Auto approval business rule does not advance workflow

[matt v_]

Hello,

We have a before insert/update business rule in place on the sysapproval_approver table to check if approver is the person who initiated the request (document_id.opened_by), and if so will change the state to 'approved'.  I can't imagine why this would not be default behavior, but nevertheless, this rule is working as intended.

Most of our approvals are fired from HR Case workflows, and the issue here is that even thought the approval request is updated correctly, the workflow gets stuck as though it is still waiting for that approval.

When we know of a case with this issue, I can Nudge that workflow and it moves to the next step.  We also found that if anyone makes a change and updates the case, this also triggers the workflow to move along.

I would prefer to make some small edit to the business rule if possible.  My first thought was an update() command, but a little reading showed that to be a really bad idea.  Is there anything else I can add to the script after updating the approval state?

A workaround (haven't tried yet) that seems like a poor band-aid would be a scheduled job that nudges workflows daily.  That just seems really silly to have to do.

Any suggestions?  Or is there even another, better way to accomplish an auto approval if the approver is also the requester?

Here's the script for reference (not created by me).  It may seem a bit convoluted, but this is due to the fact that some of our workflows are set to pre-generate tasks/approvals, so we don't want to change the state of an approval if the prior steps haven't been completed yet.

(function executeRule(current, previous /*null when async*/) {
	var autoApprove = false;
	
	if (current.operation() == 'insert' && current.approver == current.document_id.opened_by) {
		autoApprove = true;
	}
	
	var sameApproval = new GlideRecord('sysapproval_approver');
    sameApproval.addEncodedQuery('approver=' + current.approver + '^sysapproval=' + current.sysapproval + '^state=approved');
	sameApproval.query();
	
	if (sameApproval.next()) {
		if (current.operation() == 'insert') {
		  autoApprove = true;
		}
		if (current.operation() == 'update' && previous.state == 'not requested' && current.state == 'requested') {
			autoApprove = true;
		}
	}
	
	
	// Add your code here
	if (autoApprove) {
		current.state = 'approved';
	}

})(current, previous);

[Mike Patel]

You can't dot walk document_id.opened_by you need sysapproval.opened_by

[matt v_]

That doesn't seem to be an issue, as the conditions themselves are working fine.  The only problem is that the approval is marked Approved, but the workflow does not advance to the next step.

[Mike Patel]

Yes, it’s not problem since you have other condition. I’ll recommend to update it.

[Mike Patel]

Also Change the business rule to onAfter and that should work.

workflow needs to see update and since you are modifying onBefore there is no update.