Product documentation Docs
    • English
    • Deutsch
    • 日本語
    • 한국어
    • Français
  • More Sites
    • Now Community
    • Developer Site
    • Knowledge Base
    • Product Information
    • ServiceNow.com
    • Training
    • Customer Success Center
    • ServiceNow Support Videos
  • Log in

Product documentation

  • Home
How search works:
  • Punctuation and capital letters are ignored
  • Special characters like underscores (_) are removed
  • Known synonyms are applied
  • The most relevant topics (based on weighting and matching to search terms) are listed first in search results
Topics are ranked in search results by how closely they match your search terms
  • A match on the entire phrase you typed
  • A match on part of the phrase you typed
  • A match on ALL of the terms in the phrase you typed
  • A match on ANY of the terms in the phrase you typed

Note: Matches in titles are always highly ranked.

  • Release version
    Table of Contents
    • Security Operations
Table of Contents
Choose your release version
    Home London Security Incident Management Security Operations Security Operations common functionality Security Operations Integration Reference ServiceNow Security Operations integration development guidelines Tips for writing integrations

    Tips for writing integrations

    • Save as PDF Selected topic Topic & subtopics All topics in contents
    • Unsubscribe Log in to subscribe to topics and get notified when content changes.
    • Share this page

    Tips for writing integrations

    Avoid some of the pitfalls you can encounter when writing your own integrations by following these guidelines.

    Use ServiceNow platform functionality whenever possible

    Mostly, the integration capabilities built into Security Operations applications (Security Incident Response, Threat Intelligence, and Vulnerability Response) are intended to enhance or streamline existing ServiceNow platform integration functionality. When writing integrations, always make sure to use platform functionality when it exists. Here are some common ServiceNow functionalities that can be used rather than “rolling-your-own.”

    • Outbound web services – for most interactions with third-party systems, communication are through web services. In those cases, utilize platform outbound web services (REST and SOAP are supported).
    • A data sources/import sets/transform map – for processing data and inserting into ServiceNow tables, the preferred mechanism is to use data sources and associated components.

    Use Security Operations integration frameworks whenever possible

    Because Security Operations integration mechanisms have solved many common problems, it is not necessary to reimplement basic functionalities for every integration. For example, the vulnerability data and threat source frameworks support handling multiple pages and passing that data to data sources/transforms/import sets. Similarly, the scan or lookup source framework provides configurable rate limiting functionality. As a rule, when implementing a feature or set of features, check to see if the existing Security Operations integration framework covers your use case. If so, use that framework.

    Extend the existing Security Operations integration frameworks as needed

    Most of the tables and scripts used by Security Operations integration frameworks were intended to be extended to suit future needs. If a use case is encountered while you are writing an integration, extend an integration table or script to better suit that use case.

    Provide feedback to ServiceNow for issues encountered during integration

    As an integration is being developed or tested, be sure to provide feedback when issues are encountered. Even if a workaround is required, ServiceNow support personnel can provide an improvement in future releases that could alleviate the issue for future integrations.

    Test under reasonable load

    A common issue with integrations is that they are not equipped to handle realistic loads. Because each integration is a scoped application, there are more limitations imposed by the platform to ensure system stability. These limitations may result in long running jobs or API calls being terminated. You can ensure that long running processes or processes that process lots of data are handled gracefully by reducing the time each call or process takes (usually by providing a means of paginating API requests or chunking large sets of data).

    Related concepts
    • Types of ServiceNow integrations provided
    • Security Operations Integration Configurations
    • Rules for identifying configuration items from third-party integrations
    • Integration troubleshooting

    Tags:

    Feedback
    On this page

    Previous topic

    Next topic

    • Contact Us
    • Careers
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Statement
    • Sitemap
    • © ServiceNow. All rights reserved.

    Release version
    Choose your release version

      Tips for writing integrations

      • Save as PDF Selected topic Topic & subtopics All topics in contents
      • Unsubscribe Log in to subscribe to topics and get notified when content changes.
      • Share this page

      Tips for writing integrations

      Avoid some of the pitfalls you can encounter when writing your own integrations by following these guidelines.

      Use ServiceNow platform functionality whenever possible

      Mostly, the integration capabilities built into Security Operations applications (Security Incident Response, Threat Intelligence, and Vulnerability Response) are intended to enhance or streamline existing ServiceNow platform integration functionality. When writing integrations, always make sure to use platform functionality when it exists. Here are some common ServiceNow functionalities that can be used rather than “rolling-your-own.”

      • Outbound web services – for most interactions with third-party systems, communication are through web services. In those cases, utilize platform outbound web services (REST and SOAP are supported).
      • A data sources/import sets/transform map – for processing data and inserting into ServiceNow tables, the preferred mechanism is to use data sources and associated components.

      Use Security Operations integration frameworks whenever possible

      Because Security Operations integration mechanisms have solved many common problems, it is not necessary to reimplement basic functionalities for every integration. For example, the vulnerability data and threat source frameworks support handling multiple pages and passing that data to data sources/transforms/import sets. Similarly, the scan or lookup source framework provides configurable rate limiting functionality. As a rule, when implementing a feature or set of features, check to see if the existing Security Operations integration framework covers your use case. If so, use that framework.

      Extend the existing Security Operations integration frameworks as needed

      Most of the tables and scripts used by Security Operations integration frameworks were intended to be extended to suit future needs. If a use case is encountered while you are writing an integration, extend an integration table or script to better suit that use case.

      Provide feedback to ServiceNow for issues encountered during integration

      As an integration is being developed or tested, be sure to provide feedback when issues are encountered. Even if a workaround is required, ServiceNow support personnel can provide an improvement in future releases that could alleviate the issue for future integrations.

      Test under reasonable load

      A common issue with integrations is that they are not equipped to handle realistic loads. Because each integration is a scoped application, there are more limitations imposed by the platform to ensure system stability. These limitations may result in long running jobs or API calls being terminated. You can ensure that long running processes or processes that process lots of data are handled gracefully by reducing the time each call or process takes (usually by providing a means of paginating API requests or chunking large sets of data).

      Related concepts
      • Types of ServiceNow integrations provided
      • Security Operations Integration Configurations
      • Rules for identifying configuration items from third-party integrations
      • Integration troubleshooting

      Tags:

      Feedback

          Share this page

          Got it! Feel free to add a comment
          To share your product suggestions, visit the Idea Portal.
          Please let us know how to improve this content

          Check any that apply

          To share your product suggestions, visit the Idea Portal.
          Confirm

          We were unable to find "Coaching" in Jakarta. Would you like to search instead?

          No Yes
          • Contact Us
          • Careers
          • Terms of Use
          • Privacy Statement
          • Sitemap
          • © ServiceNow. All rights reserved.

          Subscribe Subscribed Unsubscribe Last updated: Tags: January February March April May June July August September October November December No Results Found Versions Search preferences successfully updated My release version successfully updated My release version successfully deleted An error has occurred. Please try again later. You have been unsubscribed from all topics. You are now subscribed to and will receive notifications if any changes are made to this page. You have been unsubscribed from this content Thank you for your feedback. Form temporarily unavailable. Please try again or contact  docfeedback@servicenow.com  to submit your comments. The topic you requested does not exist in the release. You were redirected to a related topic instead. The available release versions for this topic are listed There is no specific version for this documentation. Explore products Click to go to the page. Release notes and upgrades Click to open the dropdown menu. Delete Remove No selected version Reset This field is required You are already subscribed to this topic Attach screenshot The file you uploaded exceeds the allowed file size of 20MB. Please try again with a smaller file. Please complete the reCAPTCHA step to attach a screenshot
          Log in to personalize your search results and subscribe to topics
          No, thanks Login