SDK in Washington D.C. with Jay Couture and Patrick Wilson
Feb 21, 2024
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Pro-coders Jay Couture and Patrick Wilson talk about the exciting new SDK in Washington D.C., covering who it's for, recommendations, syncing, security, supported NPM packages, the roadmap, and its presence at CreatorCon 2024.
The ServiceNow SDK simplifies development by treating XML-based app artifacts as build artifacts, allowing focus on writing plain JavaScript files and leveraging NPM packages.
The SDK supports modern development experiences, future developments focus on modeling metadata as source code and enabling local development.
Deep dives
Introducing the ServiceNow SDK
The ServiceNow SDK is a command-line utility that allows developers to add JavaScript modules and third-party libraries from NPM to their ServiceNow scoped applications. It supports the use of Visual Studio Code for development and provides a workflow for creating, modifying, and deploying applications to a ServiceNow instance. The SDK simplifies the development process by treating XML-based app artifacts as a build artifact, allowing developers to focus on writing plain JavaScript files and leveraging the extensive ecosystem of NPM packages. Future developments include a focus on modern development experiences, such as modeling metadata as source code, enabling local development, and distributed version control using Git.
How the SDK Works
The ServiceNow SDK is a command-line interface that facilitates the build process for ServiceNow applications. It includes commands for authentication, deploying code changes to an instance, and fetching changes from an instance. The SDK treats XML-based artifacts as a result of the build process, while developers primarily work with plain JavaScript files. The SDK enables the integration of third-party libraries and custom JavaScript modules into ServiceNow applications. It ensures security by restricting access to ServiceNow APIs and prevents unauthorized access to sensitive data. The SDK is continuously being improved to align the ServiceNow scripting environment with industry-standard JavaScript runtimes, and future updates will provide even more development capabilities.
Benefits and Application
The ServiceNow SDK benefits experienced JavaScript developers by bringing the platform more in line with industry standards and opening up the platform to leverage popular JavaScript libraries and frameworks. The SDK supports modular JavaScript development and allows developers to leverage the full power of NPM packages and custom modules. Developers can enhance their application development workflows utilizing Visual Studio Code and source code management tools like Git. The SDK is also designed for collaboration, allowing teams to work in parallel on different parts of an application. Future developments will enhance developer independence, scalability, and enable local development in addition to on-instance development.
Future Roadmap and CreatorCon
The ServiceNow SDK is a foundational release that sets the stage for future developments in the ServiceNow application development experience. ServiceNow plans to provide an integrated development environment (IDE) directly on the platform, allowing developers to model application metadata as source code. These advancements will enable parallel development, offline development, and integration with Git for version control. More details and demonstrations of these features will be given at ServiceNow's CreatorCon event, where developers can provide feedback and help shape future updates of the SDK.
