— title: Example: set up a GitHub search source description: Set up an advanced search source that queries data from an external website. locale: en-US canonical_url: www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/platform-user-interface/service-portal/search-sp-advanced.html release: australia product: Service Portal classification: service-portal topic_type: task last_updated: “2026-03-12” reading_time_minutes: 1

breadcrumb: [Define a search source, Zing search in Service Portal, Configuring search in a portal, Configuring Service Portal, Service Portal, Configure UIs and portals, Configure user experiences]

Example: set up a GitHub search source

Set up an advanced search source that queries data from an external website.

Before you begin

Role required: none

To create an advanced search source, you need authenticated access to an external website via a REST API and basic knowledge of AngularJS.

Procedure

1. In the platform UI, navigate to Service Portal > Portals and select the portal you want to add search sources to.

2. From the Search Sources related list, click New.

3. Create a name and ID for the search source.

   The ID should be unique, and should not include any spaces or special characters.

4. On the Data Source tab, select the Is scripted source check box.

5. Add content to the data fetch script field.

   To set up a GitHub integration:

   (function(query) {
       var results = [];
       /* Calculate your results here. */
       var url = "https://api.github.com/search/repositories?q=" + encodeURI(query);
       var ws = new GlideHTTPRequest(url);
       ws.setBasicAuth("YOUR_USERNAME_HERE", "YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE");
       var jsonOutput = ws.get();
       if (jsonOutput) {
           var response = new JSON().decode(jsonOutput.getBody());
           results = response.items;
           results.forEach(function(result) {
               result.url = result.svn_url;
               result.target = "_blank";
               result.primary = result.full_name;
           });
       }
   
       return results;
   })(query);

   Note: In the preceding example, ws.setBasicAuth requires a username and password for the external resource. For more detail, see GlideHTTPRequest - Global.

6. Use the Search page template to customize the way the search results display.

   <div>
     <div class="pull-right">
       <strong>{{item.language}}</strong>
       <a ng-href="{{item.svn_url}}/stargazers" target="_blank" class="m-l-sm"><span class="fa fa-star m-r-xs"></span>{{item.stargazers_count}}</a>
       <a ng-href="{{item.svn_url}}/network" target="_blank" class="m-l-sm"><span class="fa fa-code-fork m-r-xs"></span>{{item.forks}}</a>
     </div>
     <a ng-href="{{item.svn_url}}" target="_blank" class="h4 text-primary m-b-sm block">
       <span ng-bind-html="highlight(item.full_name, data.q)"></span>
     </a>
     <p>{{item.description}}</p>
     <p>Updated <sn-time-ago timestamp="item.updated_at"></sn-time-ago> ago</p>
   </div>

Parent Topic:Define a search source