Use the portable chat widget to add Virtual Agent to your web page

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Use the portable chat widget to add Virtual Agent to your web page

    The portable chat widget allows ServiceNow customers to easily integrate Virtual Agent chat into third-party web pages, service portals, or UI Builder portals. This new component simplifies the setup and supports key functionalities like single sign-on (SSO) authentication and compatibility with existing system parameters.

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    Key Features

    • Easily Configurable: Streamlined setup process for integrating Virtual Agent chat.
    • SSO Authentication: Simplified authentication flow that can be triggered from the chat widget when configured with an external SSO provider.
    • Compatibility: Maintains existing functionality with system parameters and context variables.

    Prerequisites

    To use the portable chat widget, ensure the following:

    • The widget must be embedded on a website sharing the same parent domain as your ServiceNow instance.
    • Activate the custom URL plugin (com.snc.customurl) and register a custom URL.
    • Configure browser security properties for iframe embedding.

    Key Outcomes

    By successfully configuring the portable Virtual Agent chat widget, customers can:

    • Enhance user engagement with integrated chat support on external sites.
    • Utilize SSO for seamless user authentication and access.
    • Ensure secure embedding that mitigates security risks such as clickjacking.

    The portable chat widget can run on third-party web pages, in the service portal, or in UI Builder portals.

    The portable chat widget is a new Seismic component that makes it easy to add Virtual Agent chat to your page. It simplifies configuration and provides the following features:
    • Easily configurable
    • Simpler single sign-on (SSO) authentication flow
    • Connect to Service Portal Agent Chat
    • System parameters and context variables work the same as before
      Note:
      Do not use /$sn-va-web-client-app.do? or /sn_va_web_client_app_embed.do as a standalone page configuration. Instead, refer to the information in Virtual Agent URL parameters for how to embed the Virtual Agent chat widget successfully.

    Prerequisites for using the portable Virtual Agent chat widget

    The portable chat widget uses an inline frame element (iframe). The third-party website must be under the same parent domain as your ServiceNow® instance. For example, site1.company.com and site2.company.com share the same parent domain. If you're embedding the chat widget on any subdomain that is not shared with your ServiceNow instance, the URL must be a custom instance URL. Due to increased browser security, the chat widget may fail to load if you don't use a custom URL.

    Before you begin, do the following:
    1. Activate the custom URL plugin (com.snc.customurl) in your instance.
    2. Add the custom URL (that you previously purchased and registered) to your instance.
    Note:
    To learn more about using custom URLs, see Associating custom URLs to your instance.

    Using SSO authentication with the portable Virtual Agent chat widget

    After you embed the Virtual Agent client, you can optionally trigger SSO authentication from the chat widget, but only when your instance is set up to use an external SSO provider. Your hosting site must also use the same SSO provider as your instance. For details on setting SSO providers, see External single sign-on (SSO).

    To trigger SSO authentication, create a JavaScript script that defines conditions for running authentication and redirects users to a chat widget page that you specify. You also specify the allowed URLs that can be passed in this script, by identifying them in the com.glide.cs.web_client_login_redirect_urls system property. Specify the full redirect URLs or the host part of the URL, such as https://example.com.

    This procedure requires that you set values for the following two system properties:
    • com.glide.cs.embed.csp_frame_ancestors
    • com.glide.cs.embed.xframe_options (IE 11 only)
    These properties determine the security policy for the embedded chat widget, namely how browsers render and secure HTML content for Virtual Agent and Live Agent chat, in an iframe, before you embed the web chat client. The HTTP header directives that you specify tell the browser whether a page can be embedded on certain domains to mitigate clickjacking attempts. Setting both properties ensures that there are security directives for major browsers and also older browsers, such as Internet Explorer.
    Note:
    If you're using the Content Management System (CMS) application to create custom interfaces for the ServiceNow AI Platform and ServiceNow® applications, be aware that it does not support Virtual Agent.