Comparison of different UI technologies / approaches

Hendrik6
Kilo Guru

‎08-15-2022 02:02 AM

I am rather new to the platform and I am tasked with developing a new application. I already determined the business requirement and different roles and create a data model based on them. Currently, I am building the application in the Studio. However, I am wondering about the different options to build a user interface. During interface development I would like to use existing components whenever possible, but also have the opportunity to create my own when needed. I am able to write HTML, CSS and JS.

While trying to find out which approach would suit best I found different options:

I am aware, that in some of the options I can even drag and drop the components, whereas using vue or react would require extensive coding.

Hene, I have a few questions:

  • What are the benefits and disadvantages of the different options?
  • How do the different options differ?
  • What is the current best practice to develop user interfaces?
  • 1,740 Views
3 REPLIES 3

Maik Skoddow
Tera Patron
Tera Patron

‎08-15-2022 07:48 AM

Hi Hendrik

unfortunately you are mixing apples with oranges and serious answering your questions would end up in a lot of text.

Therefore only some bullet points:

  • the main user experiences in ServiceNow are
    • Backoffice (with different versions like UI15, UI16 & Next Experience)
    • Service Portals
    • Workspaces
    • Mobile Apps
    • Walk-up
  • AngularJS is a JavaScript framework used by the Backoffice and Service Portals
  • Now Experience UI is the underlying framework for Workspaces and the Next Experience
  • UI Pages are one of the options to render output in the Backoffice

Maik

GV Jan Moser
Giga Guru

‎08-15-2022 11:45 PM

Hi,

Maik already answered, let me just extend his answer.

Basically, you have two options:

- you can use your application either directly on backend (the ugly forms/lists UI)
- or you can create an frontend interface to access your app (your data in app tables).

So, high level, its indeed backend vs. frontend.

Regarding custom components (frontend), you have following options:

- use ServicePortal and build your own components using AngularJS
- use UI Builder and build your own components using UI Framework (React-like OOB framework)
- be little bit punk and use any modern framework like Angular, React, Vue... and deploy the app as a package to use it in UI Page. 

My personal recommendation is:

- learn UI Builder and all the stuff around (incl. Configurable Workspace) & learn UI Framework. SN states it should be the SN future 🙂

I hope it helps.

Jan

Hendrik6
Kilo Guru

‎08-15-2022 11:52 PM

Hello Maik und Jan

Thank you both for taking your time to provide me with some very useful insights. For me as a ServiceNow novice it is at times a bit difficult to grasp the variety in ServiceNow user experiences and user interface technologies.

I noticed that ServiceNow commits itself to support older technologies even though they have already introduced more modern ones. Unfortunately, there is little guidance to understand the benefits of the different options. Hence, I was wondering what is the most recent way to build custom apps. 

Thank you Maik for outlining the different experience and thank you Jan for giving your useful recommendation.

Kind regards,

Hendrik

 

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