ServiceNow Automation

Q) How the background logic of ServiceNow look like?

ServiceNow is essentially a relational database (MariaDB/MySQL) wrapped in a web interface and business logic engine. Every form you see is simply a UI view representing a row in a table.

Q) What’s the difference between playbook and a flow?

Think of a Playbook like a checklist or script for an agent to follow and a Flow like an automated robot running actions in the background based on logic.

Q) When a flow is triggered, which steps do take place?

Here are the steps that take place in sequential order:

• The scheduler creates an entry in the event queue to start the flow.
• The system processes the event and starts the flow in the background.
• The system builds a process plan from the flow.
• Using the record that triggered the flow, the system runs The process plan.
• The system stores the execution details in a context record.

Q) What are the trigger types of a flow?

Record based: When a new entry comes in, or any entry is edited. The flow can use this record as an input for later actions. Schedule based: Typical cron job mentality - trigger once a specific condition is met. Application based: Third party apps can also trigger a flow outside of servicenow environment, through REST API calls.