Creating Group Approvals in a Workflow Via Script Not Behaving Properly

[jmiskey]

Typically, we use the Group Approval action in the Workflow to create group approvals.  However, we have Catalog Items where users can select more than one "role" to request, and each "role" has its own Approval Group, which is maintained by a Role Data Dictionary table.  So we have a Run Script action, which loops through all the Roles they have selected, and creates a separate Group Approval for each one.  The code looks something like this:

//capture roles selected from variable
var roleList = current.variables.role.toString();

//loop through all roles
var roleArray = roleList.split(',');
for (var i = 0; i < roleArray.length; i++) {
	var rol = roleArray[i];
	var gr = new GlideRecord('u_tango_roles');
	gr.addQuery('sys_id', rol);
	gr.query();
	
	//create group approvals
	with (gr.next()){
		if (gr.u_approval_needed == true){
			var appGrp = gr.u_role_approver;
			var role_name = gr.u_role_name;

			//create group approval
			var grApproval = new GlideRecord('sysapproval_group');
			grApproval.initialize();
			grApproval.parent = current.sys_id; 
			grApproval.assignment_group = appGrp;   
			grApproval.approval = 'requested';
			grApproval.wait_for='any';  //wait for anyone to approve
			grApproval.insert();
			
			//add approval types to approver approval records
			var apprv = new GlideRecord("sysapproval_approver");
			apprv.addQuery("sysapproval", "=", current.sys_id);
			apprv.addQuery("state", "=", 'requested');
			apprv.addQuery("u_approval_type", "=", "");
			apprv.query();
			while (apprv.next()) {
				apprv.u_approval_type = 'Tango: ' + role_name + ' Approval';
				apprv.update();
			}
		}
	}
}

So, this script does correctly create the Group Approval records, and the accompanying Approver Approval records, for each member in the groups. 

It does what it is supposed to, except for one big thing.  Even though we have the "Wait For" field set to "any" (so that once one person approves or rejects an approval, all other approval records created for that particular approval are deemed unnecessary), it is not working properly.  If one person approves a particular approval, all the other persons in that group still have their individual approval records showing as "Requested" instead of "No Longer Required".

I compared these approvals created by scripts against one that are created by the Group Approval action (and behave like they should), and could not find any differences.  In both cases, the following values on the Group Approval record are the same:

- Wait for: Anyone to approve

- Upon approval: Proceed to next task

- Upon reject: Cancel all future tasks

What am I doing wrong?  Am I missing some sort of setting?

How do I get the Group Approval (accompanying user approval records created) created by a Run Script action to behave in the same manner as one created with the Group Apprval action?

Thanks

[WadeSmy]

Hi,

Did you ever get this working correctly? I have the exact same use case and running into the same problem.

Currently I have a wait for condition in my workflow, after the script that create the approvals, that waits for all approvals to be processed. Since it runs each time an approval is actioned, I am thinking I can manually handle the other approvals in the group to set them to No Longer Required but it is a pretty clunky solution.

[jmiskey]

I ended up using the method that Sai Kumar suggested.  

When I did that, I did not need to add any sort of extra special steps to my workflow.

In my "Approval - Group" action , I then just set the "Wait for" setting under to "An approval from each group".

[elphilli]

Hey @jmiskey 

Were you able to generate multiple Group Approvals instead of one? Using the code provided helps but I'm having the same issue.

[jmiskey]

I went back and looked at what I did.

We had two List Collector variables where they can choose multiple roles.  So in my workflow, I have an Approval Group activity, with the "Advanced" option selected, and this code associated with it to push the Groups I need for the approvals:

var answer = [];
var roleList = '';

//capture roles selected from both variables
if((current.variables.production=='true') && (current.variables.test=='true')){
	roleList = current.variables.production_roles.toString() + ',' + current.variables.test_roles.toString();
}else{
	if(current.variables.production=='true'){
		roleList = current.variables.production_roles.toString();
	}else{
		roleList = current.variables.test_roles.toString();
	}
}

//loop through all roles
var roleArray = roleList.split(',');
for (var i = 0; i < roleArray.length; i++) {
	var rol = roleArray[i];
	var gr = new GlideRecord('u_tango_roles');
	gr.addQuery('sys_id', rol);
	gr.query();

	//create group approvals
	with (gr.next()){
		if (gr.u_approval_needed == true){
			var appGrp = gr.u_role_approver;
			answer.push(appGrp);
		}
	}
}

And then I have these setting on the Group Approval activity:

Hope that helps!

[elphilli]

@jmiskey 

This is what I have.

var answer = [];

//collect selected badge locations
var badgeList = current.variables.select_plant_access_select_all_that_apply.getDisplayValue().toString();

//loop through all Locations
var badgeArray = badgeList.split(',');
for (var i = 0; i < badgeArray.length; i++) {
    var badge = badgeArray[i];

    var gr = new GlideRecord('u_badge_doors_updated');
    gr.addQuery('u_location', badge);
    gr.query();

    //create group approvals
    while (gr.next()) {
        var approval = gr.u_approval_groups;
        answer.push(approval);
    }
}

 Still creating one group approval instead of multiple.