Notes from the field

Data Filtration: Part 1

Data Filtration: Part 2

Utah Themes and Theme Builder

The Utah release brings a couple of nice changes in the area of theming. The Dark Theme applies to more…

Toggle On/Off for the Next Experience

You can add a Preference option for users to disable or enable Next Experience for themselves, even though this option…

Working in Scope: Administrator Introduction

Scope provides protection for application resources on the ServiceNow® platform. It controls what an application is allowed to interact with…

Scheduled Jobs Introduction

Scheduled Jobs provide a way to automatically run activities at certain times on the ServiceNow® platform – to schedule updates,…

System Properties Introduction

The ServiceNow® platform has many settings that control how it behaves, a good number being through System Properties. As an…

Quick Theming for the Next Experience

This article covers the high points of creating user-selectable themes when enabling San Diego’s Next Experience. While this mostly covers…

Introduction to Event Notifications

Data Lookup Tables

A data lookup provides a way to set a field value based on other values on a record. You have…

View Rules Introduction

How to Set Up View Rules

Introduction: Reviewing some View basics Form and list views can display records in ways that fit different uses. For instance,…

Basic Introduction to Notifications

Advanced Business Rules – Before Query

Business rules that use the “Advanced” checkbox are frequently set to run on Insert or Update, but there are a…

Advanced Business Rules – Display

Business rules fire on database activity or interaction with the database. A “display” business rule fires when the data for…

Dictionary and Dictionary Override

Does a field need to be changed to read-only, mandatory, or has a particular value or another setting?  You can…

How to Add the Email Client Option to a Form

You might have noticed that Incident and Change, by default, have an option to compose an email manually.  It is…

Quick Messages

You may have found it handy to use the Email Client, which is opened by selecting “Email” from “More options”…

“Defined” Related Lists

Related Lists in General A related list is a display of records that have some association with the record you…

Client Scripts Introduction

Business Rules: Advanced Checkbox Examples

Business Rules: Introduction

An Introduction to Adding Field Styles

Have you ever wanted to make a field pop out on the form? Or maybe it would be helpful to…

An Example of UI Action

Workspace Landing Pages Part 2 – Tips on Working with Components

Workspace Landing Pages Part 1 – Introduction to Configuration

Tips on Configuring Workspace Landing Pages

This brief article follows up on our “How to Add Landing Pages to Workspaces” article that walked through the basic…

How to add landing pages to Workspaces

Workspaces are a newer way of interacting with records and reports in ServiceNow. You may have experienced their look and…

How to Use UI Policies

How to Create a Data Policy

How to Add a Reference Field

This video walks through adding a simple Reference field and then making it dependent on another field.

Importing Data: Excel to ServiceNow

In this tutorial, we will be importing data from excel into a ServiceNow table. Here is what our Excel sheet…

The Modern Workplace: Remote Work & Putting People First

FROM THE EMPLOYEE: Adapting to working through a global pandemic was a chaotic transition, at first. The authoritarian structure of…

How to set up a Calendar Invitation Notification

If you are an administrator who is familiar with setting up Email Notifications, you may come across a need to…

Performance Analytics Training Series: Adding Breakdowns to Automated Indicators

Enhancing the data represented by your automated indicators can be done by adding a breakdown. Breakdowns enable you to filter…

Performance Analytics Training Series: Formula Indicators

Unlike automated indicators, formula indicators do not directly use an indicator source. Formula indicators are comprised of data from one…

Performance Analytics Training Series: Adding Conditions to an Automated Indicator

Once your automated indicator is built, you can add conditions for a more specific indicator score. In the previous example,…

Performance Analytics Training Series: Adding Jobs to Automated Indicators

Jobs are functionalities of automated indicators that serve an essential purpose: automatic, scheduled data collection. Jobs automate the data reporting…

Performance Analytics Training Series: Automated Indicators

Once you have built or selected your indicator source, you can create an automated indicator. Automated indicators are the most…

Performance Analytics Training Series: Indicator Sources

The first component of building reports in Performance Analytics is called an indicator source. Indicator sources specify the table, frequency…

Performance Analytics Training Series

Welcome to Learning Performance Analytics! Performance Analytics is a convenient way to provide dynamic, real-time data visualizationsthat provide value to…

How to Copy a Workflow

In this video, we will explain how you can create a copy of a workflow.

How to Create a Many-to-Many Relationship

In this video, we will walk through how easy it is to create a many-to-many relationship.

How to customize your ServiceNow instance so it stands out

If you work in more than one ServiceNow system or even need to visually distinguish between a development and a…

How to Create a Related List

In this video, we are discussing the process of creating related lists.

Create a left-hand navigation link

A left-hand navigation link provides easy access to modules within applications. This helps users to quickly find information and services.…

Many-to-Many Relationship

There are three ways to relate tables in ServiceNow. A one-to-one relationship would be used when a record from one…

Now Learning

If you are new to ServiceNow and overwhelmed by the power of this platform, I suggest registering for a course…

Favorites Series: Part 4- How to Customize Favorites

Now that you have created favorites from applications, modules, lists, and records – you may want to add a little…

Favorites Series: Part 3- How to Create a Favorite from a Record

In our previous video, we covered how convenient creating a favorite list can be. What if there is a particular…

Favorites Series: Part 2- How to Create a Favorite from a List View

ServiceNow gives users the ability to “Save” a filtered list and depending on roles that filtered list can be saved…

Favorites Series: Part 1- How to Create a Favorite from a Module or Application

The first favorite feature we’ll explore is the ability to signify an application or module as a favorite. Is there…

Introduction to the Favorites Series

In the ServiceNow environment, a favorite is defined as a frequently used application, catalog item, list, report, or another such…

How to Enable Input Validation on Catalog Item Variables

Sending REST Messages to external systems

If you are creating any integration involving an external system, you will most likely need to send a request to…

Global Variables

Pass a Variable from Item to Tasks At the core, catalog items are made up of variables and workflows. These…

ServiceNow’s Guided Tours

ServiceNow has a unique feature set for end users to take a journey through the environment.  ServiceNow’s guided tour is…

The Guided Tour Designer

Become an artist while utilizing the Guided Tour Designer to bring your creation to life.  In our previous blog post,…

How to Create a Custom Asset-CI Field Mapping

Learn how to create a custom asset-CI field mapping in ServiceNow.

How to customize your UI homepage to include an update set & application picker in the header

As a developer, I’m always looking for methods to make my work more efficient. The ability to select an update…

Service Portal: Widget Communication

For the most part, widgets on the service portal are very self-contained. Widgets have their own scope, and most of…

Stay Social and Distant with Live Feed

“Live Feed” is a very exciting feature that provides a social platform for its users through the ServiceNow instance. Social…

How to Find your ServiceNow Certification Information

A quick video guide on how to find your ServiceNow Certification information to provide to your employer for the ServiceNow…

Update Incident Auto Close Time in ServiceNow

Quickly learn how to update how many days an Incident stays in the Resolved state in ServiceNow.

Preparing for the K20 Hackathon

It’s spring-time and for those of us in the ServiceNow ecosystem, it’s conference season! K20 will be quite different this…

ServiceNow Orlando Release: Five special features

Last month, ServiceNow’s Orlando release was made available to all customers. We have been hearing about the major features, such…

Using GlideExcelParser() for bulk ordering of assets

At times there is a need to allow users to prepare data offline for later use in the system. One…

ServiceNow Clone Data Preserver – What is It and Why Do I Care?

In some cases, when you are about to clone an instance, it is necessary to preserve the data. There can…

Update Set Best Practices

In the ServiceNow environment, an update set is defined as a group of customizations that users can move from one…

Understanding Advanced Work Assignment – Not Every ServiceNow Module Uses Groups

With the ServiceNow Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) application, work is directly delivered to agents’ inboxes, so they don’t have to…

ServiceNow HR – System of Engagement, Not a System of Record

ServiceNow’s HR management application is a solution that can naturally and easily extend into any enterprise’s HR department. It is…

Importance of Knowledge Management and Different Options

When employees or customers experience an issue, many of them will try to find an answer themselves, instead of contacting…

Why Finite is Switching from WebEx to Zoom

When it comes to selecting the right software for video conferencing and collaboration, users take different factors into account, such…

Slack for ServiceNow

ServiceNow is a software that’s quite popular among teams whose work revolves around fielding inquiries, such as customer service, HR,…

Key ServiceNow Security Integrations

ServiceNow customers get additional value because they have the option to integrate various third-party applications. Visit the ServiceNow Store to…

Email Filter for Sub Production Instances

Out-of-box, ServiceNow prevents end-users from receiving emails from sub-production instances. It would be confusing to have received notifications for approvals…

What are Record Producers vs. Catalog Items

A collection of discrete catalog items is what makes an overall catalog. A Record producer provides a non-ITIL user the…

Batching Update Sets vs Merging Update Sets

A group of configuration changes that users can move from one instance to another is called an update set. Thanks…

Overview of the ServiceNow Security Operations Modules

Enterprises are finding it more challenging to keep up with so many manual workflows between IT and security. When manual…

ServiceNow – A Single Pane of Glass

ServiceNow’s IT Operations Management (ITOM) can seamlessly integrate event management with an enterprise’s existing IT Service Management (ITSM) processes to…

Inbox Zero is the Only Way to Be

With a constant stream of emails that flood your email inbox on a daily basis, it is difficult to stay…

The Importance of Quick Responses for Customer Service in the Digital Age

Customers have always been the lifeblood of every business, and keeping them happy is important for building a business. However,…

Defining Your ServiceNow Roadmap

Having a ServiceNow roadmap is essential because it will help you stay focused on where you are going. A roadmap…

Benefits of Scoped Apps in ServiceNow and When to Use Them

Every ServiceNow application has its own application scope that determines which of its resources are available to all the other…

Advantages of ServiceNow Flow Designer over Workflows

Flow Designer has slowly crept onto the scene of ServiceNow development over the past two years. It’s important to understand…

How a Ticketing System Can Dig you out of Email Overload

Quick ticketing systems can save you money, time, and effort. We all know that email has been around for decades…

Why is Finite Partners a Great Place to Work?

What makes a great workplace? We are not talking about employee benefits, amenities, salary, vacation time, nice offices, lunches, or…

Inbound Email Helper for Domain Separated Instances

In Domain Separated instances, the need often arises to create tasks from emails sent in by individuals that aren’t users…

Major New Features Coming in ServiceNow’s New York Release

In July 2019, ServiceNow introduced the New York version, their second major release of this year. As usual for the…

Asset & CI Utilities

This is a set of 3 simple utilities created to help make the management of CI and Asset relationships easier.

Developer Search 3.2

Stop Scratching Your Head On a daily basis, a ServiceNow developer has the need to locate the source of functionality…

Bite #17: Password vs Password2

There’s two types of password fields in ServiceNow — this goes both for creating a new field, and creating a new system property. Here’s the skinny on how they’re different and how to use them…

Byte #16: Using SAMEAS in GlideRecord Queries

A few versions ago, ServiceNow added the ability in filters to query for records where one field was “the same as” another field…

Bit #4: Client vs. Server

I recently had the privilege of teaching a very smart person I know all about ServiceNow. Because they were not from…

Byte #15: Display Business Rules & g_scratchpad

One of the core principles to maintain optimal performance in ServiceNow is: Minimize round trip server calls from client scripts.…

Byte #14: Deleting Tables does NOT transfer in Update Sets

Simply put: As of Eureka Patch 5, deleting tables does NOT transfer in Update Sets, so be prepared. Steps to delete…

Byte #13: Requested For as a Variable

In the Service Catalog, it’s almost *always* necessary to ask who the request is actually for, after all, someone might…

Byte #12: How to Export an Update Set

There’s numerous situations that require developers to backup their ServiceNow configurations: cloning over an environment, uploading work to ShareNow, and…

Bit #3: Email Filter for Sub Production Instances

During an implementation of Service-Now, it’s very helpful to be able to test out email notifications with a small group…

Byte #11: Company Specific Logos

Different ServiceNow users can see different header logos and text while using the same instance… let’s talk about how it’s…

Byte #10: Triggering Notifications from Workflows

There’s more than one way to send out notifications from a Change or Service Catalog workflow… what’s the best way?…

Byte #9: Properly Granting Permissions…

The Problem There’s a number of ways to dole out roles and privileges in the system, but which will result…

Byte #8: Magical Left Hand Nav Shortcuts

Left Hand Nav Shortcuts .list Type in a table name followed by “.list” to be taken directly to a list…

Byte #7: Workflows should never contain current.update()

The Scenario You’re using a script activity in the Change Workflow to look up the value of a particular field…

Byte #5: Fixing Update Set Blunders

The Problem How do you get configuration/code from the wrong update set to the correct one? The Wrong Way As…

Byte #6: Store Sys IDs in User Preferences

The Situation Often times a script will need to reference a particular group (such as an advanced approval script). Best…

Bit #2: How to Report on Weekly Development

Note: This is an updated blog post from 2014. Since it’s not always possible to practice “pair programming” when I’m in a…

Byte #4: Global Business Rules are Bad News

What is a Global Business Rule? These are business rules that are created with “Global” in the Table field. In…

Byte #3: How to Use Background Scripts

Note: This is an updated blog post from 4 years ago on my personal blog. I’ve reviewed it for accuracy…

Byte #2: GlideAggregate Examples

Note: This was originally posted on my personal blog back on 2014. However, I’ve reviewed it for accuracy and found…

Bit #1: Get LastPass to tell Instances Apart

As a consultant, we often have to deal with a whole slew of instances at any given time. Each Customer…

Byte #1: Getting Distinct Records

Note: This is a repurposed post from my old personal blog — however I’ve reviewed everything, and it’s still relevant, and Kingston compatible!…

The Beginning: Crawl

I started with ServiceNow back in 2010. I was fresh out of college, and was offered a job at SunGard…