Exploring the database

So you've got an instance and have logged in. Great! What can we see? The answer: database records.

Almost everything in ServiceNow is an entry in a database. When you look at the user interface, virtually everything you see-from the data typed in by a user to log files and how the views are structured-is stored in the instance's relational database. The scripts you write are kept in a string field, and the files you attach to records are stored in chunks, all in the database.

All this data is organized into many tables. A table is a collection of records, with each record being a row. A field is a column in that table.

Everything is built on top of this structure. You don't need to reboot the server to apply new functionality; you just update data records. You don't need to reload configuration files-any properties you set will be read on the next operation. Even the database metadata-information about the fields themselves-is stored in another table.

This gives you a...