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 an easy-to-navigate version, visit the Useful Scripts portal.

Assign a group for ESS requests

Type: Assignment Rule

Description: This script automatically assigns a group for all ESS Requests.

Script example:

if(current.opened_by.roles==""){
    current.assignment_group.setDisplayValue('Network');
    current.update();}

Assign Catalog Item to Group Based on Delivery Plan Task

Type: Assignment Rule

Description: 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

Type: Assignment Rule

Description: 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: opulate 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

Type: UI macro

The following option illustrates how to obtain more detail from the My Approvals view of an Execution Plan by creating a new UI Macro.
  • Navigate to System UI and click UI Macros.
  • Rename the existing "approval_summarizer_sc_task" to something like "approval_summarizer_sc_task_old" and deactivate it.
  • Create a new one using the same name ("approval_summarizer_sc_task"). The name should basically tell you what the macro does and to what it applies. In this case, we're replacing an existing one so we decided to re-use the existing name.
Macros

Then copy the xml script at the bottom of this article into the xml code window in the new UI Macro. This is great way to give some detail to an approver when you are doing line item approvals using approval tasks within the Service Catalog Execution Plans.

Different ways

Old way

This is the view you see in My Approvals when using an approval task using the old method.

My approvals old

Notice there is not much detail telling the approver what they are actually approving. You can see the short description of the task but not much information about the item .

New way

This is the view you will see if you use the xml script below in place of the OOB (out-of-box) UI Macro.

My approvals

Using this method you can see details much like the request approval. You have a link into the item ordered, a short description (which contains the ability to expand the variables from the item), price, quantity and the total price. This helps the approver in that it shows more detail. They can now see what they are actually approving.