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MS Teams Approval Notifications - Link Actions to Content shows "No records to display" (VA Lite)

fuuuritsuu27
Tera Contributor

3 hours ago

Hi everyone,

I'm currently implementing the Microsoft Teams integration in ServiceNow and have successfully completed the agent-to-user Teams chat functionality. Agents can start a Teams chat directly from an Incident or Requested Item, and that portion is working as expected.


I'm now working on approval notifications for Microsoft Teams.


Environment

  • ServiceNow Zurich
  • Microsoft Teams integration installed and working
  • Virtual Agent Lite (not Virtual Agent Pro)

What I've done

  • Created a notification on the sysapproval_approver table.
  • Created Notification Content (sys_notification_va_content).
  • Configured the Microsoft Teams delivery channel.
  • Created notification actions.

However, when I open Link Actions to Content and click New, the Content reference lookup returns "No records to display", even though my Notification Content record exists and is active.

I confirmed through Background Scripts that the record exists.


I also checked the reference qualifier, which uses:

ActionableContentFilter().getEncodedFilter(current)


The Script Include is protected, so I can't inspect the filtering logic.


I also found the following statement in the ServiceNow documentation:

Only Virtual Agent Pro customers can associate actions with notification contents and receive actionable notifications.

Questions are:

  1. Is the empty Content lookup expected behavior when using Virtual Agent Lite?
  2. Has anyone successfully implemented Microsoft Teams approval notifications without Virtual Agent Pro?
  3. If actionable notifications require Virtual Agent Pro, is there a supported way to send non-actionable approval notifications to Microsoft Teams instead?

Any guidance or experience would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

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1 REPLY 1

Abhishek Pal
Mega Guru

15m ago

Hi @fuuuritsuu27 ,

Yes, this behavior is expected when using Virtual Agent Lite.

The Link Actions to Content related list is used only for actionable notifications. Virtual Agent Lite supports simple, non-actionable notifications but does not support actionable notifications.

The protected reference qualifier:

ActionableContentFilter().getEncodedFilter(current)

filters the Content lookup based on the supported configuration and entitlement. Therefore, the empty Content lookup is consistent with using Virtual Agent Lite.

Do not modify the protected Script Include, remove the reference qualifier, change the ACL, or manually insert records into the actionable-content relationship table. That would be unsupported, upgrade-sensitive, and could bypass product entitlement controls.

Supported approach with Virtual Agent Lite:

1. Keep the Provider Notification on:

Approval [sysapproval_approver]

2. Configure the recipient as the Approver field.

3. Create active Virtual Agent Content - Chat content.

4. Use one of these supported content types:

- Simple
- Record card

For a Record card, include useful approval information such as:

- Approval state
- Approver
- Approval for
- Short description
- Request or task number

5. Enable the record link so the approver can open the approval record in ServiceNow.

6. Configure the Microsoft Teams delivery channel for the notification content.

7. Do not create Notification Actions or Link Actions to Content.

8. Under Conversational Interfaces > Channels and Integrations > Microsoft Teams, confirm that notifications are enabled.

9. Verify that the Microsoft Teams user is linked to the correct ServiceNow user and is subscribed to notifications.

With this configuration, the approver receives an informational notification in Microsoft Teams and can use the record link to open ServiceNow and approve or reject the request.

If the requirement is to display Approve and Reject buttons directly inside Microsoft Teams, Virtual Agent Pro is required. After upgrading, you can create a Virtual Agent Topic, Scriptable Action, or Flow Action and associate it with the notification content through Link Actions to Content.

In summary:

Virtual Agent Lite
-> Simple or Record Card notification
-> Link to the ServiceNow approval record
-> Approval completed in ServiceNow

Virtual Agent Pro
-> Actionable notification
-> Approve or Reject directly from Microsoft Teams

Official references:

Virtual Agent Lite:
https://www.servicenow.com/docs/en-US/bundle/zurich-conversational-interfaces/page/administer/virtua...

Configure Virtual Agent notifications:
https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/zurich/conversational-interfaces/virtual-agent/configuring-va-noti...

Define Virtual Agent notification content:
https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/zurich/conversational-interfaces/virtual-agent/define-va-notif-con...

Define Virtual Agent notification actions:
https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/zurich/conversational-interfaces/virtual-agent/define-va-notif-act...

Hope this helps!

If this response helped, please mark it as Helpful.
If it resolves your issue, please Accept it as Solution.

Kind Regards,
Abhishek Pal

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