ServiceNow Learning is thrilled to announce its newest From the Experts course, From the Experts: ServiceNow Scripted REST APIs from Jason Nichols. From the Experts provides a social learning environment that moves from the ServiceNow Learning course into a discussion-based experience within ServiceNow Community. Here, you can ask questions, get feedback, and connect with peers. And when you’ve completed the course, you can continue an ongoing learning journey with the experts and community you’re already familiar with.
In this From the Experts course, ServiceNow Senior Technical Instructor Jason Nichols explains using Scripted REST APIs to permit external access to data in ServiceNow. Over the past 6 years, Jason has delivered hundreds of classes across 5 continents. He is certified to teach 14 ServiceNow courses and workshops and holds 9 mainline credentials.
Originally from Australia, Jason worked in Europe for 20 years and is fluent in German and Swedish. He loves enabling people to make their implementations a success and believes life is too short to waste time on mundane manual tasks. No wonder he fits right in at ServiceNow!
Jason brings this same philosophy to his YouTube channel focused on simplifying ServiceNow concepts called Secretary of Simplification. He updates the channel frequently with supplemental content for the courses he teaches. He also loves sharing his further explorations into the Now Platform.
I recently talked with Jason about his ServiceNow journey and his thoughts on Now Platform integration using ServiceNow scripted REST APIs. Check out our entire conversation below. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and passion with us, Jason!
How did you initially get introduced to ServiceNow?
Through a job ad, literally. I'm sorry, that sounds so unexciting. I had taken a four-year break from IT and was looking to get back and the job description fit my profile extremely well. 🙂 I'm happy to report that taking the position of Technical Trainer with ServiceNow was one of the best decisions I've made in my life. There is a lot of great software being developed out there, but the Now Platform is on a whole different level!
What is the most important thing you did to advance your ServiceNow career?
Developing in my Personal Developer Instance (PDI). Being in a technical role, I need to constantly develop my knowledge and skills. And the best way you can do this is to build your own applications, big or small. Thankfully, ServiceNow hands PDIs out for free!
What advice would you give someone just getting started implementing scripted REST APIs?
Define your requirements as precisely as possible before developing. If you're just developing something for yourself (for your own learning), start simple. Build a basic API that allows you to read data from a custom table. These steps comprise only 20 minutes of this series. 🙂
What is often the most misunderstood aspect of ServiceNow’s scripted REST APIs?
That it is hard. It isn't. Don't be put off by the word "scripted." Yes, you need have basic understanding of Javascript. The examples I use in this series are simple, but they work. From the Vancouver release, you can use text-to-code using Now Assist, ServiceNow's generative AI feature.
What have been some of your favorite changes in the area of ServiceNow integrations over the years?
There are two. First, Integration Hub (IH). IH provides a no-code way to setup integrations with common applications and have them as part of your business process. Second, the newer security features in the platform, some of which I cover in my series. Not only is the Now Platform following best practices, in some cases it exceeds these and sets new benchmarks.
What is your favorite thing about being a part of the ServiceNow community?
Being involved in a worldwide sharing of knowledge. I know some things about the Now Platform, and I like sharing that knowledge. But this is just a small particle compared to the collective knowledge out there in the ServiceNow community, which is also being shared on the ServiceNow Community portal, on YouTube, in Dev Meetups and numerous other gatherings. No one knows everything about the Now Platform and its applications. So we need the ServiceNow community!
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Want to join the simplification movement? You can find Jason on Now Learning with this course From the Experts: ServiceNow Scripted REST APIs. To continue learning with Jason do not forget to Like, Comment, and Subscribe to his YouTube channel Secretary of Simplification.
Thank you Jason for sharing your knowledge and experience to build critical skills in the ServiceNow ecosystem!
2 Comments
