How to auto generate checklists for records in ServiceNow. Checklists are useful when you don’t want a lot of extra tasks and want to remind the assigned user the steps to complete a task.

Create Checklist

In order to generate a checklist, you’ll need a checklist!

In this example, I want to generate a checklist on a Catalog Task form.

Add Checklist to Form

Go to an existing catalog task
Hamburger > Configure Form Layout
Add the Checklist
Click Save

Add CHECKLIST TEMPLATE

Might be other ways to do this, but I add a checklist this way

Go to an existing catalog task
Click the little dropdown arrow next to the checklist
Click Create New
Add some checklist items
Click the little dropdown arrow next to the checklist
Click Save as Template
Give a Template a Name, Sample Checklist

Business Rule

There are different ways to code this part. You could put it in the Workflow and also could use a script include.

I use a business rule as it is easy to test and get working.

If you were doing many different checklists for a lot of different tasks, you might consider the workflow method with a script include.

Business Rule: Generate Sample Checklist

Table: sc_task
Advanced: true
When: before
Insert: true
Filter Conditions: Request.Item is Sample Item

Script:
(function executeRule(current, previous /*null when async*/) {
	var task = current.sys_id;
	var table = current.getTableName();
	var template = getTemplate('Sample Checklist'); //PUT YOUR CHECKLIST NAME HERE
	generateChecklist(template, table, task);
})(current, previous);

function getTemplate(name) {
	var grTemplate = new GlideRecord('checklist_template');
	grTemplate.get('name',name);
	return grTemplate.template;
}

function generateChecklist(template,table,task) {
	var json = new global.JSON();
	var itemJSON = json.decode(template);
	var name = itemJSON['name'];
	var items = itemJSON['items'];
	var owner = itemJSON['owner'];
	var checklistId = '';

	var grList = new GlideRecord('checklist');
	grList.addQuery('document', task + '');
	grList.addQuery('table', table);
	grList.query();
	if (!grList.next()) {
		grList.document = task + '';
		grList.name = name;
		grList.owner = owner;
		grList.table = table;
		checklistId = grList.insert();

		for (var i = 0; i < items.length; i++) {
			var grItem = new GlideRecord('checklist_item');
			grItem.checklist = checklistId;
			grItem.complete = false;
			grItem.name = items[i]['name'];
			grItem.order = items[i]['order'];
			grItem.insert();
		}
	}
}

Open new Request

If you had the business rule to trigger on insert, you’ll need to open a new request to see it in action.