How to add a ServiceNow provider
What are Integrations?
Dashboard Server Integrations allow you to create your own providers. Each Integration has it's own form to help you input the information required for different providers.
What is a provider?
Providers contain the connection details to external platforms. A provider only needs to be set up once and can then be used when creating tiles on a dashboard.
There are two types of integrations and therefore providers:
generic Web API providers that can connect to any REST API
dedicated providers that connect to a specific external platform or database (SQL, ServiceNow, Azure Active App Insights, Elasticsearch, etc.)
About ServiceNow providers
A ServiceNow provider is a dedicated provider that contains the connection details to your ServiceNow instance. You need to create a ServiceNow provider before you can use ServiceNow tiles..
Requirements for ServiceNow providers
- The SquaredUp server must have access to your ServiceNow instance on port 443 (HTTPS), since it is the server that connects to ServiceNow, and not your users' browser.
- If you use a proxy server you may need to configure the proxy
(How to configure Dashboard Server to use a proxy) . - A ServiceNow account. It depends on the roles of the ServiceNow account you use for the ServiceNow provider what functions are available in the ServiceNow tile.
How the ServiceNow account affects the
The permissions of the ServiceNow account you are using for your ServiceNow
We recommend using a service account, which means you create an account specifically to use with the ServiceNow
ServiceNow admin account
Give the ServiceNow account the admin role. This will give you full functionality in the
ServiceNow tile.ServiceNow non-admin account with ACLs
If you don't want to use the admin role due to security concerns, give the ServiceNow account only the rest_api_explorer role and use ACLs to give the account more rights.
This will limit the functionality of the ServiceNow tile a little bit (see table below). How to add the necessary ACLs to your ServiceNow accountWhen you are using a non-admin ServiceNow account for a
provider , the functionality of the ServiceNowtile is limited: You'll see an error when you used a scope for your tile
In the View dropdown, only the non-admin default view is available (contains a default set of columns)
Under Filter, default filters are not available, only user-created ones are visible
You can reinstate some of the functionality of non-admin ServiceNow accounts by using ACLs.
ACLs can be added in two ways:
Adding them directly to a user account, meaning you are adding the ACLs to the service account you are using for the ServiceNow
provider .Adding them to a role. We recommend that you create a new role specifically just for adding the ACLs to it. Then you need to assign the role to the service account you are using for the ServiceNow
provider .A benefit of adding the ACLs to a role is that it makes them easier to manage and you can assign the role to different users (in this case, service accounts) if you want to use different service accounts for different ServiceNow
provider s.
You need to add the following ACLs:
sys_filter
sys_dictionary.*
sys_dictionary
sys_db_object
sys_ui_list
sys_db_object.*
sys_ui_list.*
What tile functions do those ACLs add when I use a non-admin ServiceNow account?
The tile can be scoped
Under Filter, all default filters are visible
The ACLs don't affect the views. The View dropdown still shows only the non-admin default view. You need to use an admin Service account to see all the views.
ServiceNow non-admin account without ACLs
If you don't want to create ACLs and use only roles, give the ServiceNow account the roles rest_api_explorer and web_service_admin.
This will limit the functionality of the ServiceNow tile a little bit (see table below).
ServiceNow admin account | ServiceNow non-admin account with ACLs | ServiceNow non-admin account without ACLs | |
Being able to scope the tile | yes | yes (due to the ACLs) | yes (due to the web_service_admin role) |
Being able to see all views in the View dropdown, not only the default view | yes | no | no |
Being able to see all default filters, not only user-made ones | yes | yes (due to the ACLs) | no |
Where can I use ServiceNow providers?
The ServiceNow provider can be used with either the dedicated ServiceNow tile or the Web API tile (when you are using the Web API tile for ServiceNow).
Should you use the Web API tile or the dedicated ServiceNow tile?
The ServiceNow tile offers easier configuration than the Web API tile. You can display incidents and change request with the ServiceNow tile. If you want to use any other data from ServiceNow, you need to use the Web API tile.
The Web API tile can display other data in addition to incidents and change requests, it gives you more flexibility and advanced configurations.
Adding a ServiceNow provider
In Dashboard Server navigate to the right-hand menu ☰ > system > Integrations
Under Integrations click on ServiceNow and type in a suitable name, e.g. ServiceNow.
instance url:
The instance URL should look something like
https://instancename.service-now.com/api/now/
whereinstancename
is your instance. If/api/now/
is not included as part of the instance URL then it will be automatically appended to this URL when the provider is created. If ServiceNow is installed on-premises, this may be something different.Note: This URL is prepended to every request URL.
client id and secret:
To get a client ID and secret from ServiceNow, you need to create an OAuth API endpoint for external clients in your ServiceNow account.
Note: If you already are using ServiceNow in Dashboard Server, you can re-use the client ID and secret you previously created. In this case, you can skip this step.
How to get a client ID and secret from your ServiceNow account- In your ServiceNow account in the Application Navigator (left-hand menu) go to System OAuth and click Application Registry.
- Click Create an OAuth API endpoint for external clients.
- Give it an easy to remember name like
Dashboard Server
and leave the other default settings as they are. - Once you've created the endpoint, open the entry to view the client ID and client secret. Click the padlock next to the client secret to see it.
- Copy client ID and client secret into a notepad for use later.
username and password of the ServiceNow account you want to use.
Prerequisites for the ServiceNow accountHow the ServiceNow account affects the
ServiceNow tile
The permissions of the ServiceNow account you are using for your ServiceNowprovider affect what you can see and do in theServiceNow tile.We recommend using a service account, which means you create an account specifically to use with the ServiceNow
provider . You have different options for setting up this service account:ServiceNow admin account
Give the ServiceNow account the admin role. This will give you full functionality in the
ServiceNow tile.ServiceNow non-admin account with ACLs
If you don't want to use the admin role due to security concerns, give the ServiceNow account only the rest_api_explorer role and use ACLs to give the account more rights.
This will limit the functionality of the ServiceNow tile a little bit (see table below). How to add the necessary ACLs to your ServiceNow accountWhen you are using a non-admin ServiceNow account for a
provider , the functionality of the ServiceNowtile is limited: You'll see an error when you used a scope for your tile
In the View dropdown, only the non-admin default view is available (contains a default set of columns)
Under Filter, default filters are not available, only user-created ones are visible
You can reinstate some of the functionality of non-admin ServiceNow accounts by using ACLs.
ACLs can be added in two ways:
Adding them directly to a user account, meaning you are adding the ACLs to the service account you are using for the ServiceNow
provider .Adding them to a role. We recommend that you create a new role specifically just for adding the ACLs to it. Then you need to assign the role to the service account you are using for the ServiceNow
provider .A benefit of adding the ACLs to a role is that it makes them easier to manage and you can assign the role to different users (in this case, service accounts) if you want to use different service accounts for different ServiceNow
provider s.
You need to add the following ACLs:
sys_filter
sys_dictionary.*
sys_dictionary
sys_db_object
sys_ui_list
sys_db_object.*
sys_ui_list.*
What tile functions do those ACLs add when I use a non-admin ServiceNow account?
The tile can be scoped
Under Filter, all default filters are visible
The ACLs don't affect the views. The View dropdown still shows only the non-admin default view. You need to use an admin Service account to see all the views.
ServiceNow non-admin account without ACLs
If you don't want to create ACLs and use only roles, give the ServiceNow account the roles rest_api_explorer and web_service_admin.
This will limit the functionality of the ServiceNow tile a little bit (see table below).
ServiceNow admin account ServiceNow non-admin account with ACLs
ServiceNow non-admin account without ACLs Being able to scope the tile yes
yes (due to the ACLs) yes (due to the web_service_admin role) Being able to see all views in the View dropdown, not only the default view yes no no Being able to see all default filters, not only user-made ones yes yes (due to the ACLs) no Click Save.
If the configuration is correct you will see a green tick.
If the provider is not authorized it could be that some of the provider configuration is incorrect (for example the username, password, secret etc), or if you use a proxy it could be that the proxy is not configured. See How to configure Dashboard Server to use a proxy.