Flow Designer

What is a Flow?
A flow...Automates business logic for an application or process Is an automated sequence of actions that runs each time a condition is met
Is repeatable Performs the same predefined process every time it executes.
Flow Automation Examples
1. ApprovalsTask: Authorization before work begins
2. Tasks: Unit of work assigned to a group or user
3. Notifications: Keep users informed of platform events.
 Flow Designer is a Now Platform feature that enables rich process automation capabilities in a consolidated design environment to
develop and manage flows. Its main advantage lies in the use of natural language to configure automation without having to write
code.
 Flow Designer is a visual, low-code tool in the ServiceNow platform that enables users to create and automate workflows without
the need for extensive coding or scripting skills. It allows users to easily create complex workflows by dragging and dropping pre-
built actions and logic blocks, or by creating custom actions and integrations with other systems.
 Flow Designer provides a graphical representation of the workflow, making it easy to understand and modify. Users can also test
and debug workflows within Flow Designer, and monitor workflow activity and performance using built-in analytics and reporting
tools.
 You can expand Flow Designer to communicate with external instances and third-party systems by requesting a separate
subscription to Integration Hub.
 Benefits of Flow Designer:
 Flow Designer combines multiple platform automation capabilities, configurations, and runtime information, so
process owners and developers can create, operate, and troubleshoot flows from a single interface.
 Automates repetitive work to improve efficiency and experience.
 Describes a workflow in natural language to help non-technical users understand what it does.
 Enables creating and testing a workflow from a single interface to ensure it works as expected.
 Promotes process automation by enabling subject matter experts to develop and share reusable actions with flow
designers.
 Reduces upgrade costs, with upgrade-safe Now Platform logic replacing complex custom script.
 Reduces development costs by providing a library of reusable actions. reusable flow components in the base system
created by ServiceNow developers.
 Enables extending Flow Designer content by subscribing to ServiceNow Integration Hub or installing spokes.
 It allows you to develop, share, and reuse your custom flow components with other flow designers.
 Flow Designer Components:
Actually, "spoke" is not a main component of Flow Designer. "Spoke" refers to an integration hub capability that enables integration between
ServiceNow and third-party systems.
 The four main components of Flow Designer are:
1. Flow: A flow is an automated process consisting a sequence of steps or actions that automate a specific business process. Flows can be
triggered by an event or scheduled to run at a specific time.  It automates business logic for particular applications or processes, such as
updating records, asking for approvals, creating tasks, or sending notifications.
2. Subflow: A subflow is a reusable flow that can be embedded in other flows or subflows. They can be used to break down complex
workflows into smaller, more manageable components.  It does not have a trigger but instead runs within a flow, another subflow, or a script.
3. Action: An action is a step in a flow that performs a specific task, such as creating a record, sending an email, or calling an API.
4. Decision: A decision is a component that enables you to evaluate one or more conditions and execute a different set of actions based on
the result. This can be used to create branching logic within a flow.
 Together, these components enable you to design and automate workflows in ServiceNow, reducing manual effort and improving
efficiency.
1. Triggers: Triggers are the starting point of a workflow. They define the events that initiate a workflow, such as the creation or update of
a record.
2. Conditions: Conditions are used to define rules that determine which path the workflow should follow based on the values of specific
fields or conditions.
3. Loops: Loops are used to repeat a set of actions or conditions until a certain condition is met.
4. Scripts: Scripts are used to execute custom JavaScript code within a workflow.
5. Connections: Connections are used to connect components together in a workflow, defining the flow of data between them.
 Anatomy of a Flow
 All flows consist of:
Flow properties
• A Trigger
• A sequence of Actions
• Flow logic (optional)
• The flow data created, collected, and used by the flow
 Flow Processing
 When the flow is triggered, flow processing occurs in this order:
1. The scheduler creates an entry in the event queue to start the flow: Every time trigger conditions are met, Flow
Designer creates an event entry. The system processes triggers after database operations. Typically, business rules and
workflows that run synchronously, execute before a triggered flow.
2. The system processes the event and starts the flow in the background: Each flow event contains a reference to the flow
to start and a reference to either the triggering record or the execution time.
The system processes these events using standard event processing, when a scheduler periodically works through the
current items in the event queue it.
he order they were added. Depending on other events in the queue, the system may not immediately start a flow. Flow
designers should expect some lag time between when the trigger conditions occur and when the flow starts.
 The system builds a process plan from the flow:When Flow Designer pulls an event from the queue, it builds a process plan
to run the flow.
 A process plan contains all the information necessary to execute aflow, such as the sequence of published actions or
subflows, the input values for each subflow or action, the action steps to run for each action, and the data provided by the
trigger or subflow output.
 Using the record that triggered the flow, the system runs the process plan: Flow Designer runs the process plan asthe
‘System user’ within the flow application scope.
 When running a flow with a record-based trigger, Flow Designer stores the triggering record in memory as an instance that is
represented in the interface as a data pill.
 The instance contains the record values from when the flow started, which may differ from the current record stored in the
database.
 For example, suppose that creating an incident record triggers a flow. Any changes a user makes to the incident record
after the flow has started do not update the triggering record unless an action looks up the current record value.
 The system stores the execution details in a context record: Flow Designer stores flow execution details in a flow context
record, which contains the following information:«
 Flow outcome state
 ¢ Flow runtime duration e Flow log messages
 * Flow configuration and run time values
 Flow Error Handler:
 Errors can happen in any application, and Flow Error Handler is a graceful way to handle an error by executing a sequence
of actions and subflows when an error occurs. For example, you can configure your flow to log output values, send
notifications, and run corrective subflows when they produce an error.
 Trigger Type
 When configuring a trigger, the first step is to identify the trigger type. The trigger drop-down menu provides a list of
available options:
1. Record-based: Record-based flows run after a record is created or updated. The flow can use the triggering record as input
for actions.
2. Schedule-based: Schedule-based flows run a flow at a specified time of day, week, or month. The flow can use the
execution time as input for actions.
3. Application-based: Application-based flows have an SLA Task, Metric Base, Inbound Email, and a Service Catalog choice.
Each choice contains inputs that can be used in a flow.
 UseCases:
 Once incident is created it should get assigned to support group & problem should created along with it?