Use event input information

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Use event input information

    The Event Input pane in the Event Rule designer provides essential reference information for configuring event rules and customizing alert content in ServiceNow. It displays fields, expressions, and values from event data that you can use to transform and compose alerts. This pane is visible in all Event Rule designer sections except the Event Rule Info section, serving as a guide to available data during rule creation.

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    Key Features

    • Event Input Pane Sections:
      • Event Additional Info: Shows default event fields plus custom fields for alerts, which you can drag into alert configurations.
      • Expressions: Allows creation of new fields by transforming raw or additional event data, available only when additional info fields exist.
      • Event Raw Info: Displays all event form fields, always available for selection and transformation into new expressions.
    • Edit Modes:
      • Standard Edit Mode: Select text for transformation but cannot edit text directly or undo.
      • Regex Edit Mode: Enables direct text editing using regular expressions for advanced transformations; undo is not available but reset is possible.
    • Field Management: Use the exclusion list table (emeventruleblacklist) to hide unwanted fields from the pane and the emeventruleorder form to control field display order.

    Practical Application for ServiceNow Customers

    When creating or editing event rules, customers can leverage the Event Input pane to easily reference and drag relevant event data fields into alert configurations, enabling precise customization of alert content. Users can create expressions to extract or transform event data, improving alert relevance and clarity. The ability to switch between edit modes supports both straightforward and complex text manipulations using regex.

    Managing field visibility and order in the pane ensures a streamlined and focused rule-building experience, allowing teams to tailor the interface to their needs. This enhances efficiency and reduces clutter when working with event data.

    Additional Considerations

    • Accessibility settings may disable standard edit mode, requiring regex mode for editing.
    • When creating regex expressions, maintain sequential order of variables to ensure correct parsing.
    • The Event Input pane is read-only in most sections except during alert output transformation, where fields can be modified.

    The Event Input pane that is included in the steps to create an event rule provides a reference to the information that you can use when configuring an event rule.

    In the Transform and compose alert output pane, you can also drag the information into the required fields to customize alert content. The fields in the right-hand pane appear as a reference to which fields, expressions, and their values are available when working in the Event Rule designer. The fields that display in the Transform and compose alert output left-hand workarea become the fields in the generated alert form. In addition, you can define alert tags that are specific for customization.

    General components and navigation

    The Event Input pane consists of these sections:

    • Event Additional Info
    • Expressions
    • Event Raw Info

    The Event Input pane displays in all Event Rule designer sections, except for the Event Rule Info section. The fields in the right-pane can be modified only in the Transform and compose alert output section. In all the other sections, the Event Input pane is read-only and available for reference purposes.

    Note:
    If Accessibility enabled Accessibility enabled is selected in System Settings, standard edit mode is not available Standard edit mode icon.

    Edit modes

    Mode Description
    Standard edit mode Event Management icon Text selected in the left-hand workarea cannot be edited. Undo is not available. In this mode, you can only mark the text or values and transform it by selecting a field name.
    Regex edit modeEvent Management icon Edit text in the left-hand workarea by selecting it, as required. After you have edited the text, you cannot go back to the standard mode. Undo is not available. However, Reset is available, returning the field to its original value. You can compose text using regular expression (regex) format conventions, for example, type (.*) to create a field name. You cannot use field values like: type "$" to include the value of a field and specify the name of the field in parentheses {}.

    You can include special characters in a field by "escaping" them, that is, by prefixing the character with a "\". For example, to include a "\" in your text, enter "\\".

    Event additional info

    The Event additional info section displays default event form fields, plus fields that were created to display in alerts and that are added to the Additional information section of the alert.

    When configuring text in the fields in the left-hand workarea, you can drag field names and/or their value from this section into the fields.

    Expressions

    The Expressions section is available only if an additional information field was created. You can create expressions from event raw data or from additional information data.

    1. Click in a field in the Event Input pane to perform transformation actions.
    2. Create an expression by transforming information and associating it with a field name. Either select a field name from the suggested list, or create a field name, as required.

      Event Management rule expression

    3. Click in a field in the Event Input pane. In the left-hand workarea, select the required information.

    Create expressions by transforming information and associating it with a field name. Select a field name from the suggested list, or you can create a field name, as required.

    Event raw info

    The Event raw info section is always available. Its contents are the fields from the Event form.

    To transform text, click a field in the right-panel to open it in the work area on the left-panel, in the Mark Expressions section. You can select text in the Mark Expressions section where the selected text becomes the value of a newly created field. Name the new field. This new field is added to the Expressions section.
    Note:
    When creating regex expression for input, ensure that you create input with the variables in sequential order. While variables can be skipped for inclusion, the selected order must be maintained.
    Controlling how fields appear:
    • Use the exclusion list [em_event_rule_black_list] table to hide fields from the right-pane.
    • Use the em_event_rule_order form to order the position of each field.
    • Fields that are not in the exclusion list and also not part of the em_event_rule_order table, still appear in the event rule designer, in the right-panel and in the Transform and Compose Alert Output tab.