GlideRecord Query Cheat Sheet 23 Febru February ary 2010 2010
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Mark Mar k Stange Stangerr
doubt if there’s a single concept in Service-now that is more valuable to understand than how to use GlideRecord methods to query, query, insert, update, and delete records in your system. These methods have a wide variety of uses and are found at the heart of many of the business rules, UI actions, and scheduled job scripts that are essential to tie together your organization’s processes in your S ervice-now instance.
While the content of this post isn’t new information (additional examples can be found on the Service-now wiki), wiki ), my aim is to provide a single page of information containing some common examples of these methods as a reference. This is an excellent page to keep bookmarked! Note: These methods are designed for use in server-side JavaScript JavaScript (everything EXCEPT client scripts and UI policies). In some rare cases, it may be necessary to perform a query from a client-side javascript (client script or UI poli cy). The few fe w methods below that can be used in client-side JavaScript have been noted below.
Query Can also be used in Client scripts and UI policies A standard GlideRecord query follows this format. va var r gr = new GlideRecord('incident'); //Indicate the table to query from //The 'addQuery' line allows you to restrict the query to the field/value pairs specified (optional) //gr.addQuery('active', true); gr.query(); //Execute the query while while (gr.next()) { //While the recordset contains records, iterate through them //Do something with the records returned if if(gr.category == 'software'){ gs.log('Category is ' + gr.category); } }
UPDATE: This same function applies to client-side GlideRecord queries! If at all possible, you should use an asynchronous query from the client as
shown below. See this post for details. va var r gr = new GlideRecord('sys_user'); gr.addQuery('name', 'Joe Employee'); gr.query(myCallbackFunction); //Execute the query with callback function //After the server returns the query recordset, continue here function function myCallbackFunction(gr){ while while (gr.next()) { //While the recordset contains records, iterate through them alert(gr.user_name); } }
‘Get’ Query Shortcut (used to get a single GlideRecord) Can also be used in Client scripts and UI policies IF YOU AR E GETTING A RECORD BY SYS_ID. The ‘get’ method is a great way to return a single record when you know the sys_id of that record. va var r gr = new ne w GlideRe GlideRecord('i cord('incident ncident'); '); gr.get(sys_id_of_record_here); //Do something with the record returned if if(gr.category == 'software'){ gs.log('Category is ' + gr.category); } You can also query for a specific field/value pair. The ‘get’ method returns the first record in the result set. //Find the first active incident record va var r gr = new ne w GlideRe GlideRecord('i cord('incident ncident'); '); if if(gr.get('active' if(gr.get('a ctive', , tr true)){ ue //Do something with the record returned gs.log('Category is ' + gr.category); }
‘getRefRecord’ Query Shortcut (used to get a single GlideRecord referenced in a reference field) The ‘getRefRecord’ method can be used as a shortcut to query a record populated in a reference field on a record. va var r caller = current.caller_id.getRefRecord(); //Returns the GlideRecord for the value populated in the 'caller_id' field caller.email = '
[email protected]'; caller.update();
‘OR’ Query The standard ‘addQuery’ parameter acts like an ‘and’ condition in your query. This example shows how you can add ‘or’ conditions to your query. //Find all incidents with a priority of 1 or 2 va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident'); va var r grOR = gr.addQuery('priority', 1); grOR.addOrCondition('priority', 2); gr.query(); while while (gr.next()) { //Do something with the records returned if if(gr.category == 'software'){ gs.log('Category is ' + gr.category); } } Note that you can also chain your ‘OR’ condition as well, which is usually simpler //Find all incidents with a priority of 1 or 2 va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident'); gr.addQuery('priority', 1).addOrCondition('priority', 2); gr.query();
Insert Inserts are performed in the same way as queries except you need to replace the ‘query()’ line with an ‘initialize()’ line as shown here. //Create a new Incident record and populate the fields with the values below va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident'); gr.initialize(); gr.short_description = 'Network problem'; gr.category = 'software'; gr.caller_id.setDisplayValue('Joe Employee'); gr.insert();
Update You can perform updates on one or many records simply by querying the records, setting the appropriate values on those records, and calling ‘update()’ for each record. //Find all active incident records and make them inactive va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident'); gr.addQuery('active',true true); gr.query(); while while (gr.next()) { gr.active = fa false; ls e gr.update(); }
Delete Delete records by performing a glideRecord query and then using the ‘deleteRecord’ method. //Find all inactive incident records and delete them one-by-one va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident'); gr.addQuery('active',false false);
gr.query(); while while (gr.next()) { //Delete each record in the query result set gr.deleteRecord(); }
deleteMultiple Shortcut If you are deleting multiple records then the ‘deleteMultiple’ method can be used as a shortcut //Find all inactive incidents and delete them all at once va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident'); gr.addQuery('active', fal false); se gr.deleteMultiple(); //Deletes all records in the record set
addEncodedQuery CANNOT be used in Client scripts and UI policies! Use ‘addQuery(YOURENCODEDQUERYHERE)’ instead. An alternative to a standard query is to use an encoded query to create your query string instead of using ‘addQuery’ and ‘addOrCondition’ statements. An easy way to identify the encoded query string to use is to create a filter or a module with the query parameters you want to use, and then hover over the link or breadcrumb and look at the URL. T he part of the URL after ‘sysparm_query=’ is the encoded query for that link. So if I had a UR L that looked like this… https://demo.service-now.com/incident_list.do?sysparm_query=active=true^category=software^ORcategory=hardware My encoded query string would be this… active=true^category=software^ORcategory=hardware I could build that encoded query string and use it in a query like this… //Find all active incidents where the category is software or hardware va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident');
va var r strQuery = 'active=true'; strQuery = strQuery + '^category=software'; strQuery = strQuery + '^ORcategory=hardware'; gr.addEncodedQuery(strQuery); gr.query();
GlideAggregate GlideAggregate is actually an extension of the GlideRecord object. It allows you to perform the following aggregations on query recordsets… -COUNT -SUM -MIN -MAX -AVG //Find all active incidents and log a count of records to the system log va var r gr = new GlideAggregate('incident'); gr.addQuery('active', tr true); ue gr.addAggregate('COUNT'); gr.query(); va r incidents = 0; if (gr.next()){ incidents = gr.getAggregate('COUNT'); gs.log('Active incident count: ' + incidents); }
orderBy/orderByDesc You can order the results of your recordset by using ‘orderBy’ and/or ‘orderByDesc’ as shown below. //Find all active incidents and order the results ascending by category then descending by created date va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident');
gr.addQuery('active', tr true); ue gr.orderBy('category'); gr.orderByDesc('sys_created_on'); gr.query();
addNullQuery/addNotNullQuery ‘addNullQuery’ and ‘addNotNullQuery’ can be used to search for empty (or not empty) values //Find all incidents where the Short Description is empty va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident'); gr.addNullQuery('short_description'); gr.query(); //Find all incidents where the Short Description is not empty va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident'); gr.addNotNullQuery('short_description'); gr.query();
getRowCount ‘getRowCount’ is used to get the number of results returned //Log the number of records returned by the query va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident'); gr.addQuery('category', 'software'); gr.query(); gs.log('Incident count: ' + gr.getRowCount()); Although ‘getRowCount’ isn’t available client-side, you can return the number of results in a client-side GlideRecord query by using ‘rows.length’ as shown here… //Log the number of records returned by the query va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident');
gr.addQuery('category', 'software'); gr.query(); alert('Incident count: ' + gr.rows.length);
setLimit ‘setLimit’ can be used to limit the number of results returned //Find the last 10 incidents created va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident'); gr.orderByDesc('sys_created_on'); gr.setLimit(10); gr.query();
chooseWindow The chooseWindow(first,last) method lets you set the first and last row number that you want to retrieve and is typical for chunking-type operations. The rows for any given query result are numbered 0..(n-1), where there are n rows. The first parameter is the row number of the first result you’ll get. The second parameter is the number of the row after the last row to be returned. In the example below, the parameters (10, 20) will cause 10 rows to be returned: rows 10..19, inclusive. //Find the last 10 incidents created va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident'); gr.orderByDesc('sys_created_on'); gr.chooseWindow(10, 20); gr.query();
setWorkflow ‘setWorkflow’ is used to enable/disable the running of any business rules that may be triggered by a particular update.
//Change the category of all 'software' incidents to 'hardware' without triggering business rules on updated records va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident'); gr.addQuery('category', 'software'); gr.query(); while while(gr.next()){ gr.category = 'hardware'; gr.setWorkflow(false false); gr.update(); }
autoSysFields ‘autoSysFields’ is used to disable the update of ‘sys’ fields (Updated, Created, etc.) for a particular update. This really is only used in special situations. The primary example is when you need to perform a mass update of records to true up some of the data but want to retain the original update timestamps, etc. //Change the category of all 'software' incidents to 'hardware' without updating sys fields va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('incident'); gr.addQuery('category', 'software'); gr.query(); while while(gr.next()){ gr.category = 'hardware'; gr.autoSysFields(false false); gr.update(); }
setForceUpdate ‘setForceUpdate’ is used to update records without having to change a value on that record to get the update to execute. ‘setForceUpdate’ is particularly useful in situations where you need to force the recalculation of a calculated field for all records in a table or when you need to run business rules against all records in a table but don’t want to have to change a value on the records. This method is often used with ‘setWorkflow’ and ‘autoSysFields’ as shown below.
//Force an update to all User records without changing field values va var r gr = new ne w GlideRecord('sys_user'); gr.query(); while while (gr.next()) { gr.setWorkflow(false false); //Do not run business rules gr.autoSysFields(false false); //Do not update system fields gr.setForceUpdate(true true); //Force the update gr.update(); }
JavaScript Operators The following operators can be used in addition to the standard field/value query searching shown above… =
Field value must be equal to the value supplied.
addQuery('priority', '=', 3);
>
Field must be greater than the value supplied.
addQuery('priority', '>', 3);
<
Field must be less than the value supplied.
addQuery('priority', '<', 3);
>=
Field must be equal to or greater than the value supplied.
addQuery('priority', '>=', 3);
<=
Field must be equal to or less than the value supplied.
addQuery('priority', '<=', 3);
!=
Field must not equal the value supplied.
addQuery('priority', '!=', 3);
STARTSWITH
Field must start with the value supplied. The example shown on the right will get
addQuery('short_description', 'STARTSWITH', 'Error');
all records where the short_description field starts with the text 'Error'. ENDSWITH
Field must end with the value supplied. The example shown on the right will get
addQuery('short_description', 'ENDSWITH', 'Error');
all records where the short_description field ends with text 'Error'. CONTAINS
Field must contain the value supplied anywhere in the field. The example shown on the right will get all records where the short_description field contains the text 'Error' anywhere in the field.
addQuery('short_description', 'CONTAINS', 'Error');
DOES NOT
Field must not contain the value supplied anywhere in the field. The example
CONTAIN
shown on the right will get all records where the short_description field does not
addQuery('short_description', 'DOES NOT CONTAIN', 'Error');
contain the text 'Error' anywhere in the field. IN
Field must contain the value supplied anywhere in the string provided.
addQuery('sys_id', 'IN', '0331ddb40a0a3c0e40c83e9f7520f860,032ebb5a0a0a3c0e2e2204a495526dce');
INSTANCEOF
Retrieves only records of a specified class for tables which are extended. For example, to search for configuration items (cmdb_ci table) you many want to retrieve all configuration items that are have are classified as computers. The code uses the INSTANCEOF operator to query for those records.
Todd
23-02-2010, 04:05
Excellent Cheat Sheet! More more….. Reply
Cesar
23-02-2010, 15:43
Thanks Mark! this is helpful. Reply
Ivan Martez
15-04-2010, 13:54
Great Cheat Sheet and an excellent website!! Reply
Chris
09-09-2010, 00:22
addQuery('sys_class_name', 'INSTANCEOF', 'cmdb_ci_computer');
Is there a way to query for a date ? Such as current.addQuery(‘opened_at’, ‘<=', new Date()-7); Although this does not work is there a way to do something like this to query for a given date range ? Reply
Mark Stanger
09-09-2010, 00:24
There is. I usually use the ‘addEncocdedQuery’ method when dealing with date queries. You can build the query you want in a module or filter definition to see what the encoded query should look like. Reply
Benny
04-11-2010, 16:22
Thanks Mark! I’ve scoured the SN wiki and this is a better summary of their glide record pages. I’m a newbie to SN and I must admit I’ve found the learning curve a bit steep for customising SN, having come from other SaaS systems as Salesforce & Rightnow. These systems let you use GU I’s to do most things and for more advanced customisation there is a scripting option. SN seems to be all scripting from the get go with limited use of GUIs for configuration. It would be nice if their wiki included a clearer explanation on how Client Scripts, UI Policies, UI Actions, Business Rules & Access Control all fits together… Reply
Mark Stanger
04-11-2010, 16:33
Thanks for the comment. I think as you become more familiar with Service-now you’ll see that the majority of configurations are GUI-based or require some pretty light scripting. I’m not that familiar w ith Salesforce & Rightnow so I couldn’t say how Service-now compares. Hopefully some of the content here helps you to get going a little bit faster. I know that the SNC documentation team is really focusing right now on scripting documentation so what you see on the wiki should be getting better by the day. You might check out these forum links for some more information about SNC scripting basics. It gives some information from presentations I’ve given in the past about how some of this stuff connects. http://community.service-now.com/forum/3480 http://community.servicenow.com/forum/3613 Reply
Gabe
11-02-2011, 15:10
Here’s one for MultipleDelete, should be a good addition to this post. //Find all non-active incident records and delete them va var r md = new Packages.com.glide.db.MultipleDelete('incident'); md.addQuery('active', ffalse); al se md.setAllowCascadeDelete(); // optional: Allow cascading to records in other tables related to records being deleted md.execute(); Reply
bdr529
31-03-2011, 08:56
*Fantastic* posting, Mark! Great to have all of these listed together – thanks! Reply
priscilla.yuen
05-08-2011, 01:02
In reference to the Or query – is there any documentation about what a QueryCondition object is, and what its other functions are? Reply
Mark Stanger
05-08-2011, 06:35
@priscilla, there isn’t any other documentation about QueryCondition, but there’s really not much more to it either. The only real purpose of it is to enable you to add an ‘Or’ condition to a GlideRecord query. There are a couple more examples that I could probably share though. I’ll see if I can get something out next week. Reply
Jim Coyne
10-09-2011, 13:33
A nice tip for the “addEncodedQuery” section: you can now right-click a B readcrumb and select “Copy query” to get a copy of the encoded query.
Reply
Mike
10-10-2011, 14:15
Is there a way to get the display value from a SYS ID returned in a query? example: I would like the below code to result in the display name for the requested_by and not the sys_id used to reference the user table. va var r Req; va var r gr = new GlideRecord("change_request"); gr.addQuery('number', current.sysapproval); gr.query(); while while(gr.next()) { Req = gr.requested_by; } Reply
Mark Stanger
10-10-2011, 16:52
Since you’re dealing with a reference field you should be able to do something like this inside your while loop… Req = gr.requested_by.getDisplayValue(); You can also just dot-walk to the field that contains the display value Req = gr.requested_by.name; Reply
Mike
11-10-2011, 09:39
Thanks for the suggestions,
I’ve tried both and have listed the results of each below. Req = gr.requested_by.name; Returned the value “undefined” Req = gr.requested_by.getDisplayValue(); Resulted in a script error “Object doesn’t support this property or method” Reply
Mark Stanger
12-10-2011, 09:18
You’ve got another problem in your code… gr.addQuery('number', current.sysapproval); should be... gr.addQuery('sys_id', current.sysapproval); Reply
Mike
12-10-2011, 09:45
Ah, you are correct. I have corrected the query. Still, very odd when I use the following: Req = gr.requested_by; I get the sys_id that is in that reference field When using Req = gr.requested_by.name;
I still get “undefined”. I will keep working at it. Thanks for your time and help.
Andreas
28-06-2012, 08:44
Another nice addition to this list would be applyEncodedQuery see: http://community.servicenow.com/forum/5356 Reply
Michele
03-08-2012, 09:16
I find the encodedquery to be extremely helpful especially when my query includes things like created this week or created before a specific date. Then I know for sure I have the right query string. Question: If I run a GlideRecord query and then want to add another condition to the query and rerun it, is that possible? Not that I would do the following but just as an example. The real code I’m doing has quite a few query conditions and I’m rebuilding the same query multiple times just to add one more condition and it just seems inefficient. EX: var newArray = new Array(); var newArray2 = new Array(); var gr = new GlideRecord(‘incident’); gr.addQuery(‘active’, true); gr.query(); while(gr.next()){ if (gr.severity = ‘1’){ newArray.push(gr.number); } //I want to add to the above query that incident state = 6… gr.addQuery(‘incident_state’, ‘6’); gr.query();
while (gr.next()){ newArray2.push(gr.number); } Reply
Amado Sierra
21-09-2012, 07:31
One thing to note about updating a reference field to null is that it has to be done as described here: Example 1 var gr1 = new GlideRecord(‘incident’); gr1.query(); while(gr1.next()) { gr1.priority = “NULL”; gr1.update(); } Source: http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Setting_a_GlideRecord_Variable_to_Null Reply
Kari Sweeney
28-11-2012, 08:55
Thanks so much for posting this info -it is really helpful!. We are struggling with using AddQuery and AddORCondition to create an advanced query. Here is an example of what we wre trying to accomplish.. (Where Priority is 1 AND IncidentState =6) OR (Where Priority = 2 AND Category = Software) Is there a way to accomplish this?
thanks, Kari Reply
Mark Stanger
28-11-2012, 16:09
I struggle with ‘AddOrCondition’ sometimes too. I’ve found it helpful to use ‘AddEncodedQuery’ to manage those types of complex queries more easily. By using that method, you can simply build the query filter in a standard list so that you can see exactly what you want, then right-click the breadcrumb and select ‘Copy query’. Then you can just add that as an encoded query and not have to worry about the correct ‘AddOrCondition’ setup. Reply
Mika
08-05-2014, 11:56
I’m also interested in doing nested AND conditions. Did you ever determine a way to do it. I’d prefer using an encoded query if possible. The only other way I can think of doing it is to create two separate queries and then combine the results (not very pretty but easy enough I suppose). Reply
Martin Robinson
07-10-2013, 06:45
Nice one Mark, thanks for sharing. Much appreciated. Reply
Joe
24-10-2014, 06:44
I’m having trouble with setWorkflow. I’ve used it successfully before, but now it seems to be cancelling the update that it precedes. in a script action (parm2 = sys_id of an inc and parm1 = display value of an assignment group), I have: var outage = new GlideRecord(‘incident’); outage.get(event.parm2); outage.work_notes = “Outage originally assigned to ” + event.parm1;
outage.setWorkflow(false); outage.update(); If I comment out “outage.setWorkflow(false),” I will see the update to the work notes. However, if i leave the line as is, i wont see the update. I definitely do not want to trigger other business rules after this update, so im not sure what’s happening here. Anyone have any thoughts? Reply
Jef De Coster
20-03-2015, 05:01
Hi Joe, Don’t know if it’s still relevant, but I had the same issue. Apparantly this is normal behaviour when using setWorkflow(false), the work_notes won’t be updated. I’ve found a nice script include and a way to set the work notes alltogether even if setWorkflow(false) is applied. I found it on the SNBlog, the author is Stefan Bohncke. You can find it using this url: http://www.snc-blog.com/2012/10/22/temporarily-circumventing-business-rules-to-update-work-notes/ Hopefully this is helping you out? It worked for me ! KR, Jef Reply
JMO
15-07-2015, 09:09
I use this page quite a bit and just recently found out ServiceNow also offers a “NOT IN” operator, which has saved me several times. Reply
Rajan Murkute
03-11-2015, 21:41
This cheat sheet covers the most frequently used GlideRecord operations. All explanations and examples are easy to follow. It saved me huge amount of time which I may have spent looking through the Service-Now Wiki pages. Reply
CodeHacker
22-03-2016, 06:51
Thanks.. Very helpfull Reply
