Error in Updating ServiceNow Flow

jmiskey
Kilo Sage

I have a Flow that has over 50 actions/steps in it.  I inserted a new action in the middle of the flow, and when I try to Activate it, I get the following error message:

jmiskey_0-1723729601469.png

 

This error message isn't that helpful - it gives me no clue which action/step the issue is in.

How can I identify exactly where this error is occurring in my Flow?

 

Thanks

 

7 REPLIES 7

Sheldon  Swift
ServiceNow Employee
ServiceNow Employee

Hi @jmiskey - Can you provide some more context? You've mentioned that "this error message isn't that helpful" but are looking for community input providing little more than a screenshot of the error 🤓

 

Having said that, we typically see this error where inputs have not been defined in a sub flow, but I'm surprised to see a Sys ID there - that's typically a sub flow name.

That is PRECISELY the issue I am asking about - there is literally not much helpful information there.  I make an edit to the Flow, and I click "Save", and then "Activate".  When I click "Activate" is when that error message shows up.  But it does not give me any real clue as to where the error is in the flow, or what the error is actually is.

 

I went through EVERY single action in my Flow, and eventually found the error.  There was a script pulling a value from another step/action, and since a new step/action was inserted, the number of that action incremented, but the code does not update itself - you have to do it manually, i.e. I needed to manually change this reference in my script:

 

 

fd_data._18__look_up_record.record.u_ad_group

 

to this:

 

fd_data._19__look_up_record.record.u_ad_group

 

 

But that was not what I was asking.  What I was asking is when you get that obscure error message like that, is there any way to see where exactly in my code the error resides, without having to go through all the steps/actions one-by-one? 

 

I would expect more useful information on errors.  It reminds me of the early days of programming when you would get the "General Default" error, just letting you know that some error exists somewhere in your code.  Not very helpful in locating and fixing it!

I was hoping maybe at least that sys_id tied to something that I could look up that would provide more information regarding what is causing the error or where exactly the error is occurring.

 

At least in the old Workflow Editor you could publish it, try running it, and see exactly where the error was occurring.  But Flow doesn't even let you "Activate" it, so we cannot used that method to locate the error.

You could try looking for a record with that Sys ID in the Flow [sys_hub_flow] table, otherwise maybe the Action Instance [sys_hub_action_instance] table.