How to fetch and display dynamic External search links in Virtual Agent when Catalog Item is empty

rah dev · 3 weeks ago

Hi Everyone,I am designing a Virtual Agent flow where the user inputs a keyword to search for a Service Catalog item.Yes Path (Working Perfectly): If the item exists in the ServiceNow catalog, it routes to the "Yes" branch and displays the catalog link.No Path (Need Help): If the item is NOT found in our catalog, the flow goes to the "No" branch.My Requirement:On the "No" branch, instead of showing internal KB articles, I want the bot to dynamically search the web (like Google Search) using the user's input keyword, and directly provide the specific external search result links into the chat canvas.What I need help with:What is the best way to trigger a Google/External search from the "No" branch using a Script Action or REST API node?How can I map the external URL response so it displays as clickable links/cards for the user?Any step-by-step guidance, integration steps, or script snippets to achieve this fallback external search would be highly appreciated!(I have attached the screenshot of my current canvas flow below for reference).

Vikram Reddy · 3 weeks ago

Hello @rah dev,

Drop a Script Action (under Utilities in the component palette) right after your Decision node on the No branch, that's your server-side hook, and there's no separate REST node. Inside it, call an Outbound REST Message via sn_ws.RESTMessageV2 against a real search provider, never Google directly from a script (breaks their terms, and your instance IP gets throttled fast). Store the parsed results in a vaVars array. For rendering, skip Card and Link, they're static one-URL-each controls, and use the Script bot response control instead, it builds the response markup at runtime so you can loop over a variable number of result links.

References

Thank you,
Vikram Karety
Octigo Solutions INC