Work on workflows

To complete a workflow, you add workflow activities, validate the workflow, and publish it.

Avant de commencer

Role required: snc_required_script_writer and either workflow_creator or workflow_admin.

Add a workflow activity

Activities determine the functionality of the workflow.

Avant de commencer

Role required: snc_required_script_writer and workflow_admin, workflow_creator, or admin

Pourquoi et quand exécuter cette tâche

When they are created, all workflows contain Start and End activities.

For more information, see Workflow activities.

Procédure

1. Open a workflow.
2. Check out the workflow.
3. Drag a workflow activity from the Activities menu into the workflow body.
4. Populate the Workflow Activity form that appears.

Validate a workflow

You can manually validate a workflow from the Workflow Editor. You can generate a workflow validation report from the Workflow Version form.

Avant de commencer

Role required: snc_required_script_writer and workflow_admin, workflow_creator, workflow_publisher, or admin

Pourquoi et quand exécuter cette tâche

Running a workflow on a new node automatically attempts to validate the workflow. If validation is successful, the system updates the workflow version record to indicate the workflow has been validated and marks the record as updated by the user who ran the workflow.

Procédure

1. Open the workflow to validate in the Workflow Editor.

   When the workflow is loaded, the workflow validator icon appears in the toolbar.

   

2. Click the validator icon to run a series of validation tests on the current workflow version and generate a report.

   

3. Complete the following steps to generate a workflow validation report from the Workflow Version form
   1. Navigate to Workflow > Administration > Workflow Versions, and select a workflow to validate.
   2. Under Related Links, click Validate Workflow.

Publish a workflow

When a workflow is complete, publish the workflow so that it is available to all users.

Avant de commencer

Before you publish a workflow, validate it to test it for issues that might cause it to fail, such as missing subflows or disconnected transitions. For more information, see Workflow validation.

Role required: snc_required_script_writer and workflow_admin, workflow_creator, workflow_publisher, or admin

Pourquoi et quand exécuter cette tâche

To publish a workflow:

Procédure

1. Navigate to All > Workflow > Workflow Editor.
2. Open the workflow that you want to publish.
3. In the title bar, click the menu icon and select Publish.

Résultats

If you published a new version of workflow, the changes are not applied to running workflow contexts. Any currently running workflow context continues using the workflow version that was available when the workflow started. The next time the workflow runs, it uses the new version.

Determine whether a workflow can run

A workflow can run only if a checked out version is available to the user who has it checked out, and a valid, published version is available for all users with permission to run it.

Avant de commencer

Role required: snc_required_script_writer and workflow_admin, workflow_creator, or admin

Procédure

1. In the navigation filter, enter wf_workflow.list, and then open one of the workflows.
2. In the Versions related list, check for all of the following conditions:
   1. There is only one workflow version in a state of Checked out and Checked out by.
   2. There is only one version and it is not checked out.
      This version must be both Active and Published. You may need to personalize the list and add the Active column.
   3. If there are multiple versions, only one is Published.
   These checks determine the only two conditions under which a workflow can run:

   • A checked out version of a workflow is available for the user who has it checked out.
   • A valid, published version of a workflow is available for all users who have permission to run the workflow.

   Main flows containing subflows that do not meet one of these two conditions are not permitted to execute against a current record transaction. Instead, a critical log entry detailing the subflow state is added to the Workflow Context record. To enable the workflow to execute on the next appropriate transaction, remove the subflow from the main flow or modify the published and active states of the subflow.

Edit a published workflow

You can edit a published workflow after you check it out.

Avant de commencer

Role required: snc_required_script_writer and workflow_admin, workflow_creator, workflow_publisher, or admin

Pourquoi et quand exécuter cette tâche

Remarque :

You cannot check out or delete workflows that are associated with a read-only application file.

To check out a workflow:

Procédure

1. Navigate to All > Workflow > Workflow Editor.
2. Open the workflow that you want to edit.
3. In the title bar, click the menu icon and select Checkout.

   A new version of the workflow is created and assigned to you.

   If you are in a different domain than the published workflow, the new workflow version is created in your domain.

Que faire ensuite

After you finish editing the workflow, validate and publish the workflow to make the new version available to other users.

Copy a workflow between two application scopes

Application scoping protects applications by identifying and restricting access to application files and data. You can copy a workflow created in one application scope (for example, Test) to another (Production) as needed.

Avant de commencer

Role required: snc_required_script_writer and admin

Procédure

1. On the Home page, click , located next to the logged in user name.
2. In the Developer tab, in the Application field, select the application scope (for example, Test) in which you want to operate the ServiceNow platform.
3. Close the System Settings page.
4. Navigate to Workflow > Workflow Editor.
5. Create a workflow in the Workflow Editor.
   For more details, see Create a workflow.
6. In the Workflow Editor, click .
7. In the Application tab, Application is set to the current application scope selected in System Settings.
8. In Accessible from, select All application scopes if the workflow is available to all application scopes, or select This application scope only if it is only available to, and accessible in the current application scope only.
   Only those workflows that are accessible from all application scopes can be copied to another application scope.
9. Go back to the Homepage, click .
10. In the Developer tab, in the Application field, select the application scope (for example, Production) to which you want to copy the workflow.
11. Navigate to Workflow > Workflow Editor.
12. Refresh the page, then open the same workflow you created.
    An Out of scope workflow, workflow belongs to <scope name> scope message appears, where <scope name> is the application scope in which the workflow was originally created.
13. In the Workflow Editor, click .
14. Select Copy.
    The Workflow Name dialog appears:

    

    1. In Workflow Name, type the new name for the copied workflow.
    2. Click OK.
       The system creates a workflow in the current application scope.
15. In the Workflow Editor, click .
16. In the Application tab, Application is set to the current application scope.
17. In Accessible from, select This application scope only if to make the newly copied workflow a private one that cannot be accessed from outside current scope.
18. Click Update.

Résultats

A new workflow record is created in the selected application scope and marked as private if designated as one in the Workflow Editor.