Updating records from arrays in workflows

KB15 · ‎03-01-2017

I've tried this script with a list of sys_ids to test in a background script and works perfectly, but when I try to run this in a script activity or advanced script portion in a task, it doesn't work. In a task, it's telling me that splits aren't available. As a script, it'll just run it but does nothing.

I'm getting my list from a list collector variable.

var list = current.variables.u_hold_hardware;
var array = list.split(",");
for (var i=0; i < array.length; i++) {
   var gr = new GlideRecord('sys_user');
   gr.addQuery('sys_id', array[i]);
   gr.query();
   while (gr.next()) {
   gr.u_hold_hardware = true;
   gr.update();
   }

Also, is there a best practice around modifying multiple records other than through a GlideRecord query?

Dominik Simunek · ‎03-02-2017

Hi kkim,

Can you please log in the workflow what value is available in current.variables.u_hold_hardware to be sure that there is a value?

I would also try to add "toString()" to be sure that split method is available. The code itself can be optimized however, because if your "u_hold_hardware" variable contains sys_ids of users, you do not need to split it at all. The query can look like this:

var userGR = new GlideRecord('sys_user');

userGR.addQuery('sys_id', 'IN', current.variables.u_hold_hardware.toString()); // expecting that variable contains comma separated list of sys_ids

userGR.query();

while (userGR.next()) {

   userGR.u_hold_hardware = true;

   userGR.update();

}

This query should return all users defined by sys_id in the variable. The benefit is better performance as instead of multiple database select queries, you have just one.

Let me know if it works for you - I did not test the code on my instance, but I hope there is no typo or other error.

View solution in original post

Dominik Simunek · ‎03-03-2017

List collector stores the selected values as comma-separated string of sys_ids. Then you can do whatever you want with such string. But as "addQuery" with "IN" operator works with comma-separated string, you can use it directly in the query.

The split could be used if you need to somehow work with sys_ids one-by-one (I don't have any scenario in my mind now). But here you want to work with GlideRecords directly so you can retrieve all of them in one query.

KB15 · ‎03-03-2017

That was a very helpful response. Thank you!