Delete a ServiceNow incident

Overview

This guide demonstrates how to implement a self-service action in Port that deletes ServiceNow incidents directly from Port using synced webhooks. By combining synced webhooks with Port's automation, you can keep your software catalog clean and synchronized with your ServiceNow environment.

Prerequisites

• Complete the onboarding process.
• Access to your ServiceNow account with permissions to manage incidents.
• Install Port's ServiceNow integration.

Set up data source mapping

By default, the identifier of the incident kind is mapped to the incident number (.number). However, deleting records in ServiceNow via API requires the system's internal ID (.sys_id). To fix this:

1. Go to the Data Sources page of your portal.

2. Select the ServiceNow integration.

3. Add the following YAML block into the editor to update the incident data:

   Updated ServiceNow integration configuration (Click to expand)

   resources:
   - kind: incident
       selector:
       query: 'true'
       apiQueryParams:
           sysparmDisplayValue: 'true'
           sysparmExcludeReferenceLink: 'false'
       port:
       entity:
           mappings:
           identifier: .sys_id
           title: .short_description
           blueprint: '"servicenowIncident"'
           properties:
               category: .category
               reopenCount: .reopen_count
               severity: .severity
               assignedTo: .assigned_to.link
               urgency: .urgency
               contactType: .contact_type
               createdOn: '.sys_created_on | (strptime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S") | strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"))'
               createdBy: .sys_created_by
               isActive: .active
               priority: .priority

4. Click Save & Resync to apply the mapping.

Implementation

You can delete ServiceNow incident by leveraging Port's synced webhooks and secrets to directly interact with ServiceNow's Table API.

Add Port secrets

To add a secret to your portal:

1. Click on the ... button in the top right corner of your Port application.

2. Click on Credentials.

3. Click on the Secrets tab.

4. Click on + Secret and add the following secrets:

   • SERVICENOW_INSTANCE_URL - The ServiceNow instance URL. For example https://example-id.service-now.com.

   • SERVICENOW_API_TOKEN: A base64 encoded string of your servicenow credentials generated as:

     echo -n "your-username:your-password" | base64

Set up self-service action

1. Head to the self-service page.

2. Click on the + New Action button.

3. Click on the {...} Edit JSON button.

4. Copy and paste the following JSON configuration into the editor.

   Delete ServiceNow Incident (Click to expand)

   {
       "identifier": "delect_servicenow_incident",
       "title": "Delect ServiceNow Incident",
       "icon": "Servicenow",
       "description": "Deletes an incident from the ServiceNow incident table using a unique system ID",
       "trigger": {
           "type": "self-service",
           "operation": "DELETE",
           "userInputs": {
           "properties": {},
           "required": [],
           "order": []
           },
           "blueprintIdentifier": "servicenowIncident"
       },
       "invocationMethod": {
           "type": "WEBHOOK",
           "url": "{{.secrets.SERVICENOW_INSTANCE_URL}}/api/now/table/incident/{{.entity.identifier}}",
           "agent": false,
           "synchronized": true,
           "method": "DELETE",
           "headers": {
           "RUN_ID": "{{ .run.id }}",
           "Content-Type": "application/json",
           "Accept": "application/json",
           "Authorization": "Basic {{.secrets.SERVICENOW_API_TOKEN}}"
           },
           "body": {}
       },
       "requiredApproval": false
   }

5. Click Save.

Now you should see the Delect ServiceNow Incident action in the self-service page. 🎉

Create an automation to remove entity from Port

Once the incident is deleted from ServiceNow, we want to automatically remove the corresponding entity in Port. To achieve this behaviour:

1. Head to the automations page.

2. Click on the + Automation button.

3. Copy and paste the following JSON configuration into the editor.

   Delete ServiceNow incident in Port automation (Click to expand)

   {
       "identifier": "servicenow_incident_delete_sync_status",
       "title": "Remove Deleted Incident from Port",
       "description": "Removes the deleted entity in Port when after it is deleted from ServiceNow",
       "trigger": {
           "type": "automation",
           "event": {
           "type": "RUN_UPDATED",
           "actionIdentifier": "delect_servicenow_incident"
           },
           "condition": {
           "type": "JQ",
           "expressions": [
               ".diff.after.status == \"SUCCESS\""
           ],
           "combinator": "and"
           }
       },
       "invocationMethod": {
           "type": "WEBHOOK",
           "url": "https://api.port.io/v1/blueprints/{{.event.diff.after.blueprint.identifier}}/entities/{{.event.diff.after.entity.identifier}}",
           "agent": false,
           "synchronized": true,
           "method": "DELETE",
           "headers": {
           "RUN_ID": "{{.event.diff.after.id}}",
           "Content-Type": "application/json",
           "Accept": "application/json"
           },
           "body": {}
       },
       "publish": true
   }

4. Click Save.

Now, whenever a user runs the Delete ServiceNow Incident action:

1. The incident is deleted directly from ServiceNow via webhook.
2. The corresponding entity in Port is automatically removed, keeping your catalog clean and consistent.