Approval assignment scripts

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Approval assignment scripts

    This content provides a collection of useful approval and assignment scripts specifically designed for ServiceNow Zurich release. These scripts enable automation of assignment and approval processes by dynamically assigning groups and users based on different criteria such as requestor roles, delivery plans, workload, and catalog tasks. The scripts are intended as customizable examples and should be tested thoroughly in your environment before implementation, as they are provided without official support.

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    Key scripts and their practical use

    • Assign a group for ESS requests: Automatically assigns the “Network” group to all Employee Self-Service (ESS) requests opened by users without roles, streamlining assignment for general requests.
    • Assign catalog item to group based on delivery plan task: Assigns catalog items to the “Desktop” group if their delivery plan includes tasks assigned to that group. This ensures that catalog items inherit assignment groups based on associated delivery tasks.
    • Assign items with one task: For catalog items with a single delivery task and no existing assignment group, this script assigns the catalog item to the group responsible for that task, simplifying assignment logic for straightforward cases.
    • Assignment based on workload (Business Rule): Automatically assigns the individual within the assignment group who has the least number of active incidents, balancing workload among group members and improving efficiency.
    • Run assignment rules when category is changed (Client Script): Uses asynchronous AJAX to invoke assignment rules dynamically when the incident category changes, updating the assignedto and assignmentgroup fields on the form in real-time without blocking the user interface.

    Why this matters for ServiceNow customers

    Implementing these scripts allows ServiceNow customers to automate and optimize the assignment of tasks and approvals, reducing manual intervention and ensuring tickets are routed to the most appropriate groups or users. This enhances operational efficiency, improves incident resolution times, and supports dynamic assignment based on workload and contextual data such as delivery plans and user roles.

    Important considerations

    • The scripts are provided “as-is” and are not officially supported by ServiceNow Support.
    • Customization should be carefully tested in a development or test environment before deployment to production.
    • Community forums are the recommended channel for questions and discussions related to these scripts.
    • For creating custom approval UI macros, refer to ServiceNow’s UI macros documentation for guidance.

    This is a searchable version of the useful approval and assignment scripts.

    Warning:
    The customization described here was developed for use in specific instances, and is not supported by Now Support. This method is provided as-is and should be tested thoroughly before implementation. Post all questions and comments regarding this customization to our community forum.

    For see Viewing my approvals.

    Assign a group for ESS requests
    The following Assignment Rulescript automatically assigns a group for all ESS Requests.
    if(current.opened_by.roles==""){
        current.assignment_group.setDisplayValue('Network');
        current.update();}
    Assign catalog item to group based on delivery plan task
    This assignment rule assigns a service catalog item to the database group if it uses a delivery plan that has a catalog task assigned to the desktop group.
    //Return catalog items that have no group but do have a delivery plan assigned
    var ri =new GlideRecord("sc_cat_item");
    ri.addQuery("group","=",null);
    ri.addQuery("delivery_plan","!=",null);
    ri.query();
    while(ri.next()){
        gs.log("Found an item");
        //Return tasks that point to the same delivery plan as the above item
        var dptask =new GlideRecord("sc_cat_item_delivery_task");
        dptask.addQuery("delivery_plan","=",ri.delivery_plan);
        dptask.query();while(dptask.next()){
            gs.log("Found a task");var gp = dptask.group.getDisplayValue();
            gs.log(gp);//If the task is assigned to desktop, assign the item's group to desktop
            if(dptask.group.getDisplayValue()=="Desktop"){
                ri.group.setDisplayValue("Desktop");
                gs.log("updating "+ ri.getDisplayValue());
                ri.update();break;}}}
    Assign items with one task
    This assignment rule automatically assigns any catalog items with only one task associated to a particular group.
    //Get the catalog item for the current requested item
    var scCatItem =new GlideRecord("sc_cat_item");
    if(scCatItem.get('sys_id', current.cat_item)){
    // If the catalog item already has an assignment group or if using workflow we don't need to make an assignment
      if(!scCatItem.delivery_plan.nil()&& scCatItem.group.nil()){
            var dpTask =new GlideRecord("sc_cat_item_delivery_task");
            dpTask.addQuery("delivery_plan","=",scCatItem.delivery_plan);
            dpTask.query();
            if(dpTask.getRowCount()==1&& dpTask.next()){
            // Check that there is only 1 record in the GlideRecord
                dpTask.group;}}}
    Assignment based on workload

    Type: Business Rule.

    Description: Populate the assigned to based on the assignment group member who has the least amount of active incidents.

    Parameters:
    • order: >1000 if you want to execute after assignment rules
    • condition: current.assigned_to == '' && current.assignment_group != ''
    • when: before, insert/update
    var assignTo = getLowestUser();
    gs.addInfoMessage("assigning to is "+ assignTo);
    current.assigned_to= assignTo;
     
    function getLowestUser(){
      var userList =new Array();
      var cg =new GlideRecord('sys_user_grmember');
      cg.addQuery('group', current.assignment_group);
      cg.query();
      while(cg.next()){
        var tech = cg.user.toString();
        var cnt = countTickets(tech);
        gs.addInfoMessage("Tech counts "+ cg.user.name+' '+ cnt +" "+ tech);
        userList.push({ sys_id: tech,name: cg.user.name, count: cnt });}
    
      for(var i=0; i < userList.length; i++){
        gs.addInfoMessage(userList[i].sys_id+" "+ userList[i].name+" "+ userList[i].count);}
      userList.sort(function(a, b){
        gs.addInfoMessage("Sorting: "+ a.sys_id+"("+ a.count+");
        "+ b.sys_id+"("+ b.count+")");
        return a.count- b.count;});
    
      if(userList.length<=0)return"";
      return userList[0].sys_id;}
     
    function countTickets(tech){
      var ct =new GlideRecord('incident');
      ct.addQuery('assigned_to',tech);
      ct.addQuery('active',true);
      ct.query();
      return ct.getRowCount();}
    Run assignment rules when category is changed

    Type: Client script.

    Table: Incident.

    Description: This example is an onChange client script on the category field within Incident. Note: this script used to use synchronous AJAX (asynchronous behavior is specified by the third parameter of the ajaxRequest call). The implementation below uses asynchronous AJAX. The drawback of using the synchronous version is that a network response problem could cause the browser to hang.
    // Make an AJAX request to the server to get who this incident would be
    // assigned to given the current values in the record. This runs the assignment 
    // rules thathave been defined in System Policy and returns the assigned_to and 
    // the assignment_group
     
    function onChange(control, oldValue, newValue, isLoading){
      if(isLoading){return;
      // No change, do not do anything
      }
    
       // Construct the URL to ask the server for the assignment
      var url ="xmlhttp.do?sysparm_processor=AJAXAssignment&sys_target=incident";
      var uv = gel('sys_uniqueValue');
      if(uv){
            url +="&sys_uniqueValue="+ uv.value;}
      // Make the AJAX request to the server and get the response
      var serial = g_form.serialize();
      // get all values currently assigned to the incident
      var response = ajaxRequest(url, serial,true, responseFunc);}
     
    // This callback function handles the AJAX response.
    function responseFunc(response){
      varitem= response.responseXML.getElementsByTagName("item")[0];
      // Process the item returned by the server
      if(item){
      // Get the assigned_to ID and its display value and put them on the form
        varname=item.getAttribute("name");
        var name_label =item.getAttribute("name_label");
        if(name_label &&name){
          g_form.setValue('assigned_to',name, name_label);}
        else{
          g_form.setValue('assigned_to','','');}
        // Get the assignment_group ID and its display value and put then on the form
        var group =item.getAttribute("group");
        var group_label =item.getAttribute("group_label");
        if(group_label && group){
          g_form.setValue('assignment_group', group, group_label);}
        else{
          g_form.setValue('assignment_group','','');}}}
    Custom approval UI macro
    For information on creating a custom approval UI macro, see UI macros.