Flow designer group manager approval - how to?

[Jon Epstein]

This seems like it should be insanely easy - but haven't found a matching article yet!

We import a group from AD (LDAP) to SN.

The group has a manager.

I want to assign the manager an approval in Flow Designer

I have tried setting a dummy /hidden variable in a Catalog Item to reference the group both by SYS_ID and by name, and in the flow, attempted to dotwalk to the manager of the group.

When the flow runs, it skips over it with the error "no valid members" or something similar.

This seems like it shouldn't require scripting or acrobatics...just a data pill solution, but can't figure it out.

I'd hate to set up yet another group (like 'ThisGroupManager') with just the one person in it so that I can call it from Flow Designer!!

Thanks in advance.  If this is complicated, I'll take the path of least resistance.

Jon

[Sainath N · Accepted solution]

@Jon Epstein : Thanks for providing additional screenshots. Looking at your screenshots, the group will be the same all the time. In that case, you should be defining the sysid of the group in the default value. The reference qualifier is to just limit the result that appears of selection. Try giving the same sys id in the default value.

Assumptions:

1. Manager of the group is not an Inactive user.

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[Saurabh Gupta]

Hi

Can you share the screenshot of group record and the flow record where your are setting the approver.

[Jon Epstein]

Saurabh - thanks for the reply.

For company privacy purposes, I don't want to paste any identifiable pictures from our instance - BUT - imagine it is like this:

Go to User Administration > Groups > Click on a group > it has a manager.  That's the entity I want to call in the Flow.  This is it's definition generically:

As far as the Catalog Item goes, I define it as a hidden, but active variable - a reference to the group.  I've tried it by SYS_ID and by the "name".  I don't want to call the manager's name or SYS_ID in case that changes.  Needs to be flat/generic, so I just define the variable as the group with the hopes of calling the MANAGER of the GROUP over in Flow Designer.

In the FLOW, the hidden Cat Item variable is successfully brought across with the GET CATALOG VARIABLES" function.  But, CALLING the manager of the group like this in an Approval step:

Always end up getting skipped and this is the log output:

Thanks for investing a few brain cells into this.

Jon

[Sainath N]

@Jon Epstein : As you create a new hidden reference field, you will be able to easily pull into flow by using 'Get Catalog Variables'. Below is the sample I created for this.

Variable at the catalog level:

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[Jon Epstein]

Thank you - you'll see in my response to the other individual that this is not exactly the trouble. I can bring over the variable just fine. It's WORKING with the variable that fails.

Jon