🚀 Advanced Workflows & Flow Designer in ServiceNow

⚙️ 1. Advanced Workflow Concepts (Legacy Workflow Editor)

Even though Flow Designer is the future, advanced Workflow Editor knowledge is useful because many instances still use them.

• Subflows & Nested Workflows

  • Break down complex workflows into reusable subflows.

  • Example: “Approval Subflow” reused in Change, Problem, and HR Case workflows.

• Scripting in Workflows

  • Use Run Script Activity for custom server-side logic.

   

  workflow.info("Running custom approval logic"); current.comments = "Auto-approved by workflow"; current.update();

• Timers & Waits

  • Pause execution until an SLA breach, date/time, or user action occurs.

• Rollback Actions

  • Define compensating actions for failure scenarios (like undoing record creation).

• Parallel Activities

  • Run approval steps or notifications in parallel to save time.

⚡ 2. Advanced Flow Designer Concepts

Flow Designer is more powerful when combined with advanced features:

2.1 Triggers

• Record-based triggers (insert, update, delete)

• Schedule-based triggers (daily, weekly, CRON expressions)

• API triggers (Scripted REST APIs call a flow)

2.2 Advanced Actions

• Lookups & GlideRecord-style queries using Data Pills.

• If/Else Branching for conditional paths.

• Loops: Iterate over arrays, like multiple users or tasks.

• Subflows: Encapsulate reusable logic.

2.3 Data Stream Actions

• Used for large data sets (e.g., processing 10,000 incident records efficiently).

2.4 Error Handling & Recovery

• Error Transition path on actions (redirect on failure).

• Try/Catch subflows to gracefully handle integration issues.

🔗 3. Flow Designer + IntegrationHub (Advanced Scenarios)

• Cross-System Approvals

  • Example: A ServiceNow Change Request triggers a Jira ticket → waits for Jira approval → updates SNOW record.

• ChatOps Automations

  • Incident created → Flow sends Slack message to on-call team → captures response back into SNOW.

• Cloud Resource Provisioning

  • Request in SNOW → Flow calls AWS/Azure Spoke → provisions VM → updates CMDB automatically.

• Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

  • Flow triggers ServiceNow RPA Hub → executes desktop automation (like HR system without APIs).