question Workflow Issue: A workflow is struck in an activity and doesnot advance to its next activity. in ServiceNow AI Platform forum

Workflow Issue: A workflow is struck in an activity and doesnot advance to its next activity.

Mohammad Nayeem — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 13:49:55 GMT

I have a workflow that contains activities such as catalog tasks and switches.

My workflow has been working good for many months but recently I saw a workflow context that stopped at the catalog task, and doesn't advance to the next activity (a switch) upon the task closure.

I see a log entry in that context that says "After running a sequence of activities we expected a 'last executing' record to predict the future stages from".

I tried Nudge option but got the same log entry again in the content. Only one workflow context has this issue, others are just fine.

Can someone help me on this logged error?

Re: Workflow Issue: A workflow is struck in an activity and doesnot advance to its next activity.

Pardhu Guduru — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 14:19:52 GMT

Hi - May i know which type of workflow activity got stuck ?

Re: Workflow Issue: A workflow is struck in an activity and doesnot advance to its next activity.

Mohammad Nayeem — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 15:42:43 GMT

Catalog Task is the activity where the workflow stopped. Its next activity is a switch.

It is a one-time issue, which I am trying to debug based on that log entry. It is not a recurring issue.

Re: Workflow Issue: A workflow is struck in an activity and doesnot advance to its next activity.

garrett_griffin — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 14:32:02 GMT

In case this is still oustanding -- what probably happened is that the field/variable that the switch statement runs against was completely blank.

The only way to fix the workflow is to manually delete the latest workflow activity history record, insert a proper workflow executing activity record, and then re-nudge the workflow.

This same error can occur on any Workflow activity that has conditions on it's transitions, and due to a missing required field or something, none of the transitions match.

Script below may help you -- just pass in a GlideRecord (such as "current")

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

function rerunWorkflowActivity(record) {
    //Grab the workflow context
    var context = new GlideRecord("wf_context");
    context.addQuery("table", record.getTableName());
    context.addQuery("id", record.sys_id.toString());
    context.addQuery("state", "executing");
    context.setLimit(1);
    context.query();
    if(!context.next()) {
        gs.print("ERROR: Could not find workflow context.");
        return false;
    }

    //Check if there's a current executing activity. If so, just poke/nudge the workflow.
    var executing = new GlideRecord("wf_executing");
    executing.addQuery("context", context.sys_id.toString());
    executing.setLimit(1);
    executing.query();
    if(executing.next()) {
        gs.print("SUCCESS: Found a currently executing workflow activity. Nudging the workflow.");
        new Workflow().broadcastEvent(context.sys_id.toString(), 'update');
        return true;
    }

    //Grab the most recent workflow activity history
    var history = new GlideRecord("wf_history");
    history.addQuery("context", context.sys_id.toString());
    history.orderByDesc("activity_index");
    history.setLimit(1);
    history.query();
    if(!history.next()) {
        gs.print("ERROR: Could not find last workflow activity.");
        return false;
    }

    //Grab the most recent workflow transition
    var transition = new GlideRecord("wf_transition_history");
    transition.addQuery("context", context.sys_id.toString());
    transition.addQuery("transition.to", history.activity.toString());
    transition.setLimit(1);
    transition.query();
    if(!transition.next()) {
        gs.print("ERROR: Could not find latest workflow transition.");
        return false;
    }

    if(transition.transition.from.toString() === "") {
        gs.print("ERROR: Latest workflow transition had a blank 'from' value.");
        return false;
    }

    //Grab previous activity
    var previous = new GlideRecord("wf_history");
    previous.addQuery("context", context.sys_id.toString());
    previous.addQuery("activity", transition.transition.from.toString());
    previous.setLimit(1);
    previous.query();
    if(!previous.next()) {
        gs.print("ERROR: Could not find the previous workflow activity in the workflow history.");
        gs.print(previous.getEncodedQuery());
        return false;
    }

    //Prep the context
    context.activity_count = executing.activity_index.toString();
    context.activity_index = executing.activity_index.toString();



    executing = new GlideRecord("wf_executing");
    executing.newRecord();
    executing.activity =  history.activity.toString();
    executing.activity_index = history.activity_index.toString();
    executing.context = context.sys_id.toString();
    executing.input_data = history.input_data.toString();
    executing.is_parent = history.is_parent.toString();
    //executing.notify_termination = false;
    executing.output_data = history.output_data.toString();
    executing.parent = history.parent.toString();
    executing.previous_activity = previous.sys_id.toString();
    executing.started = history.started.toString();
    executing.state = "executing";
    executing.sys_domain = history.sys_domain.toString();
    executing.sys_domain_path =  history.sys_domain_path.toString();
    executing.workflow_version = history.workflow_version.toString();


    //Delete the history record.
    history.deleteRecord();

    //Insert the new executing record
    executing.insert();

    //Update the context
    context.update();

    //Poke the workflow.
    new Workflow().broadcastEvent(context.sys_id.toString(), 'update');
    gs.print("SUCCESS: Deleted the latest activity in the history, inserted it again as an executing activity, and poked the workflow.");
    return true;

}

Re: Workflow Issue: A workflow is struck in an activity and doesnot advance to its next activity.

matt_a — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 16:44:42 GMT

Hi @garrettgriffin , I have just stumbled across this as having a similar issue.

When you say "just pass in a GlideRecord (such as "current")", can you elaborate on this for me as relatively new to this world!

Would I run as a background script? I have the sys ID of context thats hasn't moved on, how would I script this into your script to delete and re-create the history?

Many thanks for any help you can provide

Re: Workflow Issue: A workflow is struck in an activity and doesnot advance to its next activity.

seanphelan — Thu, 03 Jan 2019 01:41:59 GMT

on the switch activity please check the options of the switch and the possible options of the variable.

It is my belief that you passed a value for which the switch has no path for

Re: Workflow Issue: A workflow is struck in an activity and doesnot advance to its next activity.

matt_a — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 09:25:47 GMT

Thanks - it was passing the variable name rather than value which was odd. It was random and there was no consistency with when or why it was happening. I have deleted the switch in the workflow, renamed the variable value in the hope that it doesnt happen again.

Just needed to look to see if there was a way in which I could deleted and reinsert the activity so that I could nudge the workflow as per the above script?

Re: Workflow Issue: A workflow is struck in an activity and doesnot advance to its next activity.

seanphelan — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 13:17:20 GMT

i'm not sure you can nudge it past this point. maybe you can update the workflow activity content with the value that you want it to go down and then nudge it. AKA make that activity think that its done. After all, its all table data.

Other option would be to restart the workflow with the new workflow. todo this use this script

var wkfw = new Workflow();
fixme = new GlideRecord('{{table}}');
fixme.addQuery('sys_id', '{{sys_id of record}}');
fixme.query();
while (fixme.next())
{
var x = new WorkflowApprovalUtils().reset(fixme, "res");
var context = new Workflow().startFlow(wkfw.getWorkflowFromName('{{NAME of workflow}}'), fixme, 'update');
}

Re: Workflow Issue: A workflow is struck in an activity and doesnot advance to its next activity.

nilshaug — Mon, 06 May 2019 15:49:50 GMT

Hi,

I had the same issue and was able to fix it

My situation is the following:

I have a UI-Action setting the state from 2 -> 3

I have a workflow condition, waiting for state==3 ... so the workflow now continues.

next was a "run-script" with the following code:

new myClass().myFunction(current);

The last statement of myFunction(), was an current.update() after changing the current.state from 3 -> 4. Whereas in my code I named current = request ;

current.state = 4
current.update();

I was able to fix the issue after deleting the current.update()

the state changed automatically on "4"

plz mark as helpful

Re: Workflow Issue: A workflow is struck in an activity and doesnot advance to its next activity.

abhisheksolanki — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 12:56:48 GMT

This is an old thread but I noticed this message in the Workflow Log of a Workflow Context that was stuck. In fact, every time I clicked on Nudge, this message would be dumped. As the message suggests, the Workflow Executing Activities tab was empty i.e. no activity was running.

In my case, the Workflow was stuck at a second Approval - User activity since its result was 'skipped' but the Conditions were only coded to accept '', 'approved', 'rejected' and 'cancelled'. The developers would fix it eventually but the question was how to nudge the existing requests / workflows ahead. This is the workaround I came up with up after a day of trial and error -

1. Create a record in wf_executing as below -
var wfExecuting = new GlideRecord('wf_executing');
wfExecuting.initialize();
wfExecuting.activity = '99f53e21dbd064d024c89806b9961955'; // Sys ID of the last or stuck wf_activity
wfExecuting.activity_index = 9;//The sequence of the above activity in the relevant wf_context
wfExecuting.context = '4e1bf043dbb0ec147805c23813961951';//Sys ID of wf_context record
wfExecuting.is_parent = false;//Not sure but existing wf_executing records had this. So that's what I went with
wfExecuting.notify_termination = false;//Not sure but existing wf_executing records had this. So that's what I went with
wfExecuting.previous_activity = '921bf043dbb0ec147805c23813961966'; // Sys ID of previous wf_history record in the relevant wf_context
wfExecuting.started = '2020-12-04 15:13:12';
wfExecuting.state = 'waiting';//Not sure but existing wf_executing records had this. So that's what I went with
wfExecuting.workflow_version = '19f5fa21dbd064d024c89806b9961913'; // Sys ID of wf_workflow_version
var id = wfExecuting.insert();
gs.print(id);

2. Open the wf_context record or refresh it. You should now see a Workflow Executing Activities record. Personalize the list and select Scratchpad and Output Data
a) Key in Output Data as {}
b) Scratchpad as {"approval_ids":["561bf043dbb0ec147805c23813961968"]}
That is the sys_id of the first sysapprover_approval record which had actually been approved. So, I knew that if I made the second Approval - User activity look at this, it should return 'approved' and proceed. You may need to improvise depending on where your workflow was last stuck. Look at existing wf_executing records for the same Workflow version.

3. On the wf_context record click on Nudge. The workflow came to life and actually nudged ahead.

Re: Workflow Issue: A workflow is struck in an activity and doesnot advance to its next activity.

Michael Butak1 — Thu, 04 Aug 2022 22:35:19 GMT

Hi @Garrett Griffin ,

I know this post is super old, but thought I might try since this thread is the only reference in the universe to the specific error message I'm getting.

"After running a sequence of activities we expected a 'last executing' record to predict the future stages from"

I get that at the end of the workflow logs in a 'catalog task' activity (meant to create a TASK). No task is created, just that mysterious incomplete log from the Engine. Do you have any suggestions? I've tried a number of things with no luck. Thank you!