Paris release top 5 new enhancements

The new Paris release comes with a major release regarding Flow Designer and it brings to the table a lot of new features that will speed up your development by creating reusable content that can be used in any flow.

In the Flow Designer interface, action numbers now start with 1 and then increment by 1 as you add more actions to your flow. Legacy action numbering incremented by 1 for each main section and then incremented by .1 for each nested subsection, such as in a Do the following in parallel flow logic block. If your flow actions contain any inline scripts that reference legacy action numbers, you have the option to automatically update your scripts according to the new numbering method.

As we looked up all the new features for the flow designer, we tried to come up with a list of our favorites but all the new features bring a new perspective about the Flow Designer and increase its usability even more. If you do not take our word look for yourself at this cool new features 😉

Specify what content a user can access based on the user’s role. 

Create flows and subflows that run with specific roles. Assigning roles enables you to create user-initiated flows that run with their own roles rather than the user’s roles. 

Save complex objects as templates for use as outputs in steps or actions. 

Look up and delete multiple existing records as a single action. Using this action removes the need to separately look up a list of records and then delete the list with For Each flow logic.

Duplicate an action or subflow within a flow.

Get multi-row variable sets when accessing ServiceNow®Service Catalog variables. 

Use a transform function to return a value associated with a matching data-pill key. 

Send an SMS text message to specified users or groups as an action in a flow. 

Create a requested item [sc_req_item] on a Service Catalog Request [sc_req]. 

Use the Run test in background option to test a flow, subflow, or action asynchronously in background. 

Look up and update multiple records as a single step. Using this step removes the need to separately look up a list of records and then process the list with a Script step. Set field values with a template or add and configure them using data pills. 

Look up and update multiple records as a single action. Using this action removes the need to separately look up a list of records and then process the list with For Each flow logic. Set field values with a template or add and configure them using data pills. 

In an inline script or Script step, use the hasApprovals() method in the FlowAPI class to determine if a flow contains any Ask for Approval actions. 

Collect data from agents interacting with a Workspace playbook. Use this data to create reusable activities for process owners using Process Automation Designer. 

If adding flows with actions or ServiceNow®IntegrationHub spokes to an instance with those actions or spokes missing, the flow will successfully open and provide a warning for each missing action. 

In Integration Hub we have JSON Streaming Builder and XML Streaming Builder APIs that will help developer lives even more. In these APIs you can build a large streaming or non-streaming JSON or XML payload to use in a REST or SOAP request to send bulk data to a third-party API. For example, you can use these APIs to create a JSON payload in the ServiceNow Flow Designer Script step and pass the returned value to the REST step to send the request to a third-party service. 

Other new features introduced in the Paris release are: 

Add the JSON parser step in ServiceNow® Action Designer to map inbound JSON payloads to complex object outputs. Access these outputs as data pills in your flows for outbound integrations. 

Apply an IP access control to outbound traffic, inbound traffic, or bidirectional traffic. 

View and configure your connection and credential aliases through a simplified interface. Add new connections, edit existing connections, and view connection details. 

Support several connections to a single integration provider. Select connections for flows, subflows, and actions directly from a flow. 

And in case the user cannot find what he is looking for, there is a suggestion at the end allowing him to open an incident or browse the request catalog.

Example of XMLStreamingBuilder 

A long awaited update for the Script Debugger console finally reach out to make the debugging easier, we don’t know about you, but the fact that we weren’t able to change the variables within the script debugger console was a bit frustrating, and now this is solved. 

Let us get started on how evaluate expressions in runtime using Console. 

#1 First you need to open the System Diagnostics > Script Debugger. 

#2 Setup a breakpoint and trigger the script 

#3 Start debugging and after the script is triggered you will see that the script paused at the first breakpoint. 

#4 Click the upward arrow to expand the console pane. To start evaluating an expression you just write it in the console and press enter, to enter multiple lines of expression, press Shift + Enter after each line. For example you can define a new variable var x = 10, you can change a variable that is already defined in the script and you can call any function that is defined which I think it is pretty cool. 

In Paris release mobile push notifications become even more user friendly as they give the user an actionable push notification that can be configured to contain up to 3 actions. The actions that are currently supported are: 

The buttons can either be configured to open the app into the desired location or be actioned from the notification pane. The action from the notification pane can be instantaneous or with a free text field to comment your action. 

The external user self-registration feature enhances identity verification to improve customer experiences and supports commonly used registration flows. 

External user self-registration enables a large group of users to register to a ServiceNow app without the help of an administrator. For example, your visitors can register themselves to the parking app. Each visitor can complete an automated registration process. This system could generate a parking number, unique to each visitor, and ensure they have a parking space. 

To use this feature, you must activate the External User Self-Registration plugin and enable the blacklist property if you are upgrading to Paris. 

After configuring an app with necessary tables, you should configure the registration, including a pre-registration flow, field mapping, post registration mapping, captcha, role mapping and post registration flow.