Script Include Patterns for ServiceNow

Script Includes are reusable server-side JavaScript libraries that can be called from any server-side script.

Script Include Types

Type Use Case Client Callable

Standard Server-side utilities No

Client Callable GlideAjax from client Yes

On-Demand Lazy loading No

AbstractAjaxProcessor Client-server communication Yes

Standard Script Include (ES5)

// Basic utility class var IncidentUtils = Class.create() IncidentUtils.prototype = { initialize: function () { this.LOG_PREFIX = "[IncidentUtils] " },

/**

• Get incident by number
• @param {string} number - Incident number (INC0010001)
• @returns {GlideRecord|null} - Incident record or null */ getByNumber: function (number) { var gr = new GlideRecord("incident") gr.addQuery("number", number) gr.query() if (gr.next()) { return gr } return null },

/**

• Calculate priority based on impact and urgency
• @param {number} impact - Impact value (1-3)
• @param {number} urgency - Urgency value (1-3)
• @returns {number} - Calculated priority (1-5) */ calculatePriority: function (impact, urgency) { var matrix = { "1-1": 1, "1-2": 2, "1-3": 3, "2-1": 2, "2-2": 3, "2-3": 4, "3-1": 3, "3-2": 4, "3-3": 5, } var key = impact + "-" + urgency return matrix[key] || 4 },

/**

• Get open incidents for user
• @param {string} userSysId - User sys_id
• @returns {Array} - Array of incident objects */ getOpenIncidentsForUser: function (userSysId) { var incidents = [] var gr = new GlideRecord("incident") gr.addQuery("caller_id", userSysId) gr.addQuery("active", true) gr.orderByDesc("opened_at") gr.query()

while (gr.next()) {

  incidents.push({
    sys_id: gr.getUniqueValue(),
    number: gr.getValue("number"),
    short_description: gr.getValue("short_description"),
    state: gr.state.getDisplayValue(),
    priority: gr.priority.getDisplayValue(),
  })
}
return incidents

},

type: "IncidentUtils", }

Client Callable Script Include (ES5)

// Extends AbstractAjaxProcessor for GlideAjax calls var IncidentAjax = Class.create() IncidentAjax.prototype = Object.extendsObject(AbstractAjaxProcessor, { /**

• Get incident details - callable from client
• Client calls: new GlideAjax('IncidentAjax').addParam('sysparm_name', 'getIncidentDetails') */ getIncidentDetails: function () { var incidentId = this.getParameter("sysparm_incident_id") var result = {}

var gr = new GlideRecord("incident")

if (gr.get(incidentId)) {
  result.success = true
  result.number = gr.getValue("number")
  result.short_description = gr.getValue("short_description")
  result.state = gr.state.getDisplayValue()
  result.priority = gr.priority.getDisplayValue()
  result.assigned_to = gr.assigned_to.getDisplayValue()
  result.assignment_group = gr.assignment_group.getDisplayValue()
} else {
  result.success = false
  result.message = "Incident not found"
}

return JSON.stringify(result)

},

/**

• Search incidents by keyword */ searchIncidents: function () { var keyword = this.getParameter("sysparm_keyword") var limit = parseInt(this.getParameter("sysparm_limit"), 10) || 10 var incidents = []

var gr = new GlideRecord("incident")

gr.addQuery("short_description", "CONTAINS", keyword)
gr.addOrCondition("description", "CONTAINS", keyword)
gr.addQuery("active", true)
gr.setLimit(limit)
gr.orderByDesc("opened_at")
gr.query()

while (gr.next()) {
  incidents.push({
    sys_id: gr.getUniqueValue(),
    number: gr.getValue("number"),
    short_description: gr.getValue("short_description"),
  })
}

return JSON.stringify(incidents)

},

/**

• Check if user can update incident */ canUserUpdate: function () { var incidentId = this.getParameter("sysparm_incident_id") var userId = gs.getUserID()

var gr = new GlideRecord("incident")

if (gr.get(incidentId)) {
  // Check if user is assigned or in assignment group
  var canUpdate =
    gr.getValue("assigned_to") === userId || this._isUserInGroup(userId, gr.getValue("assignment_group"))
  return JSON.stringify({ canUpdate: canUpdate })
}

return JSON.stringify({ canUpdate: false })

},

_isUserInGroup: function (userId, groupId) { var member = new GlideRecord("sys_user_grmember") member.addQuery("user", userId) member.addQuery("group", groupId) member.query() return member.hasNext() },

type: "IncidentAjax", })

Client-Side GlideAjax Call (ES5)

// Client script calling Script Include function getIncidentDetails(incidentSysId, callback) { var ga = new GlideAjax("IncidentAjax") ga.addParam("sysparm_name", "getIncidentDetails") ga.addParam("sysparm_incident_id", incidentSysId) ga.getXMLAnswer(function (answer) { var result = JSON.parse(answer) callback(result) }) }

// Usage in client script getIncidentDetails(g_form.getUniqueValue(), function (incident) { if (incident.success) { g_form.addInfoMessage("Incident: " + incident.number) } else { g_form.addErrorMessage(incident.message) } })

Inheritance Pattern (ES5)

// Base class var TaskUtils = Class.create() TaskUtils.prototype = { initialize: function (tableName) { this.tableName = tableName || "task" },

getByState: function (state) { var records = [] var gr = new GlideRecord(this.tableName) gr.addQuery("state", state) gr.query() while (gr.next()) { records.push(this._toObject(gr)) } return records },

_toObject: function (gr) { return { sys_id: gr.getUniqueValue(), number: gr.getValue("number"), short_description: gr.getValue("short_description"), state: gr.getValue("state"), } },

type: "TaskUtils", }

// Derived class var IncidentUtilsExtended = Class.create() IncidentUtilsExtended.prototype = Object.extendsObject(TaskUtils, { initialize: function () { TaskUtils.prototype.initialize.call(this, "incident") },

getP1Incidents: function () { var incidents = [] var gr = new GlideRecord("incident") gr.addQuery("priority", 1) gr.addQuery("active", true) gr.query() while (gr.next()) { var obj = this._toObject(gr) obj.caller = gr.caller_id.getDisplayValue() incidents.push(obj) } return incidents },

type: "IncidentUtilsExtended", })

Scoped Script Include (ES5)

// In scoped application: x_myapp var MyAppUtils = Class.create() MyAppUtils.prototype = { initialize: function () { this.APP_SCOPE = "x_myapp" },

/**

• Get application property
• @param {string} name - Property name (without scope prefix) */ getAppProperty: function (name) { return gs.getProperty(this.APP_SCOPE + "." + name) },

/**

• Log with application prefix */ log: function (message, source) { gs.info("[" + this.APP_SCOPE + "][" + (source || "MyAppUtils") + "] " + message) },

/**

• Access cross-scope table safely */ getGlobalUser: function (userId) { var gr = new GlideRecord("sys_user") if (gr.get(userId)) { return { name: gr.getValue("name"), email: gr.getValue("email"), } } return null },

type: "MyAppUtils", }

MCP Tool Integration

Available Script Include Tools

Tool Purpose

snow_create_script_include

Create new Script Include

snow_find_artifact

Find existing Script Includes

snow_edit_artifact

Modify Script Include code

snow_execute_script_with_output

Test Script Include

Example Workflow

// 1. Create Script Include await snow_create_script_include({ name: "IncidentUtils", script: "/* Script Include code */", client_callable: false, description: "Incident utility functions", })

// 2. Test the Script Include await snow_execute_script_with_output({ script: var utils = new IncidentUtils(); var incident = utils.getByNumber('INC0010001'); gs.info('Found: ' + (incident ? incident.number : 'null')); , })

Best Practices

• Single Responsibility - One class, one purpose

• Meaningful Names - IncidentUtils not Utils

• Document Methods - JSDoc comments

• Error Handling - Try-catch with logging

• Private Methods - Prefix with underscore

• No Side Effects - Initialization should not modify data

• Testable - Write methods that can be unit tested

• ES5 Only - No const, let, arrow functions, template literals