ServiceNow provider

What are Integrations?

SquaredUp DS Integrations allow you to create your own providers. Each Integration has its own form to help you input the information required for different providers.

What is a provider?

Providers contain the connection details to external platforms. A provider only needs to be set up once and can then be used when creating tiles on a dashboard.

There are two types of integrations and therefore providers:

  • generic Web API providers that can connect to any REST API
  • dedicated providers that connect to a specific external platform or database (SQL, ServiceNow, Azure Active App Insights, Elasticsearch, etc.)

About ServiceNow providers

A ServiceNow provider is a dedicated provider that contains the connection details to your ServiceNow instance. You need to create a ServiceNow provider before you can use ServiceNow tiles..

Requirements for ServiceNow providers

  • The SquaredUp server must have access to your ServiceNow instance on port 443 (HTTPS), since it is the server that connects to ServiceNow, and not your users' browser.
  • If you use a proxy server you may need to configure the proxy How to configure SquaredUp DS to use a proxy.
  • A ServiceNow account. It depends on the roles of the ServiceNow account you use for the ServiceNow provider what functions are available in the ServiceNow tile.

How the ServiceNow account affects the ServiceNow tile
The permissions of the ServiceNow account you are using for your ServiceNow providerplugin affect what you can see and do in the ServiceNow tile.

We recommend using a service account, which means you create an account specifically to use with the ServiceNow providerplugin. You have different options for setting up this service account:

  • ServiceNow permissions assignment with roles
    Give the ServiceNow account the ITIL and rest_api_explorer roles.
  • ServiceNow permissions assignment with ACLs, in place of roles
    If you don't want to use the ITIL role (for licensing or security reasons) give the ServiceNow account only the rest_api_explorer role and use ACLs to give the account more rights. This will limit the functionality of the ServiceNow tile.Using accounts without the ITIL role may cause data streams to error.

Where can I use ServiceNow providers?

The ServiceNow provider can be used with either the dedicated ServiceNow tile or the Web API tile (when you are using the Web API tile for ServiceNow). See How to use the ServiceNow tile and How to use the Web API tile

Should you use the Web API tile or the dedicated ServiceNow tile?

The ServiceNow tileoffers easier configuration than the Web API tile. You can display incidents and change request with the ServiceNow tile. If you want to use any other data from ServiceNow, you need to use the Web API tile.

The Web API tile can display other data in addition to incidents and change requests, it gives you more flexibility and advanced configurations.

Adding a ServiceNow provider

  1. In SquaredUp DS navigate to the right-hand menu ☰ > system > Integrations

  2. Under Integrations click on ServiceNow and type in a suitable name, e.g. ServiceNow.
  3. instance url:
    The instance URL should look something like
    https://instancename.service-now.com/api/now/ where instancename is your instance. If /api/now/ is not included as part of the instance URL then it will be automatically appended to this URL when the provider is created. If ServiceNow is installed on-premises, this may be something different.
    Note: This URL is prepended to every request URL.
  4. client id and secret:
    To get a client ID and secret from ServiceNow, you need to create an OAuth API endpoint for external clients in your ServiceNow account.
    Note: If you already are using ServiceNow in SquaredUp DS, you can re-use the client ID and secret you previously created. In this case, you can skip this step.
  5. username and password of the ServiceNow account you want to use.
  6. Click Save.

If the configuration is correct you will see a green tick.

If the provider is not authorized it could be that some of the provider configuration is incorrect (for example the username, password, secret etc), or if you use a proxy it could be that the proxy is not configured. See How to configure SquaredUp DS to use a proxy.

Where can I use ServiceNow providers?

The ServiceNow provider can be used with either the dedicated ServiceNow tile or the Web API tile (when you are using the Web API tile for ServiceNow). See How to use the ServiceNow tile and How to use the Web API tile

Should you use the Web API tile or the dedicated ServiceNow tile?

The ServiceNow tileoffers easier configuration than the Web API tile. You can display incidents and change request with the ServiceNow tile. If you want to use any other data from ServiceNow, you need to use the Web API tile.

The Web API tile can display other data in addition to incidents and change requests, it gives you more flexibility and advanced configurations.

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