How to add custom buttons to compose email?

[Annie10]

Hello,

We've utilized Compose Email to send requests to business owners for their approval prior to deploying the fix to production. Within the email interface, is it feasible to incorporate buttons as depicted in the screenshot below? When the approver clicks either button, it would indicate "I approved this request," thereby providing us with a documented record of their approval.  Thank to all.

I have tried the following link.  It works well in email notification, but not in Compose Email.

https://www.servicenow.com/community/itsm-blog/approve-reject-button-in-approval-notification/ba-p/2...

[Mark Manders]

I would trigger an event and use 'normal' notifications for this, or even utilize the approval table for it, so you don't have different ways of approving different records. Then you really have it documented in the way ServiceNow was meant to handle approvals. Upside to that: delegation will work for approval process, probably not for your Compose Email solution.

[Maik Skoddow]

This is a bit tricky, as you write an email manually without the option to trigger any email scripts which could build everything automatically.

Therefore, my recommendation is to build a hyperlink with the link text "Open approval" and the link URL to the respective record. This URL has to be identified out by you by performing a search in the sysapproval_approver table and narrowing down the search results to the record to approve/reject as well as the approver user. If you have more than one user in the recipients list, you can also configure the search criteria with "Approver is (dynamic) Me" like:

The user clicks on the link, is redirected to the list view and can then approve/reject via right-click on the respective record.

[Annie10]

Hello @Maik Skoddow  and @Mark Manders 

I appreciate both of your suggestions.

I would like to address the issue we are encountering and seek your and community input on how best to handle it.

As we are all aware, standard change requests typically don't require approval due to their low-risk nature. However, in our government agency, quarterly audits mandate that all standard change requests undergo dual approval – from the user's supervisor and the business owner – before implementation in production.

To ensure compliance and facilitate auditing, one solution I'm considering is leveraging the Compose Email function to capture the approvers' responses in the standard change record work notes.

I appreciate any additional suggestions or advice you may have on how to address this challenge effectively.

Thank you all

[Mark Manders]

Hi Annie,

I am sticking with my original response (and even firmer, looking at your reasoning): use the OOB approval functionality, which already includes the approval buttons in emails. 

You can make it easy on yourself: you are thinking about clicking a button to type/send an email. Why not click a button to move the standard change to a custom 'awaiting approval' state or utilize a custom field to trigger a flow (standard change does not by default have the approval fields normal changes do).

You trigger the flow, creating the approval, wait for it, create another approval, wait for it and the change can proceed. You will have the information from the approvals in the change and within an audit, you can show just the approval records instead of going through every change to see if the approval is in there.

By the way: a standard change is by definition pre-approved, so if regulations say you need (dual) approval, you are actually not working with standard changes. You are just using the standard change functionality in ServiceNow to perform changes that should have been normal changes or catalog items.