Connect to ServiceNow Data in Ruby

The CData ODBC Driver for ServiceNow makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live ServiceNow data in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to ServiceNow data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Getting Started

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Create an ODBC Connection to ServiceNow Data

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

ServiceNow uses the OAuth 2.0 authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, register an OAuth app with ServiceNow to obtain the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret connection properties. In addition to the OAuth values, specify the Instance, Username, and Password connection properties.

See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide on connecting to ServiceNow.

Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems

If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:

gem install dbi
gem install dbd-odbc
gem install ruby-odbc

Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to ServiceNow Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example: ServiceNowSelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

#connect to the DSN
require 'dbi'
cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData ServiceNow Source','','')

#execute a SELECT query and store the result set
resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT sys_id, priority FROM incident")

#display the names of the columns
resultSet.column_names.each do |name|
 print name, "\t"
end
puts

#display the results
while row = resultSet.fetch do
 (0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n|
 print row[n], "\t"
 end
 puts
end
resultSet.finish

#close the connection
cnxn.disconnect if cnxn

With the file completed, you are ready to display your ServiceNow data with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

ruby ServiceNowSelect.rb

Writing SQL-92 queries to ServiceNow allows you to quickly and easily incorporate ServiceNow data into your own Ruby applications. Download a free trial today!