How does ServiceNow Model Your Data? (ServiceNow Foundations #4)

Travis Toulson · 2 hours ago

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Everything in ServiceNow Is a Table — Here's Why That Matters

If you want to become a better ServiceNow developer, start by understanding how the platform handles data. The key concept is simple: everything is a table.

In ServiceNow, nearly everything you work with whether its tasks, incidents, users, flows, logs and configurations... they are all stored in a table. That includes your own code, update sets, and business logic. There is even a table that defines all the other tables.

Why It Matters

Knowing how data is structured helps you:

Build more accurate reports
Customize existing applications with confidence
Create new apps from scratch
Troubleshoot features that lack documentation
Recognize patterns used throughout the platform

A good rule of thumb is to start with one question: What table contains this data?

How Inheritance Works

ServiceNow uses table inheritance similar to object-oriented programming. For example:

Task is a base table
Incident, Problem, and Change extend from it
That means they share fields like state and short_description

Why this is useful:

Shared Fields – You only define common fields once
Unified Queries – A single query on the task table returns all task types
Reusable Code – Scripts and flows written for one task type can often be reused for others
Platform Features – Some parent tables, like sys_metadata, hook into update sets automatically
Custom Inheritance – You can create your own base tables and extend them too

Reference Fields and Dot-Walking

Reference fields create relationships between tables. For example, an incident record can reference a user. With dot-walking, you can access related fields from that user record, such as their department.

This allows for powerful filtering, reporting, and scripting without complex joins. You will see dot-walking everywhere in the platform, from condition builders to custom scripts.

Meta Tables: Behind the Curtain

The platform even stores its own data model in tables:

sys_dictionary defines fields and tables
sys_db_object tracks table-level configuration
sys_glide_object defines field types and options

You may not need to use these tables every day, but they are useful when you want to understand how something works behind the scenes, such as Flow Designer or the update set process.

Wrapping Up

When you build on ServiceNow, you are always working with tables. Understanding that structure will make you faster, more confident, and better prepared for edge cases.