Generate workflow activity

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Generate workflow activity

    The Generate workflow activity in ServiceNow Zurich release allows you to immediately create task or approval records from any subsequent task or approval activities in the workflow path. This pre-generation enables tasks and approvals to be established upfront but still completed sequentially as the workflow progresses. It is specifically designed for workflows running on tables extending the Task table.

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    Key Features

    • Pre-generation of tasks and approvals: Creates tasks with state set to Pending and approvals with state Not Requested, including setting expected start and due dates.
    • Sequential completion: Although tasks and approvals are pre-generated, they must be completed in order during workflow execution.
    • Duration calculation: Expected start and due dates are calculated based on the expected durations of tasks and approvals between the Generate activity and each subsequent activity. For branched workflows, the longest path duration is used.
    • Multiple use and refresh: The Generate activity can be used multiple times to refresh tasks and approvals with updated information, which is helpful if approvers or task details change during the workflow.
    • Excluding activities: Activities can be excluded from generation by selecting the “Skip during generate” checkbox on conditions, allowing control over which tasks or approvals are created.
    • Input variables: You can control whether approvals and/or tasks are created or only used to calculate durations by selecting corresponding options.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    Using the Generate activity enables you to streamline complex workflows with multiple dependent tasks and approvals by creating them all upfront while maintaining the necessary sequential order. This ensures better predictability of task timelines and approval processes, improving workflow management and visibility.

    The ability to refresh generated tasks and approvals allows workflows to remain flexible and accurate in dynamic environments where approvers or task details may change after workflow initiation.

    By managing which activities are skipped during generation, you can tailor the workflow execution to specific requirements, preventing unnecessary or premature task creation.

    Example Use Case

    In a workflow example, approvals such as Approval-2 and Approval-3 are generated immediately, while Approval-4 is skipped due to a rejection condition marked to skip during generate. Expected start and due dates for tasks are set based on their durations and dependencies, ensuring tasks start only after prerequisite tasks complete, reflecting realistic workflow timing.

    The Generate activity immediately creates task or approval records from any task or approval activities placed after the Generate activity in the workflow path. These pre-generated tasks and approvals start when the task and approval activities are reached during flow execution. This allows a task to have a set of associated pre-generated sequential tasks or approvals, but still require them to be completed in order.

    Note:
    This activity is only available when the workflow runs on a table that extends Task.

    By default, the workflow does not create any tasks or approvals until it reaches them in the workflow.

    The Generate activity follows all transitions through the workflow to each activity. For each activity:
    • If it is a task activity, creates the task and sets:
      • The State to Pending
      • The Expected Start Date
      • The Due Date
      Note:
      Task activities run as the user whose actions complete the task the workflow was waiting for and advances the workflow.
    • If it is an approval activity, creates the approvals and sets:
      • The approval State to Not Requested
      • The Expected Start Date
      • The Due Date
      Note:
      Approval activities run as the user whose actions match the approve or reject conditions the workflow was waiting for and advances the workflow.

    Expected start dates and due dates are calculated based on the Expected Duration of all of the tasks and approvals between the Generate activity and the activity being updated. In the case of a branched path (between a Branch and Join activity), the longer duration will be used for any post-branch activities.

    The Generate activity can be used more than once, and any tasks or approvals will be refreshed with updated information. This is useful in situations where the list of approvers or other important information is still editable while the workflow is in process and it may be necessary to update or correct the generated approvals or tasks.

    To exclude a set of activities from the Generate activity, select the Skip during generate check box on any condition and its transitions will not be followed during the generate process. By default, the following conditions have the Skip during generate check box selected:
    • Rejected (for any of the approval activities)
    • No condition of If activity
    • Continue condition of Turnstile activity
    • Incomplete condition of Join activity

    Input variables

    Input variables determine the initial behavior of the activity.

    Table 1. Generate activity input variables
    Field Description
    Generate approvals If selected, approvals are created when running the Generate activity. If cleared, the approvals are used to compute their estimated duration, but no approvals are created.
    Generate tasks If selected, tasks are created when running the Generate activity. If cleared, the tasks are used to compute their estimated duration, but no tasks are created.

    States

    The activity state tells the workflow engine what to do with the activity.
    Table 2. Generate activity states
    State Description
    Executing The activity is executing.
    Finished The activity finished running. See the result value for the outcome of the activity.
    Cancelled This activity, or the workflow that contains this activity, was canceled.

    Example

    Figure 1. Generate workflow
    Sample workflow that uses the Generate activity
    In this example, the following approvals are generated:
    • Approval-2
    • Approval-3

    Approval-4 is skipped since the Rejected condition of Approval-3 has Skip during generate selected.

    Here is an example of using the Generate activity that describes the expected start and due dates:
    Figure 2. Generate workflow start and due date
    In this example, if the Generate activity is run on Jan 1, 2016, the following expected start dates and due dates would be set for the generated tasks.
    Task Expected Start Date Reason Due Date
    Task 1 (1 day) Jan. 1, 2016 Jan. 2, 2016
    Task 2 (1 day) Jan. 2, 2016 Task 1 is 1 day Jan. 3, 2016
    Task 3 (2 days) Jan. 1, 2016 Jan. 3, 2016
    Task 4 (1 day) Jan. 3, 2016 Task 3 is 2 days Jan. 4, 2016
    Task 5 (1 day) Jan. 4, 2016 Task 4 ends the latest before the Join Jan. 5, 2016

    Notice that Task 5 starts on Jan. 4, 2016 since the longest path (based on due dates) to the Join is Task 3/Task 4.