What you need for this book

There are a couple of things you'll need, before you set off on your journey toward becoming a ServiceNow developer:

Basic knowledge of JavaScript

JavaScript is the language that's used to interact with ServiceNow on both the client, and the server. While an administrator can do a lot of customization within ServiceNow without any code at all, any scripting you do will be done in JavaScript.

There's a common saying: "'Java' is to 'JavaScript', as 'Car' is to 'Carpet'". The two are effectively unrelated. The language you need to know for ServiceNow development, is JavaScript.

A free developer instance of ServiceNow

ServiceNow is kind enough to provide a free development instance to anyone who wants one.

To request an instance, simply register for an account on www.developer.servicenow.com, and then click the Request Instance link on your account page.

When requesting an instance, you may select which version of ServiceNow you'd like. You can change this at any time down the road, but it often takes a few hours to do so.

This book deals primarily with the Helsinki version of ServiceNow, though Geneva and Istanbul are included and discussed as well. If you're going to follow along in your own instance, we recommend doing so in either Helsinki, or Istanbul.