SOAP web service The SOAP Web Services provided by ServiceNow are WS-I compliant, as outlined in the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0. Concepts and Terminology Provider - publishes web service for clients to invoke (consume) Consumer - invokes / consumes published web service Standards WSDL Web Service Description Language XML document describing functions, arguments, data schema, and endpoint (where / how to invoke the service, URL) WSDL only necessary when generating SOAP envelope programmatically SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol XML document usually HTTP posted to web service endpoint described in WSDL SOAP:Envelope / SOAP:Header / SOAP:Body HTTP Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol POST vs GET - Web Service is POSTed XML vs. Form POST - Web Service is XML Web Service Provider ServiceNow publishes its underlying table structures and associated data with the following Web Service methods: Direct Web Services: Use a URL query to request a ServiceNow table's WSDL. Web Service Import Sets: Use import tables and transform maps to automate Web Service requests to ServiceNow tables. Scripted Web Services: Use custom JavaScript to execute Web Services requests. Note: SOAP messages are sent with the assumption that the recipient is XML compliant. No encoding is applied to the SOAP message. SOAP always decodes responses as UTF-8, the XML encoding header is not used. SOAP direct web service API functionsThe standard SOAP API is a set of small, globally defined functions that can be performed on a targeted resource. WSDLAll ServiceNow tables and import sets dynamically generate WSDL XML documents that describe its table schema and available operations.Direct web servicesA direct web service is available for any table in the system provided the correct access control is setup.SOAP web service import setsWeb Service Import Sets complement Direct Web Services and Scripted Web Services to provide a web service interface to Import Sets tables.SOAP web services securityServiceNow enforces web service security using a combination of basic authentication challenge/response over the HTTPS protocol and system-level access control using contextual security.Overriding the SOAP endpointThe SOAP endpoint address where the SOAP message is posted is consistent with the endpoint of the WSDL.Enabling HTTP compressionBy default, the SOAP request is accepted un-compressed and the result of the request is returned un-compressed.Debugging incoming SOAP envelopeTo capture incoming SOAP envelope XML in the system log, add the property glide.processor.debug.SOAPProcessor with a value of true.Preventing empty elements in SOAP messagesBy default, an instance does not omit empty elements, elements with NULL or NIL values, from SOAP messages.Insert related records using SOAPSupport is available for inserting hierarchical data into tables or web service import set tables. The hierarchical data in the Insert API is automatically mapped to related records of the targeted table.SOAP session management and reportingA SOAP session is a Glide session established with an instance by any external SOAP client, such as a web services client application, a ServiceNow MID Server, or the ServiceNow ODBC driver.AttachmentCreator SOAP web serviceAttaching documents to records in ServiceNow can be achieved by sending a SOAP message targeting the ecc_queue table.Perl APIThe Perl API provides a library of Perl classes and sub routines for programmatic access to the platform and its applications. The API utilizes the SOAP web service interface of the platform.Scripted SOAP web servicesScripted SOAP Web Services allow a ServiceNow administrator to create new web services that are not addressed by the system.
SOAP web service The SOAP Web Services provided by ServiceNow are WS-I compliant, as outlined in the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0. Concepts and Terminology Provider - publishes web service for clients to invoke (consume) Consumer - invokes / consumes published web service Standards WSDL Web Service Description Language XML document describing functions, arguments, data schema, and endpoint (where / how to invoke the service, URL) WSDL only necessary when generating SOAP envelope programmatically SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol XML document usually HTTP posted to web service endpoint described in WSDL SOAP:Envelope / SOAP:Header / SOAP:Body HTTP Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol POST vs GET - Web Service is POSTed XML vs. Form POST - Web Service is XML Web Service Provider ServiceNow publishes its underlying table structures and associated data with the following Web Service methods: Direct Web Services: Use a URL query to request a ServiceNow table's WSDL. Web Service Import Sets: Use import tables and transform maps to automate Web Service requests to ServiceNow tables. Scripted Web Services: Use custom JavaScript to execute Web Services requests. Note: SOAP messages are sent with the assumption that the recipient is XML compliant. No encoding is applied to the SOAP message. SOAP always decodes responses as UTF-8, the XML encoding header is not used. SOAP direct web service API functionsThe standard SOAP API is a set of small, globally defined functions that can be performed on a targeted resource. WSDLAll ServiceNow tables and import sets dynamically generate WSDL XML documents that describe its table schema and available operations.Direct web servicesA direct web service is available for any table in the system provided the correct access control is setup.SOAP web service import setsWeb Service Import Sets complement Direct Web Services and Scripted Web Services to provide a web service interface to Import Sets tables.SOAP web services securityServiceNow enforces web service security using a combination of basic authentication challenge/response over the HTTPS protocol and system-level access control using contextual security.Overriding the SOAP endpointThe SOAP endpoint address where the SOAP message is posted is consistent with the endpoint of the WSDL.Enabling HTTP compressionBy default, the SOAP request is accepted un-compressed and the result of the request is returned un-compressed.Debugging incoming SOAP envelopeTo capture incoming SOAP envelope XML in the system log, add the property glide.processor.debug.SOAPProcessor with a value of true.Preventing empty elements in SOAP messagesBy default, an instance does not omit empty elements, elements with NULL or NIL values, from SOAP messages.Insert related records using SOAPSupport is available for inserting hierarchical data into tables or web service import set tables. The hierarchical data in the Insert API is automatically mapped to related records of the targeted table.SOAP session management and reportingA SOAP session is a Glide session established with an instance by any external SOAP client, such as a web services client application, a ServiceNow MID Server, or the ServiceNow ODBC driver.AttachmentCreator SOAP web serviceAttaching documents to records in ServiceNow can be achieved by sending a SOAP message targeting the ecc_queue table.Perl APIThe Perl API provides a library of Perl classes and sub routines for programmatic access to the platform and its applications. The API utilizes the SOAP web service interface of the platform.Scripted SOAP web servicesScripted SOAP Web Services allow a ServiceNow administrator to create new web services that are not addressed by the system.
