question Re: After BR causing duplication of activity in Developer forum

After BR causing duplication of activity

Mickey_Cegon — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 16:10:16 GMT

I created an After BR to calculate the calendar_duration on the rm_story table. I need to calculate the diff between the opened_at and closed_at fields, so I set it to run After Active changesTo False. Works great, but it shows up in the activity log once, with a second set of activity showing and a duplicate entry in the Audit History list.

I tried it as a Before BR, but it didn't work because the closed_at isn't populated yet.

Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

Mickey Cegon

Farm Bureau Financial Services, Inc.

Re: After BR causing duplication of activity

Chuck Tomasi — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 16:19:01 GMT

If you run this as an AFTER BR, it is going to trigger all the BRs again with the current.update().

If closed_at is not populated like you say, try doing a current.setWorkflow(false) right before and give your BR a very high order (10,000) so it runs last to avoid stopping other BRs that might run after it.

Reference:

Business Rules - ServiceNow Wiki

Business Rules Best Practices - ServiceNow Wiki

Re: After BR causing duplication of activity

Sagar V1 — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 16:24:35 GMT

Hi Cegon,

Avoid using current.update() in a business rule script. The update() method triggers business rules to run on the same table for insert and update operations, leading to a business rule calling itself over and over. Changes made in before business rules are automatically saved when all before business rules are complete, and after business rules are best used for updating related, not current, objects. When a recursive business rule is detected, the system stops it and logs the error in the system log. However, current.update() causes system performance issues and is never necessary.

You can prevent recursive business rules by using the setWorkflow() method with the false parameter. The combination of the update() and setWorkflow()methods is only recommended in special circumstances where the normal before and after guidelines mentioned above do not meet your requirements.

Thanks,

Sagar

Re: After BR causing duplication of activity

davidpanson — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 16:32:57 GMT

Just beating a dead horse now but to be explicit relating to your issue you can just remove current.update() to solve your problem. I tried it without and it functions fine the way you have it set up. (from my quick testing anyway) The current.update() will cause it to update again and create the duplicate in your log. In the best practices which has been quoted and referenced it says never to use current.update()

http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Business_Rules_Best_Practices#gsc.tab=0

Re: After BR causing duplication of activity

Chuck Tomasi — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 16:43:15 GMT

Hi David,

you can just remove current.update() to solve your problem. I tried it without and it functions fine the way you have it set up.

I'd love to see your test results and understand which BRs are triggering and in what order. Adding updates to current fields in an after or async rule without any update does not update those field values.

Re: After BR causing duplication of activity

Mickey_Cegon — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 16:56:24 GMT

Thanks for the quick response, Chuck. I took a look at the order of all the BR running, and it ends up that the Set Closure Fields BR was set to an order of 10,000. So, I changed my BR to a Before, changed the Order to 20,000, and removed the current.update() from the rule. It now only updates the one time, so I think I've got it fixed. Once I set it to wait until the closure fields were actually set, then the calculation worked.

Mickey Cegon

Re: After BR causing duplication of activity

Chuck Tomasi — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 17:08:53 GMT

Ding ding ding! Thanks for the update Mickey. Nobody ever pays attention to the order field until things get weird.

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Re: After BR causing duplication of activity

davidpanson — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 17:25:43 GMT

You are correct. I must have a duration calculation I can't find somewhere else. My mistake.