ServiceNow Webhook Bi-Directional Workflows Simplified

Every organization needs a single window of data visibility to streamline Cross-Communications and Business Operations across Teams. Now, more and more Corporate Executives are concentrating their efforts on increasing Operational Efficiency and Streamlining Procedures.

ServiceNow has evolved as a renowned Application from a simple Ticketing Platform to a comprehensive IT Automation and Infrastructure Platform with features like Security, Customer Support, HR, and ServiceNow Webhook Integration with common Business Applications. Just like a holistic fully functional organism, ServiceNow makes a Business stronger, more integrated, and poised for growth. 

In this article, we expand on the strong integration capabilities offered by ServiceNow Webhooks with steps on how to achieve Unidirectional as well as Bidirectional Webhook Service Flow with another popular Work Management Tool, Jira.

Table of Contents

• What is ServiceNow?
• Business Benefits of Using ServiceNow
  • Lightning-Quick Processing and a Stable Architecture
  • Smooth Service Management
  • An Enterprise-Wide Solution
• ServiceNow Webhook Integration: Understanding the Need for Bi-Directional Workflows
• ServiceNow Webhook Integration: Configuring ServiceNow Jira Bi-Directional Flow
  • ServiceNow Webhook Integration: Setting Up Unidirectional ServiceNow Jira Flow
  • ServiceNow Webhook Integration: Setting Up Bi-Directional ServiceNow Jira Flow
• Conclusion

What is ServiceNow?

Business Organisations around the globe are continuously on the lookout for Operational Efficiency and Employee Productivity. Finding the right Communication Channels to allow different Team Members to exchange information across departments appears to be a hurdle that many confront.

ServiceNow is a tool that fills in these gaps. It’s a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) Platform that aids in the Automation of IT Business Management. It’s based on ITIL Rules, which give Service-Oriented tasks, Activities, and Processes with the ability to use Machine Learning and use intelligent Data and Workflows competently to help Businesses become more efficient and scalable.

ServiceNow enables Legacy Business Applications to be seamlessly integrated into Digital Workflows, making work easier and more efficient for people and Business Operations. Using ServiceNow scripting and existing capabilities, Businesses can create their Custom Applications and Modules to help meet their specific needs.

Additionally, Businesses also face growing requirements to integrate numerous Business Applications. ServiceNow helps resolve this with ServiceNow Webhook Service which enables Data integration with multiple Applications. Webhook Services transmit changes quickly and automatically, with no need for human participation. It assists Business Teams in saving time and deploying many integrations by using a basic Webhooks URL facility.

Business Benefits of Using ServiceNow

Lightning-Quick Processing and a Stable Architecture

With a strong architecture that is ready and deployable right out of the box, ServiceNow helps Organisations function quicker and better. ServiceNow is designed to handle day-to-day Business Operations while providing Employees and Customers with access to the same Platform. The design of the ServiceNow Platform creates a single source of truth.

In addition, ServiceNow has an Open Architecture that allows Businesses to integrate various systems and processes. Intelligent workflows from ServiceNow take the role of unstructured work patterns and corporate processes and help drive efficiency.

Smooth Service Management

By replacing several management systems with a single system, ServiceNow can swiftly assist Businesses with Field Service Management, Financial Service Management, HR Service Management, and IT Service Management. ServiceNow assists with the consolidation and automation of Service Management Processes, resulting in increased Business efficiency and cost savings.

An Enterprise-Wide Solution

Enterprises require big workloads, and ServiceNow is well-equipped to meet all of them. There are no ties to local resources and with ServiceNow’s simple access and Cloud-based service, and it can grow across many networks.

ServiceNow provides a high-performance Cloud Service that is always available, with an average aggregate availability of 99.8%. This guarantees that neither your Customers nor your Employees are disappointed.

ServiceNow Webhook Integration: Understanding the Need for Bi-Directional Workflows

It’s a hard-pressed situation. Oftentimes users find themselves struggling to manually move data from one application to another and to make matters worse, an Organization’s applications aren’t limited to just four or five. A ponderous circumstance like this has created a necessity for integrations that can send data across applications automatically when an event is fired in the Source System.

This is what Webhooks do. In other words, Webhooks work as “reverse APIs”, enabling Applications to transfer Real-time Notifications and Data Updates without the need to develop a full-scale API. Compared to APIs, Webhooks are easier to set up and less resource extensive. Users can implement a Webhook by simply setting up a single POST request on the sending end, establishing a URL on the receiving end to accept the data, then performing some action on the data once it is received.

ServiceNow Application offers a bi-directional functionality of Webhook Integration, that allows two-way communication between ServiceNow and the other Connected Application. This allows the ServiceNow Application to conduct CRUD operations on the other Application, and the other Application to perform CRUD operations in ServiceNow as well.

Let’s have a look at how users can configure a Bi-directional Webhook Service Integration between ServiceNow and Jira, a powerful work management tool for all kinds of use cases. 

ServiceNow Webhook Integration: Configuring ServiceNow Jira Bi-Directional Flow

Before configuring ServiceNow Jira Bi-Directional Flow, let’s understand how to set up a Unidirectional Flow from ServiceNow to Jira.

ServiceNow Webhook Integration: Setting Up Unidirectional ServiceNow Jira Flow

First, we need to install Jira Spoke. To install Jira Spoke and configure its flow, perform the following steps:

Step 1: Navigate to All Available Applications > All in your ServiceNow Dashboard.

Step 2: Search for Jira Spoke and install Jira Spoke Platform for your ServiceNow Platform. Once installed the Jira Spoke will be listed as Installed Application under the same All Applications tab. 

Step 3: To connect with the Jira Platform, we’ll also need to specify credentials. Head for Connections & Credentials > Credentials and click on the Jira entry created from the Jira Spoke. 

Here you’ll be able to enter your username, and password which will be your API Token. 

Note: To get your Jira API Token, go to your Atlassian account and look for a section called API Token under the Security section. You may establish a new API Token by clicking the link- “Create and manage API tokens”, and you can easily revoke it later if required.

Click on the Update button on the top right corner of the screen to save your Jira Instance. 

Step 4: Now we’ll proceed with creating a ServiceNow Jira connection. Head to Connections & Credentials > Connections and create a new connection by clicking on the New button on the top of your screen. Since we are deploying Webhook Service, we’ll be creating an HTTP(s) connection. 

Fill in the following details under these fields:

1. Name: Name of your HTTP(s) connection.
2. Credential: Credentials to connect to the other Application. In our case, since we are using Jira, we’ll be selecting Jira Credentials.
3. Credential alias: This is a field referencing the Spoke. 
4. Connection URL: Hostname URL which is available from the Application’s Dashboard. Eg- https://test-snow.atlassian.net/

Click the Submit button once done. 

Step 5: To put this ServiceNow Jira connection to use, we’ll proceed to Flow Designer > New Flow. Here, you can fill in a name and description for this connection. 

We’ll also be specifying the trigger and actions associated with ServiceNow Webhook Connection. For example, you can select a trigger as “When a New Record is created in the Incident table in ServiceNow” then the respective actions to be followed are “Create a New Issue in Jira” and “Update Incident Record in ServiceNow” as displayed below.

After configuring the Unidirectional Flow from ServiceNow to Jira, we’ll move on to the Bi-Directional Flow, which uses Webhook Service to establish communication between ServiceNow and Jira Application.

ServiceNow Webhook Integration: Setting Up Bi-Directional ServiceNow Jira Flow

To set up a Bi-Directional ServiceNow Webhook Jira Flow, perform the following steps:

Note: Users will be required to have an admin role to perform the listed steps successfully.

Step 1: Navigate to Jira Webhooks > Jira Webhook Registries. Click New to create a new Jira Webhook Registry form.

Step 2: Complete the fields as specified below:

• Name: Unique name to identify the record. For example, Jira Webhook.
• Description: Description of the record.
• Token: Authentication token. This token is encrypted and embedded in the URL. For example, Jira token.
• Path: Jira Webhook path. By default, this path is set to api/sn_jira_spoke/jira_webhook_callbacks/wh_entry.

Hit Submit when you’ve filled in the details.

Step 3: Once the Jira Webhook Registry is created successfully, go back and generate a Callback URL by clicking on the Callback URL button. 

Save this Callback URL in a safe folder or document since it will be needed to authenticate from your Jira account.

Step 4: Head to your Jira Account Settings > General Configuration > Webhooks. Create a new Webhook Service by clicking on the +Create a Webhook button on the top right corner of your Jira settings screen.

Paste the same Callback URL Instance you acquired from the previous step and checkboxes beside Issue related events, User related events, Jira configuration-related events that you would like to enable.

Scroll down to the button of the page and click Create to save the current Jira Webhook Registry.

Step 5: For the current configuration, the next step is to construct a Subflow. We’ll be utilizing a copy of the Jira Spoke Plugin’s default Subflow labeled “Process Jira Webhooks.”

To make a copy, go to the Process Jira Webhooks Subflow and select Copy Subflow under the Settings menu (accessible from the kebab menu).

Step 6: At present, ServiceNow sends us an issue when it calls the Webhook Service. We’ll start by implementing a new action that searches for an occurrence that matches the one supplied via ServiceNow Webhook. So, in Table “Incident,” we’ll choose Action “Lookup Record” with the requirement that our “Correlation ID” matches the “Issue ID.”

Next, we’ll edit the incident by selecting “Update Record” as the Action and updating the Incident Record returned in the previous step. You can also use +Create Field Value > Description to add a Description (String).

Hit Done when finished and click Save on the top of the page.

Step 7: Publish the current Subflow and put it into action by clicking on the Publish button adjacent to the Save button. At this point, we’ll tell our Webhook Service which handler to call. 

Navigate to Jira Webhook Routing Policies and update the default decision policy by adding our new Subflow.

Change the scope from Global to Jira Spoke and customize the fields to meet your needs. When you’re finished, click Update.

Finally, we’ll indicate which user the Jira Webhook Service will contact. In your Subflow Properties, change the “Run As” field to System User. By clicking the Update button, you’ll be able to complete it.

The Bi-Directional ServiceNow Webhook Jira Flow is now configured and ready for use.

Conclusion

ServiceNow eliminates the information gap which inevitably comes up as we use more and more Business Applications. It uses a Unified Singular System to manage your IT and Business Processes with regular Updates, best-in-class Performance Analytics, Customization and Upgrade Help. 

In this day and age, businesses must be adaptive, provide holistic services, and offer engaging Customer Experiences, all of which may be accomplished via ServiceNow Webhook Services or Data Integration Services from other Platforms like Hevo Data.

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Tell us about your experience of learning ServiceNow Webhook Services in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you.