Viewing ServiceNow Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer



How to view ServiceNow data in RAD Studio Data Explorer using the CData ODBC Driver for ServiceNow.

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for ServiceNow, you gain access to live ServiceNow data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve ServiceNow data. This article will walk through connecting to ServiceNow using the Data Explorer.

About ServiceNow Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live ServiceNow data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

  • Get optimized performance since CData uses the REST API for data and the SOAP API for schema.
  • Read, write, update, and delete ServiceNow objects like Schedules, Timelines, Questions, Syslogs and more.
  • Use SQL stored procedures for actions like adding items to a cart, submitting orders, and downloading attachments.
  • Securely authenticate with ServiceNow, including basic (username and password), OKTA, ADFS, OneLogin, and PingFederate authentication schemes.

Many users access live ServiceNow data from preferred analytics tools like Tableau, Power BI, and Excel, and use CData solutions to integrate ServiceNow data with their database or data warehouse.


Getting Started


Configure a Connection to ServiceNow

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, you will need to register an OAuth app with ServiceNow to obtain the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret connection properties. In addition to the OAuth values, you will need to specify the Instance, Username, and Password connection properties.

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

Connecting to ServiceNow Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying ServiceNow data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for ServiceNow and a new VCL Forms Application:

  1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
  2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
  3. Click Add New Connection.
  4. Enter a name for the connection.
  5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for ServiceNow.
  6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the views for the connection.
  7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a view (for example: incident) onto the form.

  8. Select the incidentView object on the form and set the Active property to true.
  9. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

  10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the incident data.

Related Articles

Below you can find other articles for using the CData ODBC Driver with RAD Studio, Delphi, and C++ Builder.

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The ServiceNow ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live ServiceNow data, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access ServiceNow data like you would a database - read, write, and update Schedules, Timelines, Questions, Syslogs, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.