With the Rome release, ServiceNow introduced a new version of the well-known "Delegated Development" feature called "App Collaboration". With San Diego that plugin (com.glide.app_collaboration) is activated by default, which you can recognize by the fact that in the two Studio Applications the option "Manage Developers" has been replaced with "Manage Collaborators".
Delegated Development
The "Manage Developer" feature is provided by the free plugin "Delegated Development" (com.glide.delegated_development) and looks like this:
All permissions for users or groups have to be set for each application individually. For a few applications, this administrative effort may still be acceptable. However, when many dozens of applications are developed on one platform, this is no longer manageable.
App Collaboration
For the given reason, ServiceNow has completely redesigned the concept of "Delegated Development" and introduced a new layer with so-called "Collaboration Descriptors".
Collaboration descriptors let you assign, manage, and monitor permissions for each application or across multiple applications consistently. You can assign each collaborator a collaboration descriptor for an application. However, users can have multiple collaboration descriptors at the same time if they belong to groups that have collaboration descriptors assigned to them.
You can use the following two predefined collaboration descriptors that are available with activation, or create a custom one:
- Owner: Owner of the application that manages other collaborators and can delete the application.
- Editor: Standard collaborator which can invite other collaborators.
In case you have installed and activated the "App Collaboration" plugin manually, all existing delegated developers will receive custom collaboration descriptors based on their current permissions and applications.
If you open the "Manage Collaborators" menu for an existing application the first time, you will get the following error message:
However, this is not a problem because you can add an user to the descriptor "Owner" afterwards:
Then you can add new collaborators.
In the first step you have to invite new collaborators. A new Collaboration Task is then created for each invitation (go to App Engine > Collaboration > Collaboration Tasks). Depending on various criteria, an approval request will be sent or an automatic approval is initiated. Responsible for this is the Flow "Collaboration Request Flow" and it is worth to have a look into it, because according to the documentation of ServiceNow it can be adapted to your own needs.
If the invitation has been approved, the already known capabilities can be configured for the respective user.
The following screenshot displays that there is a pending invitation for Alisa Gorka whereas Abel Tuter has been accepted as collaborator and his permissions can be configured now:
Have you noticed that in the new concept, the word "developer" no longer appears? This is due to the fact that ServiceNow, with the propagation of "Citizen Development", mainly wants to reach a target group that has no or only few developer skills. New applications are no longer to be developed in a complex and complicated way, but are to be created in an interdisciplinary collaboration.
Attention:
- This plugin is available only for a fee, and therefore it may only be used together with an "App Engine" license. For all further questions regarding licensing, please get in touch with your ServiceNow representative.
- App Collaboration can only be used with scoped applications, just like with classical delegated development. For global applications, you will not be offered the "Manage Collaborators" option.
