How to show all available and active catalog items on the virtual agent

[Ramya Neelam1]

Hi,

I am new to Virtual agent module and trying to figure it out on getting catalog items to the virtual agent and process from there such as to take inputs from the user for the selected catalog item and submit a request for that item. Can anyone please help me to achieve this requirement? Thanks in advance!

[Deepak Shaerma]

Hi @Ramya Neelam1 

 1. Understand Virtual Agent Designer & NLU Model

First, familiarize yourself with the Virtual Agent Designer and its capabilities. The Designer is where you’ll create or modify chatbot conversations (topics). If your instance leverages Natural Language Understanding (NLU), getting a grip on how NLU models work and how they can trigger specific topics based on user inputs is crucial.

### 2. Identify Catalog Items

Identify which catalog items you wish to make available via the Virtual Agent. It’s essential to understand the fields and options each catalog item requires, as you’ll need to account for these in your Virtual Agent topic design to collect inputs from the user accurately.

### 3. Create or Modify a VA Topic

To create or modify a Virtual Agent topic:

- Navigate to Collaboration > Virtual Agent > Designer.
- You can start a new topic from scratch or modify an existing template. ServiceNow offers pre-built conversation templates that you might find useful.
- When designing the conversation, use “User Input” nodes to collect information from the user. You’ll configure these nodes based on the inputs required for your catalog item.
- Use “Service Catalog” nodes to bring in catalog items dynamically. This node lets you search for and select the specific catalog item you want to include in your conversation.

### 4. Mapping Inputs to Variables

For each catalog item, you’ll have defined variables for user inputs (e.g., quantity, color, size). In the Virtual Agent topic:

- After collecting user inputs, you must map these inputs to the corresponding variables of the catalog item.
- You can achieve this by using the "Script” node where necessary to manipulate data or by directly mapping user responses to item variables within the “Service Catalog” node configuration.

### 5. Submitting the Request

Once all necessary inputs are collected and correctly mapped:

- Use a “Service Catalog” node configured with the action to submit the request. Ensure all mandatory fields are populated based on the earlier user inputs.
- Add nodes to confirm with the user that the request has been submitted successfully. You can also provide them with the request number for future reference.
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Thanks & Regards 
Deepak Sharma

[Ramya Neelam1]

Hi Deepak,

Thanks for your response, it helped me to start little bit on virtual agent.I have couple of questions from your response and looking your help.

From point#3, where can I find input user node and service catalog item nodes, I don't see them directly in the designer view in components--> Inputs section.

And I wanted to show all the catalog items we have under 'client catalog' category to the user and allow them to select the required catalog item and take their inputs, submit request from there. Please feel free to correct me if my requirement is not doable.

Also, I have found that there are two OOB topic blocks called ' Search catalog Item' and 'Request catalog item' and I tried to create a custom flow using these two topics and tried to take inputs from user using the 'Text' type input but everytime chat is getting ended, not sure where I am doing wrong. 

The flow is very simple -->  

Kindly help me here, thank you.

[g k1]

Go to designer under virtual agent and search Raise Request or Something like that you will see a flow and under that there will be a  "Item Searched" open and on right side there was define choices Script open that and change the EncodedQuery according to your need

[Ramya Neelam1]

Hi,

Did you mean 'Request catalog item' topic block, if so sorry I couldn't see Item searched option there, can you please help me understand bit more.