Follow this guide to learn how to configure a dedicated Message in Unifi to handle streamed attachments.
Attachments can be sent either as a stream or embedded in the payload as Base64.
In this guide, you will configure a dedicated Message as part of the Incident Guide Integration (created when following the Bidirectional Asynchronous Incident Guide). It is assumed that the Process, Web Service, Integration & Connection are already in place (if not, please ensure that those elements are in place before continuing).
The components to configure are as follows:
Message
Scripted REST Resource
Unifi will automatically generate the Scripted REST Resource to cater for inbound streaming. If using a Resource created on a release prior to v3.0 this will need to be updated manually.
When you create a Process, Unifi will automatically create the corresponding Scripted REST Resources (see Automated Creation of REST Service).
This guide is supplementary to the Bidirectional Asynchronous Incident Guide and assumes the Process (& subsequent Scripted REST Resources) are already in place (See the Web Service page of that guide for details).
We will now examine the automatically generated Attachment Resource. If you are manually updating an existing Resource to cater for inbound streaming, ensure that it looks like the this.
The following code is extracted from the automatically generated Attachment Scripted REST Resource:
Note: the above script is processing the inbound attachment using the "AddAttachment"
message. If your message is named differently then simply update.
You may need to update the api_name
in the x_snd_eb.RestHelper()
function. It must be the same as the one you set in the Process record.
With the Message & Scripted REST Resource in place, you are now ready to Test the AddAttachment Message.
The AddAttachment Message will be used to process inbound and outbound attachments.
In Unifi Integration Designer, click on the 'Messages' icon & then New to begin configuring the AddAttachment Message.
The fields to be configured for the AddAttachment New Message modal are as follows:
Field | Description | Value |
---|
Your AddAttachment New Message modal should look like this:
Submit and view to further configure the Message.
Navigate to Message > Response.
The Response fields to be configured are as follows:
Your Response form should look like this:
Navigate to Message > Bond.
The Bond fields to be configured are as follows:
*These fields are automatically populated.
Your Bond form should look like this:
Navigate to Outbound > Trigger.
The Outbound Trigger fields to be configured (as required)* are as follows:
*Outbound condition (as required):
It is not always necessary for you to enter a condition. The value given is an example. You may create any condition (or not) to align with your business process requirements. In this case, it makes sense to set the Outbound Condition to false because we do not want Unifi to send this message on any update of the source record. Typically, we would configure different messages to align with state changes (e.g. Close, Resolve).
The code in the 'Outbound condition' script field should look like this:
Your Outbound Trigger form should look like this:
Navigate to Outbound > Attachments.
The Outbound Attachments fields to be configured are as follows:
*This field is automatically populated.
Your Outbound Attachments form should look like this:
Navigate to Outbound > Settings.
The Outbound Setting fields to be configured are as follows:
The code in the 'Path' field should look like this:
Please note the following when using the Unifi Scripted REST API to automatically generate the Scripted REST Resource:
If you have attachment messages which were configured before the auto-generated Scripted REST Resources, you must add the /attachment
element to the Path of those messages. Otherwise, they may generate "Content type not allowed" errors.
Your Outbound Settings form should look like this:
Navigate to Inbound > Settings.
The Inbound Settings fields to be configured are as follows:
*Bond reference method value choices: Internal - lookup using the internal reference only. External - lookup using the external reference only. Both - lookup using both the internal and external references.
Choose the value depending on what is needed.
For attachments we only use the Internal lookup because we are not passing both references. Lookup could be done on External or Both, but the references would need to be added to the inbound request.
Your Inbound Settings form should look like this:
Navigate to Advanced > Script Editor.
When you first open Script Editor, it should look like this:
The Script Editor fields to be configured are as follows:
The code in the ‘Stage to Request’ script field should look like this:
file_name: It is necessary to encode the file_name
so that the characters are converted into a format that can be transmitted and understood in the endpoint URL. Not doing so could cause the Transaction to fail (particularly if the file_name
contains special characters).
payload: To stream outbound, you will need to set the payload to be "sys_attachment:<sysid>". Unifi will recognise this and automatically stream the attachment out.
You would configure other message data within the URL or the headers.
The code in the ‘Payload to Stage’ script field should look like this:
Your Script Editor fields should now look like this:
Save the message.
Next, we shall configure the Scripted REST Resource.
Field | Description | Value |
---|
Field | Description | Value |
---|
Field | Description | Value |
---|
Field | Description | Value |
---|
Field | Description | Value |
---|
The /attachment
element of the Path is required when using the Unifi Scripted REST API to automatically generate the Scripted REST Resource. We shall discuss this further on the .
Field | Description | Value |
---|
Make sure to set either stage.internal_reference
or stage.external_reference
(or both) to match in the Payload to Stage Script (see ).
Field | Description | Value |
---|
We have chosen to set the internal reference on stage as we have set the Bond reference method to 'Internal' (). I_f we had set the Bond reference method to 'External', we would need to set the stage external reference here (or both if we had set the Bond reference method to 'Both')._
Response | The immediate synchronous response to this message. | lookup: 'Response' |
Bond ownership **** condition* | 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. (Choices: Ignore, Must own, Must not own.) | 'Ignore' |
Bond condition type* | 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.) | 'State' |
Bond pending | Process this message when the bond state is Pending. | <true> |
Bond open | Process this message when the bond state is Open. | <true> |
Outbound condition* | The condition that the ServiceNow record must meet to trigger this message being processed. | Update the Outbound condition script field with the code below |
Send attachments | Mark this message as being enabled for sending attachments. | <true> |
Maximum attachments to send* | Set the maximum number of attachments this message can send using the AttachmentSender helper class. | '1' |
Attachment added | Use this message to immediately send new attachments regardless of the trigger conditions. | <true> |
Path | 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}. | Update the Path field with the code below |
Action method | 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. | 'POST' |
Bond reference method | Method of searching for and validating an existing bond for incoming messages. | 'Internal'* |
Stage to Request | Method of searching for and validating an existing bond for incoming messages. | Update the code in the Stage to Request script field so that it looks like the code below |
Payload to Stage | The script containing functions for extracting internal and external references from the request payload. | Update the code in the Payload to Stage script field so that it looks like the code below |
Message name | The message name that is unique for this integration. | 'AddAttachment' |
Type | The primary purpose of the message. | 'Update' |
Direction | The direction(s) this message is configured to support. | 'Bidirectional' |
Description | Describe the message and the function it is performing. | <Your description> |
Follow these steps to test the AddAttachment Message.
If necessary, create at least one bonded record in order to test the AddAttachment Message.
In the originating instance, select one bonded ticket and Add an attachment to the record .
From the bonded record, navigate to the Unifi Integrations related list and click to open the Bond.
The External reference is populated. The State is "Open" and the Status is "OK".
From the Bond, navigate to the following related lists:
Navigate to the Bonded Attachments related list and verify that a Bonded Attachment record has been created.
The State is "Complete".
Navigate to the Transactions related list and click to open the AddAttachment Transaction.
The Transaction state is "Complete" and the Process state is "Accepted".
From the Transaction, navigate to the HTTP Requests related list and click to open the HTTP Request.
The Request state is "OK".
Note the following about the HTTP Request:
Endpoint URL: A concatenation of the Connection URL appended with the Path defined on the Message.
Request headers*: Contains the mime_type.
Request payload*: The payload contains the "sys_attachment:<sysid>" (the format which Unifi expects & automatically triggers outbound streaming).
*These objects were defined in the Stage to Request script.
You will never see the attachment data in the payload itself.
In the receiving instance, navigate to the corresponding bonded ticket and verify the attachment has been added to the record.
The attachment has been added to the bonded record.
From the bonded record, navigate to the Unifi Integrations related list and click to open the Bond.
The External reference is populated (note: the Internal/External reference values are opposite to the originating bond). The State is "Open" and the Status is "OK".
From the Bond, navigate to the following related lists:
Navigate to the Bonded Attachments related list and verify that a Bonded Attachment record has been created.
The State is "Complete".
Navigate to the Transactions related list and click to open the AddAttachment Transaction.
The Transaction state is "Complete" and the Process state is "Accepted".
From the Transaction, navigate to the HTTP Requests related list and click to open the HTTP Request.
The Request state is "OK".
Note the following about the HTTP Request:
Endpoint URL: This is defined on the Resource path of the automatically generated Scripted REST Resource.
Request payload: The payload structure is defined in the Scripted REST Resource script.
Congratulations! You have successfully configured & tested a dedicated Message to stream inbound and outbound attachments.