Messages

A Message contains all the configuration required to send, receive, and process a request.

Messages are central to the functionality of Unifi. A Message brings together the disparate parts necessary for the configuration required in order to send, receive and process a request.

Message Fields

The Message fields to be configured for the Message record are as follows:

Field	Type	Description
Type	Choice	The primary purpose of the message.
Table	Table name	The table this message will be triggered from. This is typically the same as the target table defined on the process.
Application	Reference	The application containing this record.
Integration	Reference	The integration this record belongs to.
Active	Boolean	Set true to use this message for processing.
Description	String	The description for this message and the requirement it is meeting.
Message name	String	The message name that is unique for this integration.
XML Template	String	The template to be compiled when sending a message for an integration that is configured to use XML. Also handy for storing an example message which can be used as a reference on inbound messages.

Configuration Fields

The Configuration fields to be configured for the Message record are as follows:

Field	Type	Description
Direction*	Choice	The direction(s) this message is configured to support.
Response	Reference	The immediate synchronous response to this message.
Async	Boolean	Turn this option on if you want inbound processing to occur asynchronously or this message is the first of an asynchronous message pair (make sure to set a receipt message).
Async receipt	Reference	The asynchronous receipt to this message. Leaving this blank will cause the message to be processed asynchronously without sending a receipt.
Path	URL	A path to append to the URL defined in the connection. Specify a full URL to override the connection. Define inline scripts to reference Stage to Request script variables by wrapping code in braces {}, e.g. /{transaction.message_id}.
Action method	String	The SOAP Action or the REST Method to use for this message. If this field is empty the SOAP Action will default to the message name and the REST Method will default to POST.
Send attachments	Boolean	Mark this message as being enabled for sending attachments.

*Direction choices: Inbound, outbound, or bidirectional.

Trigger Fields

The Trigger fields to be configured for the Message record are as follows:

Field	Type	Description
Send to self*	Boolean	Enable this option to allow this message to be sent even when the integration it belongs to has caused the update.
Attachment added*	Boolean	Use this message to immediately send new attachments regardless of the trigger conditions.
Order	Integer	The order that outbound messages are processed in.
Use advanced condition	Boolean	Use a script to evaluate the trigger condition for this message.
Advanced condition*	Script plain	The script that must be met for the message to be processed. Use current to get access to the triggering record.
Outbound condition	String	The script that must be met for the message to be processed. Use current to get access to the triggering record.
Outbound condition	Conditions	The condition that the ServiceNow record must meet to trigger this message being processed.

*Send to self:

By default, if an integration updates a target record it will not trigger messages to be sent back to itself, preventing feedback loops.

*Advanced condition:

This field is made visible when the 'Use advanced condition' field is set to true.

*Attachment added:

This field is made visible when the 'Send attachments' field is set to true.

Bond Fields

The Bond fields to be configured for the Message record are as follows:

Field	Type	Description
Bond ownership*	String	Determine if the sender should own the bond or not in order for this message to be processed? Use ‘Ignore’ to process regardless of the owner flag.
Bond condition type	String	The type of conditional check made on the bond. None: no checks are made. State: checks against the state are made using the conditional checkboxes. Scripted: the ‘Bond condition’ script is used.
Bond reference method	String	Method of searching for and validating an existing bond for incoming messages. Internal: lookup using the internal reference only. External: lookup using the external reference only. Both: lookup using both the internal and external references.
Bond new	Boolean	Process this message when a new bond is required.
Bond pending	Boolean	Process this message when the bond state is Pending.
Bond open	Boolean	Process this message when the bond state is Open.
Bond suspended	Boolean	Process this message when the bond state is Suspended (internal suspend).
Bond vendor suspended	Boolean	Process this message when the bond state is Vendor suspended (external suspend).

*Bond ownership choices: Ignore, Must own, Must not own.

Scripts Fields

The Scripts fields to be configured for the Message record are as follows:

Field	Type	Description
Reference lookup script	Script plain	The script containing functions for extracting internal and external references from the request payload.
Extract attachments	Boolean	Use the Extract attachments script to extract attachments from the inbound payload and prevent attachment data from being stored in the Request payload field.
Extract attachments script*	Script plain	The script used to extract attachment data from a request payload. Used to prevent writing attachment data to the request payload field (full payload can be attached using integration ‘Attach payloads’ option).

*Extract attachments script

This field is made visible when the Extract attachments box is checked. The script must always return a string and if an object is used it needs to be JSON encoded (i.e. JSON.stringify()). The following is an example:

payload = (function extractAttachments(payload, request) {
	
	// Convert from string to object
	var obj = JSON.parse(payload);
	
	// Extract the attachment here...
	
	// Update the payload
	payload = {
		attachment: ''
	};
	
	// Encode payload back to string
	return JSON.stringify(payload);
})(payload, request);

CDATA

It is possible to use CDATA within an XML message, but because of the way ServiceNow handles XML it can be a little bit tricky. When ServiceNow see’s the CDATA tag, it actually processes it and the tag ends up being removed in the final. We need to use a little trick allow us to actually get the CDATA in the final result.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<j:jelly trim="false" xmlns:j="jelly:core" xmlns:g="glide" xmlns:j2="null" xmlns:g2="null">
  <g:evaluate jelly="true">
    var stage = jelly.jvar_stage, transaction = jelly.jvar_transaction;

    // initiate the attachment sender
    var sender = new x_snd_eb.AttachmentSender(
      jelly.jvar_transaction,
      jelly.jvar_bond
    );

    // we only handle one attachment - use in while loop if there are many
    sender.next();

    // we need CDATA to not be processed by XML
    // It's added in the XML below to wrap the embedded document
    var cdata = [
      '&lt;![' + 'CDATA[&lt;?xml version="1.0"?&gt;',
      ']]&gt;'
    ];
  </g:evaluate>
  <soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:wsdl="http://www.wsdl.com">
    <soapenv:Header/>
    <soapenv:Body>
      <wsdl:Request>
        <wsdl:RequestElement>
          <wsdl:server>dev.server.com</wsdl:server>
          <wsdl:formName>Attachment</wsdl:formName>
          <wsdl:id>ABC123</wsdl:id>
          <wsdl:xmlString>${cdata[0]}
            <Elements>
              <Element>
                <Name>Description</Name>
                <Value>Attachment Received from customer</Value>
              </Element>
              <Element>
                <Name>AttachmentName</Name>
                <Value>${HTML:sender.attachment_name}</Value>
              </Element>
              <Element>
                <Name>AttachmentData</Name>
                <Value><x-attachment-data sys_id="${sender.attachment_id}" /></Value>
              </Element>
            </Elements>${cdata[1]}</wsdl:xmlString>
          </wsdl:RequestElement>
        </wsdl:Request>
    </soapenv:Body>
  </soapenv:Envelope>
</j:jelly>