ServiceNow + Vobiz | Softphone & Call Logging via OpenFrame

Make and take phone calls inside ServiceNow with Vobiz. Your agents get a softphone in the ServiceNow header, call customers from a record with one click, talk through the browser, and every call is written to the ServiceNow interaction table with a link to its recording. You run a small Node.js backend between ServiceNow, your agents’ browsers and Vobiz. Agents sign in to the softphone with their own Vobiz account, so no Vobiz credentials live in the backend’s configuration. Source code: vobiz-ai/Vobiz-ServiceNow-Calling

What you get

Click-to-call

A Call via Vobiz button on user, contact, incident or case forms dials the record’s number from the agent’s softphone.

Softphone in ServiceNow

The panel mounts in the Next Experience header through OpenFrame, with a dial pad, caller-ID picker and call timer.

Inbound calls

Calls to your Vobiz number ring every signed-in agent of the account. The panel opens and shows the caller’s number.

Call logging

Each call becomes one interaction record with direction, numbers, duration, agent and a recording link.

Recordings

Every call is recorded. Agents play recent recordings in the panel through signed, expiring links.

Accounts and agents

Each agent gets their own SIP endpoint. Agents sign in with a Vobiz account, or with an existing SIP endpoint.

How it works

 ServiceNow                         Your backend                     Vobiz
 ──────────                         ────────────                     ─────
 "Call via Vobiz" button ──POST /start-call──▶ queues the number
 Softphone panel (OpenFrame) ◀──collects it── GET /dial-requests
 Softphone ───────────────── SIP over WebSocket (call) ──────────────▶ registrar
                                    /answer ◀──────── webhook ──────── Vobiz
                                    replies <Record> + <Dial> ───────▶ dials the customer
 interaction table ◀── Table API ── logs the call, adds the recording link

The softphone is a WebRTC SIP phone in the browser. It registers with Vobiz using an endpoint the backend creates for each agent.
Outbound: the browser places the call. Vobiz asks your backend’s /answer URL what to do, and the backend replies with VobizXML that records the call and dials the customer from the caller ID the agent chose.
Click-to-call: the Call via Vobiz button runs on the ServiceNow server. It sends the record’s number to your backend, and the agent’s open softphone picks it up within two seconds and dials it.
Inbound: Vobiz calls /answer, and the backend rings every signed-in agent of the account that owns the number.
Logging: when a call ends, the softphone asks the backend to create the interaction record. When the recording is ready, the backend adds the recording link to the same record.
Recordings play through the backend with signed, expiring links. The browser never receives a Vobiz credential.

Prerequisites

You need	Details
A Vobiz account	The Auth ID and Auth Token from the Vobiz Console dashboard under API credentials, at least one active, voice-enabled number, and balance for calls
A ServiceNow instance	Admin rights, the OpenFrame plugin (`com.sn_openframe`) active, and the `interaction` table
A ServiceNow user for the backend	Can create and update `interaction` records and read `sys_user`
A public HTTPS URL	For the backend. Vobiz and ServiceNow must both reach it. For a trial, `cloudflared` gives you one
Node.js 18 or newer	The backend has no npm dependencies
For each agent	A current Chrome, Edge or Firefox, and a microphone

Set it up

Get the code

git clone https://github.com/vobiz-ai/Vobiz-ServiceNow-Calling.git
cd Vobiz-ServiceNow-Calling

There is nothing to install: the backend uses only Node’s standard library.

Configure the backend

Copy the example file and fill in the deployment settings. Nothing about your Vobiz account goes here.

cp backend/.env.example backend/.env
openssl rand -hex 32    # run twice: one value for each secret below

PORT=8092
PUBLIC_BASE_URL=https://calling.example.com     # leave out when using npm run tunnel
SERVICENOW_INSTANCE_URL=https://your-instance.service-now.com
SERVICENOW_USER=vobiz.integration
SERVICENOW_PASSWORD=your-integration-user-password
VOBIZ_SHARED_SECRET=<first random value>
SIGNING_SECRET=<second random value>

Start the backend and give it a public address

npm start            # listens on http://localhost:8092

Put it behind your own HTTPS reverse proxy and set PUBLIC_BASE_URL, or for a trial run a quick tunnel in a second terminal:

npm run tunnel       # writes the tunnel's URL to backend/tunnel-url.txt

The backend reads backend/tunnel-url.txt automatically when PUBLIC_BASE_URL is not set. Install cloudflared first (brew install cloudflared, or winget install --id Cloudflare.cloudflared -e).

Check it from outside

BASE=https://calling.example.com     # or: BASE=$(cat backend/tunnel-url.txt)
curl -s "$BASE/health"
curl -s -X POST "$BASE/answer" -d "From=sip:test@registrar.vobiz.ai&To=91XXXXXXXXXX"

The first returns {"ok":true,...} with "publicBaseConfigured":true. The second returns a short VobizXML <Response> that says the phone is not signed in and hangs up. That is correct: nobody has signed in yet. An HTML error page instead means Vobiz cannot reach your backend either.

Create two system properties in ServiceNow

Go to System Properties → All Properties (sys_properties.list) and click New for each:

Name	Type	Value
`vobiz.calling.tunnel_url`	`string`	Your backend’s public URL, such as `https://calling.example.com`, with no trailing slash
`vobiz.calling.shared_secret`	`password2`	The same value as `VOBIZ_SHARED_SECRET`

Use password2 for the secret, not string. Anyone who can list system properties can read a string property, and this value lets ServiceNow start calls billed to your Vobiz account.

Create the Call via Vobiz button

Go to System Definition → UI Actions → New:

Name: Call via Vobiz
Table: User [sys_user]. Repeat for Contact [customer_contact], Incident [incident] or Case [sn_customerservice_case] if you want the button there too.
Form button: checked. Client: unchecked. Active, Show insert and Show update: checked.
Script: paste the whole of servicenow-app/ui-actions/call_via_vobiz.js. You do not need to edit it; it reads both properties at run time.

Add the softphone panel

Go to OpenFrame → Configurations → New:

Field	Value
Name	`Vobiz Softphone`
Title	`Vobiz Calling`
URL	`https://calling.example.com/agent-phone.html?instance=your-instance&agentId=<ServiceNow user name>`
Width / Height	`380` / `560`
User group	The agents who should see it
Active	checked

instance is the your-instance part of your-instance.service-now.com. Read Agent identity before you choose agentId.

Open the panel from the ServiceNow header, sign in, allow the microphone, and wait for the badge to read READY. Then type a number and press Call, or press Call via Vobiz on a record.

Create the system properties, the UI Action and the OpenFrame configuration in an update set on a sub-production instance, then move the update set to production.

The softphone has two tabs: Vobiz account and SIP direct.

Vobiz Calling for ServiceNow panel showing a CONNECTING badge, a Vobiz account and SIP direct tab pair, empty Auth ID and Auth Token fields, and the numbered steps Sign in to Vobiz, Choose a caller ID and Place a call — The panel before sign-in.

Vobiz account (recommended)

Enter the account’s Auth ID (it looks like MA_XXXXXXXX) and Auth Token, and press Log in. The backend checks them with Vobiz, then sets up everything the account needs:

An application named ServiceNow Calling (Vobiz), with its answer URL and hangup URL set to <your backend>/answer (POST). If the account already has an application with exactly that answer URL, it is reused. No other application is changed.
One SIP endpoint per agent, attached to that application. It is reused at every later sign-in, and each sign-in gives it a new random password that only that browser session receives.
The caller-ID list. Choose a caller ID lists every active, voice-enabled number on the account, and shows which application each is attached to now. Outgoing calls can only use a number on this list.

Your Auth Token never leaves the backend and is never stored on disk. The browser gets a session token instead, which expires after 12 hours.

The panel showing a green READY badge, a Ready banner, the filled Auth ID and masked Auth Token, and a Logged in as line showing the account ID and calling-from number — Signed in. The badge reads READY and the account is shown.

Enable inbound calls

Calls to your number reach the softphone only after you route them there. Pick the number under Choose a caller ID, then press Enable inbound calls under Receive calls here. This attaches the number to the ServiceNow Calling (Vobiz) application.

A number answers to one application at a time. Enabling inbound moves the number off the application it was attached to before, and calls stop going there. Before you press the button, the panel says what will happen (“Enabling moves +91XXXXXXXXXX off application 12345678901234567”); afterwards it confirms where the number was moved from. Nothing else ever attaches a number: not sign-in, and not restarting the backend.

SIP direct

Use this when you already have a Vobiz SIP endpoint and do not want to give the backend an Auth Token. Enter the endpoint’s SIP username and SIP password, and under Calling from a number on the same Vobiz account in international format (+91XXXXXXXXXX). Press Connect. The browser registers with Vobiz using the password directly. The backend never receives the password and holds no account credentials; it only remembers which caller ID this endpoint uses, and that calls to that number ring it. Remember the username and caller ID keeps those two in the browser; the password is never stored. Before you use SIP direct, attach the endpoint and the number to an application whose answer URL is your backend. In the Vobiz Console:

Voice → Applications → New. Set Answer URL and Hangup URL to https://calling.example.com/answer, method POST.
Voice → Endpoints, open your endpoint, and choose that application.
Open the phone number and attach the same application.

Or with the API:

AUTH_ID=MA_XXXXXXXX
AUTH_TOKEN=your-auth-token
BASE=https://calling.example.com
API="https://api.vobiz.ai/api/v1/Account/$AUTH_ID"
H=(-H "X-Auth-ID: $AUTH_ID" -H "X-Auth-Token: $AUTH_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json")

# 1. Create the application. Note the app_id in the response.
curl -X POST "$API/Application/" "${H[@]}" -d '{
  "app_name": "ServiceNow Calling (Vobiz)",
  "answer_url": "'"$BASE"'/answer", "answer_method": "POST",
  "hangup_url": "'"$BASE"'/answer", "hangup_method": "POST"}'

# 2. Attach the endpoint. Send app_id as a string: it is too long for a JSON number.
curl -X POST "$API/Endpoint/$ENDPOINT_ID/" "${H[@]}" -d '{"app_id": "'"$APP_ID"'"}'

# 3. Route the number. Write the + as %2B.
curl -X POST "$API/numbers/%2B91XXXXXXXXXX/application" "${H[@]}" \
  -d '{"application_id": "'"$APP_ID"'"}'

Included with a Vobiz account sign-in: the caller-ID list, Enable inbound calls, the recordings list and recording links, and the Call via Vobiz button. The panel says “Sign in with your Vobiz account to use this.” SIP direct records calls in your Vobiz account and logs them to ServiceNow, without a recording link. Use a separate endpoint for SIP direct, not one the backend created for a Vobiz-account sign-in.

Agent identity

The softphone identifies the agent by the agentId in its URL. This matters in three places:

Each agentId gets its own SIP endpoint. Two agents with the same agentId share one endpoint, and each sign-in resets the other’s password, so the other panel drops out of READY.
Call via Vobiz finds the agent’s panel by the ServiceNow user name of the person who pressed the button. It reaches your panel only if your agentId is your ServiceNow user name.
Call logging assigns the interaction to the ServiceNow user whose user name equals the agentId.

Set agentId to the agent’s ServiceNow user name. An OpenFrame configuration has one URL for everyone in its user group, so for several agents either create one configuration per agent (each for a group that contains only that agent), or have agents open the softphone in a browser tab at their own URL. Without an agentId, the browser makes up its own id and keeps it; calling and inbound work, but interactions are not assigned to the agent, and Call via Vobiz cannot reach the panel: the button rings only a panel signed in as the person who pressed it, never another agent’s.

Using it

Make a call

Wait for the badge to read READY. The Call button stays disabled until then.
Pick the caller ID under Choose a caller ID (Vobiz account sign-in only).
Type the number in international format, such as +91XXXXXXXXXX, and press Call or Enter.
Press Hang up to end the call.

The Calling from field expanded into a dropdown of five Vobiz numbers with the first highlighted, above the number-to-call field and a Call button — Choosing the caller ID.

The panel during a live call showing the destination number, a red Hang up button, a running timer and an On a call with banner, above the Receive calls here setup section — An active call.

Call from a record

Open a user, contact, incident or case and press Call via Vobiz. The button uses the record’s Mobile phone, then Phone, then Business phone. On an incident it calls the Caller; on a case, the Contact. Your softphone must be open, signed in with a Vobiz account, and READY when you press the button. ServiceNow shows “Calling +91XXXXXXXXXX from your Vobiz panel.” and the panel dials within two seconds. If the panel is already on a call, it does not dial. A request no panel collects expires after 30 seconds. Only your own panel is rung: one whose agentId is your ServiceNow user name. If you have none open, ServiceNow shows <your user name> has no Vobiz panel open and nothing is dialled, even if other agents’ panels are open. The call’s interaction names the record you pressed the button on (Started from: incident <sys_id>), and the backend adds a work note to that record naming the interaction. Tables without work notes, such as sys_user, get no note. If your instance sends OpenFrame communication events when an agent clicks a phone number, the panel dials those too.

Receive a call

After Enable inbound calls, a call to the number rings every agent of that account who is signed in. The panel opens, plays a ring tone and shows the customer’s number (the backend passes it as the call’s caller name, because the SIP caller ID has to be your own number). Press Accept or Enter to answer, Decline or Escape to reject. If nobody from the account is signed in, the caller hears “Sorry, no one is available to take your call right now” and the call ends.

Call logging

When a call ends, the softphone tells the backend, which creates one record in the ServiceNow interaction table through the Table API:

Field	Value
`type`	`phone`
`state`	`closed_complete`
`short_description`	`Vobiz Outbound Call: +91XXXXXXXXXX` (or `Inbound`)
`opened_at`, `closed_at`	Start and end of the call, worked out from its duration
`assigned_to`	The ServiceNow user whose user name equals the agent’s `agentId`. If none matches, the work notes name the agent instead
`work_notes`	Direction, from, to, duration in seconds, a Listen to Recording link, and a note
`recording_url`	The recording link, if your `interaction` table has this field

When the recording is ready, the backend updates the same record: it fills recording_url and adds a work note with the recording link. An inbound call rings several agents but is logged once. The backend learns from Vobiz which panel answered, and only that panel’s report is logged, assigned to that agent; the panels that only rang are ignored. A call nobody answers is logged once by the backend as Vobiz Missed Inbound Call, with 0 seconds and no agent. Logging needs SERVICENOW_INSTANCE_URL, SERVICENOW_USER and SERVICENOW_PASSWORD. If any is missing, calls work but nothing is logged.

Recordings

Every call is recorded, as MP3, for up to an hour. The Call recordings section of the panel lists the account’s 10 most recent recordings with a player; the refresh icon reloads it.

Recording links, in the panel and in work notes, play through your backend. Each link is signed for one recording on one account. Links the panel plays expire after RECORDING_URL_TTL_SECONDS (300 seconds by default); links written into interaction work notes expire after RECORD_LINK_TTL_SECONDS (7 days by default).

A recording link in a work note stops working when it expires — seven days after it was written, by default. Play older calls from the panel, or raise RECORD_LINK_TTL_SECONDS. Anyone who can read the work note can play the recording until the link expires.

Configuration reference

The backend reads backend/.env at startup. Variables already set in the environment take precedence.

Variable	Required	Default	What it does
`PUBLIC_BASE_URL`	Yes, unless you use `npm run tunnel`	Contents of `backend/tunnel-url.txt`	Public HTTPS address of the backend, without a trailing slash. Vobiz calls `<PUBLIC_BASE_URL>/answer`. Sign-in fails until this is an `https://` URL. `PUBLIC_BASE` and `TUNNEL_URL` are accepted as alternative names
`PORT`	No	`8092`	Port the backend listens on
`VOBIZ_SHARED_SECRET`	Yes, for Call via Vobiz	none	Must equal the `vobiz.calling.shared_secret` property. Without it the button is refused. `SHARED_SECRET` is accepted as an alternative name
`SIGNING_SECRET`	Yes, in production	Random at each start	Signs recording links. If unset, every link stops working when the backend restarts
`RECORDING_URL_TTL_SECONDS`	No	`300`	How long a recording link the panel plays stays valid, in seconds
`RECORD_LINK_TTL_SECONDS`	No	`604800` (7 days)	How long a recording link written into a ServiceNow interaction stays valid, in seconds
`SERVICENOW_INSTANCE_URL`	Yes, for call logging	none	Your instance, such as `https://your-instance.service-now.com`
`SERVICENOW_USER`	Yes, for call logging	none	ServiceNow user the backend logs calls as
`SERVICENOW_PASSWORD`	Yes, for call logging	none	That user’s password (HTTP basic authentication)
`DATA_DIR`	No	`backend/data`	Where the backend keeps `endpoints.json`, the map of which SIP endpoint belongs to which agent on which account
`ALLOWED_ORIGINS`	No	none	Extra browser origins allowed to call the backend, comma-separated. `https://*.service-now.com` and `localhost` are always allowed
`VOBIZ_API_URL`	No	`https://api.vobiz.ai`	Vobiz API base URL. Leave the default
`VOBIZ_REGISTRAR`	No	`registrar.vobiz.ai`	Vobiz SIP registrar. The backend serves it to the softphone, which registers and places calls through it. Leave the default unless Vobiz gives you another
`ENV_FILE`	No	`backend/.env`	Load settings from a different file. Set it in the environment, not in `.env`

ServiceNow reads two system properties: vobiz.calling.tunnel_url and vobiz.calling.shared_secret.

Deploying to production

Use a stable HTTPS hostname and set PUBLIC_BASE_URL. A quick tunnel gets a new hostname every time it starts. When the hostname changes, update PUBLIC_BASE_URL, the vobiz.calling.tunnel_url property and the OpenFrame URL, have agents sign in again, and press Enable inbound calls again.
Run exactly one instance. Sessions, signed-in accounts and in-progress calls are held in memory.
Keep DATA_DIR on persistent storage, so agents keep the same SIP endpoint across restarts and redeploys.
Set SIGNING_SECRET and VOBIZ_SHARED_SECRET to long random values, and keep backend/.env out of version control.
Use a dedicated ServiceNow user with create and update on interaction and read on sys_user.
If you serve the softphone from another domain, add it to ALLOWED_ORIGINS.

Security and privacy

Your Auth Token stays on the backend. It is checked with Vobiz at sign-in, kept in memory only, and never logged, written to disk or sent to the browser.
Nothing secret is stored on disk. endpoints.json holds endpoint ids and SIP usernames only. backend/.env holds your ServiceNow credentials and the two secrets.
The browser receives a session token, the Auth ID, the account’s phone numbers, and the SIP credentials of its own endpoint, which change at every sign-in.
Recording links are signed and expire. Each works for one recording on one account. The backend fetches audio only from Vobiz hosts, never from an address in a request.
Click-to-call is authenticated and per agent. It needs the shared secret or a signed-in session, rings only a panel signed in as the requesting agent (never another agent’s or another account’s), and outgoing caller IDs must be numbers on the signed-in account.
Only allowed origins (*.service-now.com, localhost and ALLOWED_ORIGINS) can call the backend from a browser.
Webhooks are not signature-checked. The backend acts on a Vobiz webhook only for SIP users and numbers of accounts signed in to it.
Recordings are visible across the account. Any agent signed in with an account sees that account’s recent recordings in the panel.

Troubleshooting

The backend log shows each call: WEBHOOK /answer received, then DIAL RESULT status=... bleg=... and RECORDING READY. If bleg is (none), the customer’s leg was never created.

The caller-ID list says "No numbers found on this account"

The account has no active, voice-enabled number. Buy or activate one in the Console, then sign in again.

The badge never reads READY

The browser cannot reach the registrar (registrar.vobiz.ai, or VOBIZ_REGISTRAR) on port 5063 over a secure WebSocket, or another panel signed in with the same agentId and reset the endpoint’s password. Allow the connection through your network, and give each agent their own agentId. In SIP direct, a wrong SIP username or password also stops registration.

"No microphone access" or "Microphone permission was denied"

The page is not served over HTTPS, or the browser blocked the microphone. Open the panel over HTTPS and allow the microphone. If the ServiceNow frame blocks it, open the softphone URL in its own tab.

An outbound call ends at once with "This phone is not signed in"

The backend restarted or the session expired. Sign in again.

Call via Vobiz fails with Status 401

vobiz.calling.shared_secret is empty or differs from VOBIZ_SHARED_SECRET. Set both to the same value.

Call via Vobiz fails with Status 409

<your user name> has no Vobiz panel open means no softphone is open and signed in on the Vobiz account tab as you. Other agents’ panels are never used. Open the panel, sign in, wait for READY, and press the button again. If it is open, your panel’s agentId is probably not your ServiceNow user name: see Agent identity.

Calls to your number are not answered, or reach another system

The number is not attached to this integration’s application. Sign in and press Enable inbound calls for that number.

The caller hears "no one is available"

Nobody from the account that owns the number is signed in. Have an agent sign in and wait for READY.

Everything stopped after the tunnel restarted

The quick-tunnel hostname changed. Update vobiz.calling.tunnel_url and the OpenFrame URL, have agents sign in again, and press Enable inbound calls again. Use a stable hostname in production.

No interaction records appear in ServiceNow

Set all three SERVICENOW_* variables. If the backend log shows ServiceNow refused the interaction (HTTP 403), give the user create and update access on interaction.

A recording link says it is invalid or has expired

A work-note link is older than RECORD_LINK_TTL_SECONDS (7 days by default), or SIGNING_SECRET changed when the backend restarted. Play the call from the panel. Set SIGNING_SECRET, and raise RECORD_LINK_TTL_SECONDS if you need longer-lived links.

Operating notes

Restarting the backend signs everyone out. Agents sign in again, and an account’s recording links play once someone from it signs in.
Run one backend instance. State is held in memory.
Sessions last 12 hours.
Recording links in work notes last RECORD_LINK_TTL_SECONDS (7 days by default).
A Vobiz account sign-in gives you the caller-ID list, inbound setup, recording playback and Call via Vobiz.
Call via Vobiz uses the agent’s open, READY panel, and reaches it when agentId is the agent’s ServiceNow user name.
The source record is linked by a work note, on tables that have work notes.
Each panel handles one call at a time.
Per call: 30 seconds of ringing, 4 hours of talk and 1 hour of recording.

Next steps

Source code and README →
SIP Endpoints → - the endpoints sign-in creates per agent, or the one you bring to SIP direct.
Voice Applications → - answer URLs, hangup URLs and attaching numbers.
Pipedrive integration → - the same softphone architecture in a sales CRM.

AI Voice Platforms

Official SDKs

Browser & WebRTC

Business Phone Systems

CRM & Helpdesk

Workflow Automation

Migrations

ServiceNow + Vobiz | Softphone & Call Logging via OpenFrame

What you get

Click-to-call

Softphone in ServiceNow

Inbound calls

Call logging

Recordings

Accounts and agents

How it works

Prerequisites

Set it up

Vobiz account (recommended)

Enable inbound calls

SIP direct

Agent identity

Using it

Make a call

Call from a record

Receive a call

Call logging

Recordings

Configuration reference

Deploying to production

Security and privacy

Troubleshooting

Operating notes

Next steps

​What you get

Click-to-call

Softphone in ServiceNow

Inbound calls

Call logging

Recordings

Accounts and agents

​How it works

​Prerequisites

​Set it up

​Sign in

​Vobiz account (recommended)

​Enable inbound calls

​SIP direct

​Agent identity

​Using it

​Make a call

​Call from a record

​Receive a call

​Call logging

​Recordings

​Configuration reference

​Deploying to production

​Security and privacy

​Troubleshooting

​Operating notes

​Next steps

What you get

How it works

Prerequisites

Set it up

Sign in

Vobiz account (recommended)

Enable inbound calls

SIP direct

Agent identity

Using it

Make a call

Call from a record

Receive a call

Call logging

Recordings

Configuration reference

Deploying to production

Security and privacy

Troubleshooting

Operating notes

Next steps