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Mark Roethof
Tera Patron
Tera Patron

Hi there,

While working on the Virtual Agent, have you noticed that in some situations the labels for User Input "Static Choice" are not shown correctly. Analyzing what I've experienced on this as well as all questions I've seen on this on the ServiceNow Community, it all comes down to the same… UI Messages.
Let's get after it!


User Input Static Choice

To set up a list of predefined choices available to the user, you can use the User Input "Static Choice".

find_real_file.png

An example list prompt could look like:

find_real_file.png


Labels not shown correctly

Why are in some cases the labels for User Input "Static Choice" not shown correctly? For example like below (picture copied from a Community thread I answered):

find_real_file.png


UI Message

When setting up the User Input "Static Choice" and defining the Choice List, upon publishing the topic the choices are automatically saved as UI Messages. The label is set as key and message on the UI Message record. All will be fine when your entered Choice List is spot on instantly. Though if you made a mistake on the use of capitals for example…

For example, a Choice List option of "Talent Link", will be stored within the UI Message table as a record with key and message "Talent Link". A Choice List option of "vantage", will be stored within the UI Message table as a record with key and message "vantage". After making such a minor mistake on the first letter not being uppercase, you would just change this in the Virtual Agent Designer right? Yes and no…
When trying to fix your mistake, on the Choice List within the Virtual Agent Designer the label might look good now with "Vantage". Though actually:

The automatically created UI Message record will not recognize updates
on case changes only, and therefore will not be automatically updated!

So here is your cause! A difference in the label on the Choice List within the Virtual Agent Designer, and the message within the UI Message record. Because localization is embedded really well within Virtual Agent, for Choice Lists UI Messages will be leading when there's a UI Message record with matching key and language (the key matching, is not case sensitive). If no matching UI Message exists, then the actual label on the Choice List will be shown.


Fix

As you might guess, the fix is pretty easy. Just search for the UI Message record with matching key and language, and update the message field on this record.

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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
2020 ServiceNow Community MVP
2020 ServiceNow Developer MVP

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LinkedIn

Comments
Chris D
Tera Guru
Tera Guru

It's not always a mistake though and you missed perhaps the biggest culprit (for non-NLU users): Keywords.

Every keyword is automatically added as a UI Message and if you're used to tagging, you simply use lowercase for tags/keywords because they're not case-sensitive... thing is, UI Messages are case-sensitive, so if you create a keyword "profile" in a topic, it'll create a "profile" UI Message entry, affecting any future static choice entries, and even the "Profile" link on the user dropdown menu! (Ask me how I know...) 

Nice and easy fix... if you have the admin role... I've just been compiling a list of incorrectly capitalized choice options and plan to send it over to our admins to do a bulk update. Users get to live with it for a little bit longer. Good intentions ServiceNow, but terrible implementation.

Tanay Bedia1
Kilo Contributor

Hi Mark,

I have VA integrated with MS Teams and I'm supporting multiple languages. How can we use Static Choice Input to Display Choices in the intended language?

Matt Lodge
Tera Expert

Sorry to ask a silly question, where to you find the UI Message? I've searched the filter navigator and can't find it.

Version history
Last update:
‎08-23-2020 10:53 PM
Updated by: