What format to use in a sys property to pass it to Wait For of the Flow Sub ?

[Romain1]

Hi,

I try to pass the value of my system property to the "Wait for" value of this subflow : 

Data Pill Picker "Wait for" accepts the data type "Duration" but I don't know in which format to write it in my sys property ?

Here is the script of my action "Get System Property" : 

I try to use the example with the  GlideDuration class  : https://developer.servicenow.com/dev.do#!/reference/api/tokyo/server/c_GlideDurationScopedAPI

By setting my sys property string value at : 60000 

And I get this error when launching the flow : 

Does anyone have an idea of the format I should use in my sys property or an example?

Regards.

[nayanawadhiya1]

Hello,

Pass the value in seconds.

Don't convert the value in duration.

Use parseInt in the script action.

Regards,

Nayan Awadhiya

[Romain1]

Hello, 

Thank you for your answer.

I have changed the configuration of the Sys Property at 10 seconds : 

And modify my script action : 

And I tested with two different configurations, an output type set to "Duration" and "Integer" and I get this result when I test the flow:

The correct result should be : 

Here is a test done with the selector : 

Do you have an idea why do I get "NaN" in the flow response?

Thanks in advance.

[dwl9898]

To use a data pill for a 'Wait for' value in a Flow it has to be a data pill of variable type 'Duration'.  So when you create your action make sure to return a Duration variable.  Now what format goes into the Duration you ask?  A string, but not just any string.  It must be a date formatted string expressed as the amount of time from the date "1970-01-01 00:00:00".  This date, January 1, 1970 is known as the epoch date, and is is used on all Linux based systems as a reference to measure system time.

So to represent 5 minutes duration the string would look like this:

"1970-01-01 00:05:00"

My recommendation is to do two things:

1. Create a generic ServiceNow Action that will pull the value of any system property.

2. Create a generic SerivceNow Action that will set any minute, hour, or day duration.  In your Flow use your output from the system property Action on Step 1 as an input to this Action.

These two Actions can then be used across any number of Flows that you may create, and you'll find that you use them frequently.

Example Get-System Property Script Action:

Here is an example how to create the Set-Duration Action below.  The Action has 3 inputs: hours, minutes, and days respectively:

//Example of the Script Step: 

(function execute(inputs, outputs) {

  var epochDate = "1970-01-01 00:00:00";

  var hrs, mins, days;

  var dString = '';

  var minsOffset = 60;

  var hrsOffset = minsOffset * 60;

  var daysOffset = hrsOffset * 24;

  // Parse inputs

  if (inputs.hours){

    hrs = parseInt(inputs.hours);

  }

  if (inputs.minutes){

    mins = parseInt(inputs.minutes);

  }

  if (inputs.days){

    days = parseInt(inputs.days);

  }

  // Calc offset

  var offset = 0;

  if (mins) {

    offset += mins * minsOffset;

  }

  if (hrs) {

    offset += hrs * hrsOffset;

  }

  if (days) {

    offset += days * daysOffset;

  }

  // Update Epoch date to offset duration

  var dObj = new GlideDateTime(epochDate);

  dObj.addSeconds(offset);

  dString = dObj.toString();

  // Output

  outputs.value = dString;

})(inputs, outputs);

// End script ********************************

While this script activity itself will output a variable 'value' of type String, remember to pull the 'value' data pill into a variable of type DURATION for the output of the Action itself.

Now your output 'value' of type Duration data pill can be selected and placed into your 'Wait For' activity as an Explicit Duration.