Domain separation application properties

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Domain separation application properties

    The Domain Separation plugin introduces two new tables—System Application Property [sysapplicationproperty]andSystem Application Property Value [sysapplicationpropertyvalue]—to provide greater flexibility for service providers in customizing applications that use domain separation. These tables address limitations of the non-domain-separated System Properties [sysproperties] table by enabling domain-specific application property configurations without requiring custom code for each variation.

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • Domain-aware property management: The new tables enable applications to first check for domain-specific property values before falling back to global system properties, allowing different domains to have customized configurations.
    • Support for scoped applications: Properties are uniquely identified by scope and domain, with scope prefixes ensuring property name uniqueness. This allows scoped apps to define domain-specific behaviors consistently.
    • Property override capability: You can override existing system properties or create entirely new properties specific to domains, such as configuring the “First day of the week” differently per domain.
    • New APIs: The GlideApplicationProperty API provides new scriptable methods supporting domain-separated properties, available for both global and scoped applications.
    • Expandable domain scope view: Using the Expand Domain Scope view in the sysapplicationpropertyvalue table, you can easily visualize all property overrides across domains.
    • Activation requirement: To use these tables, the Domain Extension Installer plugin (com.glide.domain.mspextensions.installer) must be activated.

    Practical Use for ServiceNow Customers

    ServiceNow customers who operate multi-domain or service provider environments can leverage these new tables to:

    • Customize application behavior per domain without coding changes.
    • Maintain consistent application configurations across domains while allowing specific overrides.
    • Define unique properties that do not exist in the global system properties table.
    • Use scoped app properties that respect domain boundaries, improving maintainability and clarity.
    • Utilize provided APIs to programmatically manage application properties within domain-separated contexts.

    New Tables and Their Purpose

    • sysapplicationproperty: Defines application-level properties with fields such as name, description, type, default value, related system property reference, roles, and usage notes.
    • sysapplicationpropertyvalue: Stores domain- and scope-specific values for these properties, enabling overrides and domain-specific customization.

    These enhancements streamline domain-separated application customization, helping you deliver tailored application behavior and configurations that align with each customer’s domain requirements.

    The Domain Separation plugin has two new tables to give service providers more flexibility in customizing their applications that use domain separation. These tables are the System Application Property table [sys_application_property] and the System Application Property Value table [sys_application_property_value].

    New tables offer more options

    With service provider (SP) applications, certain actions can vary depending on the domain. However, the ServiceNow® base system System Properties [sys_properties] table is not domain-separated, so it doesn't satisfy the requirements for applications that use domain separation.

    Each SP customer may want to customize their applications differently. Previously, features that could be customized were defined as only one global value. Application developers need a more flexible table. Now you can modify your application without having to create code every time you want to add or change the functionality.

    How overrides work in the new tables

    Developers typically use the ServiceNow System Property [sys_properties] table to create various functions in applications. If you wanted to develop an application to behave differently in different domains, you'd have to customize it yourself.

    In the Paris release, the new Application Property [sys_application_property] table simplifies that customization. Instead of going directly to the System Property table for a value, the application property table goes to the System Application table first. This new table now stores the logic that you require to configure your application. If it finds a property in the new table, it uses that content. If there is no information in that table, it moves on to the base system properties table.

    When you configure support for domain separation, you can add domain logic to this new Application Properties table. This table can contain properties that don't exist in the System Properties table. Or you can add properties to the configuration table that can override any property that you select in the System Properties table.

    For example, let's say that you want to configure an application with a First day of the week feature. Sometimes, you might want the first day of the week to be Sunday. In other cases, you might want the first day of the week to be Monday. In the base system table, there might be only one Day 1 option, which is Sunday. With the new table, you can store another property, making Day 1, Sunday, and a child domain, Monday.

    This figure shows how the system draws properties from the Application Property table before going to the System Property [sys_properties] table.New table goes to sys_application_property table before going to sys_properties table.

    How scoped apps work in the new table

    The new Application Properties table is supported from scoped applications. The application property name, similar to the system property name, is unique, which means that it is prefixed with the scope name if it is not global. The scope of an application impacts your configuration. The scope may determine which Day 1 is defined as Sunday and which as Monday. You can use the same property but customize it so that Day 1, Sunday is the parent domain and Day 1, Monday is the child domain. In the new table, there is both a domain column and a scope column, so you can set these properties for each.

    You can use the Expand Domain Scope view in the sys_application_property_value table to show all overrides, as shown in the following image.

    Expanded application properties table
    Note:

    If those tables are not available, make sure that you have activated the Domain Extension Installer (com.glide.domain.msp_extensions.installer) plugin.

    New application property tables

    The new System Application Property [sys_application_property] table contains these fields:

    • name
    • description
    • type (choice of string, true|false, integer, time zone, color, and so on)
    • default_value
    • property (reference to sys_properties)
    • usage_notes
    • read_roles
    • write_roles
    • unique key: (name)
    The new System Application Property Value [sys_application_property_value] table contains these fields:
    • sys_application_property (ref to sys_application_property)
    • sys_domain
    • sys_overrides
    • value
    • unique key: (sys_application_property, sys_domain)

    New APIs

    The new APIs are also supported in scoped apps. Domain-separated application properties have distinct APIs. The GlideApplicationProperty API has two new scriptable methods, available in both global and scoped applications. See GlideApplicationProperty - Scoped, Global to learn more about these new APIs.