The way approvals work in ServiceNow by default is that an email goes out, and the user can click a link in the email to approve or reject. That link is generated in the default approval notification template using ${mailto:mailto.approval}. Clicking the link that is generated in the approval email based on this template, will pop up another email on the user's computer. 

However, this only works if they have their system configured to correctly handle mailto href links, and if they received the email using the same program they've configured to handle mailto links, and if they're not using webmail. 

Definitely not ideal. 
How can we improve this situation? As is the case with nearly every problem in life, the answer is CODE! 

Our goal will be to give users a link that they can click to approve or reject a record, that doesn't use mailto, and that works no matter how they're viewing or sending email. 

Join me after the break to see a detailed explanation of how it's done, and download an update set that'll let you deploy this functionality in your instance right now, for free!