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! ^^

[simonvolkwe]

First of all thank you all for the answers. 

The Flow is attached to my Catalog item and again that is not my Problem.

I dont have a Problem I just have a question.

The question I have is why is the Trigger type description (in Flow Designer) like this:

"Trigger initiates from a ServiceNow Service Catalog Item Request. By using the Service Catalog trigger, the flow can be configured on a Service Catalog item form and started by a Service Catalog item request.

Note: Stages are available for all parent Flows. When a Flow is associated with a Service Catalog Item with the Workflow field, the flow stages display when the item is requested.[...] "

When it should be something like this:

"Trigger initiates from a ServiceNow Service Catalog Item Request. By using the Service Catalog trigger, the flow can be configured on a Service Catalog item form and started when a Service Catalog item request gets approved.

Note: Stages are available for all parent Flows. When a Flow is associated with a Service Catalog Item with the Workflow field, the flow stages display when the item stage changes to Approved (request_approved). [...]"

That would be very helpfull for new developers.

Since it looks like I'm not the only one who has interpreted this description differently.

Which increases the Problem for new developers here is that it works perfectly fine in the from Service Now provided developer-instances because we have this auto approval Workflow: "Service Catalog Request".

So new developers dont recognise the Problem till they are in their companys instance, where the "Service Catalog Request" auto approval flow is and should not be available.

There is already a Knowledge article for part of this Problem: KB0998617

[simonvolkwe]

First of all thank you all for the answers. @Ankur Bawiskar ,  @Dr Atul G- LNG and @JenniferRah 

The Flow is attached to my Catalog item and again that is not my Problem.

I dont have a Problem I just have a question.

The question I have is why is the Trigger type description (in Flow Designer) like this:

"Trigger initiates from a ServiceNow Service Catalog Item Request. By using the Service Catalog trigger, the flow can be configured on a Service Catalog item form and started by a Service Catalog item request.

Note: Stages are available for all parent Flows. When a Flow is associated with a Service Catalog Item with the Workflow field, the flow stages display when the item is requested.[...] "

When it should be something like this:

"Trigger initiates from a ServiceNow Service Catalog Item Request. By using the Service Catalog trigger, the flow can be configured on a Service Catalog item form and started when a Service Catalog item request gets approved.

Note: Stages are available for all parent Flows. When a Flow is associated with a Service Catalog Item with the Workflow field, the flow stages display when the item stage changes to Approved (request_approved). [...]"

That would be very helpfull for new developers.

Since it looks like I'm not the only one who has interpreted this description differently.

Which increases the Problem for new developers here is that it works perfectly fine in the from Service Now provided developer-instances because there is this auto approval Workflow: "Service Catalog Request" which auto approves everything under 1000$.

So new developers dont recognise the Problem till they are in their companys instance, where the "Service Catalog Request" auto approval flow is and should not be available.

Beside a few dozen questions/tickets here in the forum, there is even a knowledge article for part of this "Problem": KB0998617

Greetings

Simon

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@simonvolkwe 

Glad to know.

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @simonvolkwe 

I can understand some time wording in SN is bit confusing You might put this an idea and team may pick it up.

[JenniferRah]

The flow isn't started when the item is approved. It's started when the catalog item is submitted if the Flow is listed in that field of the catalog item. What you are seeing in that business rule is the Stage that the catalog item is put in by default when it is submitted. You don't set that. It's just automatic. So as far as we are concerned, it launches when the catalog item is submitted, not approved. 

I hope that helps to clear it up.