Course Outline
1 Course Introduction 6 GlideForm & GlideUser
2 Development Overview 7 GlideAjax
3 Scripting Locations 8 Exploring Other APIs
4 GlideRecord 9 Becoming A Scripting Master
5 GlideSystem 10 Creating A Custom App
Section Outline
1 GlideRecord Introduction 7 Walking Through CRUD
2 Show Me The Code! 8 GlideRecord Demo
3 Concept: Dot-Walking 9 GlideRecordSecure
4 GlideRecord API Diagram 10 GlideAggregate
5 Common GlideRecord Methods 11 Where Can I Use This?
6 Stages Of A GlideRecord 12 Section Recap
Application Storage
GlideRecord
GlideRecord Introduction
● Most common API
● Server side 1 2
● Used for database operations (CRUD)
● Generates SQL for you
● 2 stages
○ Building a query
○ Process records
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Show Me The Code!
● Print a list of all priority 1 incidents to the screen
Best Practice: Use meaningful variable names with context
GlideRecord By Analogy: Grocery Shopping
1. Go to a grocery store
2. Grab a shopping cart
3. Place groceries in the shopping cart
4. Checkout at cashier
Records
Table GlideRecord Action
General GlideRecord Steps
1 Select a table Incident 1 Build Query Stage
2 Build a filter All priority 1 incidents
3 Query table
2 Process Records Stage 4 Process rows Print number to screen
Note: Any ServiceNow table may be queried with GlideRecord
Concept: Dot-Walking
● Relational database
● Reference fields starting_table reference_field reference_field
Table A Table B Table C
Field 1 Field 1 Field 1
Field 2 Field 2 Field 2
Field 3 Field 3 Field 3
Reference 1 Reference 1
Reference 2
Table D
Field 1
Field 2
Dive Deeper: Checkout this wiki article for a deeper understanding on primary keys
Example: Dot-Walking
● Example:
○ For a specific incident, you would like to find the location of the caller
incident sys_user cmn_location
GlideRecord API Diagram
GlideRecord
addQuery() next()
table
setLimit() getRowCount()
query
addEncodedQuery() hasNext()
addNotNullQuery() deleteRecord()
records
query() newRecord()
fields
orderBy() update()
Note: Ovals represent properties or topics associated with API, while rounded rectangles represent methods
GlideRecord API Mapping
GlideRecord
table
addQuery()
query
query()
records
next()
fields
Common GlideRecord Methods
● query() ● get()
● newRecord() ● orderBy()
● insert() ● orderByDesc()
● update() ● canCreate()
● deleteRecord() ● canWrite()
● addQuery() ● canRead()
● addEncodedQuery() ● canDelete()
● hasNext()
● next()
GlideRecord Stage 1: Building Query
1 Build Query Stage
GlideRecord
table
addQuery()
query
query()
records GlideRecord = { SELECT *
table: ‘incident’, FROM GlideRecord.table
next() query: ‘priority=1’, WHERE GlideRecord.query
...
};
fields
GlideRecord Stage 1: Options To Build Queries
1 Chain Methods 2 Encoded Query
● addQuery() ● addEncodedQuery()
● addOrCondition()
● addNullQuery()
● addNotNullQuery()
● addActiveQuery()
● addInactiveQuery()
GlideRecord Stage 1: Option 1 - Chain Methods 1
1 Chain Methods
Add GlideRecord methods onto the
current GlideRecord object
GlideRecord addQuery() Method 1
● Accepts 2 or 3 arguments
2 Arguments 3 Arguments
field_name field_value field_name operator field_value
Numbers Strings
=
Note: ‘=’ is assumed if there are only 2 arguments
= >= > !=
STARTSWITH DOES NOT CONTAIN
ENDSWITH INSTANCEOF
!= <= < IN
CONTAINS
NOTIN
GlideRecord Stage 1: Option 2 - Encoded Query 1
1 Build Query 2 Copy Query
priority=1^ORpriority=2^category
=hardware^ORcategory=software^sy
s_created_on>javascript:gs.dateG
enerate('2017-01-01','12:00:00')
^short_descriptionISNOTEMPTY
3 Add to addEncodedQuery()
GlideRecord Stage 2: Process Records
2 Process Records Stage
GlideRecord
table
addQuery()
query
query()
records
{
next() number: ‘INC00001’,
short_description: ‘Test’,
...
fields
}
GlideRecord next() Method & Iteration 2
incidentGR Incident 1 Incident 2 Incident 3 Incident 4
sys_id: ‘08ed3ab…’
sys_id: ‘a37ed1...’
sys_id: ‘b90234...’
sys_id: ‘e3294da...’
number: ‘INC000123’
number: ‘INC000124’
number: ‘INC000125’
number: ‘INC000126’
state: ‘open’ state: ‘closed’ state: ‘pending’ state: ‘open’
short_description: ‘Test1’
short_description:
short_description:
‘Test2’ short_description:
‘Test3’ ‘Test4’
Dive Deeper: Checkout this wiki article and this YouTube video if you’d like to learn more on iterators
Accessing A Record’s Fields 2
● Once query() method is executed and stage 2
begins, all fields are just a dot away
● Fields become GlideRecord properties
number
short_description
sys_created_on
incidentGR
caller_id
[field_name]
GlideRecord get() Method 1 2
● Shortcut
● Only grabs 1 record
● Commonly used with record sys_id
GlideRecord
table query
records fields
get()
CRUD GlideRecord Mapping
.insert() .query()* .update() .deleteRecord()
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CRUD - Create
1. Build GlideRecord
2. query()
3. newRecord()
4. Set field values
5. insert()
CRUD - Read
1. Build GlideRecord
2. Add filter conditions (optional)
3. query()
4. next()
5. Print or copy variables
CRUD - Update
1. Build GlideRecord
2. Add filter conditions (optional)
3. query()
4. next()
5. Set field values
6. update()
CRUD - Delete
1. Build GlideRecord
2. Add filter conditions (optional)
3. query()
4. next()
5. deleteRecord()
GlideRecordSecure
● GlideRecordSecure class is inherited from GlideRecord
○ Has all of the same methods
○ Performs ACL checking
● Used to secure Script Includes
● Replaces canWrite(), canRead(), canUpdate(),
canDelete() GlideRecord methods
Dive Deeper: Watch episode 15 of TechNow to learn more about GlideRecordSecure
GlideRecord Versus GlideRecordSecure
vs
GlideAggregate
● Extension of GlideRecord class
● Used when performing aggregate queries (count, min, max, sum, avg)
○ Reports
○ Calculations
● Only works on number fields
Where Can I Use This?
Client-Side Server-Side
GlideForm GlideRecord
GlideUser Client Scripts UI Actions GlideSystem Business Rules UI Actions
GlideAjax GlideDateTime
UI Policies Service Portal Script Includes Scheduled Jobs
Service Portal Web Services Workflows
Note: GlideRecord on the client side is not recommended, thus will not be discussed in this course
Section Recap
● Use GlideRecord when dealing with database operations
● CRUD stands for Create, Read, Update, Delete
● GlideRecord is a server-side API
● There are 2 stages to the GlideRecord API
○ 1) Query building stage
○ 2) Process records stage
● Use the next() method to iterate over the returned records
● Use the get() method to retrieve a specific record using a
unique field, such as the sys_id
Section Recap (cont.)
● Use GlideAggregate over GlideRecord when dealing
with aggregates like counts
● Log records before deleting
● Avoid using GlideRecord in Client Scripts
● Use GlideRecordSecure where appropriate
