ServiceNow Fluent language constructs
Summarize
Summary of ServiceNow Fluent language constructs
ServiceNow Fluent language constructs enhance development within ServiceNow source code using Fluent APIs. These constructs help define and manage metadata, references, and content efficiently in your applications, improving code readability, maintainability, and synchronization with the ServiceNow AI Platform.
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Key Constructs and Their Uses
- Now.ID: Assigns human-readable unique IDs to metadata in source code, which are hashed into unique
sysidvalues. IDs created with Now.ID are for defining metadata only, not for referencing other metadata. To reference metadata within the same application, assign it to a constant variable. - Now.ref: References metadata from different applications that are not defined in source code. It supports referencing by table name combined with either
sysid, attribute-value pairs, or coalescing ID references, enabling you to link metadata across applications. - Now.include: Includes the content of external files (such as JavaScript, HTML, or CSS) in properties of Fluent APIs instead of inlining the content. It uses relative file paths and enables two-way synchronization between source code and other ServiceNow AI Platform interfaces, preserving appropriate syntax highlighting for the file types.
- Now.attach: Attaches image files (supported formats: .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .ico, .svg) from within the same application to metadata records that support user image fields. It uses relative file paths and supports two-way synchronization between source code and the instance metadata. Images can be assigned to variables for reuse across multiple properties.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
- Improved Code Clarity: Using human-readable IDs and referencing constructs makes your source code more understandable and easier to maintain.
- Cross-Application Metadata Linking: Now.ref simplifies referencing metadata from other applications without embedding or duplicating data.
- Efficient Content Management: Now.include enables modular development by separating large or language-specific content into dedicated files while maintaining synchronization.
- Consistent Image Handling: Now.attach streamlines managing and reusing images in your applications with automatic sync between source and instance metadata.
By leveraging these constructs, ServiceNow developers can build more maintainable, modular, and interconnected applications that integrate smoothly with the ServiceNow AI Platform and other instance metadata.
ServiceNow Fluent language constructs provide additional functionality for development in source code with ServiceNow Fluent APIs.
Now.ID
The Now.ID construct is used to specify human-readable unique IDs for metadata defined in source code. Now.ID uses the format Now.ID['String' or Number] with the
$id property in ServiceNow Fluent APIs. When you build an application, the ID is hashed into a unique sys_id.
You can use Now.ID only to define IDs for metadata and not to reference other metadata in an application. To reference other metadata within the same application, you can assign the object to a const variable and reference the variable identifier in other objects.
import { Role } from "@servicenow/sdk/core"
const managerRole = Role({
$id: Now.ID['manager_role'],
name: 'x_snc_example.manager'
})
Record({
table: 'some_table',
data: {
role: managerRole //"role" is a reference field to sys_user_role
}
})
Now.ref
The Now.ref construct is used to reference metadata in a different application that's not defined in source code. Now.ref uses the format Now.ref['table', 'sys_id' or {column: 'value'},
{column: 'value'}] with Reference properties in ServiceNow Fluent APIs.
import { Role } from "@servicenow/sdk/core"
Role({
name: 'x_test.admin',
contains_roles: [
'x_test.manager',
Now.ref('sys_user_role', { name: 'x_test.itil' }), // Coalescing ID reference
Now.ref('sys_user_role', '${itomId}'), // GUID-based reference
Now.ref('sys_user_role', '3D82d1a88947942a90b6d8aa25126d439b', { name: 'x_test.csm' }), // GUID with coalescing ID reference
],
})
Now.include
The Now.include construct is used to refer to text content in another file in the same application rather than including the content inline. Now.include uses relative file paths in the format
Now.include('./path/to/file') with any property in ServiceNow Fluent APIs. Using Now.include allows you to code with the appropriate syntax highlighting for the file type and is especially helpful with properties that support other
languages like JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and more.
Now.include supports two-way synchronization so that changes to fields from other ServiceNow AI Platform user interfaces are synced into the referenced file's source code and changes to the source code are synced back to metadata across the instance.
import { ScriptInclude } from '@servicenow/sdk/core'
ScriptInclude({
$id: Now.ID['my-script-include'],
name: 'MyScriptInclude',
active: true,
apiName: 'x_scriptincludes.MyScriptInclude',
script: Now.include('./MyScriptInclude.server.js') //The actual content of the "script" field is contained in the file specified
})
Now.attach
The Now.attach construct is used to refer to an image file in the same application and attach it to records associated with metadata defined in source code. Now.attach uses relative file paths
in the format Now.attach('./path/to/file') with properties that support user images (the user_image field type) in ServiceNow Fluent APIs. Now.attach supports the following file formats: .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif,
.bmp, .ico, and .svg.
Now.attach supports two-way synchronization so that changes to image files from other ServiceNow AI Platform user interfaces are synced into the application in source code and changes to image files in source code are synced back to metadata across the instance.
import { Record } from '@servicenow/sdk/core'
Record({
$id: Now.ID['sample-service-portal'],
table: 'sp_portal',
data: {
title: 'Sample Portal',
url_suffix: 'sample',
icon: Now.attach('../../assets/servicenow.jpg')
}
})
You can also reuse an image in an application by assigning the Now.attach construct to a const variable and referencing the variable identifier in other properties. For example:
import { Record } from '@servicenow/sdk/core'
const image = Now.attach('../../assets/servicenow.jpg')
Record({
$id: Now.ID['test'],
table: 'sp_portal',
data: {
title: 'Test Portal',
url_suffix: 'test',
icon: image,
logo: image,
}
})