty, and the value must be provided to save the form. So the second field status indicator is a light red colored asterisk.

And it's named as the populated unsaved, which means it's a mandatory field that has unsaved data in it. And the last is the grayed out asterisk sign, which is called the populated saved status indicator. And it means that the mandatory field is there with save data Connect. A quick example is shown here, where the color field has some data in it and it's a mandatory field, but it has got some data in it. Which is Charlie Witherspoon, right? tags.

Tags are used to group records, lists or forms to make them organized and manageable. can be made available to specific users or globally across the whole ServiceNow instance. Several types of tags include. First is the standard. These are the tags controlled by the user who created them. This specific user has the authority to add or remove records from this tab.

Next is most active. This tab is maintained internally within the system, where the application modules most frequently accessed within the ServiceNow instance are grouped together. There is no specific duration for which a module remains most active. Next is most recent. This tag is maintained internally by the system and displays most recently accessed modules within the ServiceNow instance. Next is most active record.

This tag again is maintained internally within the system and displays most frequently viewed records and the last is most recent record. And same as before, this tag is maintained internally within the system and displays most recently viewed records. Optimal searching, there are various search options provided at different areas within ServiceNow. This includes search within lists, global text searches within banner frame, knowledge base searches, application navigation filters, live feed searches, etc. searches are not case sensitive across any search reason. So feel free to use all caps or lowercase letters to search for a given text.

Zing is the name of the engine that performs indexing and searching within all text searches in ServiceNow. There are several advanced options that can be leveraged to get the most optimal result based on the requirements in hand, such as phrases. Using phrases instead of single words allows users to search within the application modules containing the same sentence phrase with specified with specified keywords. Next is searching lists. Users can control the list where search needs to be performed to filter out the undesired results. Boolean operators, users can use logical Boolean operators such as, or, or etc.

Do use multiple searching parameters under a single search query. Unicode characters, users can use international character sets to perform search operations. searching within attachments, users can perform searches within the files attached to the records. punctuation, users can use searched. Text containing punctuation such as commas, periods, brackets, etc. And last is wildcards there are several wildcards supported in ServiceNow to denote zero or more characters within the search text and corresponding Mainly generate search results.

So a few wildcards that we're going to discuss here is, if you put in an asterisk and put the searching text then displays results which contain that search text. So anything preceding that search text will also be shown. Next is search text and a percentage sign, which will display all results starting with this search text. Next, is starting off with the percentage sign we call the modulus operator. And then the search text displays all results ending with the search text. Then exclamation and an asterisk when the search text will display all results which won't contain the search text that you have provided.

Then equal to search text who will display all results equal to the source text and then exclamation mark and equal to search text will display all results which will not include this search data. Which will not equal to the search text. So the last is a search text which will display only all those results which are greater than or equal to the given search text. This concludes the wildcards and the optimal searching as well. Sample use case 1.2 Incident Management incidents are unplanned disruptions at system or application level within a forum causing hindrance with usual working ServiceNow handles these incidents by logging them and managing them effectively. In this use case, we'll be discussing to open already logged incidents, configure them as well as create one from scratch.

To view an already created incident, simply go to the application navigator and type incident and in here, you choose the option Module. So all the open incidents are displayed in front of you select any incident by clicking their number field and the corresponding incident will be displayed. Let's see, with by five let's let's open the performance problems with Wi Fi. Okay, so to change the appearance of text within the list of any application module, we can go to System. Let me go there. So this is the list that is the open incident list, and it should change its appearance, we have to go to this system gear option.

And you can see there are a few options available. Right to make like let's say to make large text wrapped into single default column with using multiple lines. I would select the wrap longer text in column list columns option As enabled, right similarly, to make judicious use of screen space, by automatically adjusting the depth of each row within a list, I would simply choose the contact view option. And you can see you can see more data in the list, even with the limited amount of screen space that you have. So, it's also worth noting that to enable these options, corresponding changes can be observed right away through the current list displayed in the content frame. I can, you know, change any other things.

I don't want to this one but come back to you. You can see right away right. So. Okay, next we're going to create an incident. So to create an incident, we go to incident and we have the module called create new module. Right.

Let's click this and the incident Create new incident form is displayed in front of us. The incident number is pre populated, so usually it's not changed. And based on the field status indicators, we need to have this information for sure. And here we're going to add any color whoever, like call the US to to get the issue to describe the issue, and we can provide any information to the incident that we're creating. And once we have that, we simply go to the context menu either submitted by summering will be reverting back to the list or just to save it, we can simply hit the Save button. Right We stay on the form and the incident has been saved successfully.

To follow the live feeds of an incident, open it, then click the context menu in this has already opened and then we can also say for live feed. And in that case, those live feeds which we went through earlier, we can get the status update on this particular incident as well. Next, we're going to configure list layout. Currently, the list layout that is displayed within the content frame is set by default. To configure it that is to add or remove fields. to cater to specific user requirements.

Simply go to incident and in the incident application, go to the open module. And the list of all open incidents is displayed. Right. And from the list header, click the context menu. And next to any field name, right, so you can see in the header, we have the context menus. So this is this belongs to the whole list while this is specific for the columns, right.

So we click on this and we go to configure and we choose list layout. So, in here, sometimes you'll see the default view is in the global application. And this particular diagnostics, this is the current application that performance analytics diagnostics, and we have to edit this particular list, we have to go to the global application level. For this, this becomes very easy, simply click on edit this view and all this becomes available because we are system administrators, right. So we can choose all the lists the required lists, which are available in the available panel, and we can put them in the selected so let's try and add approval. Okay, and let's say I wanted above the assignment group.

So this is already selected. Here it is about the assignment group. I also want to add one more, let's say created Okay, and I put it here and above the collar is where I want to put this. So it's above the collar now. Okay. So, we can, once we have made the changes in these, we can simply save it.

And we are back and you can see the created is available now here and, and approval is right there as well, exactly the same place where we added it to be. Right, so a sample exercise for you guys to try on is similar to configuring the list, try adding or removing of field to the relevant area within a form. Right, let's say the open incident form that you already worked upon. So try to add more fields tried or to add or remove using pretty much the same methodology as we implemented in on this list. And next, we're going to talk about using filters. So the best way to create a filter is by using the Smart Filters.

Right? So we are already on the incident and open to see all the open incidents, right and we click on the Smart Filter icon which has this funnel icon. And right now you can see this is the condition being shown to us, we're all in the all records, we're saying active is equal to true, right? And what we're gonna do is we're gonna add another condition and you're gonna connect both these conditions using the AND operator. So activist true that we're gonna keep as this and let's say category is hardware. So, category is the operation that we want to perform and it is hardware.

Right? So This will display only those records in the list which will satisfy this particular filter condition. We can run it and we can see like these are the only records which sort of meet the criteria. Right. So that's one way. That's the only like the best way to use the filters in ServiceNow application.

There's also another quick workaround. So let's get to all the incidents that we have. Right. And to quickly remove a few more options from a filtered list or from any list that has been shown to you. Let's say if you want to take out all the incidents with priority is three moderate, right like the one shown here. Then we simply right click on any record, right and we choose this filter option.

Once we do that, all the three moderates are filtered out they are like out of the current view. Right. And automatically, if you observe what happened was that a smart condition has been built automatically by the system that's like, how intuitively and how let advance the ServiceNow system is the application that the brain is not equal to three moderate, automatically that has been chosen out and the corresponding list has been displayed. Now, suppose that we're gonna use like, instead of this easy filter, let's say we had a very complex filter, because instead of using the filter out we also had some more like the and and the all conditions that we were working on. And let's say we have a complex filter that we may want to use again in future, right then it's better to save it and let's say I want to save this filter itself.

What I'll do is I click on the funnel icon because that's when you know these options get available in case They are not available, then you need to click on this option and choose Save up save Valley and in Save As you provide the name to the illegible name following the good naming convention to this filter, I want to make it as high priority filters. Friday incidents, let's put it incident filters or something incidents. Okay, so here it is. And I can click on the safe and this particular filter has been saved and there's a notification as well as which entity or kind of data has been changed to default diagnostics. Again, I'm being redirected to, like if I have to make any changes in the configuration and everything then I'll have to go to the global application and make those changes. Okay, so this pretty much concludes the 1.2 use case as well.

I have Another exercise for you guys try to create a filter to all open change requests within a ServiceNow instance with state being authorized or new. And once which are requested by system administrator, you can note this down. So these are like the filtering criteria, right the state being either authorized or new, and they are being requested by a system administrator. Save this created filter with the name called severe change requests. Right fairly simple, pretty much the same methodology that we have followed for the incidence you have to follow that for another application and the module, which is going to be the change requests. I also have an additional exercise for you after this.

Other than the layout configuration of a list. There are ways to change the look and feel of the list display within the content frame. If you remember we talked about the personalized lists for specific users. Try using the option to add or remove certain fields from any list. Let's say open incidents which you have been working on. Try to play around with it and