bmoers / servicenow-cicd-azure-extension

Extension for Azure Pipelines to help developers get started faster with ServiceNow's CI/CD APIs

ServiceNow CI/CD Extension for Azure Pipelines

Contents

• Intro
• Installation
• Tests
• Build
• Integration
• API Docs
• List of tasks

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Intro

This extension is published on the Visual Studio Marketplace to help Now Platform application developers get started faster in setting up CI/CD pipelines using Azure Pipelines. Please see the extension landing page for more instructions on how to get set up.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/ServiceNow/servicenow-cicd-azure-extension.git
cd servicenow-cicd-azure-extension
npm install

Requirements

• nodejs ver >=8.0

DevDependecies

• jest

Dependencies

• archiver
• fs-extra

Tests

Project contains the tests folder. Inside are two files with mocks - pipeline.js and transport.js - pipeline emulates the AzureDevops pipeline inputs and variables, and transport have a mock for a ServiceNow API calls, it consumes the jsons generated from real server responses. The third file in the root of tests is integration.test.js. This one emulates the whole pipeline's inputs from ADO and works as a pipeline itself, sending the requests for real ServiceNow server. The integration tests is required before building the extension artifact.

The tests folder contains also subfolders with tests and mock-data jsons. These are the unit tests for existing endpoints and for correct error processing like 404s.

Tests should be ran via npm commands:

Unit tests

npm run test

Integration test

npm run integration

Note: The Rollback Plugin task will sometimes fails on ServiceNow instances despite a previously successful response to a Plugin Activate task. You can retry the test suite and hope the flakiness disappears and the tests pass. Also, the Apply Changes task in the integration tests is temporarily commented out while differences in behavior between the API and UI for Apply Remote Changes in an instance (Orlando or Paris) are being resolved.

Build

npm run build

This command will check the latest version among all the tasks jsons an extension' manifest file, update every one with the latest, copy all necessary files and folders into folder 'out' and generate the .vsix file with name servicenow.extension.x.y.z.vsix where x.y.z is the current version of extension. This file is ready to upload into the marketplace.

File extension.vsixmanifest contains the info about Extension, it's publisher, version, name and description. If you start a fork - make sure you have changed this to corresponding publisher and dropped the version to 1.0.0 here and in every task.json file.

Integration

This project contains azure-pipeline.yml file - when this repository added into ADO as a pipeline source, it will automatically create a pipeline, triggered by changes in master branch. It will install dependencies, run the Unit and Integration test and on success it will build and publish the artifact mentioned in Build section.

API docs

All the API calls are made corresponding with ServiceNow REST API documentation. Extension covers all the endpoints mentioned there. Some of endpoints have no separate task in extension's because of helper nature of these endpoint i.e. progress API.

Tasks

• Apply Remote Changes (from Source Control linked Git Repo)

Apply changes from a remote source control to a specified local application

• Publish Application

Publishes the specified application and all of its artifacts to the application repository. Different modes for choosing the version to publish are available, selectable as parameters.

• versionFormat:
  • exact: Use the version specified in the 'version' parameter
  • template: Use the specified version template (x.y) in the 'versionTemplate' parameter with an auto-generated appended z value based on the build number
  • detect: Detect the version of the application from XML file in Git repo. Use the 'isAppCustomization' parameter to indicate whether this should check for the version from the sys_app_{id}.xml or sys_app_customization_{id}.xml file. Will fail if no sources found
  • detect_without_autoincrement: Detect the version of the application from XML file in Git repo, and do not auto increment
  • autodetect: Detect the currently installed version from the instance's sys_app or sys_app_customization table on instance. (Use 'isAppCustomization' parameter to set which type of application this is.) This feature uses a Table API call, which requires a user with the necessary privileges on the instance. For example, by default sn_cicd.sys_ci_automation will not be sufficient. The sys_app and sys_app_customization table permissions can be updated to address this.
• version: Provide a version in the form x.y.z for the 'exact' versionFormat mode
• versionTemplate: Provide a version template in the form x.y for the 'template' versionFormat mode. (Final versions are in x.y.z form)
• incrementBy: {integer n} Use this parameter to set up auto-incrementing for your pipeline in the form x.y.z+n
• isAppCustomization: {Yes, No} This parameter is necessary for detecting the Application Customization version properly, from either Git repo XML file or from the table from your instance. It's important to note that the 'isAppCustomization' flag requires providing sys_id instead of scope!

• Install Application

Installs the specified application from the application repository onto the local instance

• Rollback Application

Initiate a rollback of a specified application to a specified version.

• Activate Plugin

Activate a desired plugin on ServiceNow instance

• Rollback Plugin

Rollback a desired plugin on ServiceNow instance

• Start ATF Test Suite

Start a specified automated test suite.

Support Model

ServiceNow built this integration with the intent to help customers get started faster in adopting CI/CD APIs for DevOps workflows, but will not be providing formal support. This integration is therefore considered "use at your own risk", and will rely on the open-source community to help drive fixes and feature enhancements via Issues. Occasionally, ServiceNow may choose to contribute to the open-source project to help address the highest priority Issues, and will do our best to keep the integrations updated with the latest API changes shipped with family releases. This is a good opportunity for our customers and community developers to step up and help drive iteration and improvement on these open-source integrations for everyone's benefit.

Governance Model

Initially, ServiceNow product management and engineering representatives will own governance of these integrations to ensure consistency with roadmap direction. In the longer term, we hope that contributors from customers and our community developers will help to guide prioritization and maintenance of these integrations. At that point, this governance model can be updated to reflect a broader pool of contributors and maintainers.