using a List Collector in Flow Designer to set Approvals

[EricG2]

I've looked at sever posts like this one on how get the values from a List Collector and use them going forward to populate tasks, tickets, etc..   Very Helpful

https://www.servicenow.com/community/developer-blog/using-list-collector-in-flow-designer-for-each-l...

Now, with my use case, I'm trying to use a List Collector to assign Badge Access request for different locations.

Typically, users should be only selecting their primary location, so creating 1 approval record was easy.

The issue I'm facing is when different locations are selected (E.G. a traveling IT Tech) and multiple approvers are needed.  How would you suggest creating Multiple Approval records at the same time using Flow?

With the flow I currently have and using the OOB approval activity, its creating them one at a time and wont create the second until the first is approved/rejected.

[Sanjay191]

Hi @EricG2 

You can achieve parallel approvals for multiple locations selected in a List Collector by creating a custom Flow Designer Action that dynamically builds an approval rule based on the selected locations and their associated approvers.

Solution Overview

1. Create a Custom Flow Action
   • Input: List Collector field containing the selected location sys_ids (comma-separated).
   • Output:  approvers_list (String).
2. Determine Approvers
   • In the Action Script, call a Script Include method (e.g., getApproversList()) that:
     • Accepts the selected location sys_ids.
     • Returns all applicable approval groups and individual approvers for those locations.
     • Returns a JSON response containing:
3. Build the Approval Rule Dynamically
   • Generate an approval rule string that can be consumed by the Approval Coordinator.
   • This allows ServiceNow to create all approval records simultaneously rather than sequentially.
   •  use the data pill to map the approvers that comes from the custom action.
     
     please refer the below scriptshots of the flow designer . this will work for you please modify according to your requirement i giving you the reference how we build the solution of it and if anything required please let me know.
     
     

     
     
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[Sanjay191]

Hi @EricG2 

If my response helped, please mark it as correct and close the thread this helps future readers find the solution faster!
 Thank you!

[Sanjay191]

Also please refer  the below custom action script logic 

 var getApproval =  new YOUR_SCRIPT_INCLUDE_NAME().getApproversList(inputs);

 var getting = JSON.parse(getApproval);

  var approvalRule="ApprovesAnyG[";

for(var i=0; i<getting.approverGroup.length; i++)

{

 approvalRule+= getting.approverGroup[i]+"]&AnyG[";

}

approvalRule=approvalRule.substr(0,approvalRule.length-6);

  if(getting.approverUser.length != 0)

approvalRule+="&ApprovesAllU["+getting.approverUser+"]OrRejectsAnyG["+getting.approverGroup+"]U["+getting.approverUser+"]";

  else{

    approvalRule+="OrRejectsAnyG["+getting.approverGroup+"]";

  }

 outputs.approvers_list = approvalRule;

  outputs.messages= getting.messages;

makesure write the logic as per your requirement in your script include i giving you reference .
Also makesure the generated approval rule would look similar to:

ApprovesAnyG[your values]&AnyG[your values]&ApprovesAllU[your values]OrRejectsAnyG[your values,your values]U[your values]

in my senerio i was handling the the single users approver as well group approvals.

If my answer has helped with your question, please mark my answer as accepted solution and give a thumb up.
Thank You

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@EricG2 

you want parallel approval or sequential?

if parallel approval and want to wait till approval is done for each List Collector value then check this

when you use "Do the following in parallel" flow logic and use multiple "Ask for Approval" then Decision from 1st approval is being applied to all the approvals

see these blogs and the KB from ServiceNow with a workaround

Parallel Approvals in Flow Designer 

Parallel Approvals in Flow Designer 

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