Service Catalog Request Trigger for Flow Designer?

[simonvolkwe]

Hello Service Now Community,

I am relatively new to Service now and have tried to create an approval flow for a Service Catalogue Request. I had big problems with the Request not triggering the flow in my system.

In the flow designer it says that the flow is triggered when a user submits the Service Request. See picture below

(Trigger assignment in Flow Designer)

However, this is not quite correct, is it?

For the flow to start, the business rule ‘StartFlowDesigner Flow’ must be executed (see image below)

But this is only started if the Requested Item Stage is set to Approved.

Is there a reason for this?

Because it is not really what is mentioned in the description for the Service Request Flow Trigger.

I have now changed the rule so that flows are started which have ‘waiting_for_approval’ as the stage (which is the default value for sc_req_item.stage) but I am not sure whether this implementation makes sense as I am adapting a predefined business rule.

I know I could use a second flow to handle the approvals apart from the rest of the fullfilment. But isn't that inefficient and inconvenient instead of using the service request submit as a real trigger?

I'm looking for the reason behind this decision, as it seems like many developers have encountered this problem in the last years.

A few forum posts with the same/similar problem:

- Solved: Flow Designer not Triggering for Service Catalog R... - ServiceNow Community (2019)

- Solved: flow designer is not triggering an approval - ServiceNow Community (2021)

- Solved: Flow Designer does not trigger service catalog tri... - ServiceNow Community (2022)

- Solved: How to run Flow Designer by Catalog Item request - ServiceNow Community (2024)

Thank you in advance! ^^

[JenniferRah]

Did you set the "Flow" field on your Catalog Item to point to the Flow you created? I think that's the missing piece.

[simonvolkwe]

No that is not the Problem.

Again i dont have a Problem with the Trigger anymore.

The question is should Service Now change this behaviour or atleast give new developers a hint that we need an Approved Request for a Flow to Trigger?  And not just a Submitted Request!

Hope this makes it more understandable.

[JenniferRah]

Submitting it is all that is necessary. If you have done something to change that behavior, then that may be the problem. You may want to create a Flow in your PDI on a basic catalog item to see how it works and then try to see what is different in your specific instance.

[simonvolkwe]

I am sorry but i tried it countless times in my PDI, when the Business Rule "Start FlowDesigner Flow" and the Workflow "Service Catalog Request" are deactivated, no flow will trigger from a submitted Catalog item.

When I activate the Business Rule "Start FlowDesigner Flow", I can trigger the flow by approving the Request.

Can you please send me a screenshot from your "Start FlowDesigner Flow" Business rule?

Mine looks like this:

"Advanced Tab"

When to run tab: