Flow diagramming view

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Flow diagramming view

    The Flow diagramming view in ServiceNow allows customers to create and visualize flows as diagrams, showing the various paths and connections between flow elements. This feature enhances the ability to manage flows by providing a clear graphical representation of Workflow Studio components and their relationships.

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    To use this functionality, customers must install Flow Diagramming from the ServiceNow Store. The diagramming view supports viewing, editing, and configuring flow components, enabling more intuitive flow management and troubleshooting.

    Key Features

    • View Selector: Switch between the flow diagramming and flow description views to understand flow design from different perspectives.
    • Add and Configure Triggers: Select supported triggers such as Record triggers, Date triggers, Inbound email, Kafka Message, MetricBase, REST API (Asynchronous), Service Catalog, SLA, and Task triggers. Note that some trigger types are not supported.
    • Flow Nodes: Display and configure individual flow components (nodes) showing their sequence, type icon, name, menu options, and available paths.
    • Insert Nodes and Paths: Add actions, flow logic, or subflows along specific paths or at the end of flows, with options limited to supported components.
    • Search Nodes: Find nodes quickly by matching search criteria.
    • Diagram View Controls: Adjust zoom, focus on specific regions, download diagrams as PNG images, and customize node appearance to show or hide configuration details and annotations.
    • Annotations: Add and edit annotations on actions, flow logic, and subflows to provide additional context within the diagram.

    Supported Flow Components

    The flow diagramming view supports a curated set of flow components to ensure clarity and usability:

    • Flow Logic Types: Includes Call a Workflow, Parallel execution, Loops (Do until, For Each, Exit Loop, Skip Iteration), Decision-making (If, Else If, Make a decision), Placeholder, Set Flow Variables, Try, Wait for a duration, and Get Flow Outputs.
    • Subflows: Supported for addition and configuration within the diagram.
    • Data Stream Actions: Supported for adding and editing.
    • Stages: Displayed as part of the flow structure.

    If a flow contains unsupported components, the flow diagramming view is disabled to maintain a consistent experience.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Visualize complex flows with clear branch paths and component relationships to better understand and optimize processes.
    • Edit flows graphically, making it easier to add or modify actions, logic, and subflows along specific paths.
    • Quickly identify and navigate to specific flow components using search and view controls.
    • Export flow diagrams as images for documentation, sharing, or analysis purposes.
    • Enhance flow documentation with annotations directly within the diagramming interface.

    Create and view flows as diagrams. See the paths a flow can follow and the connections between elements.

    Activation

    Install Flow Diagramming from the ServiceNow Store website.

    Benefits

    Enable the flow diagramming view of a flow to gain these benefits.
    • Add and edit Workflow Studio components within specific paths of a flow.
    • See the branches and paths a flow can follow.
    • See the relationships between Workflow Studio components.

    Flow Diagramming components

    Figure 1. Flow Diagramming user interface components
    Example flow displaying the eight user interface components of the flow diagramming view

    The Flow diagramming view consists of these components.

    1. View selector
    Switch between the flow diagramming view and the flow description view.
    2. Add a trigger
    Select and configure a flow trigger. Flow diagramming view does not support some trigger types.
    3. Flow nodes
    View and configure a flow component as a node. Each node displays these elements.
    • The sequence of the flow component in the flow
    • The icon representing the spoke or component type
    • The name of the flow component
    • The menu of available options for the flow component
    • The paths available from this node
    Note:
    The flow diagramming view only displays nodes for supported flow components.
    4. Plus icons
    Select and configure an action, flow logic, or subflow to insert along a specific path of the flow.
    Note:
    The flow diagramming view only displays options for supported flow components.
    5. Add a node
    Select and configure an action, flow logic, or subflow at the end of the flow.
    Note:
    The flow diagramming view only displays options for supported flow components.
    6. Search nodes
    Find all nodes that match your search criteria.
    7. Diagram view controls
    Select the current focus of the view, set the zoom level, download the diagram, and select view options.
    • Preview and zoom controls
    • Download diagram as an image
    • View options
    8. Node properties
    Configure the properties of the currently selected node.

    Preview and zoom controls

    Set the current focus of the view by selecting a region of the thumbnail image. Zoom in and out to see specific portions of the flow structure.

    Download diagram as an image

    Download the current flow as an image in the Portable Network Graphic (PNG) format. Opens a dialog window to choose the location to save the file. The image only shows the nodes, connection lines, and order numbering. If the image is too big to fit into one file, the system creates multiple images for each section of the flow.

    View options

    Set how nodes appear in the diagramming view.
    Details
    Show or hide configuration details in a box beneath each node. The configuration details include conditions and data pill paths.
    Annotations
    Show or hide the annotations available for each node. Annotations appear as italic text beneath each node.

    Supported flow components

    The flow diagramming view supports a limited selection of flow components. Workflow Studio disables the flow diagramming view when a flow contains unsupported flow components.

    Annotations
    The flow diagramming view supports adding and editing annotations to actions, flow logic, and subflows.
    Data Stream Actions
    The flow diagramming view supports adding and editing data stream actions.
    Flow logic
    The flow diagramming view only displays flows containing these flow logic types.
    • Call a Workflow
    • Do the following in parallel
    • Do the following until
    • Dynamic Flows
    • Else If
    • End Flow
    • Exit Loop
    • For Each
    • Get Flow Outputs
    • If
    • Make a decision
    • Placeholder
    • Set Flow Variables
    • Skip Iteration
    • Try
    • Wait for a duration of time
    Stages
    The flow diagramming view displays the stages available to a flow.
    Subflows
    The flow diagramming view supports adding and configuring subflows.
    Triggers
    The flow diagramming view only displays flows with these trigger types.
    • Record triggers
    • Date triggers
    • Inbound email
    • Kafka Message
    • MetricBase
    • REST API - Asynchronous
    • Service Catalog
    • SLA Task