Use ServiceNow As a Content Source

ServiceNow is a robust platform for managing tickets, help content, and knowledge articles across various departments. Integrating it with SearchUnify enables users to swiftly access and search through three primary ServiceNow content types: incidents, knowledge articles, and knowledge questions. This integration streamlines information retrieval, allowing users to quickly find relevant insights and resolve issues more efficiently.

PERMISSIONS

SearchUnify provides partial support for ServiceNow permissions. Additional support can be configured upon client request for permissions accessible through ServiceNow (SNow) APIs.

PREREQUISITES

A user must have admin access to crawl incidents, knowledge_base_questions, and knowledge_base_articles in ServiceNow.

Establish a Connection

  1. Navigate to Content Sources and click Add New Content Sources.

  1. Find ServiceNow and click Add.

  2. Under the Authentication tab, enter the required details:

    • Name. Provide a label for the content source.

    • Client URL. Enter the URL of the ServiceNow instance.

    • Language. Select the content language(s) from the dropdown menu.

    • Authentication Method. Select either Basic or OAuth to authenticate the ServiceNow content source.

      If you selected Basic, enter your ServiceNow instance Username and Password.

      Fig. The Authentication screen when Basic authentication is selected.

      If you have selected OAuth, enter your ServiceNow Client ID and Client Secret. Follow the instructions in Prepare Your ServiceNow Instance for OAuth Authentication to learn how to generate a Client ID and a Client Secret.

      Fig. The Authentication screen when OAuth is selected.

  3. Click Connect.

Re-Connect

An admin can edit a Content Source for multiple reasons, including:

  • To reauthenticate

  • To fix a crawl error

  • To change frequency

  • To add or remove an object or a field for crawling

When a Content Source is edited, either a Connect or a Re-Connect button is displayed.

Case 1: When the Connect button is displayed:

When the Connect button is displayed if the Content Source authentication is successful. Along with the button, a message is displayed There are no crawl errors and the Content Source authentication is valid.

Fig. The Connect button is displayed on the Authentication tab.

Case 2: When the Re-connect button is displayed:

The Re-connect button is displayed when the authentication details change or the authentication fails for any reason.

In both cases, the Content Source connection must be authenticated again. To reauthenticate a Content Source, enter the authentication details, and click Re-Connect.

Fig. The Re-Connect button is displayed on the Authentication tab.

Set Up Crawl Frequency

The first crawl is always performed manually after configuring the content source. In the Choose a Date field, select a date to start the crawl; only data created after the selected date will be crawled*. For now, leave the frequency set to its default value, Never, and click Set.

Fig. The Frequency tab when "Frequency" is set to "Never".

Select Content Types and Fields for Indexing

  1. Under the Rules > By Content Type tab, you can see the three objects - incident, knowledge_base_questions, and knowledge_base_articles.

  2. Click to see the list of pre-configured fields.

    NOTE

    You can add or remove content fields as per your choice. However, non-admins should avoid adding or removing fields here.

  3. Switch to the By Projects subtab. Select the knowledge bases you want to index, then click Save

ServiceNow has been successfully added as a content source in SearchUnify. Perform a manual crawl for indexing data in SearchUnify.

Find and Replace

Users on the Q2 '24 release or a later version will notice a new button next to each object on the Rules screen. It resembles a magnifying glass and is labeled "Find and Replace." You can use this feature to find and replace values in a single field or across all fields. The changes will occur in the search index and not in your content source.

Fig. The "Find and Replace" button on the Rules tab in the Actions column.

Find and Replace proves valuable in various scenarios. A common use case is when a product name is altered. Suppose your product name has changed from "SearchUnify" to "SUnify," and you wish for the search result titles to immediately reflect this change.

  1. To make the change, click .

  2. Now, choose either "All" or a specific content source field from the "Enter Name" dropdown. When "All" is selected, any value in the "Find" column is replaced with the corresponding value in the "Replace" column across all content source fields. If a particular field is chosen, the old value is replaced with the new value solely within the selected field.

  3. Enter the value to be replaced in the Find column and the new value in the Replace column. Both columns accept regular expressions.

    Fig. Snapshot of Find and Replace.

  4. Click Add. You will see a warning if you are replacing a value in all fields.

  5. Click Save to apply settings

  6. Run a crawl for the updated values to reflect in the search results.

After the First Crawl

Return to the Content Sources screen and click in Actions. The number of indexed documents is updated after the crawl is complete. You can view crawl progress in in Actions. Documentation on crawl progress is in View Crawl Logs.

Once the first crawl is complete, click in Actions to open the content source for editing, and set a crawl frequency.

  1. In Choose a Date, click to fire up a calendar and select a date. Only the data created or updated after the selected date is indexed.

  2. The following options are available for the Frequency field:

    • When Never is selected, the content source is not crawled until an admin opts for a manual crawl on the Content Sources screen.

    • When Minutes is selected, a new dropdown appears where the admin can choose between three values: 15, 20, and 30. Picking 20 means that the content source crawling starts every 20 minutes.

    • When Hours is selected, a new dropdown is displayed where the admin can choose between eight values between 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24. Selecting 8 initiates content crawling every 8 hours.

    • When Daily is selected, a new dropdown is displayed where the admin can pick a value between 0 and 23. If 15 is selected, the content source crawling starts at 3:00 p.m. (1500 hours) each day.

    • When Day of Week is selected, a new dropdown is displayed where the admin can pick a day of the week. If Tuesday is chosen, then content source crawling starts at 0000 hours on every Tuesday.

    • When Day of Month is selected, a new dropdown appears where the admin can select a value between 1 and 30. If 20 is chosen, then content source crawling starts on the 20th of each month.

      It is recommended to pick a date between the 1st and 28th of the month. If 30 is chosen, then the crawler may throw an error in February. The error will be “Chosen date will not work for this month.”

    • When Yearly is selected, the content source crawling starts at midnight on 1 January each year.

    Fig. The content source crawling starts at 00:00 on each Tuesday.

  3. Click Set to save the crawl frequency settings.

  4. Click Save.

Data Deletion and SU Index

All the data deleted from ServiceNow is removed from the SearchUnify index within 6 days (kNowledge_baSe_queStion and kNowledge_baSe_article) and 7 days (incident ).

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