Using Automate Instances to Store Dynamic Dialog Data (Performance Improvement)

Automate
#1

My Use Case: Modifying A Dynamic Dialog that was accessing the vmdb Cloud flavors in a dropdown to use the Automate data store.

Here is my original dialog:

# Description: This method reads from the flavors class.
#
FLAVOR_CLASS = 'Flavor'.freeze

values_hash = {}
values_hash['!'] = '** no cloud flavors found **'
cloud_flavors = $evm.vmdb(FLAVOR_CLASS).all

unless cloud_flavors.empty?
  values_hash['!'] = '-- select from list --'
  cloud_flavors.each do |flavor|
    values_hash[flavor.id] = flavor.name
  end
end

list_values = {
  'sort_by'    => :value,
  'data_type'  => :string,
  'required'   => true,
  'values'     => values_hash
}
list_values.each { |key, value| $evm.object[key] = value }

I created an instance and a method that would retrieve all the flavors and populate Automate instances.
I ran this using Automate Simulation to build the instances. You could easily setup a cron job to do this.
Note: The class and class schema need to be manually created prior to creating instances.

# Description: This method creates automate instances from the flavors class.
#

cloud_flavors = $evm.vmdb('Flavor').all
# output goes to -> Flavors/Flavor/Data   Name and Id
# Namespace and class need to be pre-built with 2 fields (name and id)
unless cloud_flavors.empty?
  cloud_flavors.each do |flavor|
    method = $evm.instance_create("Flavors/Flavor/Data/#{flavor.name}", "name" => "#{flavor.name}", "id" => "#{flavor.id}")
    method
  end
end

I modified my Dynamic Dialog to read the instances instead of accessing the vmdb Cloud flavors.

# Description: This method reads automate instances built from the flavors class.
#

values_hash = {}
values_hash['!'] = '** no cloud flavors found **'
cloud_flavors = $evm.instance_find('Flavors/Flavor/Data/*')

unless cloud_flavors.empty?
  values_hash['!'] = '-- select from list --'
  cloud_flavors.each do |flavor, h|
    values_hash[h["id"]] = h['name']
  end
end

list_values = {
  'sort_by'    => :value,
  'data_type'  => :string,
  'required'   => true,
  'values'     => values_hash
}
list_values.each { |key, value| $evm.object[key] = value }

Now when I order my service, the dialog retrieves the instance data.

A great use case for this is a Dynamic Dialog that accesses ServiceNow.

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