ServiceNow web service interface performance (SOAP, JSONv2, REST) comparison

ServiceNow web service interface performance (SOAP, JSONv2, REST) comparison

Back in business after summer vacation. Since the Eureka release is now out and first customers have started to use it, I decided to run some tests to verify whether or not the ServiceNow's new REST API is as fast as I have come to believe it would be.

Based on my first tests, using SOAP UI as client, I am very disappointed. My hypothesis was, based on REST APIs on other systems, that the ServiceNow REST API would be significantly faster than others. That hypothesis is not supported by my findinds.

ServiceNow JSON2 vs JSON performance quick test

ServiceNow JSON2 vs JSON performance quick test

So I managed to steal a couple of minutes from working and parenting, and to run a quick load test for getRecords action which I thought would benefit the most of the streaming. 

Unfortunately I could not get my hands on an instance with both interfaces, but I managed to get my hands on to two instances which were pretty close to OOB state.

ServiceNow JSONv2 vs "old" JSON Web Service interface

ServiceNow's JSONv2 WS interface vs the old JSON WS interface

As part of the Dublin release, ServiceNow is rolling out a brand spanking new JSON web service interface. Now how much is different? Turns out, "not so much", when it comes to interface but a lot of promises have been made regarding performance. For a three part immersion into the old JSON interface (Calgary release and older) check my old posts. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

So what has changed? See below.

Filling ServiceNow survey from external web page with MuleESB

The ServiceNow platform provides an easy and powerful tools for defining, requesting users to answer, and answering the surveys.

Some time ago a client of ours had an issue. They wanted to provide their end users a way to answer a survey anonymously, but due to Single Sign On setup (and network) the ServiceNow platform would always know who the survey taker was.

In this particular case the client decided to setup an external web server hosting a web page which would POST the survey data to a servlet which in turn would invoke ServiceNow's SOAP web services.

Since I currently have a thing going on with MuleESB, I decided to see how it could be used to solve the dilemma. Nothing fancy, just the bare bones implementation. See below.

Creating entries to AD (or other LDAP server) from ServiceNow using MuleESB

So you would like to extend the capabilities of the out of the box "New Employee Hire" Order Guide, or your own catalog item's capabilities, to allow you to automatically create users to your AD based on an order from Service Catalog?

ServiceNow SOAP interface via MuleESB proxy

In this blog post I will briefly entertain the idea of using MuleESB as a web service proxy between an unknown system and ServiceNow. Limiting the scope to scenario where System X is the party initiating the web service calls. If you need it to work the other way, just reverse the examples. You will have to setup inbound https endpoint which requires a bit more work. Like generating needed certificates and keys.

ServiceNow’s JSON Web Service interface 3 / 3

Data modification functionality

In the first instalment of this blog series I briefly covered the JSON notation, compared it to SOAP and wrote about the overview of the ServiceNow platform’s JSON Web Service Interface.

In the second post I wrote about the JSON Web Service URL composition, action parameters and the Data retrieval functionality

In this blog post I will be covering the data modification functionality of the JSON Web Service interface.

ServiceNow’s JSON Web Service interface 2 / 3

Data retrieval functionality

In the previous instalment of this blog series I briefly covered the JSON notation, compared it to SOAP and wrote about the overview of the ServiceNow platform’s JSON Web Service Interface.

In this blog post I will be covering the data retrieval functionality of the JSON Web Service interface. Namely the “get”, “getKeys” and “getRecords” actions. I will also cover the “action parameters” used to alter the behaviour of the JSON Web Service.

ServiceNow’s JSON Web Service interface 1 / 3

Foreword

The ServiceNow platform provides a number of integration functionalities which can be used to glue a ServiceNow instance and any 3rd party software together. One of the less known, and certainly less used, integration interfaces provided by the ServiceNow platform is the JSON Web Service interface.

The reason for the low adoption rate can probably be attributed to popularity of the SOAP over HTTP in the enterprise software industry and to the fact that the “JSON Web Service” plugin is not active by default on Out-of-the-Box ServiceNow instances.

Work and play setup

Work and play setup

If you are like me. Not only working in the IT sector but also loving IT (pun inteded), not necessarily loving all the bureaucracy involved but loving all of the testing and tinkering with new software, setting up your gear for play without compromising work can be challenging.

You would certainly like to test the new Software X, or Release Candidate Y from your favorite vendor, but it might compromise your ability to deliver promised deliverables to your customer on time. We all know customers do not like waiting don't we?