Activity definitions
Summarize
Summary of Activity definitions
Activity definitions in ServiceNow Playbooks specify how individual activities obtain the data they require during playbook execution. They provide default configurations, inputs, and automation plans that ensure activities run correctly when the playbook is triggered. These definitions reside in theActivity Definition [syspdactivitydefinition]table and are managed via Process Automation Administration.
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Key Features
- Basic Configuration Fields: Each activity definition includes fields such as Label (activity name), Table (data source, typically Task or Global), Application scope, Description, and Required Roles to control access.
- Automation Plan: Defines the Workflow Studio flow or action that drives the activity’s automation and specifies the activity inputs. Inputs can have configurable visibility settings to control what playbook designers see or can edit.
- Activity Experience: Optional configuration that controls how the activity renders within the playbook card during runtime. It includes the experience type (e.g., Record or Knowledge), the associated record whose data is displayed dynamically, and the data fields to render, selectable via data pill picker for dynamic mapping.
- Playbook Actions: Activities can include buttons in their playbook cards that trigger server scripts, client actions, or UI components, configured through the Playbook Experience Action Assignment Map.
Design and Usage Considerations
- Avoid using triggered Workflow Studio flows directly in automation plans; prefer subflows or actions to prevent unintended executions outside playbooks.
- Predefine default input values in activity definitions to simplify and speed up playbook creation for designers.
- Use dynamic associated records and data pill mapping to ensure playbook cards reflect current and relevant data as playbooks progress.
Practical Guidance for ServiceNow Customers
- To create custom activities, define the automation plan by selecting the subflow or action to execute and configure inputs that designers can set.
- Enhance user experience by setting up activity experiences that present meaningful, dynamic data in the playbook interface.
- Leverage Playbook actions to provide interactive controls within activity cards, enabling users to perform relevant tasks seamlessly.
- Review related concepts and tasks such as adding activities or stages to playbooks, configuring parallel branches, and using dynamic inputs to build flexible and efficient playbooks.
Activity definitions describe how the activities in your playbook get the data that they need when your playbook runs.
Activity definitions provide default configurations and values for your activities so that they can run properly when your playbook is triggered. Each activity definition contains some basic configuration details, as well as an automation plan and activity experience.
The Activity Definition [sys_pd_activity_definition] table lists the definitions for the activities that you can add to a playbook in Workflow Studio. To access these activity definitions, navigate to .
Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Label | Name of the activity to display to users in Workflow Studio. |
| Table | Name of the table whose records the activity can access as inputs. Typically, this table is either the Task [task] or Global [global] table. |
| Application | Application scope that the activity can run in. |
| Accessible From | Options include:
|
| Description | Optional description for the activity. |
| Required Roles | A list of user roles that are allowed to access activities that use this activity definition. |
Automation plan
- The Workflow Studio flow or action, which drives the activity's automation
- The activity's inputs, which are the data that the activity needs to run yourplaybook
Activity designers can configure the visibility of each activity input.
- Include in standard modal
- Hides the input from the properties panel. Playbook designers can only see the input from the standard modal when they select the Show advanced properties option.
- Include in standard modal and configuration panel
- Displays the input in the properties panel. Playbook designers can also see the input from the standard modal when they select the Show advanced properties option.
- Admin visibility only
- Hides the input from users who do not have the admin or playbook.admin roles.
Activity experience
- Experience type
- An experience type defines the data, or properties, that describe how the activity renders as a playbook card at runtime. For example, a Record experience type tells the system that the activity can display a title, tagline, description, footer, and service level agreement (SLA) information in the Playbook card when your activated playbook runs. For more information, see UI Layouts.
- Associated record
- The associated record defines the record whose data can render within a Playbook card at runtime. The associated record is dynamic, which means that it changes frequently as the playbook progresses. Because of this dynamic nature, you may want to use the data pill picker (
) to map the associated record to output record data within the underlying subflow or action specified in the automation plan. - Data to render in the Playbook card
- You can specify the data to render in the Playbook card in the sections under the Associated Record section. To add dynamic data to fields that render in this user-facing view, use the data pill picker () next to a data field and navigate, or dot-walk, to the appropriate data pill. The data pill should point to data within the subflow or action specified in the activity definition's automation plan.Note:An activity experience contains many sections where you can specify the data to appear within the Playbook card. These sections vary depending on the experience type that you select. For example, a Record experience type has Details, Form, Attachments, and Features sections, while a Knowledge experience type has Knowledge, Details, and Features sections. For more information, see UI Layouts.
- Actions to render in the Playbook card
You can specify the Playbook actions that you want to render in an activity's Playbook card using the Playbook Experience Action Assignment Map related list. A Playbook action displays as a button in the Playbook card's footer. Playbook actions can run server scripts, dispatch client actions, or render UI components. For more information, see Custom Playbook actions.
To add a Playbook action to your activity definition, select New in the Playbook Experience Action Assignment Map related list. Then, choose a Playbook action from the Action Assignment list. Next, choose a Playbook user experience that you want the Playbook action to appear in from the Playbook Experience list, and then click Submit.
Design considerations
- Avoid calling triggered Workflow Studio flows in an activity's automation plan
- To prevent unintentionally running a flow outside of Playbooks, you can use only subflows or actions in activity automation plans. Alternatively, you can set the flow's trigger to only run if not already running. For more information, see Workflow Studio flow trigger types.
- Specify default input values in your activity definitions
- Preconfiguring default input values for your activity definitions reduces the time and complexity needed for a playbook owner to create a playbook.