Tim Woodruff

OK
About Tim Woodruff
Tim is a technical architect, developer, administrator, and trainer with a focus on the ServiceNow ITSM platform. He's been working in IT, software development, and information security, for over a decade. Tim also writes a popular ServiceNow development blog, SN Pro Tips (http://snprotips.com/), where a myriad of articles and free tools can be found. Tim is also the founder of The Precipice Foundation (http://ThePrecipice.foundation/), a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity dedicated to preventing homelessness before it's too late.
When not keeping busy with ITSM technical architecture, writing books and articles, publishing free tools, and working to prevent homelessness, Tim enjoys studying physics, exploring ghost towns, and going on road trips and adventures with his beagle, Seven, and her three-legged sister, Ezri (http://instagram.com/threelegger).
Occasionally, Tim writes author biographies for himself in third-person for Amazon because that seems to be what everyone else is doing. He feels pretty weird about it.
You can find Tim on social media, at -
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sn-timw/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheTimWoodruff
Customers Also Bought Items By
Are you an author?
Author Updates
-
-
Blog postWhether you’ve been getting the dreaded “Repository authentication failed” error message in ServiceNow, or you just want to change which Git repository your ServiceNow application is associated with, this article will help you out. I’ll walk you through the steps to properly set up authentication with Github, and configure (or alter) the Git/Github repository your application is linked with.
“Repository authentication failed, check credentials. Make sure the user has both read and wri4 months ago Read more -
Blog postI recently dealt with a requirement whereby I needed to export only certain columns from records on a given table that match a given query, to a CSV file.
“No problem”, I said; “that’s easy. You just add ‘?CSV’ to the end of the table URL.”
Oh, but it’s never that easy, is it? In this case, there were a few odd stipulations:
The header names need to be specific strings (not the same as their column names in ServiceNow)
Some of the columns need to have calculated5 months ago Read more -
Blog postIntroduction Very often, we’ll find ourselves writing a custom application (whether scoped or global) that requires some “setup” by the admin who installs it. Maybe we’re writing the app to be distributed to multiple ServiceNow customers, each with their own environments and needs; or maybe the app just requires a unique setup process in each instance we promote it to. Whatever the case, I’ve often had cause to want to build my own “guided setup”.
Unfortunately, for some reason, Service1 year ago Read more -
Blog postHere's a Quick Pro-Tip: If you have an application which requires some setup or initial configuration, write ATF tests specifically to validate that the application is set up properly. Add executing the tests as a final step in your application's Guided Setup, and provide some meaningful output that directs the admin to the right place(s) to fix any issues identified by the tests. For example, I'm building an application now which connects to an outside application running on…1 year ago Read more
-
Blog postProcessors in ServiceNow are (were) actually extremely useful things, though they’re surprisingly not very well-known. They give you a URL you can hit (like my_processor.do) and allow you to run a server-side script, then redirect the user to some other page.
Processors are quite useful for situations like generating a record and then redirecting the user to that record just by navigating to one URL, or - by adding some URL parameters (like my_processor.do?some_param=some_value) autom1 year ago Read more -
Blog postIt’s finally here! We’re thrilled to announce that The SN Guys (which runs SN Pro Tips)will be joining forces with our new parent company, Jahnel Group! The Jahnel Group team is a passionate and dedicated group of over 100 software engineers with 20+ years of experience in the industry. Jahnel Group has worked closely with SN Guys for the past three years, and it’s been an exciting adventure to grow together. This new collaboration will allow our team to further deliver in the ServiceNow2 years ago Read more
-
Blog postYou’ve just implemented a new instance, process, catalog item, or workflow.
You put all that time and thought, and effort into making sure that everything that anyone could possibly want to know about, results in an email notification to all potentially-interested parties, so that nothing can possibly slip through the cracks!
And yet… somehow… you notice that users are still, often, not taking action where appropriate. Didn’t they get the email!?
You look through the email log2 years ago Read more -
Blog postIntro When dealing with server-side scripts, the ServiceNow Debugger makes debugging relatively easy (most of the time), as you can actually see into the call stack, and the contents of your server-side variables as you step through your code, line-by-line. When available, that tool is incredibly useful; but unfortunately, it does not work with client scripts.
So, how do you troubleshoot client-side scripts in ServiceNow? Well, since those scripts execute inside the user’s browser, yo2 years ago Read more -
Blog postAs I mention in my recent interview with Robert ‘The Duke’ Fedoruk (9:46), I truly believe that the highest calling of mankind is to learn, and then to teach.
I’m far from the only person in the ServiceNow developer community who feels this way! This fact is obviated by the incredible community of new and seasoned administrators, developers, and architects who are constantly trawling the community and just looking for ways that they can contribute.
That said, if you’ve spent muc2 years ago Read more -
Blog postEvery once in a while, I look into the top search terms people have entered into Google or Bing (lol, who uses Bing?) that take them to this site. I do this to see if there are any common questions that people come here looking for answers to, but which I don’t yet have an article to answer. This month, that search term is “Can Script Includes use current”. This article aims to provide an answer to that question.
The question I interpret the question “Can Script Includes use current” t3 years ago Read more -
Blog postUpdate, Jan 15, 2020: Added a section at the bottom to cover how to handle the application/x-www-form-urlencoded Content-type.
If you’ve ever tried to set up an AWS/SNS integration, you know that ServiceNow fails (rather spectacularly) to handle certain standard REST API request “Content-Types”; most notably, text/plain.
In this article, we’re going to discuss what happens when you you try to integrate with something that’s trying to send a plain-text payload, and how you can m3 years ago Read more -
Blog postThis article was originally written in February 2016, but was last updated on 4/21/19. Attachments in ServiceNow are not as straight-forward as email attachments, and it's not always obvious how to do what you want with them. Recently, I needed to copy some attachments programmatically and otherwise fiddle around with attachments. After finding nothing in the ServiceNow product documentation, and very little through the usual search channels, I figured it was time to write an article3 years ago Read more
-
Blog postHow often have you wanted to do something like look up a record in a table by sys_id, look up a user by user_name, or jump straight to a table in ServiceNow just so you can run a query on it, but found yourself having to wait for the entire table to load, or having to navigate through several pages, waiting for each to load before you can get to the next?
For me, the answer is “multiple times, every single day”.
To that end, I’ve made this video on how to use custom Google Chrom3 years ago Read more -
Blog postI've had this question come up over and over again in my career:
How do we populate variables on a catalog item or record producer, from the URL?
There are a number of reasons why you might want to do this - for example, imagine you have a generic access request catalog item that lets you choose a group, enter the business justification, and request access to that group.
If you then have a knowledge article about “how to get access to [some system]” that involves filling3 years ago Read more -
Blog postIf you’re an Android user who uses Outlook (and who among us corporate tools is not blighted by that app on a daily basis?) you may have noticed that the Outlook app for Android has recently undergone something of a redesign.
I haven’t decided if I love or hate the new design personally, but however you may feel about it, it seems that they’ve done a bit more than just change the aesthetic.
That’s right, despite the fact that it’s been an IETF standard since July 1998 (see: RFC3 years ago Read more -
Blog postOnce upon a time, there was a global, instantiatable “GlideFilter” object. It was a little ugly and unintuitive, but it technically worked; usually. Nowadays though, the GlideFilter object is a scoped-API object (also available to the global scope) that is not instantiatable, and which has… some problems.
ServiceNow is aware of these problems, but - although they continue to use GlideFilter in their scoped apps (such as for vulnerability grouping rules in the Vulnerability application,3 years ago Read more -
Blog postUpdate Sets are how you track and promote changes to your ServiceNow environment from one instance to another (for example, from Dev to Test, and then from Test to Prod). They’re a great tool for keeping things orderly, but they don’t always tie up into a neat little bow when you need them to - especially ever since the implementation of Application Scope, on which you can see my angry ramblings here. If you work with scoped apps (such as the HR or Vulnerability apps, or a myriad of othe3 years ago Read more
-
Blog postHello, future ServiceNow developer! - I'm Tim Woodruff; founder of The SN Guys. I write most of the articles on this site (SN Pro Tips), and I’m the author of a few books on ServiceNow development, architecture, and administration, including Learning ServiceNow, and The ServiceNow Development Handbook.
I've put together this quick-start guide to learning ServiceNow development, as a sort of map or check-list for going “from zero to credible” when you’re starting out your career as a Ser4 years ago Read more -
Blog postStarting a career within a new IT niche can be risky, but the potential rewards can be outstanding.
Maybe you're just starting out your career in IT Service Management development/administration/architecture, or maybe you're a veteran of the industry and you're looking for a change. Either way, in this article, we're going to discuss ServiceNow, ITSM, ITBM, and ITOM as a career-path. We’re going to discuss:
Some things you should consider when deciding on your career path
4 years ago Read more -
Blog postI often get questions that go something like this:
When a user submits a Catalog Item, I need to be able to do some validation that requires client-server communication (either a GlideAjax script, a GlideRecord query, or a getRefRecord() query). How can I make this happen?
As anyone who’s read my article on requiring attachments in the Service Portal knows, ServiceNow has been (for better or worse) making some changes to how you are supposed to, and able to, do certain things4 years ago Read more
Titles By Tim Woodruff
This is also its greatest risk.
To realize the full benefits of ServiceNow's customizability without risking the integrity of your instance, requires deep knowledge of the arcane ins-and-outs of the ServiceNow platform, its capabilities, and its corresponding pitfalls and "gotchas".
The goal of the ServiceNow Development Handbook is to make you a better ServiceNow admin, dev, and architect. It does this by showing you not only what best-practice *is*, but *why* certain practices are considered "best" and why others are pitfalls. These lessons would otherwise be learned the hard way or not at all.
By reading and understanding the concepts in this compendium of ServiceNow knowledge, you will be able to build more robust, resilient, and powerful ServiceNow solutions.
WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR
This book will be useful for ServiceNow admins, developers, and architects. It is not a ServiceNow training course meant to take you from start to finish. It's aimed at ServiceNow administrators, developers, and architects, who have at least a little experience, whether that's on-the-job, or just building your portfolio. It's also extremely helpful to have a basic understanding of JavaScript before getting started with this book.
If you're just starting your ServiceNow career, consider reading my other book, "Learning ServiceNow, Second Edition" (ISBN-13: 978-1788837040).
You can find Learning ServiceNow at http://lsn.snc.guru/
Description
The goal of this book is to explore the pitfalls, standards, and best-practices that most ServiceNow ITSM developers either learn the hard way, or never learn at all. These are the things that every developer wishes they knew from day one, and which - once learned - will make you a more effective and efficient developer. This book will teach you how to avoid pitfalls, and empower you with knowledge that will allow you to build much more robust, resilient, powerful, and efficient solutions within the platform. Having an understanding of why a given standard is what it is (and why it’s important), will not only make you more likely to adhere to it, but will empower you to apply the logic and underlying concepts behind those standards to other areas of the platform and development. It'll make you a more effective administrator, developer, or architect. That’s that spirit in which this compendium was written: Teaching and explaining, not simply listing out a series of arcane edicts under the heading of “best-practice”. The ServiceNow Development handbook will serve to boost your knowledge, your confidence, and your career.
What to expect
The ServiceNow Development Handbook covers a wide range of topics including (but not limited to):
- Coding guidelines
- Writing DRY code
- Pass-by-reference
- Controlling fields in the client
- AJAX and asynchronicity
- When not to code
- Debugging
- Naming conventions
- List and form design
- Testing
- Execution paths
- Impersonation
- Handling Errors
- Code documentation
- Update sets
- Batching and merging
- What is (and isn't) tracked
- Tracking scoped records
- Performance
- Query efficiency
- Nested queries
- Service portal
- Widgets and option schema
- Portal coding best-practices
- Security
Administrators and developers at any level of their ITSM development career would find the information in this handbook useful. However, this is a condensed “developer guide”, and not a complete ServiceNow training course. If you are just starting out your ServiceNow development career, consider reading the more beginner-friendly "Learning ServiceNow, Second Edition" (ISBN-13: 978-1788837040) first. You can find Learning ServiceNow at http://lsn.snc.guru/ Note: This book's contents may be updated slightly over time, as new information becomes available. This is to prevent you from having to buy a new edition of this book, every time ServiceNow changes something about how their platform works, or for every minor addition to the contents. You can find details on the changes at http://changelog.snc.guru/.
Master the management of IT Service using full potential of ServiceNow.
About This Book
- Leverage ServiceNow's capabilities to achieve improved service management and excellent results in your IT operations by following step-by-step, practical instructions
- Build core administration, management, and maintenance skills with IT service management and IT operations management
- Improve your workflow efficiency by designing and creating responsive and automated workflows
Who This Book Is For
This course is for IT professionals, ServiceNow administrators, and developers who would like to gain greater control of ServiceNow and its architecture to design and create automated workflows. You should be familiar with JavaScript and basic computing technologies, but you can be new to ServiceNow.
What You Will Learn
- Acquire and configure your own free personal developer instance of ServiceNow
- Read (and write!) clear, effective requirements for ServiceNow development
- Avoid common pitfalls and missteps that could seriously impact future progress and upgradeability
- Use the ServiceNow plugins to manage development
- Build and publish custom applications for service management
- Write efficient and effective client-side JavaScript
- Find out how to authenticate and secure Web Services
- Integrate and exchange data with people and systems
- Create and secure your systems with proper access control
In Detail
ServiceNow is a SaaS application that provides workflow form-based applications. It is an ideal platform for creating enterprise-level applications, giving requesters and fulfillers improved visibility and access to a process. ServiceNow-based applications often replace email by providing a better way to get work done.
This course will show you how to put important ServiceNow features to work in the real world. We will introduce key concepts and examples on managing and automating IT services, and help you build a solid foundation towards this new approach. You will then learn more about the power of tasks, events, and notifications. We'll then focus on using web services and other mechanisms to integrate ServiceNow with other systems.
Further on, you'll learn how to secure applications and data, and understand how ServiceNow performs logging and error reporting. At the end of this course, you will acquire immediately applicable skills to rectify everyday problems encountered on the ServiceNow platform.
The course provides you with highly practical content explaining ServiceNow from the following Packt books:
- Learning ServiceNow
- ServiceNow Cookbook
- Mastering ServiceNow, Second Edition
Style and approach
This pragmatic guide follows problem-solution based approach to help you configure the ServiceNow and eliminate the challenges faced when implementing and using ServiceNow. It enables you to configure and manage ServiceNow, and learn the fundamentals of the ServiceNow platform.
IT Service management at your fingertips
Key Features
- Leverage ServiceNow's capabilities to achieve improved service management and excellent results in your IT operations by following step-by-step, practical instructions
- Build core administration, management, and maintenance skills with IT service management and IT operations management
- Improve your workflow efficiency by designing and creating responsive and automated workflows
Book Description
This book shows you how to put important ServiceNow features to work in the real world. We will introduce key concepts and examples on managing and automating IT services, and help you build a solid foundation towards this new approach. We'll demonstrate how to effectively implement various system configurations within ServiceNow. We'll show you how to configure and administer your instance, and then move on to building strong user interfaces and creating powerful workflows.
We also cover other key elements of ServiceNow, such as alerts and notifications, security, reporting, and custom development. You will learn how to improve your business' workflow, processes, and operational efficiency. By the end of this book, you will be able to successfully configure and manage ServiceNow within your organization.
What you will learn
- Acquire and configure your own free personal developer instance of ServiceNow
- Read (and write!) clear, effective requirements for ServiceNow development
- Avoid common pitfalls and missteps that could seriously impact future progress and upgradeability
- Know how to troubleshoot when things go wrong using debugging tools
- Discover developer "tips and tricks"
- Pick up great tips from top ServiceNow development and administration professionals, and find out what they wish they knew when they were starting out
Table of Contents
- The Interface
- Lists and Forms
- UI Customization
- Understanding Data and Relationships
- Tasks and Workflows
- UI and Data Policies
- User Administration and Security
- Introduction to Scripting
- The Server-side Glide API
- The Client-side Glide API
- Server-side Scripting
- Client-side Scripting
- Debugging
- Pro Tips