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on 01-14-2020 10:41 PM
Hi there,
So you applied the Plugins to activate the Virtual Agent, and the Virtual Agent widget is automatically added to your Service Portal or you added the Virtual Agent widget manually to your Service Portal through the Service Portal Designer. Looks all oke, though now you are wondering: Can I change the color of the Virtual Agent icon? Or when clicking the Virtual Agent icon, by default previous chat history is displayed. Can I change that default behavior?
In both cases: the answer is Yes.
You might even seen some community posts on how to do this with cloning the Virtual Agent widget. I made that mistake myself also when we started with Virtual Agent on the London release.
Though cloning?! Why cloning?! Service Portal widgets can be greatly influenced by using Page specific CSS, Instance specific CSS or through Instance options.
Instance options (Option schema)
The out-of-the-box option schema for the Virtual Agent widget looks like:
[ {
"hint" : "The color of the floating button which opens the virtual agent service portal widget button.",
"name" : "button_color",
"section" : "Presentation",
"default_value" : "#8D8DE0",
"label" : "Floating Button Color",
"type" : "string"
}, {
"hint" : "The URL parameters to pass to the VA client, for example: sysparm_live_agent_queue=abc123&sysparm_conversation=xzy456",
"name" : "va_url_params",
"section" : "Behavior",
"label" : "Virtual Agent Client URL Parameters",
"type" : "string"
} ]
Seeing this, this gives us some flexibility in changing the presentation and behavior of the Virtual Agent widget. Changing the presentation and behavior without cloning the widget, just by applying the Instance options.
Configure button color / url parameters
So you might already notice the Virtual Agent widget contains instance options for "button_color" and "va_url_params". How can we configure these?
On your Service Portal, CTRL+Right mouse click on the Virtual Agent icon. In the pop-up select "Instance options".
A modal will appear containing the instance options 🙂 Within this form, simply add the color of your choosing. This can be by name and by HEX code. For example "#FF0000" or "red". Or interested in changing the URL parameters? Simply add the parameter you are after, for example "sysparm_skip_load_history=true".
Upon saving the form, the changes made to the instance options immediately are effective!
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And that's it actually. Hope you like it. If any questions or remarks, let me know!
If this post helped you in any way, I would appreciate it if you hit bookmark or mark it as helpful. Interested in more articles, blogs, videos, and Share projects on Virtual Agent I published? - Virtual Agent |
Kind regards,
Mark
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Hi
Is there a way to have the Virtual Agent always open at Service Portal without the need to click on icon?

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Hi Karina,
Not with the out-of-the-box widget, unfortunately.
Kind regards,
Mark

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Any parameters that could change this behavior?
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Somehow I am struggling with this. I dont get instance option when I right click on VA icon. I am trying to update URL parameters in VA

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Hi there,
How did you add the Virtual Agent widget to your Service Portal?
- Manually on the Service Portal page?
- Embedded the widget, in the header/footer?
- Applied Service Portal Agent Chat configuration?
Also see:
- 2020-07-06 Virtual Agent button icon customizations
- 2020-06-30 Virtual Agent Academy June 30: Simple Widget Branding and Customization
And new with Paris release, it's made easier:
https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/paris-servicenow-platform/page/build/service-portal/task/configur...
Kind regards,
Mark
2020 ServiceNow Community MVP
2020 ServiceNow Developer MVP
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Applied Service Portal Agent Chat configuration

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Ah indeed. This is an article from more than 6 months ago, and not for the Service Portal Agent Chat configuration.
See the links I mentioned. In the Virtual Agent Academy from June 30, I demonstrated this in detail.
If you are going to use Paris-release shortly, there's even an easier way. See the Docs link I mentioned.
Kind regards,
Mark
2020 ServiceNow Community MVP
2020 ServiceNow Developer MVP
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Same here, can't right click!

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So which method did you apply? See the questions I mentioned in the previous reply.
Kind regards,
Mark
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That'll teach me for not clicking 'show all comments'. Thanks Mark, all sorted