Investigate and resolve unexpected behavior in your custom Virtual Agent topics, topic blocks, and controls.

For information about topic discovery issues, see Resolve Virtual Agent NLU topic discovery issues.

Duplicate a live topic before debugging and changing it

Duplicate a topic rather than update a live topic. The unmodified original topic can serve as both a reference and a backup, and retaining the original enables you to restore the topic quickly. Remember to deactivate the original topic before publishing the duplicate.

Debug a topic while testing your conversations

As you create or update a topic in Virtual Agent Designer, use the Test button in the topic header bar to preview the conversation. The chat test window shows the conversation as it appears within Service Portal. Elements in your conversation might appear differently in third-party messaging applications. Test your conversations in any third-party applications where you intend to deploy Virtual Agent.

The test chat window displays four tabs that provide detailed information for debugging and refining your topic: Analyze test phrases, Variables, Context, and Logs. For details on these tabs, see Testing NLU/Keyword topics. The following example shows the processing messages and errors logged during testing.

Conversation preview logs shown in the topic preview window.

Watch for warnings on controls within your topic

Figure 1. Warnings on a topic node in the Flow tab
Number of warnings shown in red on the canvas and on the individual controls. For the Text User Input control, Node Name and Prompt are mandatory

Controls that are missing necessary information show a red incomplete badge in the upper left corner of the control. The badge shows a number indicating the number of issues in that control. Select this badge to see a list of the issues in the control.

Another warning badge appears in the upper left corner of the designer to indicate the number of issues within the entire topic.

Check for errors when a topic preview does not run

Figure 2. Topic preview errors on the canvas
The topic validator window giving a preview of errors on the canvas.

Additional information appears under the Virtual Agent Designer canvas when an error prevents the topic from running. The total number of Issues are listed, along with details and a hyperlink for each. Select a hyperlink to go to the node, and use the information provided to correct any errors in your conversation.

Common Virtual Agent issues

IssuePossible resolution
Cannot see module designer under conversational interfaces
  • User might not have the virtual_agent_admin role.
  • Virtual Agent plugin might not be activated.
Cannot edit a topic Logged-in user must be in the same application scope as the topic.
Cannot preview topic
  • Make sure that all required fields are filled in on the node properties.
  • Ensure that your browser is configured to permit pop-ups from your instance.
Web client stuck at Connecting... One or more of your topics might be missing. Check the Topics page to ensure that topics are present on the instance and in the Active state.

Review topics that run in a conversation flow

Each Virtual Agent (VA) conversation in an instance automatically generates an interaction record in the Interactions [interactions] table, which logs the conversation between a requester and virtual and live agent. You can review the transcript of the conversation between the requester and virtual agent, including live agent transfers (if using Agent Chat). For details, see Virtual Agent interaction records.