Product documentation Docs
    • English
    • Deutsch
    • 日本語
    • 한국어
    • Français
  • More Sites
    • Now Community
    • Developer Site
    • Knowledge Base
    • Product Information
    • ServiceNow.com
    • Training
    • Customer Success Center
    • ServiceNow Support Videos
  • Log in

Product documentation

  • Home
How search works:
  • Punctuation and capital letters are ignored
  • Special characters like underscores (_) are removed
  • Known synonyms are applied
  • The most relevant topics (based on weighting and matching to search terms) are listed first in search results
Topics are ranked in search results by how closely they match your search terms
  • A match on the entire phrase you typed
  • A match on part of the phrase you typed
  • A match on ALL of the terms in the phrase you typed
  • A match on ANY of the terms in the phrase you typed

Note: Matches in titles are always highly ranked.

  • Release version
    Table of Contents
    • Now Platform capabilities
Table of Contents
Choose your release version
    Home Madrid Now Platform Capabilities Now Platform capabilities Workflow Workflow concepts Domain separation and Workflow

    Domain separation and Workflow

    • Save as PDF Selected topic Topic & subtopics All topics in contents
    • Unsubscribe Log in to subscribe to topics and get notified when content changes.
    • Share this page

    Domain separation and Workflow

    This is an overview of domain separation and the Workflow application. Domain separation enables you to separate data, processes, and administrative tasks into logical groupings called domains. You can then control several aspects of this separation, including which users can see and access data.

    Overview

    Support: Data only

    When domain separation is enabled, workflows and workflow activities inherit the domain of the user who publishes or creates them.

    How domain separation works in the Workflow application

    While workflows are managed by multiple tables, only the following tables are used for domain separation features:
    • Workflow [wf_workflow] and Workflow Version [wf_workflow_version]: used for delegated administration or process separation.
    • Workflow Context [wf_context]: used for data separation.
    Note: The Workflow Version table [wf_workflow_version] table does not contain a domain field; Workflow Version records inherit their domain from the parent Workflow record.

    The Workflow Editor displays a workflow's domain in the title bar after the workflow name.

    Figure 1. Workflow editor domain
    Related topics
    • Domain separation

    Workflows and delegated administration

    Delegated administration allows child domains to inherit workflows from higher up the domain hierarchy and to override them with domain-specific versions if necessary.

    Figure 2. Workflow and delegated administration
    Processes are visible upwards. A child domain can see workflows in a parent domain.

    Workflow records in the Workflow [wf_workflow] and Workflow Version [wf_workflow_version] tables are considered processes. A user in a child domain may check out but not copy a workflow from a parent domain. When a user in a child domain checks out a workflow from a parent domain, the system creates a version of the workflow in that user's domain. This new version is a unique record in the Workflow [wf_workflow] table. After the user publishes this new workflow, other users in the child domain use the new workflow, which overrides the workflow from the parent domain. The original workflow in the parent domain is no longer visible to users in the child domain.

    For example, a managed service provider (MSP) hosts ITSM services for several companies, including ACME and Initech, on a single instance. As administrators, the MSP creates a Change Request - Emergency workflow that applies to all domains because it was created in the TOP domain, which is the highest domain in the domain hierarchy. This workflow overrides the global Change Request - Emergency workflow and specifies that emergency change requests require approval from the CAB approval group. Because of delegated administration, every domain in the hierarchy sees and uses this workflow. Now suppose the ACME domain requires a different approval policy where emergency change requests require approval from the emergency CAB approval group. The MSP creates another version of the Change Request - Emergency workflow in the ACME domain. This workflow overrides the version in the TOP domain and only applies to users in the ACME domain.

    Workflow permissions

    When a user starts a new workflow, the workflow runs with that user's domain and credentials.

    The workflow preserves a user's domain and credentials until an activity causes the workflow to wait, such as an approval activity waiting for approval or rejection. When the stopped workflow resumes, such as when a user approves a request, the workflow uses the credentials of the approving user, but continues to run within the domain of the original user.

    Tags:

    Feedback
    On this page

    Previous topic

    Next topic

    • Contact Us
    • Careers
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Statement
    • Sitemap
    • © ServiceNow. All rights reserved.

    Release version
    Choose your release version

      Domain separation and Workflow

      • Save as PDF Selected topic Topic & subtopics All topics in contents
      • Unsubscribe Log in to subscribe to topics and get notified when content changes.
      • Share this page

      Domain separation and Workflow

      This is an overview of domain separation and the Workflow application. Domain separation enables you to separate data, processes, and administrative tasks into logical groupings called domains. You can then control several aspects of this separation, including which users can see and access data.

      Overview

      Support: Data only

      When domain separation is enabled, workflows and workflow activities inherit the domain of the user who publishes or creates them.

      How domain separation works in the Workflow application

      While workflows are managed by multiple tables, only the following tables are used for domain separation features:
      • Workflow [wf_workflow] and Workflow Version [wf_workflow_version]: used for delegated administration or process separation.
      • Workflow Context [wf_context]: used for data separation.
      Note: The Workflow Version table [wf_workflow_version] table does not contain a domain field; Workflow Version records inherit their domain from the parent Workflow record.

      The Workflow Editor displays a workflow's domain in the title bar after the workflow name.

      Figure 1. Workflow editor domain
      Related topics
      • Domain separation

      Workflows and delegated administration

      Delegated administration allows child domains to inherit workflows from higher up the domain hierarchy and to override them with domain-specific versions if necessary.

      Figure 2. Workflow and delegated administration
      Processes are visible upwards. A child domain can see workflows in a parent domain.

      Workflow records in the Workflow [wf_workflow] and Workflow Version [wf_workflow_version] tables are considered processes. A user in a child domain may check out but not copy a workflow from a parent domain. When a user in a child domain checks out a workflow from a parent domain, the system creates a version of the workflow in that user's domain. This new version is a unique record in the Workflow [wf_workflow] table. After the user publishes this new workflow, other users in the child domain use the new workflow, which overrides the workflow from the parent domain. The original workflow in the parent domain is no longer visible to users in the child domain.

      For example, a managed service provider (MSP) hosts ITSM services for several companies, including ACME and Initech, on a single instance. As administrators, the MSP creates a Change Request - Emergency workflow that applies to all domains because it was created in the TOP domain, which is the highest domain in the domain hierarchy. This workflow overrides the global Change Request - Emergency workflow and specifies that emergency change requests require approval from the CAB approval group. Because of delegated administration, every domain in the hierarchy sees and uses this workflow. Now suppose the ACME domain requires a different approval policy where emergency change requests require approval from the emergency CAB approval group. The MSP creates another version of the Change Request - Emergency workflow in the ACME domain. This workflow overrides the version in the TOP domain and only applies to users in the ACME domain.

      Workflow permissions

      When a user starts a new workflow, the workflow runs with that user's domain and credentials.

      The workflow preserves a user's domain and credentials until an activity causes the workflow to wait, such as an approval activity waiting for approval or rejection. When the stopped workflow resumes, such as when a user approves a request, the workflow uses the credentials of the approving user, but continues to run within the domain of the original user.

      Tags:

      Feedback

          Share this page

          Got it! Feel free to add a comment
          To share your product suggestions, visit the Idea Portal.
          Please let us know how to improve this content

          Check any that apply

          To share your product suggestions, visit the Idea Portal.
          Confirm

          We were unable to find "Coaching" in Jakarta. Would you like to search instead?

          No Yes
          • Contact Us
          • Careers
          • Terms of Use
          • Privacy Statement
          • Sitemap
          • © ServiceNow. All rights reserved.

          Subscribe Subscribed Unsubscribe Last updated: Tags: January February March April May June July August September October November December No Results Found Versions Search preferences successfully updated My release version successfully updated My release version successfully deleted An error has occurred. Please try again later. You have been unsubscribed from all topics. You are now subscribed to and will receive notifications if any changes are made to this page. You have been unsubscribed from this content Thank you for your feedback. Form temporarily unavailable. Please try again or contact  docfeedback@servicenow.com  to submit your comments. The topic you requested does not exist in the release. You were redirected to a related topic instead. The available release versions for this topic are listed There is no specific version for this documentation. Explore products Click to go to the page. Release notes and upgrades Click to open the dropdown menu. Delete Remove No selected version Reset This field is required You are already subscribed to this topic Attach screenshot The file you uploaded exceeds the allowed file size of 20MB. Please try again with a smaller file. Please complete the reCAPTCHA step to attach a screenshot
          Log in to personalize your search results and subscribe to topics
          No, thanks Login