Description
One of these errors is appearing as an error in the UI or in the application logs:
- '*** ERROR *** WhereClause - invalid token'
- 'Syntax Error or Access Rule Violation detected by database: Unknown column 'prefix_u_field' in 'on clause')" is appearing in the application logs (where 'prefix_u_field' is present in one of the where/join clauses of the database view)
- Where clause in view 'view_name' has an invalid field or a field that is not visible (SUBSTRING_INDEX)
Release or Environment
London and later.
Cause
The first error is produced when there is an unexpected character in the 'Where Clause' of a 'sys_db_view_table' record.
The presence of a "." in a join table's where clause suppresses any further parsing of the condition. This means that the 'prefix_field' syntax used in the join/where condition is not parsed and is interpreted as a literal field name, which does not exist, leading to the second error being reported.
The last error is caused because a SQL function has been introduced into the where/join clause and the presence of the '_' in the name is being parsed and being interpreted as if it was a 'prefix_field' combination, leading to the error as there is no view table with that prefix. The use of SQL functions in the join/where clause is not documented as supported and their usage could cause the view not to execute.
Resolution
When you write the Where clause, add the field name to the Variable prefix of its table with an underscore. For example, in a Where clause, mi_id refers to the id field in the Metric Instance [metric_instance] table (mi) and inc_sys_id refers to the sys_id field in the Incident [incident] table (inc). Users will often incorrectly reference fields using the standard javascript syntax 'inc.sys_id', when the Where clause is expecting 'inc_sys_id'.
The Where clause supports these JavaScript conditional operators for comparing table fields:
=, !=, <, <=, >, >=, &&, ||
More information is available here: https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/madrid-platform-administration/page/use/reporting/task/t_AddATableToTheDatabaseView.html