Manually Display Typing Indicator in Virtual Agent

[Patrick85]

I have a Virtual Agent conversation that performs a web request. It seems that while the web request is taking place, the Virtual Agent is not typing. The Virtual Agent begins typing once a response is received, but I'd like it to start typing before the web request is made & stop typing after it outputs text back to the user as it normally does. 

I located this document: Typing indicators (servicenow.com), but I'm not really sure where I'd actually apply this code.

[Patrick85 · Accepted solution]

I figured it out. I needed to perform the web request in a flow action & call the flow action with the Virtual Agent “Action” utility opposed to performing the web request using the Virtual Agent “Script Action” utility.

[anuj27]

hi @Patrick85 , I have a similar requirement.

I am invoking a flow action (which does API call) via virtual agent topic with the help of script. Getting the responses of API and display the result in Virtual agent.

Now I want to display that default typing indicator (3 dots animation) from the time when VA starts querying API till the result get displayed.

Can you briefly describe how to achieve that, or how you have achieved it.

~Anuj

[Patrick85]

@anuj27 Are you using the virtual agent utility named "Action" to run the flow action or are you using a script in the Virtual Agent conversation to run the action?

I used the OOB "Action" utility in my conversation to execute the flow action and it seemed to solve the issue for me.