Map pages display ServiceNow data graphically on a Google map page based on location data that you provide.

You can create as many map pages as required to define the types of data to display, the links to show, and the appearance of the map. After creating the map pages, you can create modules to display the map pages.

Note: Map pages are subject to the non-production access limitations. See Set up Google Maps API for details.

Map locations

Locations are used by various applications to locate users, facilities, or configuration items (CI) and are stored in the Location [cmn_location] table. You can configure different levels of location in a parent-child hierarchy. For example, an email server might be associated with a location of Second Floor, whereas the email business service might be associated with New York City.

Each level of this hierarchy contains a separate location record, with the next higher level specified as a parent. In this example each location is selectable as a hierarchy from reference fields:
Figure 1. Location hierarchy
The Location hierarchy view
The location is also used to generate a full identifier in the Full name field, which is available by configuring the form. For more information, see Show or hide fields on a form.

How locations are defined

To create a location, navigate to User Administration > Locations and select New.
Table 1. Define a location
Field Description
Name The name of the location. This name is the display value that the system uses when referencing this location on a form.
Street The street address of the location.
City The city of the location.
State / Province State or province of the location.
Zip / Postal Code The zip or postal code of the location.
Country The country of the location.
Contact Name of a user who is the contact for this location.
Phone The phone number for the location.
Fax phone The fax number for the location.
Parent Name of the parent location for this location. Location hierarchies are described above.
Latitude The latitude of the location.

The get_lat_long business rule automatically populates this field and the Longitude field described below when the form contains enough information, such as an address or city name and a postal code.

Deactivate this business rule to avoid the system overwriting any values entered manually into these fields.
Longitude The longitude of the location.
Fields that can be added by configuring the form:
Company A reference field to the Company [core_company] table.
Full name A read-only, calculated field that assembles the parent hierarchy of the location into a full name.
Stock room A boolean field that identifies whether the location is being used as a stock room.
Time zone The time zone of the location. By default, the location uses the system time zone.

Latitude and longitude

When a Company or Location record is created, or has one of its address fields changed [street, city, state, zip or country], the get_lat_long business rule is triggered. This business rule uses the GoogleMapsHelper script include to create sys_geocoding_request records.

The scheduled job Process Geocoding Request must be enabled to process sys_geocoding_request records. Process Geocoding Request uses the Google Map service to populate the latitude and longitude fields of the changed or created Company and Location records.

After the latitude and longitude are populated, Map Pages can be defined that display locations in an interactive map.
Note: Latitude and longitude are expressed as a floating point data type. Previous releases expressed this information as a string. During an upgrade, the system converts the data where possible.