The CData ODBC Driver for ServiceNow enables you to create Python applications on Linux/UNIX machines with connectivity to ServiceNow data. Leverage the pyodbc module for ODBC in Python.
The rich ecosystem of Python modules lets you get to work quicker and integrate your systems more effectively. With the CData Linux/UNIX ODBC Driver for ServiceNow and the pyodbc module, you can easily build ServiceNow-connected Python applications. This article shows how to use the pyodbc built-in functions to connect to ServiceNow data, execute queries, and output the results.
Using the CData ODBC Drivers on a UNIX/Linux Machine
The CData ODBC Drivers are supported in various Red Hat-based and Debian-based systems, including Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora. There are also several libraries and packages that are required, many of which may be installed by default, depending on your system.
For more information on the supported versions of Linux operating systems and the required libraries, please refer to the “Getting Started” section in the help documentation (installed and found online). For more Servicenow Training
Installing the Driver Manager
Before installing the driver, check that your system has a driver manager. For this article, you will use unixODBC, a free and open source ODBC driver manager that is widely supported.
For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, you can install unixODBC with the APT package manager:
$ sudo apt-get install unixODBC unixODBC-dev
For systems based on Red Hat Linux, you can install unixODBC with yum or dnf:
$ sudo yum install unixODBC unixODBC-devel
The unixODBC driver manager reads information about drivers from an odbcinst.ini file and about data sources from an odbc.ini file. You can determine the location of the configuration files on your system by entering the following command into a terminal
$ odbcinst -j
The output of the command will display the locations of the configuration files for ODBC data sources and registered ODBC drivers. User data sources can only be accessed by the user account whose home folder the odbc.ini is located in. System data sources can be accessed by all users. Below is an example of the output of this command:
DRIVERS............: /etc/odbcinst.iniSYSTEM DATA SOURCES: /etc/odbc.iniFILE DATA SOURCES..: /etc/ODBCDataSourcesUSER DATA SOURCES..: /home/myuser/.odbc.iniSQLULEN Size.......: 8SQLLEN Size........: 8SQLSETPOSIROW Size.: 8
Installing the Driver
You can download the driver in standard package formats: the Debian .deb package format or the .rpm file format. Once you have downloaded the file, you can install the driver from the terminal. Learn more details from Servicenow Developer Training
The driver installer registers the driver with unixODBC and creates a system DSN, which can be used later in any tools or applications that support ODBC connectivity.
For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, run the following command with sudo or as root:
$ dpkg -i /path/to/package.deb
For Red Hat systems and other systems that support .rpms, run the following command with sudo or as root:
$ rpm -i /path/to/package.rpm
Once the driver is installed, you can list the registered drivers and defined data sources using the unixODBC driver manager:
List the Registered Driver(s)
$ odbcinst -q -dCData ODBC Driver for ServiceNow...
List the Defined Data Source(s)
view source$ odbcinst -q -sCData ServiceNow Source...
To use the CData ODBC Driver for ServiceNow with unixODBC, ensure that the driver is configured to use UTF-16. To do so, edit the INI file for the driver (cdata.odbc.servicenow.ini), which can be found in the lib folder in the installation location (typically /opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-servicenow), as follows:
cdata.odbc.servicenow.ini
[Driver]DriverManagerEncoding = UTF-16
Modifying the DSN
The driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties. Additionally, you can create user-specific DSNs that will not require root access to modify in $HOME/.odbc.ini.
ServiceNow uses the OAuth 2.0 authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to register an OAuth app with ServiceNow to obtain the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret connection properties. In addition to the OAuth values, you will need to specify the Instance, Username, and Password connection properties.
See the “Getting Started” chapter in the help documentation for a guide on connecting to ServiceNow Course
/etc/odbc.ini or $HOME/.odbc.ini
[CData ServiceNow Source]Driver = CData ODBC Driver for ServiceNowDescription = My DescriptionOAuthClientId = MyOAuthClientIdOAuthClientSecret = MyOAuthClientSecretUsername = MyUsernamePassword = MyPasswordInstance = MyInstance
For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).
You can follow the procedure below to install pyodbc and start accessing ServiceNow through Python objects.
Install pyodbc
You can use the pip utility to install the module:
pip install pyodbc
Be sure to import with the module with the following:
import pyodbc
Connect to ServiceNow Data in Python
You can now connect with an ODBC connection string or a DSN. Below is the syntax for a connection string:view sourcecnxn = pyodbc.connect('DRIVER={CData ODBC Driver for ServiceNow};OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=MyOAuthClientSecret;Username=MyUsername;Password=MyPassword;Instance=MyInstance;')
Below is the syntax for a DSN:
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DSN=CData ServiceNow Sys;')
Execute SQL to ServiceNow
Instantiate a Cursor and use the execute method of the Cursor class to execute any SQL statement.
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
Select
You can use fetchall, fetchone, and fetchmany to retrieve Rows returned from SELECT statements:view sourceimport pyodbc cursor = cnxn.cursor()cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DSN=CData ServiceNow Source;User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword')cursor.execute("SELECT sys_id, priority FROM incident WHERE category = 'request'")rows = cursor.fetchall()for row in rows:print(row.sys_id, row.priority)
You can provide parameterized queries in a sequence or in the argument list:
cursor.execute("SELECT sys_id, priorityFROM incidentWHERE category = ?", 'request',1)
Metadata Discovery
You can use the getinfo method to retrieve data such as information about the data source and the capabilities of the driver. The getinfo method passes through input to the ODBC SQLGetInfo method.
cnxn.getinfo(pyodbc.SQL_DATA_SOURCE_NAME)
You are now ready to build Python apps in Linux/UNIX environments with connectivity to ServiceNow data, using the CData ODBC Driver for ServiceNow.
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