Enable custom actions to integrate with
external systems by activating IntegrationHub, which adds
integration steps to the Action Designer
interface.
Integration steps can run on the instance or a
MID Server.
A MID Server is required to
communicate with or move data between a ServiceNow instance and
external applications, data sources, and services in your network.Note: Only Flow Designer admin and Connection admin can execute flows using .
Steps that perform operations on record data run on the instance, while steps that integrate
with systems in your network run on a MID Server. If a step requires a MID Server to run, the instance delegates
flow processing to the appropriate MID Server by sending the process plan in a
REST call. The MID Server executes the
action or step in the process plan and returns results. View log messages and execution status
from the instance or the MID Server.
Available integration steps
These integration steps are available from Action Designer.
| Integration step |
Description |
Step runs from |
| JDBC step |
Create a reusable action to send SQL commands to a
relational database. |
MID Server |
| Payload Builder step |
Enable action designers to easily create
name-value pairs in JSON and XML payloads using dynamic data. |
|
| PowerShell step |
Run PowerShell scripts on remote machines
from your ServiceNow instance
through a MID Server.
|
MID Server |
| REST step |
Send an outbound REST web service request to an
external system. |
|
| SOAP step |
Enable action designers to send outbound SOAP web
service requests to external systems. |
|
| SSH step |
The SSH step executes SSH commands on an external
*nix system through a ServiceNow®
MID Server. The step also
stores scripts and commands for the *nix systems. |
MID Server |
| XML parser step |
Identify structured data from an XML payload
without having to write script. Map incoming XML elements to a complex object output
that you can use in other steps or actions. At runtime, values from an XML payload
populate the complex object output. |
|
Connection attributes
Define connection-specific variables that you can use in
IntegrationHub integration steps.
When using an integration step, you must establish a
connection with an external system. Use a Connection & Credential alias instead of
defining the connection inline. An alias enables you to update the connection details once
without having to reconfigure every action. Any action step that uses an alias inherits the
attributes associated with it. Flow Designer displays attributes as data
pills that you can drag into your action step. For example, you can create a page size
attribute that becomes a REST step query parameter. For more information about connection attributes, see Create connection attributes for IntegrationHub.
MID Server connection
aliases
Action designers can set MID Server
selection attributes using a connection record associated with an alias and associate the
alias with an integration step. When the flow runs, the system uses the attributes to
determine which MID Server runs the
step. Learn more about connection
and credential aliases.
MID Server selection
Flow designers should avoid shifting the execution environment between MID Servers when a flow runs. Either
configure your MID Servers to perform
operations on multiple endpoints, or provide multiple capabilities to the MID Servers in your network. You may need
a user with the connection_admin role to update the connection records associated with an
action, or a network administrator to update the MID Server network configuration. To
learn more about how a MID Server is
selected during runtime, see MID Server selection.
Design considerations
Design integration steps using the following guidelines.
- Avoid shifting the execution environment between the instance and the MID Server multiple times. Where
possible, group similar action steps. For example, group core steps that perform record
operations and integration steps that run on the MID Server.
- When creating a spoke that uses an integration step,
include a Connection and Credential alias record with the appropriate connection
type. Before anyone can use the spoke, a user with the connection_admin role must
associate the alias record to a connection record that supports the connection
type. If defining the connection inline, use inputs to enable the process analyst
to define the connection information when adding the action to a flow.
- The MID Server does not have access
to all the values in a GlideRecord object, it only has access to the sys_id
reference. Inputs of type Reference do not work on a MID Server. Instead, create
action inputs that contain the necessary GlideRecord values.
Roles
To create integration steps, a user must have the action_designer or admin roles. If
running steps on a MID Server, the MID Server user must have the
connection_admin and credential_admin roles to access the connection and credential
information associated with the step.
