Step 1. Launch Aspire and open the Content Source Management Page

Launch Aspire (if it's not already running). See:


Step 2. Add a new Service Now Content Source

To specify exactly what shared folder to crawl, we will need to create a new "Content Source".

To create a new content source:

  1. From the Content Source , click on "Add Source" button.
  2. Click on "Service Now Connector".

Step 2a. Specify Basic Information


In the "General" tab in the Content Source Configuration window, specify basic information for the content source:

  1. Enter a content source name in the "Name" field. 
    1. This is any useful name which you decide is a good name for the source. It will be displayed in the content source page, in error messages, etc.
  2. Click on the Scheduled pulldown list and select one of the following: Manually, PeriodicallyDaily, Weekly or Advanced.
    1. Aspire can automatically schedule content sources to be crawled on a set schedule, such as once a day, several times a week, or periodically (every N minutes or hours).For the purposes of this tutorial, you may want to select Manually and then set up a regular crawling schedule later.
  3. Click on the Action pulldown list to select one of the following: Start, StopPause, or Resume.
    1. This is the action that will be performed for that specific schedule.
  4. Click on the Crawl pulldown list and select one of the following: Incremental, FullReal Time, or Cache Groups.
    1. This will be the type of crawl to execute for that specific schedule.

After selecting a Scheduled, specify the details, if applicable:

  • Manually: No additional options.
  • Periodically: Specify the "Run every:" options by entering the number of "hours" and "minutes."
  • Daily: Specify the "Start time:" by clicking on the hours and minutes drop-down lists and selecting options.
  • Weekly: Specify the "Start time:" by clicking on the hours and minutes drop-down lists and selecting options, then clicking on the day checkboxes to specify days of the week to run the crawl.
  • Advanced: Enter a custom CRON Expression (e.g. 0 0 0 ? * *)

 

You can add more schedules by clicking in the Add New option, and rearrange the order of the schedules.
If you want to disable the content source just unselect the the "Enable" checkbox. This is useful if the folder will be under maintenance and no crawls are wanted during that period of time.
Real Time and Cache Groups crawl will be available depending of the connector.


  



Step 2b. Specify the Connector Information



In the "Connector" tab, specify the connection information to crawl the Service Now.

  1. Servicenow Host: Enter the Servicenow host name, without protocol
    1. example.service-now.com
  2. Username: Enter the Service Now username.
  3. Password: Enter the password of the user provided.
  4. Page Size: Enter the number of documents retrieved per request to Servicenow server.
  5. Stop on Scan Error?: If true, the crawl will stop if a scan error occurs.
  6. Cache Entire User Table: If true, entire sys_user table will be cached at once. Otherwise, user info is cached record-by-record, only when needed.
  7. Use Aggregate API: If true, Aggregate API will be use get the total count of rows for Knowledge and Category tables (In order to use Aggregate API, the user needs admin access, if the crawler account does not have access uncheck the option, the pagination will be done using the parameters sysparm_limit and sysparm_offset.
  8. Include Articles and Attachments: Check if the Knowledge Articles and its attachments will be crawl.
    1. Articles Display Base UrlBase URL for Display URL (depending on ServiceNow instance might vary, for London version the correct value should be /kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=, for any other Servicenow version should be /kb_view.do?sysparm_article= ).
    2. Use Knowledge Base Security: If true, the connector will crawl all the published and active content using the Knowledge Base Id as ACL (Servicenow server configuration is required). If false, the connector will crawl only public content.
    3. Choose Pattern field: Select the metadata field for Exclude or Include pattern functionality (Article Number or Title of the Article).
    4. Include Knowledge Article's attachments: If true, the connector will crawl all the attachments of the articles.
    5. Include or Exclude Attachments using patterns: Check to include or exclude attachments with the specified pattern (matching the pattern to the File name of the attachments).
      1. Use Mime type for patterns: If true, the connector will match the patterns using Mime type of the attachment instead of the File name.

  9. Include Catalog items and Attachments: Check if the Catalog Items and its attachments will be crawl.
    1. Include Catalog Model fields: Check to include the model associated with the catalog item and includes its key fields.
    2. Include or Exclude Catalog Item attachments: Check to crawl catalog items' attachments. 
    3. Choose Pattern field: Select the metadata field for Exclude or Include pattern functionality (Catalog Title or Short Description).
    4. Include or Exclude Attachments Mime Types: Check to include or exclude attachments with the specified pattern  (matching the pattern to the File name of the attachments)..
      1. Use Mime type for patterns: If true, the connector will match the patterns using Mime type of the attachment instead of the File name.



       

For additional information on the connector's specific properties see Service Now Configuration

Step 2c. Specify Workflow Information

In the "Workflow" tab, specify the workflow steps for the jobs that come out of the crawl. Drag and drop rules to determine which steps should an item follow after being crawled. This rules could be where to publish the document or transformations needed on the data before sending it to a search engine. See Workflow for more information.

  1. For the purpose of this tutorial, drag and drop the Publish To File rule found under the Publishers tab to the onPublish Workflow tree.
    1. Specify a Name and Description for the Publisher.
    2. Click Add.

After completing this steps click on the Save then Done and you'll be sent back to the Home Page.


Step 3: Initiate a Full Crawl


Now that the content source is set up, the crawl can be initiated.

  1. Click on the crawl type option to set it as "Full" (is set as "Incremental" by default and the first time it'll work like a full crawl. After the first crawl, set it to "Incremental" to crawl for any changes done in the repository).
  2. Click on the Start button.

During the Crawl

During the crawl, you can do the following:
  • Click on the "Refresh" button on the Content Sources page to view the latest status of the crawl.

    The status will show RUNNING while the crawl is going, and CRAWLED when it is finished.

  • Click on "Complete" to view the number of documents crawled so far, the number of documents submitted, and the number of documents with errors.

If there are errors, you will get a clickable "Error" flag that will take you to a detailed error message page.


Step 4: Initiate an Incremental Crawl


If you only want to process content updates from the Service Now (documents which are added, modified, or removed), then click on the "Incremental" button instead of the "Full" button. The Service Now connector will automatically identify only changes which have occurred since the last crawl.

If this is the first time that the connector has crawled, the action of the "Incremental" button depends on the exact method of change discovery. It may perform the same action as a "Full" crawl crawling everything, or it may not crawl anything. Thereafter, the Incremental button will only crawl updates.

When any indexed Knowledge Article changes the following criteria it will be deleted: A Role is not empty, It's not Active, the Workflow State is not Published and can_read_user_criteria is not empty.

For Catalog items the criteria of deletion would be Role is not empty or the record is not active.

Statistics are reset for every crawl.

Group Expansion 


Group expansion configuration is done on the "Advanced Connector Properties" of the Connector tab.

  1. Click on the Advanced Configuration checkbox to enable the advanced properties section.
  2. Scroll down to Group Expansion and click the checkbox.
  3. Add a new source for each repository you want to expands groups from (you'll need administrator rights on all of them to be able to do this).
  4. Set the default domain, user name and password of the crawl account.
  5. Set an schedule for group expansion refresh and cleanup.
  6. As an optional setting click on the "Use external Group Expansion" checkbox to select an LDAP Cache component for LDAP group expansion. See more info on the LDAP Cache component on LDAP Cache