Flow Designer

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Flow Designer

    Flow Designer is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that provides a consolidated environment for rich process automation. It enables process owners to automate approvals, tasks, notifications, and record operations using natural language, without coding. ServiceNow recommends using Flow Designer over legacy workflows for most new process flows.

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    Flow Designer is preferred over Business Rules except in cases where business logic must run in a specific sequence with other Business Rules, execute immediately before or after database writes in the same thread, or simply call a Script Include.

    Design Principles

    • Single Purpose: Each flow should accomplish a singular goal.
    • Reusability: Design reusable sub-flows, such as approval processes.
    • Clarity: Use clear language and layout so each action’s purpose is evident.
    • Start flow design on a whiteboard, then build action-by-action to align with the business process.
    • Multiple flows may be needed for one process to maintain simplicity and clarity.

    Best Practices for Using Flow Designer

    • Use records instead of SysIDs to improve readability and maintainability.
    • Provide inline documentation to guide users through the flow.
    • Use template objects for handling static and dynamic inputs efficiently.
    • Avoid passing large data blobs unless necessary; only pass data the flow will use.

    Best Practices for Flow Designer Actions

    • Create actions within the scope of the application’s spoke when applicable.
    • Set actions to be accessible from all scopes to enable reuse across applications.
    • Set the protection to read-only to prevent unintended edits.
    • Define specific input types and mark mandatory fields appropriately.
    • Use default values for choice inputs to simplify action usage.

    Best Practices for IntegrationHub

    • Create one spoke per integration system to organize integrations clearly.
    • Keep actions related to a single system within the corresponding spoke.
    • Use meaningful version naming conventions for scoped apps to track versions easily.
    • Use connection aliases rather than inline connections to improve flexibility and maintainability.
    • Leverage connection attributes for versioning in REST resource paths.
    • Use “Save as Attachment” to handle response content efficiently.
    • If the alias is dynamic, make it an input and use data pills to provide it.

    Error Handling Practices

    • Create Script Includes dedicated to error handling.
    • Write concise, clear, and comprehensive error messages, covering all possible API errors.
    • Validate outputs from integration steps before further processing.
    • Implement early failure by checking inputs before calling integrations.

    Training

    ServiceNow offers self-paced training for both Flow Designer and IntegrationHub to help customers gain practical skills in designing and managing automation flows and integrations.

    Flow Designer is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that enables rich process automation capabilities in a consolidated design environment. Flow Designer enables process owners to use natural language to automate approvals, tasks, notifications, and record operations without having to code.

    Flow Designer and IntegrationHub

    For any new process flow requirements, ServiceNow recommends using Flow Designer over the legacy workflow for almost all circumstances.

    Flow Designer and Business Rules

    You should use Flow Designer instead of Business Rules unless:

    • Business logic needs to run in a specific sequence with other Business Rules. For example, new business logic needs to run after one Business Rule but before another.
    • Logic needs to execute immediately before or after writing to the database in the same thread.
    • The logic only calls a Script Include.

    When designing a flow, follow these design principles:

    • Single Purpose: Each flow should have a singular goal.
    • Reusability: Design with reusable sub-flows in mind (approval is a great example).
    • Clarity: The language and layout of a flow should make each action’s purpose clear.

    Start with a white board design of a business flow. Then build the flow action by action to align with the process. More than one flow may be required for a for a single process to keep to the design principles.

    Use the following practices when working with Flow Designer:

    • Use records, not SysIDs. Provide a guided experience with inline documentation.
    • Learn how to use template objects to work with both static and dynamic inputs.
    • Avoid passing around blobs of data unless absolutely necessary.
    • Only pass information to a flow that the flow is going to use.

    Use the following practices when working with Flow Designer Actions:

    • Always create actions under the scope of the application’s spoke, if applicable.
    • Set access to Accessible from all scopes in actions to be able to reuse actions across other apps and scopes in the future.
    • Set Protection to Read-only to avoid any unwanted edits to the actions by users.
    • Make sure inputs have a specific type.
    • Ensure that Mandatory is selected where required.
    • If using a choice input type, use a default value.

    Use the following practices when working with IntegrationHub:

    • Create one spoke per integration system. Only put actions for a single system in a spoke.
    • When creating the scoped app for the spoke, use a version naming convention that makes sense.
    • Use a connection alias instead of an inline connection. The Base URL will be automatically extracted.
    • Use connection attributes under the Alias to pass the version in a REST step giving future flexibility for versioning in the resource path.
    • Use Save as Attachment to save the content in the response instead of creating another step to save the data.
    • If the Alias is dynamic, make Alias one of the inputs and use the data pill to provide the Alias.

    Use the following practices in Flow Designer and IntegrationHub for Error Handling:

    • Create a Script Include to handle errors.
    • Write short and understandable error messages.
    • Incorporate all of the possible error messages the API returns.
    • Ensure that the outputs from the integration step are validated before using them.
    • Fail Early: If the inputs are not available, do not call the integration.

    Self-Paced Training: Flow Designer

    Self-Paced Training: IntegrationHub