Exploring Integration Hub

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring Integration Hub

    ServiceNow® Integration Hub enables ServiceNow customers to build reusable integrations with third-party systems and invoke them anywhere within the ServiceNow AI Platform. It supports both inbound and outbound integrations, allowing workflows to respond to external webhooks or call external APIs as part of business processes. Integration Hub consolidates automation capabilities into a single environment, simplifying the creation and management of integrations and business processes.

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    Key Features

    • Inbound and Outbound Integration: Respond to event-driven external webhooks or execute third-party APIs during ServiceNow events.
    • Spokes: Pre-built or custom integration action packages that simplify connecting to external systems without scripting, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams messaging and syncing data across instances.
    • Spoke Generator: Tool to build reusable sequences of actions for custom integrations.
    • Custom Integrations: Create integrations using Workflow Studio with REST or Script steps for tailored workflows.
    • External Triggers and Webhooks: Configure flows triggered by third-party system webhooks with authentication managed by ServiceNow.
    • MID Server Automation: Delegate workflow processes to MID Servers for network server and application administration using PowerShell or REST steps.
    • Connection and Credential Management: Use aliases to streamline credential and connection information management across environments.

    Development Process

    Custom integrations should be developed within scoped applications, which become spokes when deployed. The typical development lifecycle includes creating scoped applications on development instances, publishing test versions to the application repository, deploying and testing on test instances, and then publishing to production or sharing via the ServiceNow Store or ServiceNow Share.

    Benefits

    • Unified environment for building and visualizing automation and integrations.
    • Extends Workflow Studio capabilities to integrate with external systems efficiently.
    • Supports process automation by enabling subject matter experts to share reusable spokes.
    • Offers natural language descriptions of integration logic, aiding non-technical users.

    ServiceNow® Integration Hub enables you to build reusable integrations with third-party systems and call them from anywhere in the ServiceNow AI Platform. For example, you can request Integration Hub to call external systems using integration APIs from the Action Designer Script step, run the Script step on the ServiceNow® MID Server, and activate protocol steps like REST, SOAP, and PowerShell.

    Capabilities

    The Integration Hub provides both inbound and outbound integration with third-party applications.

    Inbound integration occurs when a flow that you set up on Workflow Studio responds to a conditional and event-driven external webhook from a third-party system and executes. For example, when you create a P1 issue on an issue-tracking application, its external webhook triggers a flow in the ServiceNow instance and an incidence database table is updated in the ServiceNow instance. Here, the webhook is conditional and event-driven.

    Outbound integration occurs when the Integration Hub enables execution of third-party APIs as a part of a flow when a specific event occurs in ServiceNow. These integrations, referred to as spokes, are easy to configure and enable you to quickly add powerful actions without the need to write a script. For example, you can post a message and incident details in a Slack channel when a high priority incident is created.

    Integration Hub provides the following functionality:

    Create spokes
    Build spokes using Spoke Generator to automate integration tasks by creating a sequence of reusable actions to develop custom integrations. For more information, see Building spokes using Spoke Generator.
    Spokes for base system integrations
    Using Integration Hub actions in Workflow Studio, you can:
    Create custom integrations
    Build custom integrations with Workflow Studio using a REST step or a Script step.
    Automate inbound integrations with third-party applications
    Set up a flow with external trigger definition on Workflow Studio by selecting base system external trigger definitions, and actions from the spokes or core actions. Then, Set up external trigger endpoints that the third-party application webhooks use to trigger the flow you had set up. Your ServiceNow instance authenticates the webhook before it triggers the flow.
    Automate the administration of servers and applications in your network
    Use custom actions to delegate Workflow Studio processes to a MID Server in your network. For example, actions that use the PowerShell step or REST step.

    Benefits

    Integration Hub provides process owners and developers these benefits.

    • Consolidates multiple ServiceNow AI Platform automation capabilities into a single environment so process owners and developers can build and visualize business processes and integrations from a single interface.
    • Extends Workflow Studio content to integrate business processes with external systems.
    • Promotes business process automation by enabling subject matter experts to develop and share spokes with flow designers.
    • Provides natural-language-descriptions of integration logic to help non-technical users understand triggers, actions, inputs, and outputs.

    Connection and Credentials

    Integration Hub takes advantage of aliases to manage connection information and credentials when integrating with external systems. Using an alias eliminates the need to configure multiple credentials and connection information profiles when using multiple environments. Integration Hub only requires an alias, which then resolves to use the correct credentials and connection information during runtime. Learn more about credentials, connections, and aliases.

    Development process

    When developing a custom integration, develop all actions for the integration within a scoped application. When deployed to a target instance, these actions are grouped as a spoke in Workflow Studio. Brand the spoke by adding a custom icon to the application record. To learn more about application development, see Build applications.

    When developing spokes, flow and action designers typically perform these application development tasks.

    1. Create a scoped application on a development instance to build spokes.
    2. Publish a test version of the scoped application to the application repository.
    3. Deploy the scoped application to a test instance from the application repository.
    4. Test the scoped application on the test instance.
    5. When working as expected, publish the scoped application in one of the following ways.
      • Publish to the application repository for deployment on production instances.
      • Publish to the ServiceNow Store as an application that customers can request for their environments.
      • Publish to ServiceNow Share to provide content to other customers in the ServiceNow community.

    Review Workflow Studio design considerations in the Architecture Overview.