Extending the Task Table In Custom App for Approvals

[chriscorbett]

Hello All -

Could someone point me to best practices when extending the task table to use approvals in a custom application?

I know that using Workflow is considered best practice, but my knowledge is failing when it comes to choosing what user or group gets the approval. Is the proper way to do this through Assignment Rules?

On a dev instance I set up a very basic assignment rule on a table that said if status = Under Review then assign to Abel Tutor. I assume I still need to build a view where Abel can see the items assigned to him, correct?

Suppose I have a table in my custom app that will hold the approvers I want along with an order column. Is it possible to point the approvals to this custom table?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

[Chuck Tomasi]

Hi Chris,

I'm a bit confused what it is you are trying to do here. You start out asking about approvals on custom tables. The best practice is YES, extend task and use the workflow with the approvals as you would with any other task table.

You also mention something about assignment rules. Not sure what this is about. Can you give some example/use case?

Finally you come back to approvals using some lookups. Yes, this can be done. When you create your approvals on the workflow, get the approver(s) from your custom table - if that's where you want to store them.

Workflow Concepts - ServiceNow Wiki

Creating a Workflow - ServiceNow Wiki

Using Workflow Activities - ServiceNow Wiki

Approval and Rollback Activities - ServiceNow Wiki      

[chriscorbett]

HI Chuck -

Thanks for the reply. Apologies for the confusion. Approvals in a custom app is not something I've tackled yet so I'm not sure how exactly to word it.

I have a requirement where if a request is made, it goes to approvers listed in a custom table sequentially by the number set in an order column.

So if I have entries like this:

Bob       10

Rick       20

Joe         30

Tim         40

The request would go to Bob, Rick, Joe then Tim.

Could you explain how one would set this up?

[Chuck Tomasi]

This may help.

Dynamic number of approvals

[chriscorbett]

Thanks Chuck. Based on that discussion, I installed the Document Management plugin and I'm taking a look at that.