sys_id in business rules return null

[moserism]

In all of my business rules, I just discovered that current.sys_id is not being sent to the script include the business rule triggers. Here's an example of the business rules I'm using.

function onBefore(current, previous) {

      //This function will be automatically called when this rule is processed.

      var id = current.sys_id;

      gs.debug("business rule - update invoice id : " + id);

      if (current.state == "draft" || current.state.nil() ) {

              var myInvoice = new InvoiceUtility();

              myInvoice.updateFields( id );

      }

}

I also tried with the .toString() method:

function onBefore(current, previous) {

      //This function will be automatically called when this rule is processed.

      var id = current.sys_id.toString();

      gs.debug("business rule - update invoice id : " + id);

      if (current.state == "draft" || current.state.nil() ) {

              var myInvoice = new InvoiceUtility();

              myInvoice.updateFields( id );

      }

}

the gs.debug returns "business rule - update invoice id : "

[Chuck Tomasi · Accepted solution]

I tested this on Fuji and on Helsinki and don't believe that before/query business rules actually know about current. I don't think they should either. The thing to note about query rules is they run before EVERY hit to the database for that table. lists, forms, reference fields, you name it, if the system is going to do a select statement from that table, the before query rule is run first. Normally this is used to do some filtering on the records before they are retrieved, not processing as in your case.

You may want to uncheck the QUERY checkbox and check INSERT or UPDATE instead? Perhaps?

Business Rules Best Practices - ServiceNow Wiki

[moserism]

It looks like you're right. I'll need to figure out how the records will be kept correct in relation to referenced records going forward.

Thank you for your help.

[Chuck Tomasi]

Yeah, you probably don't want to do that every time a record is read (query)... Update sounds like a better approach.

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Thank you

[frankh_]

Michael - it looks like you are running it before insert.   I have never tested this - but does the sys_id exist before insert, I always thought it was created at insert, but maybe I am wrong?   try running it after insert or on an existing record and it should work.

[moserism]

It's running before a query.