What is the difference between workflow and flow designer ?

[Henry19]

At present, I see that there are many process functions on the platform. I want to know the differences between business rules, workflow, flow designer and process automation designer, as well as their different application scenarios and role assignments.

[Sandeep74]

i would suggest you to watch some videos on servicenow and they can explain every topic clearly so that you might get some knowledge about it.

folow these youtbers :

saas with servicenow

basico servicenow

[Community Alums · Accepted solution]

Hi Henry,

Flows are basically workflow engine 2.0. Referring to the following article ( https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=e93e47eddb9cdbc01dcaf3231f9619dd )where I mentioned the Flow Designer, the response by Chuck Tomasi replied "With respect to Flow Designer, the strategic position is to make the next workflow engine for the masses." Flows aren't ready to replace workflows and the current workflow engine, not by a long shot, but it is the replacement for the current workflow engine. I expect it will take several years to achieve a similar level of functionality.

The current workflow engine is incredibly flexible and anything with any level of complexity still has to be done there. The issue is the code base is very difficult to extend w/o risking breakage which is intolerable. I'm just assuming here, but it makes sense that ServiceNow decided the best path forward was a do-over and designing the engine to be more supportable. Plus there are a lot of areas the current workflow editor is a bit clunky so a more user friendly interface is needed and flow designer is a prelude to what we can expect down the road.

For now I'd concentrate on making sure you understand the current workflow engine and play with Flow Designer. In London the Flow Designer has a number of needed features added which makes it a viable choice for some simple REST based flows. And, if you purchase the Integration Hub you get the ability to add integration spokes much like workflow custom activities.

Flow Designer for example can also be used for Scheduled Jobs, Inbound Actions, Business Rules, etc.. It's not just Workflow.

Though indeed, Flow Designer won't be able to do all Workflow can. For example, Workflow you can perform a Rollback.
Flow Designer has several advantages Workflow can't, it's too much to list that out here. Simply have a look yourself.

In some cases you also don't have an option to choose. When working on Knowledge Bases... your only choose is to work with Workflow for the Approvals and Retirement.

Mark my answer correct & Helpful, if Applicable.

Thanks,

Sandeep