This fourth article in our series of Service Bridge best practices will walk through the installation of the Service Bridge consumer application – Service Bridge for Consumers.
For an introduction to Service Bridge and instruction on installing and configuring Service Bridge on a provider instance, see Installing and Configuring Service Bridge for Providers.
Installing Service Bridge for Consumers
The Service Bridge for Consumers application enables service consumers to connect and track service requests with their providers and partners who use ServiceNow, and should be installed on the consumer’s instance.
The first step in installing Service Bridge for Consumers is to verify that you have a valid entitlement to the application. See Get entitlement for a ServiceNow product or application for help with this task.
The procedure for installing Service Bridge for Consumers is as follows:
- Navigate to All > System Applications > All Available Applications > All
- Find the Service Bridge for Consumers application (sn_sb_con) by using the filter criteria and search bar.
- Search for the application by its name or ID. If the application is not found, request it from the ServiceNow Store.
- Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store.
- In the application installation dialog, review the application dependencies. If any prerequisite plugins or applications are not yet installed, they must be installed before Service Bridge for Consumers is installed.
- Select Load demo data if so desired. Demo data contains the sample records that describe the application features for common use cases.
- Click Install.
Depending on your ServiceNow Platform version and Service Bridge application version, Service Bridge may require platform updates to function. A global script include is necessary in order to receive those updates and use Service Bridge for Consumers (see KB1225292). If you are running the Xanadu Patch 4 or higher ServiceNow platform release and are on Service Bridge application version 2.0.55 or higher this step is not required.
Here are the steps to install the global script include:
- If you running Service Bridge v1.x.x download sb_v1.x.x.xml to your computer; if running Service Bridge v2.2.x download sb_v2.2.x.xml to your computer; and if you are running other versions of Service Bridge v2.x.x download sb_v2.x.x.xml to your computer.
- Log in to the instance as an admin.
- Navigate to System Definition > Scripts - Background.
- Run the following script to delete the old sb include.
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var sbcUtil = new GlideRecord('sys_script_include'); if(sbcUtil.get('e1034c0cc3511110331b4b46dd40dd0a')) { sbcUtil.sys_policy = ''; sbcUtil.update(); sbcUtil.deleteRecord(); } |
- Navigate to System Definition > Script Includes.
- From any of the list header menus select Import XML.
- Select the file you downloaded and click Upload.
- Navigate to System Definition > Script Includes.
- Verify that sb is in the list.
You now have the script include and can proceed with using Service Bridge for Consumers.
Once the Service Bridge for Consumers application has been installed, a consumer can work with their provider to establish a Service Bridge connection. See the previous community article Registering and Onboarding a New Service Bridge Consumer Connection for guidance.
Continue below to walk through setting up Service Bridge for Consumers on the consumer instance.
Add Service Bridge roles for consumers
Set up the users with the roles that will be required to configure and manage Service Bridge for Consumers. Here are the common Service Bridge personas and the roles that enable their completion of common Service Bridge tasks:
|
Persona |
Skills |
Tasks |
Roles |
|
Administrator |
· Is a certified ServiceNow system administrator |
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· admin · sn_sb.admin · sn_transport.admin |
|
Service Bridge Requestor |
· Is an IT administrator |
|
· itil · sn_sb.requestor |
|
Consumer Requestor |
· End user |
|
· sn_sb.requestor |
In the Service Bridge for Consumers application, best practice is to assign roles by group rather than by the individual user so that work is minimized when a user’s job changes. Groups are collections of users who need the same permissions and are a shortcut way of assigning roles to users.
Role required to assign roles: admin
- Navigate to All > User Administration > Groups.
- Click the group that you want to assign the role to.
- In the Roles related list, click Edit.
- Add the desired roles to the group.
- Click Save.
Register with a provider
See the previous community article Registering and Onboarding a New Service Bridge Consumer Connection for guidance on registration and onboarding.
Activate entitlements
Using consumer criteria associated with record producers and remote tasks, Service Bridge automatically generates entitlement records that are replicated to eligible consumer instances. When a consumer registers with a provider, they will see the services that have been entitled to them as a related list under the provider connection.
To see the consumer entitlements after Service Bridge registration navigate to All > Service Bridge Consumer > Provider Connections and click on the connection Number in the list that corresponds to the new registration.
Those entitlements preceded by a ⚠️ symbol must be reviewed and activated before they can be used.
Note that the catalog personas are automatically entitled based on the remote record producer entitlements with which they are associated. They do not require activation. Remote catalog items/record producers and remote task definitions do, however, need to be activated.
Activating remote record producers
To activate a remote record producer:
- Click on the Entity Reference of the record producer in the Entitlements related list to open the record.
- Review the record producer details to ensure it meets expectations
- The Variables, Catalog UI Policies, Available For and Not Available For related lists are configured by Service Bridge and should not be changed.
- The Categories and Catalog related lists can be updated as required
- Categories defines what Service Portal category the record producer will appear in. By default, the Category is set to the name of the Service Bridge provider.
- Catalog defines what Service Portal catalog the record producer will appear in. By default, the Catalog is set to “Service Catalog”.
- Once the review is complete click on Activate and the record producer will be published to the consumer catalog
Activating remote task definitions
To activate a remote task definition:
- If viewing the provider connection, click on the Entity Reference of the remote task definition in the Entitlements related list to open the record. Otherwise navigate to All > Service Bridge Consumer > Remote Tasks and click the remote task definition that you want to activate.
- On the remote task definition form, review the Simple Trigger section on the form.
When a simple trigger is set that matches a task record update, a remote task is automatically created for the task record. - On the Inbound fields related tab, review the variables data.
The provider defines these inbound fields. When a remote task is created, your provider receives the remote task data through these inbound fields. Field label, Sync when, and Target field fields may be modified on the consumer instance. - On the Outbound fields related tab, review the variables data.
The provider defines these outbound fields. When the provider responds to the remote task, remote task data is received through these outbound fields. The consumer can only modify the Source field on these records. - On the Remote task variables related tab, review the variables data.
The remote task variables are created from the inbound fields to be displayed on the remote tasks form. - Click Activate.
- A pop-up window enables verification of the inbound and outbound mappings. Verify the mappings and click OK.
Add authorized users
By using the Authorized Users feature, specific users can be identified to manage the customer requests for the provider's services. Personas that have been defined by the provider can then be assigned to the authorized users so that access to remote catalog items can be controlled.
When the consumer registers with a Service Bridge provider, the active contacts on the customer's account in the provider's ServiceNow instance are automatically added to the Authorized Users table and synced with the customer's ServiceNow instance. However, these pre-configured authorized users must be activated by the consumer.
Activating an authorized user
To activate an existing authorized user:
- Navigate to All > Service Bridge Consumer > Provider Connections.
- On the Provider Connections page, click the Number link to open a Provider Connection record.
- Click on the Authorized Users related list tab
- Click on the Active field for the user to open the authorized user record.
- Click on the lock icon beside Persona and choose the required persona(s) for the user.
- Click on Activate.
Creating a new authorized user
To create a new authorized user:
- Navigate to All > Service Bridge Consumer > Provider Connections.
- On the Provider Connections page, click the Number link to open a Provider Connection record.
- Select the Catalog Personas related list tab and verify the entitled personas from the provider.
- On the Authorized Users related list tab, click New.
- Fill in the forms on the field as required.
Field
Description
Consumer user
Name of the user. You can select the name from the user's list.
Provider connection
Name of the service provider. This field is auto filled.
Persona
Persona(s) that you want to add to the user.
- Click Submit
After submission the new authorized user is synched to the provider’s instance for approval. Once approved the user will be visible in the Authorized Users list.
Create transforms
In most cases providers and their consumers will have different business processes and will track and manage those processes in different ways. The Service Bridge transform framework provides a method for providers and consumers to transform data as required by their own process as it is passed back and forth over Service Bridge.
While using Service Bridge providers and consumers exchange remote task data through tables, forms, and fields. The transform framework capability allows data fields that have different value choices on the provider and customer’s instances to be translated/transformed as data is passed. 
There are four types of transforms that are possible with the Service Bridge transform framework:
- Simple transforms are used when the field to be transformed has a known and stable choice list on each instance. A simple transform example: Customer State = “In Progress” in the provider instance and it is equivalent to Customer State = “Open” in the consumer instance. A simple transform in Service Bridge will translate “In Progress” from the provider instance to “Open” on the consumer instance and vice versa.
- Advanced script-based transforms are used then the transformation between the instances is more complex. Here is an example of an advanced transform script that transforms the passing of CI data:
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output.value=input.value; output.label=input.label;
var ci=new GlideRecord('cmdb_ci');
if(direction=='inbound'){ if(ci.get('correlation_id',input.value)){ output.value=ci.sys_id+"; output.label=ci.getDisplayValue(); } } if (direction=='outbound'){ if(ci.get(input.value)){ if(ci.correlation_id){ output.value=ci.correlation_id+"; output.label=input.label; } } } |
- Inbound transforms: In the case where a field does not exist to receive data from the other instance, a virtual inbound field is used, and a script is required to create the inbound field and transform the incoming data as required. Inbound transforms are run after a remote task is synced to the target instance to transform the data that is received.
- Outbound transforms: In the case where a field does not exist to send data to the other instance, a virtual outbound field is used, and a script is required to create the outbound field and transform the outgoing data as required. Outbound transforms are run on creation or updating of a remote task on the source instance to transform the data that is being sent.
Role required to create a transform: admin
The following steps describe the process for creating a transform for providers:
- Navigate to All > Service Bridge Consumer > Administration > Transforms.
- Click New
- Fill in the fields on the form as required.
Here are the fields and related descriptions:
Field
Description
Number
Auto-generated number for the transform record.
Company
Consumer name that this transform will apply to
All companies
The All companies field eliminates the need to define a specific transformation for each customer account when they have similar requirements. When this field is selected, the definition is used to transform specific fields across all companies simultaneously.
The global “All companies” transform is applied only to companies that match the configuration and that do not have a specific transform already defined.Type
- Simple: Used when the field has a known and stable choice list on each instance. A related list of transform lines is created to match the inbound and outbound values.
- Advanced: Used for complex criteria that requires a script to determine the new value.
- Virtual Inbound: Used to transform a virtual inbound field. Requires a script to determine the new value.
- Virtual Outbound: Used to transform a virtual outbound field. Requires a script to determine the new value.
Inbound
This option enables an inbound transformation for this transform
Outbound
This option enables an outbound transformation for this transform
Provider table
The provider's task table that contains the field to be transformed. For example, Case.
Provider field
The provider's field that is to be transformed. For example, State.
Consumer table
The provider's task table that contains the field to be transformed. For example, Incident.
Consumer field
The provider's field that is to be transformed. For example, State.
Inbound field
When Type field is set to Virtual Inbound, this field is available to reference the virtual field this transform should populate.
Outbound field
When Type field is set to Virtual Outbound, this field is available to reference the virtual field this transform should populate.
- Click Save
- Once saved the details of the transform must be entered. Here is what is required for each of the 4 types of transformations:
- Simple: When the transform type is Simple, a related list will be displayed after the Save.
Choose New in the transform lines related list and fill in the fields on the form
Here are the fields and related descriptions:
Field
Description
Provider label
The label of the provider’s field to be transformed. For example, Open.
Provider value
The value of the provider’s field to be transformed.
Customer label
The label of the consumer’s field to be transformed. For example, Progress.
Customer value
The value of the consumers field to be transformed.
- Advanced: When the transform type is Advanced you will be prompted after the save to enter a script to define the outbound and inbound labels and values. Here is an example
- Virtual Inbound: When the transform type is Virtual Inbound you will be prompted after the save to enter a script to determine the inbound label and value. Here is an example:
- Virtual Outbound: When the transform type is Virtual Outbound you will be prompted after the save to enter a script to determine the inbound label and value. Here is an example:
- Simple: When the transform type is Simple, a related list will be displayed after the Save.
- Click Submit
- On the transform form, click Activate
Configure settings
As a consumer, you can configure and define default settings on your instance.
Role required to update consumer settings: admin
To review and update consumer settings:
- Navigate to All > Service Bridge Consumer > Provider Connections.
- On the Provider Connections page, click the Number link to open a Provider Connection record
- Click the Settings tab in the related links.
- Click the row value under Auto activate remote record producer to open the settings page
- In the Settings page, click the Remote Record Producers related link tab.
- To automatically activate remote record producer entitlements when they are sent from the provider click the Auto activate remote record producer check box.
- Click the Remote Task Definitions related link tab.
- To automatically activate remote task definition entitlements when they are sent from the provider click the Auto activate remote task definition check box.
- Click Update to save the new settings.
After completing Service Bridge for Consumers installation and configuration you are ready to begin using Service Bridge!
In the next article in the Service Bridge series, we will walk through how to use Service to accomplish your business objectives. Stay tuned.
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