Gathering employee feedback through internal surveys is crucial. But maximising response rates can be a challenge. This article explores how instant messaging (IM) (Microsoft Teams) can be a powerful tool for boosting survey participation than traditional Email channel.
Solution Design
- Record update action will trigger survey assessment based on the trigger condition in ServiceNow
- ServiceNow flow will call MS power automate flow to send survey assessment card to the user in MS teams chat
- User responds with survey answers , Power automate flow call ServiceNow web service to update the survey answers
Implementation steps:
ServiceNow side
Step 1:
- Create a 'Survey' in survey designer and Survey trigger condition.
- View your survey and note down the Questions (asmt_metric) sys_ids , These values are required to update survey answers
Ex:
Step 2:
Create a Flow
- Trigger condition (same as survey trigger condition on current record)
- Lookup Record action - to get the triggered survey assessment instance sys_id
Table : asmt_assessment_instance
Condition: Trigger_id = current record sysID - Create a flow action - This action will send current task record data and sys_id of assessment instance created to Microsoft Power automate flow.
- create inputs to the flow action from flow (Task record and Assessment instance record from above action)
-create JSON payload to for request body for power automation flow
Ex: I am passing story record information like below- Create a script action - to call Microsoft Power automate flow web service (api will be generated by power automate flow 'When an HTTP request is received' trigger used - Refer Step 4)
Step 3:
Create a Scripted REST API with 'PATCH' HTTP method resource. - This will will receive survey response from MS power automation flow , we need to parse the request body to update the survey responses in the assessment questions.
Expected request payload for this function be like below.
{
"assessinsta": "assessment insstance ID", \\ Assessment instance sys_id
"srvyResponse": {
"99cfa3cf1b1d8ad467882060604bcb45": "Survey answer1",\\ metric sys_id of the question noted in the STEP 1
"f1cfa3cf1b1d8ad467882060604bcbdb": "Survey answer2",
"69cfa3cf1b1d8ad467882060604bcb8c": "Survey answer3",
"bdcfe3cf1b1d8ad467882060604bcb0a": "Survey answer4"
}
}REST API function script
(function process( /*RESTAPIRequest*/ request, /*RESTAPIResponse*/ response) {
// implement resource here
var reqBdy = request.body.dataString;
var repObj = JSON.parse(reqBdy);
//parse body and update assessment questions
for (key in repObj.srvyResponse) {
var qrString = "instance=" + repObj.assessinsta + "^metric =" + key;
var grAAIQ = new GlideRecord('asmt_assessment_instance_question');
grAAIQ.addEncodedQuery(qrString);
grAAIQ.query();
if (grAAIQ.next()) {
if (grAAIQ.metric.datatype == 'string') {
grAAIQ.string_value = repObj.srvyResponse[key];
}
grAAIQ.value = repObj.srvyResponse[key];
grAAIQ.update();
}
}
//complete assessment instance
var grAAI = new GlideRecord('asmt_assessment_instance');
grAAI.get(repObj.asin);
grAAI.state = 'complete';
grAAI.update();
var result = {};
result.message = 'updated in assessment :';
return result;
})(request, response);
Above 3 steps will complete servicenow side tasks
Microsoft Power Automate platform
Spoiler
For servicenow developers with flow designer experience can comfortably create flows in Power automate platform.
Step 4:
Create a flow
- Add the following elements:
- Trigger:
- Choose When an HTTP request is received.
- Configure the trigger to accept POST requests and define a schema that matches the JSON payload structure from ServiceNow's Flow action (refer to step 3).
- Adaptive Card:
- Use Adaptive Cards Designer: https://adaptivecards.io/designer/ to create a card that presents the survey questions to the user.
- Ensure the card's response schema aligns with the expected format for updating ServiceNow assessment questions (Refer Step 1).
Ex: Question answer values should match the card answer values - Post to a chat or channel: (Optional)
- Use this action to send the Adaptive Card to the caller's chat for interaction.
- Extract the recipient's email from the trigger's output (if applicable).
- Parse JSON:
- Parse the user's responses from the Adaptive Card using the Parse JSON action.
- Extract the relevant answer data using a content expression like body('your_adaptive_card_name')['data'].
- HTTP request:
- Call the ServiceNow Scripted REST API using the following details:
- Method: POST
- URI: The URI of your Scripted REST API function (refer to step 3)
- Headers: Include an Authorization header with the value x-sn-apikey: <your_API_token> (replace with your generated API token)SpoilerServicenow instance should be in Washington DC version ,To generate REST API token based authentication
Alternatively you can use authorisation header with encode userid/password - use Postman tool to generated encoded string - Body: Request Payload same as Step 3
Add your questions in the comments , hit like if it is helpful for you.
Thanks - Aravinda
