What is IntegrationHub and how do I use it?

[Pradeep Sharma]

IntegrationHub gives developers, admins and business process owners a centralized place to build and manage integrations. “Content” in IntegrationHub is made up of a series of “Spokes”. Spokes are self-contained scoped applications that contain all of the artifacts that make up an integration, primarily “Actions”.

IntegrationHub offers several pre-built sets of integration actions to interact with common third-party applications. These sets of integration actions are referred to as spokes. IT developers can extend OOTB spokes or create brand new custom spokes for their organization’s unique business needs, and package them as no code building blocks for re-use by anyone. An example of integrating with a third-party application would be the ability to post a message with incident details in a Slack channel when a high priority incident is created.

IntegrationHub Packages:

IntegrationHub offers three primary packages: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise. Each package offers increasing levels of value to the customer. Each package is based on two elements: pre-built spokes/protocols/ features; and transactions.

What does IntegrationHub include:

• Extensions to Flow Designer - Flow Designer is a Now Platform® feature for automating processes in a single design environment. Flow Designer lets process owners use natural language to automate approvals, tasks, notifications, and record operations without coding. You can navigate to it by searching for "Flow Designer" and then clicking on the Flow Designer link. Flow Designer will open in a new browser tab where you can edit existing flows or create your own.  For example, the following graphic demonstrates how to view the Benchmark Recommendation Evaluator Flow.

• Flow Designer Default Installation (without IntegrationHub) - IH requires a subscription for production instances (except starter package for 1M transactions) but can be activated on non-production and personal developer instances to build and test integrations without a subscription by activating a plug-in. * Clicking on the Add Actions button in Flow Designer allows you to see if IntegrationHub is installed or not. In the image below, you see an example of Flow Designer without IntegrationHub installed. 

Note: Please note that starter package is free to customers for 1M transactions. If they exceed this limit, they need to buy additional transaction packs or buy IH pro/enterprise package. 

• Flow Designer with IntegrationHub Installed - IntegrationHub is a set of extensions to Flow Designer to facilitate integrations with third-party APIs. Once IntegrationHub is installed and activated, additional options become available. These integrations are pre-built actions for common third-party applications that are bundled together in packages called "spokes". An example of integrating with a third-party application would be the ability to post a message with incident details in a Slack channel when a high priority incident is created. In the image below, note the addition of ServiceNow eBonding Example, Slack, and Slack WebHooks spokes.

What are the benefits of using IntegrationHub:

• Consolidates multiple Now Platform automation capabilities into a single environment so process owners and developers can build and visualize business processes and integrations from a single interface.
• Extend IH and Flow Designer access to process owners to scale the use of the platform. These tools offer no code, natural-language descriptions of functionality, so you don’t need to be a developer to write complex business rules. 
• Extends Flow Designer content to integrate business processes with external systems.
• Promotes business process automation by enabling subject matter experts to develop and share spokes with flow designers.
• Provides natural-language-descriptions of integration logic to help non-technical users understand triggers, actions, inputs, and outputs.

What are the some use cases of using IntegrationHub 

• Connect to home-grown applications
• Post news to Slack, Microsoft teams, or other communications or social media platforms
• Automate an onboarding process to update user information in a HR system, create a user in the Active Directory, and assign training to a new employee
• Synchronize data between third-party platforms (e.g., Jira bi-directional support)
• Consume information from and interact with an internet of things (IoT) device

How do I start using IntegrationHub: 

IH requires a subscription for production instances but can be activated on non-production and personal developer instances to build and test integrations without a subscription by activating a plug-in. The ServiceNow IntegrationHub Installer plugin activates a suite of plugins and takes about ten minutes to activate. You will receive an email from the Developer Portal when your plugin activation is complete. Once the plugin is activated, you can follow through the section to build your first spoke.

Build your first spoke:

This lab guide will walk you through the process of creating your first Spoke and will focus on the most common tasks required to build a Spoke from start to finish.

https://developer.servicenow.com/connect.do#!/event/knowledge2020/CCW2510

Best practices: 

Please refer link for Spoke Development Coding Standards & Best Practices.

Conclusion: We have successfully covered overview of IntegrationHub, benefits and how to build spoke along with the best practices. 

Resources: 

General resources

Consider doing the ServiceNow Fundamentals training before diving into any of the other topics.

Main overview of Flow Designer
Developer Blog: Flow Designer What’s new in Quebec
Flow Designer Quebec Release Notes
Flow Designer Paris Release Notes
Flow Designer on Docs
Flow Designer on the Developer Blog
Flow Designer Learning Courses on the Developer Portal

Main overview of IntegrationHub
Developer Blog: IntegrationHub What’s new in Quebec
IntegrationHub Quebec Release Notes
IntegrationHub Paris Release Notes
IntegrationHub on Docs
IntegrationHub on the Developer Blog
IntegrationHub Learning Courses on the Developer Portal

NowLearning resources

Flow Designer Fundamentals
IntegrationHub Fundamentals

Community resources

Flow Designer Community Topic
Flow Designer Community Blogs

Learn Integrations on the Now Platform - Video Series
IntegrationHub Community Topic
IntegrationHub Community Blogs

NowCreate resources

Integrations with External Solutions

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Good luck and happy developing!