Flow Designer – How to Set Catalog Task Short Description Based on the User's Language

[abhijee]

Hi Community,

I am working on a Service Catalog item in ServiceNow called Software Access and Requests. When a user submits a request, a Catalog Task (SCTASK) is created.

Currently, we are migrating the existing legacy workflow to Flow Designer. In the legacy workflow, the Catalog Task Short Description is correctly displayed according to the user's language. For example, English-speaking users see the Short Description in English, while French-speaking users see it in French.

However, after migrating the functionality to Flow Designer, we are unable to achieve the same behavior.

Our requirement is to retain the existing functionality:

• If an English-speaking user submits the request, the Catalog Task Short Description should be in English.

• If a French-speaking user submits the request, the Catalog Task Short Description should be in French.

My questions:

1. How can we achieve the same multilingual Short Description behavior in Flow Designer that currently works in the legacy workflow?

2. How can we identify the submitting user's language and retrieve the appropriate translated values within a Flow Designer script?

3. Is there an out-of-the-box approach in Flow Designer to support this requirement, or would custom scripting be necessary?

Any guidance or examples would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[Manish2026]

Hi @abhijee,

You can achieve this in Flow Designer by using the submitting user's language and setting the Catalog Task Short Description accordingly.

1. Get the requested item's Requested For or Opened By user's language using "sys_user.preferred_language".

2. Use an If/Else condition in Flow Designer to check the language.

3. Set the Short Description based on the language:

   - English ("en") → Software Access Request

   - French ("fr") → Demande d’accès au logiciel

4. If you have many languages, maintain the translated values in a translation table or use ServiceNow's localization features instead of adding many conditions.

You can use a Run Script action to get the user's language and return the appropriate translated text, then map that output to the Catalog Task's Short Description.

One important point: Flow Designer does not automatically translate a custom Short Description just because the user's language is French. You need to provide the translated values or configure a suitable localization solution.

Also, make sure you check the language of the actual submitting user, rather than the current session user's language.

Hope this helps!

[yashkamde]

Hello @abhijee ,

Flow Designer requires you to explicitly fetch and inject the localized string.

The fix is to design your flow to pull from the translation framework before creating the task. Keep all user facing text in the Translated Text (sys_translated_text) or translated fields, and reference those keys in Flow Designer.

If my response helped mark as helpful and accept the solution.