question Re: How to retrieve multi row variable set data in form of record pills in flow designer. in Developer forum

How to retrieve multi row variable set data in form of record pills in flow designer.

PriyanshuVerma1 — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 12:46:11 GMT

Hey everyone,

I recently made a catalog item to add /remove multiple users from assignment group. Below is the image of that flow

In this i am checking what role the groups has based on that i am sending out approvals and then based on approvals adding users to the assignment group.

The requirement now is to add multiple users to multiple groups. I believe i can use multi row variable set in catalog item.

We can use for each action and look up record to iterate through multi row variable set(array.object) and pull out information about user and group given as input.

I want to add ask for approval action and send approval, but using for each action if there are 5 users getting added to single group, then it will send approval to group manager 5 times.

I want to send one approval per group, no matter how many members are getting added to it like I was able to do in screenshot 1 when I was adding multiple users to single group.

Is there a way I can get values from Multi row variable set values in flow designer and use them like data pills?

Or get unique group values in an array, that i can iterate through to send approvals to group managers.

By unique group value i mean : if we enter 5 user and out of these two users are getting added to same group, then in array we should have 4 group names in our new array.

Or there is any better approach i can follow to achieve the same goal.

Re: How to retrieve multi row variable set data in form of record pills in flow designer.

vermaamit16 — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 12:07:50 GMT

Hi @PriyanshuVerma1

Below posts could be helpful :

https://www.servicenow.com/community/workflow-automation-articles/how-to-use-multirow-variable-sets-mrvs-in-flow-designer/ta-p/2406608

https://www.servicenow.com/community/now-platform-forum/how-do-i-iterate-through-a-multi-row-variable-set-in-flow/m-p/1106790

Thanks & Regards

Amit Verma

Re: How to retrieve multi row variable set data in form of record pills in flow designer.

PriyanshuVerma1 — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 12:21:14 GMT

Thankyou, but they are doing the same thing I already did. As I mentioned if I use FOR EACH action, then i might need to send approval multiple times. I was trying to get unique group (like if there are two different users getting added to same group then only one time group value is pushed in array) from multi row variable. set values in some array So that I can use the new array to send approvalonly once per group

Re: How to retrieve multi row variable set data in form of record pills in flow designer.

Mark Manders — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 06:49:40 GMT

I understand what you are trying to do, but do you really think it's the best approach? I select 5 different users to be added to 3 groups (so 15 lines) and as approver I can only say 'ok' for all, because that's the only approval record I get. I don't want one of them in the group, so none of them get in there? I believe every entry should be approved separately. And yes, that cause multiple approval records/emails to be send, but that's how it should be, right?

Re: How to retrieve multi row variable set data in form of record pills in flow designer.

PriyanshuVerma1 — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 12:49:14 GMT

Hey @Mark Manders ,

Thankyou for replying to me. I believe what you are saying is correct but see there is another problem as well. I am attaching the screenshot of the flow i used earlier. I am trying to achieve something similar.

The approach that you are advising me to follow have a little flaw. Assume 5 users are there and 3 of them are getting added to same group, then 3 approvals will be sent to group manager using "For Each" action. Now I can add one if condition after each approval to check if it is approved and then use create record to add users in group.

Then what will happen is after each approval manager will get new approval if there are more than 1 member.

What my manager wants is not to bombard group managers with approval emails one by one as they go on approving.

That's why I was hoping to send one approval to group managers, so that they can see the RITM and see who all users are getting added to their group

Re: How to retrieve multi row variable set data in form of record pills in flow designer.

Mark Manders — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 15:06:34 GMT

Where is the flaw? You are describing that your manager wants one email for all users that need to be added to the group and that logic is flawed, because approval is either 'yes' or 'no' and not 'yes for her', 'no for him'.

If you are requiring approval for adding a user to a group, you should approve that for every single user. Too bad that someone asks it for 5 users at once. It will still get 5 approval records. The fact that you make it easier to request them by using MVRS is great, but the process should stay the same: approve the request of 1 user being added to your group.

You could go around this and inactivate the approval emails. Just create a new one that is triggered once a day to tell an approver that there are approval records waiting for him to approve. Then they will just get one email, once a day, if there are records.