Scripting in ServiceNow Fundamentals

Lab Answer Guide

Module 1 - Scripting Overview ..................................................................................................2
Lab 1.1 Using the Syntax Editor .............................................................................................2
Lab 1.2 Syntax Checking .......................................................................................................2
Lab 1.3 Explore Scripting Resources .....................................................................................2
Module 2 - Client Scripts ............................................................................................................3
Lab 2.1 Two Simple Client Scripts ..........................................................................................3
Lab 2.2 g_form and g_user....................................................................................................4
Lab 2.3 Debugging Client Scripts .........................................................................................4
Module 3 - UI Policies .................................................................................................................6
Lab 3.1 Incident Resolved/Closed UI Policy ........................................................................6
Module 5 - Business Rules ...........................................................................................................5
Lab 5.1 Debugging Business Rules ........................................................................................7
Lab 5.2 Current and Previous ................................................................................................7
Module 8 - Script Includes .........................................................................................................8
Lab 8.1 Classless Script Include - logPropertyValues ..........................................................8
Lab 8.1A Classless Script Include - hasRoleExactly .............................................................8
Lab 8.3 HelloWorld GlideAjax................................................................................................8

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NOTE: Not all answers are provided in this document (for example, answers to questions
asking for your opinion or questions asking you to predict what will happen when
an action is performed).

Module 1 - Scripting Overview

Lab 1.1 Using the Syntax Editor
B10 - QUESTION: Turn off syntax highlighting by selecting the Toggle Syntax Editor
button. What differences do you notice in the Syntax Editor?
ANSWER: The Syntax Editor turns into a basic text field. Standard code editing
features are no longer available.
C7a - QUESTION: Review the description for the 'try' macro. Where did the value come
from?
ANSWER: The Comments field in the Editor Macro record
C7b - QUESTION: Review the description for the 'info' macro. Why is it blank?
ANSWER: The Comments field in its Editor Macro record is empty.

Lab 1.2 Syntax Checking

A4/A5 - QUESTION: Try to save your script. Did it save? How can you tell?
ANSWER: Yes, it saved. The error still appeared in the line number gutter and
remained even after the record was saved.
A9 - QUESTION: Did the Syntax Checker find all the errors in the script? Which error(s)
were not found?
ANSWER:
• Line 3: Missing quotes around each item in the array. Not “required” but
considered best practice.
• Line 3: Extra comma at the end of the array.
• Line 7: Invalid reference to the ‘peripheral’ array. It should read ‘peripherals’ to
match the variable name declared on line 3.

Lab 1.3 Explore Scripting Resources

A4 - QUESTION: Where do you search for existing content in the Community?
ANSWER: Use the Search (magnifying glass) icon at the top-right corner of the page.

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 A6 - QUESTION: How do you ask a question when you cannot find the information
you are looking for in the Community?
ANSWER: Go to the Community main page and select Have a question? or Post
Content > Question to open a form with input fields for question title, forum, topic(s),
version, description, and attachments.
• The Have a question? input field on the main page

• The Post Content > Question link on the main page

• Reply to an existing post to clarify any additional questions you may have on
the topic.
B6 - QUESTION: Review the API release notes article. What information is provided?
ANSWER:
• New scoped classes and additional methods for existing classes
• New global classes and additional methods for existing classes
C7 - QUESTION: What Date/Time format does the GlideDateTime object use?
ANSWER: Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

Module 2 - Client Scripts

Lab 2.1 Two Simple Client Scripts
B1 - QUESTION: Open any Incident record. What happens when the form loads?
ANSWER: The alert message box displays advising “The form has finished loading and
is ready for user input”.
B6 - QUESTION: Does the Lab 2.1 onLoad Alert Client Script execute again? Why or
why not?
ANSWER: Yes, the Client Script’s trigger is set to execute onLoad, therefore the alert
will display every time the form loads.

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 B7 - QUESTION: Create a new Incident. What happens when the form loads for the
new incident?
ANSWER: The Client Script’s trigger is set to execute onLoad, therefore when a new
Incident opens, the form loads.
D6 & D11 - QUESTION: Did the “Resolved” or “Closed” value remain in the State field?
Why or why not?
ANSWER: No, the script set the value of the saveAndClose variable to false. This
prevented the record from saving any changes when the callback function
executed. The script will only save the record if the saveAndClose variable contains
the value true.

Lab 2.2 g_form and g_user

C4 - QUESTION: What happened to the Incident form when you cancelled the
submission? Was the Incident submitted?
ANSWER: Two information messages appear at the top of the form and four field
messages appear below the fields identified in the showFieldMsg() methods used in
the script (category, cmdb_ci, assignment_group, short_description). The JavaScript
confirm() method returns false when “Cancel” is selected. This stops the submission of
the Incident record.
C5 - QUESTION: Modify the confirmation dialog box in the script so the confirmation
message includes the logged in user's first name. Which property do you need to use?
ANSWER: g_user.firstName
C9 - QUESTION: Create a new Priority-1 Incident and Save (not Submit) the record.
Did the confirmation message display? Explain why not.
ANSWER: No, the script checks first to determine if the logged in user creating the
record does NOT have the major_inc_mgr role. If they have the role, the script does
not execute.

Lab 2.3 Debugging Client Scripts

D3 - QUESTION and ANSWER: Review the alert message(s).
• What is the value currently in the ‘incState’ variable? The variable is empty.
• What should it be? 1
• Does the string “LINE 11 EXECUTED” appear as a logged message? No
D4 - QUESTION: What can you conclude regarding the debugging output currently in
the alert?
ANSWER: Something is not right with the incState variable and because the alert
message does not contain the reference to Line 11 executing, the error occurs prior
to this line of code in the script.
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 D5 - QUESTION: At this point, you know something is wrong with the value in the
incState variable. Before leaving the Incident form, double-check the State field
name by right-clicking the field's label. What is the exact spelling of the State field
name?
ANSWER: state
D7 - QUESTION: Review the State field name in the “g_form.getValue('incident');”
statement. Does it match the field name you documented in step 7?
ANSWER: No, the State field’s name is not correct. It should read ‘state’ not ‘incident’.
D15 - QUESTION: Review the InfoMessage at the top of the form. Are you the only
person who can see this script output?
ANSWER: No, everyone can see it.
D16 - QUESTION: Form messages are a good debugging strategy as the results are
instantly presented at the top of the form you are testing on. Would this type of
debugging strategy be best in a development or production instance?
ANSWER: Development, the statement should be removed before moving the script
to a production instance.

Module 3 - UI Policies
Lab 3.1 Incident Resolved/Closed UI Policy
B11 - QUESTION: Does the ‘Reverse if false’ field need to be selected for the ‘Execute
if false’ script to execute?
ANSWER: Yes, it does. The script in the Execute if false field will never execute if the
Reverse if false field is not selected.
B12 - QUESTION: When the ‘Reverse if false’ field is selected and the ‘Execute if false’
field is empty, does the reverse of what is scripted in the ‘Execute if true’ field occur?
ANSWER: No, it does not. If the Reverse if false field is selected and the Execute if
false field is empty, a script will not execute if the UI Policy’s conditions are not met.

Module 5 - Business Rules

Lab 5.1 Debugging Business Rules
B4 - QUESTION: What can you conclude about where breakpoints can be set?
ANSWER: Breakpoints can be set in any scriptable field with the full editor as well the
script field in the debugger itself.
B7 - QUESTION: Script execution is paused at the first breakpoint. How can you tell?
ANSWER: The number in the gutter and the line of code are highlighted in red.
B11 - QUESTION: Explain why the ‘myNum’ variable value is sometimes undefined
and other times contains a value?

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ANSWER: When the Script Debugger pauses at a breakpoint, it stops the script
before the statement it is paused at executes. In this lab, the first breakpoint paused
the script before the value of the myNum variable was set, therefore it is undefined.
Once the script continued to the next breakpoint, the value of the variable was set
to the value current in the State field.
C4b, C5b, C6 - QUESTION: Document the “previous” object's short_description
field value and the “current” object's short_description field value. Why are they
different?
ANSWER: current is an object that stores the current record’s fields and values, and
previous is an object that stores the record’s fields and values before any changes
were made.
D11, D14, & D17 - QUESTION: How can you be sure which script you are currently
debugging?
ANSWER: The Code Pane Header reads Business Rule > Lab 5.1 Business Rule
Debugging for D11 and D17 Script Include > SlaTargetNotification for D14.
E5 - QUESTION: Which undefined function produced an error and why?
ANSWER: The thisFunctionDoesNotExist() function produced an error because it was
scripted inside a try/catch. The error handling scripted in the catch block uses the
global gs.log() method to produce the error output.
E6 - QUESTION: Was a log message produced for the undefined
thisFunctionAlsoDoesNotExist() function?
ANSWER: No

F9 - QUESTION: How do these debugging results compare to the GlideSystem logging

method results?
ANSWER: Script Tracer displayed both errors (lines 8 and 9), while GlideSystem
logging ignored the thisFunctionAlsoDoesNotExist() function since it was not inside a
try/catch statement.

G2 - Select the Session Log tab and search for the execution of the Lab 5.1 Business
Rule Debugging Business Rule by searching for the string ==> Lab 5.1 Business Rule
Debugging. Did your test meet the Business Rule's Condition criteria? How can you
tell?
ANSWER: It did not meet the criteria and the debugging output advises it skipped
the Business Rule because the condition current.state !7 was not satisfied. An excellent
strategy to see if your Business Rule executed.

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Lab 5.2 Current and Previous
C8 - QUESTION: Does the RCA included field need to remain visible on the form?
ANSWER: It does not. The Business Rule will take care of ensuring it is populated
properly. Manual updates are not needed. The field can then be used to query the
table for a list of records with RCA details included.

Module 8 - Script Includes

Lab 8.1 Classless Script Include - logPropertyValues
C7 - QUESTION: After setting this.debug = false, does the new Incident's properties
and values appear in the list of Script Log Statements?
ANSWER: No, the ‘if’ statement in the Script Include first checks to determine if the
value of this.debug is equal to “true”. If yes, the script will write a log message
containing the debugPrefix property and the passed in string. If no, (which it is not at
this point in the lab as this.debug was just updated to equal false), no further script
logic executes.
C8 - QUESTION: Explain why a Script Include to write log data with an "on/off"
parameter is useful for debugging scripts.
ANSWER: It is another quick and easy way to review the values of every field in the
record. The on/off parameter makes activation and de-activation of the creation of
logs very easy and if you save the Script Log Statements module as a favorite,
getting to the log files is quite quick too.
C10 - QUESTION: Do you need to make the logPropertyValues Script Include
inactive? Why or why not? Is there a performance impact if it remains active?
ANSWER: No, you do not need to make the Script Include inactive. It only runs when
called, otherwise it does nothing. If the Business Rule is marked inactive, the Script
Include will not execute.

Lab 8.1A Classless Script Include - hasRoleExactly

C7 - QUESTION: Do you need to make the hasRoleExactly Script Include inactive?
Why or why not? Is there a performance impact if it remains active?
ANSWER: No, you do not need to make the Script Include inactive. It only runs when
called, otherwise it does nothing. If the Business Rule is marked inactive, the Script
Include will not execute.

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Lab 8.3 HelloWorld GlideAjax
B5 - QUESTION: The first parameter in the script is 'sysparm_name', which is a
reserved parameter name. What information does it pass to the Script Include?
ANSWER: sysparm_name passes the name of the method/function you want to use.
B6 - QUESTION: Other than beginning with a “sysparm_” prefix, do additional
parameters have to use reserved parameter names?
ANSWER: They do not. If the parameter name begins with sysparm_ and has no
spaces or special characters, you can give the parameter whatever name you like.
It is considered best practice for parameter names to describe the data being
passed to the Script Include (for example, sysparm_start_date, sysparm_user_name,
sysparm_manufacturer).