Enabling Rapid App Development

with App Engine and the Now Platform

Jacques Guidry
DoD Account Executive
App Engine Specialist
jacques.guidry@servicenow.com
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Introduction to the ServiceNow Platform

Because all applications in the ServiceNow Portfolio are built on the Now Platform, all metrics, tasks, services, assets, people,
locations, and information are stored together, creating a single system of record and a single system of engagement for the
enterprise. All applications leverage the features listed below, including a common workflow engine to bring together people
processes and automated processes. This allows work to flow seamlessly across all domain areas within an enterprise –
automating tasks, consumer-like service experience, and helping people work better and smarter. The Now Platform provides
the following functionality:

• C
 ollaborate: Connect, Chat, Coaching Loops, Live Feed, Visual Task Boards,
Knowledge Management
• C
 ommunicate/Integrate: Email/SMS Alerts and Notifications, REST API, Native Mobile
App, Web Services, OpenFrame, Import/Export
• M
 anage Resources: CMDB, Service Catalog, Time Cards, Skills Management, Service
Level Management, On-Call Scheduling, Role-Based Security
• I ntelligence: Assessments, Automated Testing Framework, Reporting, Surveys,
Business Service Maps, Visualizations, Google Maps, Contextual Search, Subscription
Management, Visualizations
• D
 esign: Content Management System, Delegated Development, Flow Designer, Form
Designer, Graphical Workflow, Service Creator, Studio, Service Portal Design, Scripting,
Script Debugger, Service Portal Designer

For more information on these functions, please see the ServiceNow Product Overview.

Application Criteria for the Now Platform

Not every application idea makes for a good fit on the Now Platform.
As the criteria below shows, some apps are better suited for the Now
Platform than others:
Planning Question: What are the goals, objectives, and outputs
of your application? The Right Fit for App Engine
Before you start building, you should begin with the end in mind. • Simple forms
Understanding and visualizing (virtually or on a whiteboard) your desired
solution helps determine the remaining steps in building your app. Often, • Task management
the outputs are the drivers for the inputs. If you are attempting to speed • Request fulfillment
up a process, then knowing your output metrics can help make clear what • Excel and email driven processes
to measure. If you are managing assets, then perhaps cost and location
• Repeatable processes
are more important than the minute details of each item. Identifying your
goals and objectives will ensure you can manage conversations with key • 3rd party integrations
stakeholders to ensure your application is specifically addressing the • Orchestration of multiple systems
desired business outcomes.
• S
 ingle experience from functions in
There are some actions that you will take when building an app that are multiple systems
irreversible, so it’s important to be aware of these so you can plan
• W
 eb and Mobile access to the same
in advance.
apps and data simultaneously
Scoped vs Global Application
When you create an application, you can choose to create it in a private Applications that your organization
scope (scoped application) or in the global scope (global application). will actually use (i.e., production apps)
Scoped applications get extra functionality for managing development, should be created in your organization’s
deploying the application, and data security. By default, all applications are dev instance so they can follow your
created in a private scope and ServiceNow’s recommendation is that citizen organization’s testing and deployment
developers work with scoped applications. process. See your ServiceNow System
Administrator for more details about which
You can register for your own Personal Developer Instance that you get from instance to use for an app that will
the developer portal - developer.servicenow.com.
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Now Platform & App Engine Overview

Designed to be a highly flexible and easy-to-use development environment, the Now Platform enables nearly anyone – no-
code to professional coders – to digitize and automate departmental and cross-enterprise workflows, create mobile-first
applications, and measure and optimize business processes, while mitigating risk. Nearly half of the 2,000 largest global
companies use the Now Platform’s wide variety of plug-and-play applications for IT service management (ITSM), security
operations, customer service, and employee experience.

The Now Platform App Engine includes the following features.

No/Low Code Development
The Now Platform’s no/low code development solutions allow business users to automate simple tasks and processes through
a visual, drag-and-drop user interface. ServiceNow’s customers have used no/low code development to rapidly build case
management, operations management, and enterprise service management solutions.

No/Low Code development solutions include:

•G
 uided App Creator – Build applications using an easy step-by-step process. Get started with tables, user roles, user
interfaces and more with just a few clicks to start using your app in minutes.
• Form Designer – Build a new form or change an existing form with a visual UI designer.
• Portal Designer – A portal framework that provides a simple way to create service portals for end users.
• U
 I Policies – Easily define user-interface policies to dynamically change information on a form and control custom
process flows for tasks.
• T
 able and Schema – Easily display details of tables and their relationships in a visual manner to access different parts of
the database schema.
• U
 I Builder – Create a custom workspace landing page to provide your agents with a quick overview of their work
and effectiveness.

Pro Code Development

The Now Platform’s pro code development tools allow
developers to build onto existing functional libraries with
industry-standard code. Unlike many enterprise-scale
solutions that require developers to learn proprietary
languages, the Now Platform supports popular coding
frameworks, including AJAX, Bootstrap, HTML/CSS,
JavaScript, and Angular JavaScript.
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Pro Code Development solutions include:

• AJAX – Support for Asynchronous JavaScript, and XML for client-side development of asynchronous web apps.
• Bootstrap – Support for the Bootstrap toolkit to build responsive mobile web apps.
• HTML/CSS – Support for Cascading Style Sheets to define the look and feel of your ServiceNow web pages.
• JavaScript – Support for JavaScript development to customize your instance of ServiceNow.
• A
 ngular JS – Support for the AngularJS web application framework, which enables the development of dynamic
ServiceNow websites and apps.
• V
 S Code Extension – Work on Now Platform projects using one of the most popular editors. Develop faster using
IntelliSense code completion, offline/sync capabilities, and multiple projects.
• S
 cript Debugger and Session Log – Increase developer productivity to easily debug server-side JavaScript. View
and download log files.

Application Development
The Now Platform makes it easier for developers to work together to solve problems and test new apps. It provides collaboration
solutions and a central library for custom code as well as integration with Git Hub and a script debugger. Together, the Now
Platform’s app development solutions can cut average development time by days or weeks.
Application Development Solutions include:
• D
 eveloper Instance – Use a free instance of our
development platform to rapidly build, test, and
deploy your apps.
• G
 it Integration – Synchronize your ServiceNow
developer instance code to the popular Githosted
source code repository.
• A
 utomated Testing – Automate your own custom
code tests and validate functionality prior to
production deployments.
• S
 tudio IDE – Work on custom apps in one centralized
location with an IDE-like interface for app developers.
• C
 ode Sharing – Employ ServiceNow-hosted online exchange to allow customers and partners to upload and download
apps and development content.
• D
 elegated Development – Help IT extend app development to other employees while maintaining control and
governance over your instances.
• P
 ortal Widget Editor – Edit a portal widget easily to configure your service portal with HTML, CSS, and client and
server-side scripts.
• W
 idget Diagnostic Test – Resolve Service Portal page issues by identifying widget customization levels and checking
widget code directly from a portal page.

Integration
The Now Platform is the platform for digital workflows across
departments, siloes, and systems. With IntegrationHub to
natively extend Now Platform workflows to any external
service and rich inbound integration APIs and tooling, the
Now Platform’s integration services help make the Now
Platform the “platform of platforms.”
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Integration features include:

• IntegrationHub – Natively integrate ServiceNow with anything. IT can create powerful, custom integrations and
components with Action Designer. IT developers, admins, and business builders can use codeless off-the-shelf
integrations (Spokes) from the ServiceNow Store for collaborative messaging and productivity apps, DevOps, and
departmental systems of record. Everything is re-usable to drive speed and productivity.
• Scripted APIs – Define your service endpoints, query parameters, and headers for a scripted web service API that follows
the REST architecture.
• API Explorer – Discover and interacts easily with REST APIs on your ServiceNow instance.
• JSON – Support accessing your JSON data from either a post parameter or the HTTP request content.
• SOAP/XML – Support SOAP messages and XML data to exchange structured information between ServiceNow and
your other systems.
• REST – Support your REST-based architectures with integration steps and actions and ServiceNow APIs.
• M
 ID Server – Facilitate communication and movement of your data between ServiceNow and external resources using
an agent that can be deployed on-premises or in another cloud.
• Import and Export – Simplify exporting your data and importing structured data (e.g. JSON, XML) to an instance in bulk.
• PowerShell and SSH – ITOM automation
• JDBC, SFTP, OpenAPI – Integrate with SQL databases, managed file transfer, and codeless OpenAPI support

Now Intelligence
Now Intelligence is augmented intelligence built directly into the Now Platform and purpose-built for workflows and
applications. It accelerates digital transformation by amplifying human creativity, productivity, and innovation with advanced
technology. ServiceNow has embedded machine learning, natural language understanding, data analytics technologies and
performance management into the Now Platform, creating intelligent experiences for everyone with simple and secure access
to data, and consistent, personalized user experiences.
Now Intelligence features include:
• M
 achine learning – Surface relevant information and solve issues faster to increase customer satisfaction and focus
employees on more meaningful work.
• V
 irtual Agent – Build and deploy intuitive, NLU-powered chatbots to deflect incidents by empowering customers and
employees with self-service.
• P
 erformance Analytics – Predict issues, make better
decisions, and quickly identify areas for improvement
with real-time insight into the patterns and trends
that make the most impact on your business.
• E
 vent Management – Consolidate data to generate
meaningful alerts that show service impact and
automate remedial actions.
• O
 perational Intelligence – Identify anomalous
behavior in IT environments that can cause potential
service issues.

User Experience and Notification

The Now Platform comes with tools designed to give users a more personalized and immediate experience. You can configure
applications to deliver notifications as emails or text messages. You can also package any Now Platform application as a native
mobile app for a true mobile-first experience.
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User Experience and Notification features include:

• Notify – Integrate with telephony providers such as the Twilio service to manage phone calls and SMS messages.
• Visual Task Board – Use a Kanban-like task board with an intuitive, graphical interface for working with any ServiceNow
app.
• Connect – Enable your users to collaborate and communicate in real time, share ideas, and work together in any
ServiceNow app.
• Push – Move any ServiceNow notification to mobile devices via the ServiceNow mobile app.
• SMS – Allows any ServiceNow notification to be sent as an SMS message through an SMTP gateway to the cellular
service providers.
• Service Portal – Design a self-service experience for users via a mobile-friendly portal interface.
• Email – Deliver any ServiceNow notification via plain text or HTML-formatted email.
• Mobile – Build native, mobile-first applications to deliver experiences that give employees and customers a better way
to work without learning Android or iOS software tools.
• Guided Tours – Easily create visual, self-help guidance to help new users quickly learn how to use new forms, reports,
and apps.
• Workspace – Designed for tier 1 agents who solve internal or external customer issues, these include all the tools that
agents need to find, research, and resolve issues fast.

Enterprise-Strength Security
The Now Platform supports enterprise-strength security solutions. It works with a broad spectrum of security tools and services,
such as tokenization, multi-factor authentication, and LDAP. Any application built on the Now Platform will be compliant with its
IT team’s toughest security standards.
Security features include
• Encryption – Perform data encryption using encryption keys that are stored and managed on your premises.
• T
 okenization – Replace your sensitive data with unique identification symbols while retaining all the essential
information about the data.
• OAuth2.0 – Support for the OAuth open standard for token-based authorization.
• Multi-Factor Authentication – User access control with support for multiple authentication factors.
• SSO – Support for single sign-on access control across your IT systems and Applications.
• SAML – Support for the Security Assertion Markup Language to enable SSO
• LDAP – Support for the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol open standard for authentication of users and groups.
• A
 CLs and Roles – Support for Role-Based Access Control for groups or individuals to regulate access to
ServiceNow resources.
• A
 ntivirus Scanning – Help protect viruses being spread by scanning file attachments to your system records, such as
incidents, problems, and stories.
• Password Policies – Configure and enforce the required strength for user passwords.
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Core Services
The Now Platform’s core services are designed to deliver high-performance process and workflow automation over the cloud.
They represent building blocks for scalable, enterprise-class service management and can be combined to create apps for
virtually any service management use case.
Core services include:
• R
 eporting Engine – A business intelligence solution to structure and communicate ServiceNow data using reports,
analytics, and visualizations.
• C
 MDB – Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is a series of tables that contain all your assets, business services,
and configurations.
• T
 ime Series Database – Collect, retain, analyze, and visualize time series data stored in a separate database,
called MetricBase.
• Knowledge Management – A ServiceNow app that enables the sharing of information such as knowledge base articles.
• S
 ervice Catalog – A ServiceNow app that lets you easily create service items that provide your customer with self-
service opportunities.
• F
 low Designer – From a single design environment, use natural language to automate approvals, tasks, notifications,
and record operations without coding.
• A
 pplication Scope – Enables you to separate your apps such that one app cannot access the data or code of another
app without permission.
• Business Rules – Server-side scripts that can automatically trigger when a record is displayed, inserted, updated,
deleted, or when a table is queried.

APPENDIX A – ServiceNow Tools and Resources

Learning to Build
Before developing your app, you should also get familiar with the ServiceNow interface through this SELF-PACED TRAINING:
Build My First Application
ServiceNow Studio is a tool that offers ServiceNow application builders a centralized interface where they can create and
manage their applications. Studio will be the primary interface for creating and updating parts of the application. In addition,
flow Designer will help automate tasks and workflows using natural language through an easy to use interface. Finally,
Integration Hub completes the picture by allowing you to leverage codeless integrations with dozens of prebuilt “spokes” for
connectivity to other systems.
• How to access studio
• Practice with Studio
• F
 low Designer is a Now Platform® feature that enables rich process automation capabilities
in a consolidated design environment. It enables process owners to use natural language to
automate approvals, tasks, notifications, and record operations without having to code.
• Getting Started with Flows
• Practice with Flow Designer
• Learn to use IntegrationHub

Resources
Here are some resources you should bookmark for help.
• Product Documentation – Documentation on all of ServiceNow’s features and functionality
• Developer Portal – Portal where developers can get a developer instance and train
• Developer Training – Specific, constantly updated self-paced training classes
• Community – Active community forum where you can ask questions
• Customer Success – Best practice information
• Training Courses – ServiceNow’s virtual or in-person training classes