Advanced Scripting & Debugging Lab

John Roberts
Application Developer ServiceNow

Jerrod Bennett
Senior Technical Consultant ServiceNow

Place holder for instance information

Lab Agenda

Overview Scripting & Debugging Concepts Debugging Tools Client and Server Debugging Examples Extending Script Includes AJAX Debugging Basic Jelly Debugging Display Business Rules

Overview

Disclaimer
Advanced topics and quick pace Assumes some scripting experience and knowledge of Service-now.com concepts

Objectives
Improve scripting and troubleshooting abilities Learn some new tricks

Overview

Setup
Lab instance Script source - http://wiki.service-now.com/index.php? title=Script_Lab

Optional
Install Firefox and Firebug

Scripting Concepts (quick review)

Case SenSitiviTy
All commands, functions, variables,

Variable Scope
Session global risk of duplication Classes limited to class Function limited to function, best protection
var myName = john; function doThis() { var myName = roberts; }

Scripting Concepts (quick review)

Reference vs Value values

Reference var myId = gr.sys_id;

myId will change as gr changes

Value

var myId = gr.sys_id.toString();

myId will only change if explicitly changed

Scripting Concepts (quick review)

Try/Catch blocks for proper error handling

Errors will halt script unless handled

try { //something } catch (err) { gs.log(ERROR: + err); }

Debugging Concepts

Know what should happen

Identify what is happening

Did my script run, were there errors

Do I have the expected results

Debugging Tools

Application
System Diagnostics / Session Debug modules Information output options

Browser
Developer Tools Add-ons such as Firebug

Debugging Examples Exercise 1 Business Rule Debug

Exercise 1 Debug Business Rule

Scenario: business rule adds comments when incident state changes to closed Problem: no comments are being added Business rule: k11 Exercise 1 Incident Close Comment

Exercise 1 Debug Business Rule

Try it
Open an existing incident Set incident state to Closed Using header context menu, save the record

Result
No comment or info message

Troubleshooting
Did the rule execute

Exercise 1 Debug Business Rule

Identifying whether a business rule was executed Run the Debug Business Rules module to enable business rule debugging
Just the Debug Business Rule, no jumping ahead to (Details) yet

Open another existing incident and set incident state to closed, save Scroll down to see debug output and notice the following
Skipping 'k11 Exercise 1 - Incident Close Comment' on table incident; condition not satisfied: current.incident_state.changesTo("Closed")

From the debug output click on the business rule name to open it

Exercise 1 Debug Business Rule

For some reason our condition is not being satisfied
current.incident_state.changesTo("Closed")

Lets remove the condition and find out what the field value is changing to
Delete the condition so the rule will execute Comment out the comment set statement so it doesnt run on all incidents Add some debugging statements
//add comment when closing //current.comments = "Closed by " + gs.getUserName() + " at " + gs.nowDateTime(); //gs.addInfoMessage("Close comment added"); // Debug info gs.addInfoMessage("(InfoMessage) Incident state = " + current.incident_state); //output to app gs.log("(Log) Incident state = " + current.incident_state); //output to system log gs.print("(debug print) Incident state = " + current.incident_state); //output to debug console

Exercise 1 Debug Business Rule

Open another existing incident and set incident state to closed, save Scroll down to see debug output and notice the following
3:50:23.714: ==> 'k11 Exercise 1 - Incident Close Comment' on table incident 13:50:23.718: : (Log) Incident state = 7 13:50:23.718: : (debug print) Incident state = 7 13:50:23.719: <== 'k11 Exercise 1 - Incident Close Comment' on table incident

Looks like we had the wrong condition value for closed incident state Now we can correct the condition and un-comment the business rule

Exercise 1 Debug Business Rule

Perform one more test to verify If we suspected the field value was wrong we could have taken a shortcut
From a closed incident form, use the header context menu Show XML to display all fields and values

Debugging Examples Exercise 2 Debug Business Rule Changes

Exercise 2 Business Rule Changes

Scenario: whenever we create a hardware incident the priority is set to 1, we suspect it might be a business rule Try it
Create a new incident and set category to Hardware Save the incident, and notice the priority value has changed to 1

Debugging
Enable the Debug Business Rule (Details) to add detail to the debug output Create another hardware incident, save View debug output
==> 'k11 Exercise 2 - Incident Priority Change' on table incident priority: 4 => 1 <== 'k11 Exercise 2 - Incident Priority Change' on table incident

Looks like we found the rule changing the priority value

Debugging Examples Exercise 3 Try Catch Line by line evaluation

Exercise 3 Error Handling

Scenario: simple business rule should add message when saving a software incident Problem: we are only getting one of the three messages we expect

Try it
Create a incident with software category Add a short description and save Notice we are getting one message at the top of the form

Exercise 3 Error Handling

Following the javascript processor line by line Run the JS Debug Activate module to enable the Rhino debugger Create another software incident and view the debug output Search the page for Exercise 3 to find the related script processing
==> 'k11 Exercise 3 - Display Info' on table incident evaluate://output current number gs.addInfoMessage("Current number: " + current.number); //output current short_description gs.addInfoMessage("Current Short Description: " + currrent.short_description); //output current category gs.addInfoMessage("Current Category: " + current.category); >>> line(2) gs.addInfoMessage("Current number: " + current.number); >>> line(5) gs.addInfoMessage("Current Short Description: " + currrent.short_description); <== 'k11 Exercise 3 - Display Info' on table incident

Notice we dont process after line 5, now we need to find out why First disable the rhino debugger by running the Disable All module
Rhino debugger can interfere or suppress error output

Exercise 3 Error Handling

Enable both Debug Business Rule and Debug Log modules Create another software incident and view the debug output Notice that we have a script exception because we have an extra r in current
==> 'k11 Exercise 3 - Display Info' on table incident Evaluator: org.mozilla.javascript.EcmaError: "currrent" is not defined. Caused by error in Business Rule: 'k11 Exercise 3 - Display Info' at line 5 2: gs.addInfoMessage("Current number: " + current.number); 3: 4: //output current short_description ==> 5: gs.addInfoMessage("Current Short Description: " + currrent.short_description); 6: 7: //output current category 8: gs.addInfoMessage("Current Category: " + current.category); <== 'k11 Exercise 3 - Display Info' on table incident

Now lets see how try catch block can help us From the debug output click on the business rule to open it

Exercise 3 Error Handling

Add a try catch block around our statements and save the business rule
try { //output current number gs.addInfoMessage("Current number: " + current.number); //output current short_description gs.addInfoMessage("Current Short Description: " + currrent.short_description); //output current category gs.addInfoMessage("Current Category: " + current.category); } catch(err) { //catch only runs on exception in try block //err object is passed from the try handler and includes gs.log("Error in k11 Exercise 3 business rule: " + err); }

Exercise 3 Error Handling

Create one more software incident and see how the catch statement provides information
==> 'k11 Exercise 3 - Display Info' on table incident : : Error in k11 Exercise 3 business rule: ReferenceError: "currrent" is not defined. <== 'k11 Exercise 3 - Display Info' on table incident

Unhandled errors can prevent script functionality and even other scripts from running Catch statements guarantee that you control what happens when an error occurs, especially important if you need to clean up or revert something

Debugging Examples Exercise 4 Client Script

Exercise 4 Client Script

Scenario: incident table has an on-change client script for category
function onChange(control, oldValue, newValue, isLoading, isTemplate) { if (isLoading || newValue == '') return; if (newValue == "request") { g_form.setValue("urgency", 3); jslog("k11 Exercise 5 Request Category client script: Setting urgency to low for requests"); } }

Try it
Lets review options for client-side debug output Enable client javascript debugger console by clicking the green bug in the top banner Create a new incident, change category to request Script will log to debug console and change urgency to low Review debug console

Exercise 4 Client Script

Using browser debuggers (Firebug) From a new incident form, open Firebug and make sure its active Go to the script tab and search for g_form.setValue("urgency, so we can locate our script Set a break point by clicking in the gray area left of the line numbers

Exercise 4 Client Script

Change the category to request to execute the script again Firebug breakpoints can be funny at times, refresh the form script does not stop at breakpoint Review all the information available during the break You can also step through code using the yellow arrows

Debugging Examples Exercise 5 Javascript Executor

Exercise 5 Javascript Executor

Scenario: it would be nice to have a fast way to test client scripts without actually creating them first Solution: Javascript executor has access to the same client environment as client scripts Try it:
From a change request form, press <Shift><Ctrl><Alt><j> to launch the javascript executor See that the description field is mandatory, lets test a script to change that g_form.setMandatory("description", false); Click Run My Code button Notice the mandatory flag has been removed, lets add it back and add a short description g_form.setMandatory("description", true); g_form.setValue(short_description, Testing);

Exercise 5 Javascript Executor

Now for a cool admin trick Close the executor and verify that you cannot save the form with a blank description field Re-open the executor and run
g_form.checkMandatory = false; Run My Code

Close executor Try to save the form again with a blank description You just temporarily bypassed the mandatory check on the form Use it wisely and keep it a secret

Debugging Examples Exercise 6 Background Scripts

Exercise 6 Background Scripts

Scenario: admin needs a way to test server side scripts or perform some maintenance that requires a script Solution: background scripts are the server side version of Javascript executor Warning: this can really be dangerous, and even crash an entire instance if you get something wrong

Exercise 6 Background Scripts

Try it
Lets build a script to disable some users Launch the background script module Enter the following script

Exercise 6 Background Scripts

Notice that we have commented out the update line Its always best to see the possible results before you actually do anything Run the script to see the results If this is a script you need frequently you can also save it to the server Upload a script file with .js extension using the file upload module It will be available in the customer scripts for future reference and execution To be safe you can leave the function call commented when you upload so you purposely have to view and change it before it does anything harmful

Debugging Examples Exercise 7 Extending Script Includes

Exercise 7 Extending Script Includes

Scenario: I like the functionality provided by the TableUtils script include but want to change it a bit The getTables method in TableUtils class returns the parent list of table hierarchy, but it returns it in a java array list not an array For example you cant enumerate a java array list like you would with a Javascript array
//enumerate java array list for (var i=0; i < tables.size(); i++) { gs.print(tables.get(i)); } //enumerate javascript array for (var i=0; i < tableArray.length; i++) { gs.print(tableArray[i]); }

Exercise 7 Extending Script Includes

Try it
From background scripts get the tables hierarchy for cmdb_ci_win_server
var util = new TableUtils("cmdb_ci_server"); //getTables returns a java array list object, not array var tables = util.getTables(); gs.print("Java list: " + tables); *** Script: Java list: [cmdb_ci_server, cmdb_ci_computer, cmdb_ci_hardware, //what is the tables object cmdb_ci] JSUtil.logObject(tables, "tables"); *** Script: Log Object: tables Java Object: //enumerate java array list com.glide.util.ImmutableArrayList for (var i=0; i < tables.size(); i++) { *** Script: cmdb_ci_server *** Script: cmdb_ci_computer gs.print(tables.get(i)); *** Script: cmdb_ci_hardware } *** Script: cmdb_ci

We could convert the array list to an array whenever we need it but it would be nice to change the getTables method to return an array Modifying an out-of-box script include is never recommended

Exercise 7 Extending Script Includes

Try it
Lets first look at the TableUtils script include
initialize: function(tableName){ this.tableName = tableName; },, getTables: function(){ var tables = Packages.com.glide.db.DBObjectManager.get().getTables(this.tableName); return tables; },

Theres another script include we can use to convert java objects to javascript, thats j2js

Exercise 7 Extending Script Includes

Since we dont want to modify the system script include well create our own. We could make a full copy but that would be a waste, when we can extend the class and leverage everything thats already in place. Create a new script include for the MyTableUtils class
Extending can add to or replace methods from the parent class
var MyTableUtils = Class.create(); MyTableUtils.prototype = Object.extendsObject(TableUtils, { getTablesArray: function() { var tables = this.getTables(); return j2js(tables); }, type: "MyTableUtils" });

Save the record so we can test it

Exercise 7 Extending Script Includes

Return to background scripts and call the new class
var util = new MyTableUtils("cmdb_ci_server"); //call our new method var tables = util.getTables(); gs.print("Java list: " + tables); JSUtil.logObject(tables, "tables"); gs.print(""); var tablesArray = util.getTablesArray(); gs.print(tablesArray); JSUtil.logObject(tablesArray, "tablesArray"); //what is util object JSUtil.logObject(util, "util");

Notice that we didnt need an initialize of getTables method in our class, we inherited those from the parent (this) object

Debugging Examples Exercise 8 AJAX Debugging

Exercise 8 AJAX
Scenario: Use AJAX to lookup the number of available development laptops when someone attempts to request one through the catalog Components
Catalog client script to submit AJAX request to server AJAX processor script include to perform the check and return the result to client Catalog client script to process the AJAX response and inform the user

Try it
Go to the catalog and load the Development Laptop item Script runs on load to check inventory and alerts user with status from server

Exercise 8 AJAX
Review scripts
Review catalog client script k11 Capacity Check Review script include k11 CatalogCapacityCheck

Debugging options
Log statements in script include Firebug to inspect payload to/from server Manual client script testing from javascript executor

Exercise 8 AJAX
Try it
From the development laptop catalog item page start the javascript executor <Shift><Ctrl><Alt><j> Run the following script to make an AJAX request
var gajax = new GlideAjax("CapacityCheckAjax"); gajax.addParam("sysparm_name", "checkDevCapacity"); gajax.getXML(ajaxResponse); function ajaxResponse(serverResponse) { alert(serverResponse.responseText); }

Debugging Examples Exercise 9 Jelly

Exercise 9 Jelly
Scenario: In a jelly script such as a UI Page, I would like to know which jelly variables are available and what the values are Options
For known variables you can write values to HTML output Use breakpoint tag to view all available variables in a given phase

Jelly in 30 seconds
XML files executed on server and output as HTML to client Evaluated in two phases, {phase 1} is cached (content), [phase 2] for data Nested structures with variables typically being passed down (UI Page calls a UI Macro)

Exercise 9 Jelly
Try it
Review UI page k11_test Notice the j:set and j2:set lines setting values for jvar_p1_test and jvar_p2_test Review UI macro k11_macro_test called from the UI page Notice the references to the variables defined in the j:set and j2:set lines in the UI page Enable Debug Log so we can view of out of the macro breakpoints Navigate browser to /k11_test.do Examine the debug information Notice how our jvar_p1_test and jvar_p2_test only have value in their respective phases

Debugging Examples Exercise 10 Display Business Rules

Exercise 10 Display Business Rules

Scenario: a client script needs to access data from a field that is not displayed on the form Options
Add the field to the form view and hide it using a UI policy Use a client GlideRecord query using AJAX Use a display business rule to preload an object that is passed to the client

Display business rules are processed on the server before the record data is passed to the client The g_scratchpad object is available for setting values in the rule and getting values on the client Display rules can also change field data, similar to calculated fields since they display the new value but its not written to the database until you save the record

Exercise 10 Display Business Rules

Review business rule k11 Exercise 10 Send data to the client on the problem table
//get the record sys_created_by value and add to the client scratchpad g_scratchpad.created_by = current.sys_created_by; //calculate the age of this record var age = gs.dateDiff(current.sys_created_on, gs.nowDateTime(), true); var daysOld = Math.round(age / 3600 / 24); g_scratchpad.days_old = daysOld;

Review the client script k11 Exercise 10 - notify on old problems on problem table
function onLoad() { //get data from display rule scratchpad var createdBy = g_scratchpad.created_by; var daysOld = g_scratchpad.days_old; if (parseInt(daysOld) > 30) { alert("This is an old record created by " + createdBy); } }

Exercise 10 Display Business Rules

Try it
Open the list of problems and find one that was created more than 30 days ago Notice the alert from the client script

Q&A

j_roberts #know11 #servicenow

Additional Resources
SlightlyLoony blog (Service-now.com developer)
http://community.service-now.com/blog/slightlyloony

Wiki Script Portal

http://wiki.service-now.com/index.php?title=Scripting_and_APIs

JavaScript book
JavaScript The Definitive Guide (OReilly)

W3Schools script and HTML reference

http://www.w3schools.com

Firebug
http://getfirebug.com/

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