ServiceNow connection to App Broker not working

[jdempsey]

When setting up the integration between App Broker and ServiceNow in order to use ServiceNow as the front-end catalog, there are steps to configure a connection from App Broker to ServiceNow, and there are steps to configure a connection from ServiceNow to App Broker.  What would cause the connection from ServiceNow to App Broker not to work?

[jdempsey · Accepted solution]

There are many things that could cause the connection from ServiceNow to App Broker not to work:

• REST Message isn't configured to use a valid MID server or MID server is offline
• REST Message isn't configured to use the correct authentication (wrong auth type, wrong basic auth profile, wrong username/password in the basic auth profile)
• App Broker server isn't configured to allow Basic Auth for the REST APIs
• Service account doesn't have the correct permissions in App Broker to call REST APIs

Now, thanks to one of our partners, we know there is another reason that is much less obvious.  Community member @PBolles recently let us know about a known MID server limitation that restricts what characters can be used in the password that is used in your AppPortal Basic Auth profile.

MID Server protected records and reserved characters

Using special characters in an XML file

The XML specification defines five predefined entities that represent special characters, and requires that all XML processors honor them. If these characters are used in a password, you will experience unexpected results.

The following characters represent the five pre-defined entities:

• "
• &
• '
• < 
• > 

Thanks for the tip, Paul!