You may occasionally need to make changes to your virtual agent configurations in Virtual Agent Hub. Or, you might need to modify the scripts you use with virtual agents. This page provides information about testing these changes without disrupting your production environment.
Complete each of these tasks in the order given.
Clone a Virtual Agent App
Permissions Required: View Scripts, Create/Edit Scripts
You can use a cloned virtual agent app with the same virtual agent that the original, production version of the app uses.
- In Studio, open or create a script and add a virtual agent action, if it doesn't contain one already.
- Double-click the virtual agent action to open Virtual Agent Hub.
- Click a virtual agent app in the list on the left side of the page.
- In the virtual agent Properties page, click the More Options icon
and select Clone. - Enter a New Virtual Agent (Bot) Name for the cloned app. Use a name that indicates which virtual agent it's a clone of and the reason for cloning, such as testing. For example, BookTalk Bot TEST.
- Click Clone.
- Select the cloned app from the list on the left side of the page.
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In the Properties page, make any necessary changes to the configurations in the cloned app. Refer to the online help for setting up your virtual agent for information about the configuration options:
- Save your changes.
Clone Scripts in Studio
Security profile: Studio Scripts Create/Edit
If you need to make changes to your scripts, you can make copies of them to avoid changing your production scripts.
- In Studio, open the script you want to clone.
- Click File > Save As.
- Select a location for the cloned script and enter a name for it. Choose a name that indicates which script it is a clone of and the fact that it's a copy for testing.
- Click Save.
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Assign the cloned virtual agent app to every instance of the virtual agent action in the script. Refer to the online help for setting up your virtual agent for more information about this step:
- Make changes as needed to the script and save again.
Create a Testing Point of Contact
Security profile: Points of Contact Create
The point of contact (POC) is what allows you to test a complete interaction using your virtual agent. You may need a POC to assign the cloned script to. If the original script uses a POC, you need to create one for the cloned script.
If you already have a test POC available, you can use it. If you don't, you need to create one. You can learn more about creating an inbound phone or chat POC in the ACD online help. You may also need to create a new skill and campaign to use with testing, if you don't have test versions of these available already.
Move Changes into Production
Security profile: Studio Scripts Create/Edit, Studio Scripts Deactivate
When your testing is complete, you're ready to move the changes into your production environment. You can duplicate the changes in your current production script and virtual agent app. However, if the changes are extensive, you may want to replace the current script and app with updated versions. This way you don't accidentally leave out a necessary change or make a mistake that causes the virtual agent not to work.
If you want to replace the current script and app, follow the steps below.
- Choose a time to make the switch when traffic using the virtual agent is low.
- In Studio, save the test script with a new name that indicates it's now a production version.
- Change the name of the cloned, fully-tested app to indicate it's now a production version.
- Assign the new production version of the app to every instance of the virtual agent action in the new production script.
- Modify your production POC to use the new production script.
- In Virtual Agent Hub, change the name of the current (not new) production virtual agent app to indicate it's no longer being used. You can delete apps that aren't needed anymore. However, you may want to keep the old version in case you need to revert to the old configurations.
- You can deactivate the old script if you want. This doesn't delete it, but it makes it invisible from within Studio. You can reactivate it if you need to revert to the old version.