Course13:IT Connect - 03 The myApps client at a first glance
From innovaphone-wiki
A short walk through the myApps client, which is your interface to the complete PBX system.
Contents |
Log-in to myApps
So now let us log-in to myApps. and briefly look at some of the Apps available there.
Starting
To start the client once the Install was run, you can simply type in your PBX's IP address, like in
http://172.31.31.2
or you can of course use the FQDN you specified in the Install before, as in
http://hq.<first-select-network>
So this is a browser-based client and you can open it from any web browser.
You will then be asked for a Username and a Password. Once you have filled in those, you can Sign in.

This is best done using the link
Start myApps with English UI
which will start it with the English UI so it matches all the screenshots in this book.
You can resize the myApps window to the smallest horizontal size so that you can view this book and myApps side-by-side even on a small screen.
You have specified the user and password to log-in to myApps as Admin account during the Install. So Username should be <first-log-in> and you should have noted the Password in your Setup-data.xls.
So go ahead and log in!
Two-factor authentication

myApps does not reject your log-in, but it insists about "Additional authentication required".
This is what is known as two-factor authentication (which we have enabled in the Install). To log-in to myApps, you need to convince the PBX that you really are who you say you are. Your username and password is not enough, you need to provide a second proof.
In our case, the PBX has sent an E-Mail to the address which we specified for the user and we need to click on the confirmation link in that E-Mail.

If you specified your own E-Mail, simply open your email client. If it was our special training E-Mail server, open
training-mail.innovaphone.com/owa and log-in using CLASS\<first-select-network> as user and <first-select-network> as password.

You will see an E-Mail similar to this one:
Hello <first-log-in> <first-log-in>!
There was a login attempt using your account.
myApps (Firefox)
Security code: 6426
It was you? Click here to continue with your login:
https://hq.<first-select-network>/PBX0/session.xml?action=verify&id=27d72c0c1cc65b014d100090334000b3&code=6426&xsl=session.xsl
It wasn't you? Please click here and inform your administrator:
https://hq.<first-select-network>/PBX0/session.xml?action=reject&id=27d72c0c1cc65b014d100090334000b3&code=6426&xsl=session.xsl
myApps Login (<first-select-network>)
When you click on the "Click here to continue with your login" link, the PBX will know that you have received the E-Mail and approved the log-in, so it will let you pass.
You will see a page like:
Your login was verified.
You can close this page now.
NB: the link will only work if you open it on the computer that is connected to your training network (cause only here, the DNS name hq.<first-select-network> is known). If you open it for example on your mobile phone, it wouldn't work.


The Home Screen

Your Presence

The coloured square on the upper left corner allows you to set your activity (something like Available, Away, Busy or Do not disturb). When you set this, it will be shown to other users, for example when they try to call you.
Right next to the coloured square, you find a text field that allows you to add a some text to your presence.
Settings
The
burger menu
on the upper right edge gives you access to
various settings for the myApps client. You can close them again using the burger menu on the upper right edge.



There are various sub-dialogues. For now, we should just have a look at the
Edit Profile dialogue. It has
multiple tabs which can be selected. One of them are your call diversions for example. You can close them by
clicking on the upper left cross.



For now it is enough to know that this is the way to access your personal settings.
Apps
The
main part of the home screen
shows all the Apps you have placed on your home screen, so that you have immediate access to them.


Well, actually, the Install has kindly put them on your home screen for you 

While this is nice and useful, the home screen is a little crowded, so we will have a look at how items are added to and removed from the home screen. This is done using the list of all apps available to you, which is shown when you click on the
grid icon on the lower right edge.






To return back to the home screen, click on the
home symbol on the lower left edge, and eh voilà, your home screen
looks much cleaner now.


Grouping
For faster access and clearer overview, you can re-arrange and group the items on your home screen.
To re-arrange an item, simply drag and drop it to the desired place using the mouse. To create a new group, drag an item to some free space on the home screen. A new group title will appear. You can rename the group by clicking in to the group header and type in the new name.


Then create a new group by dragging the Devices App even further. You will see a new group title.
Drop the App and edit the new group title.

You can even collapse and expand groups by
clicking on the little caret symbol on the right side of the group title.

Starting an App
So what is an App?
An App is a web-based application that runs under control of the myApps client. When you click on an item on your home screen, the App will be started and it will run in the same browser window.
All relevant functionality (such as controlling a phone (CTI), looking up contacts in a directory, visual voice mail etc.) is implemented in a bunch of Apps which can be run from the myApps client. myApps itself only serves as a host for these apps.
Note that myApp's footer changed to
show the new app that is running. You can now switch between the Users App and myApps's home screen by clicking on those symbols.

Users is an App that allows you to browse all users on the PBX. Currently, it is a bit boring, as there only is one user defined, which is yourself
We will discuss this in much more detail later.

For the moment, you may want to click on the only item shown. This
opens a dialogue which shows some details of the user. For now, just note the following things:

- the presence note you entered before
is shown
- a
coloured block on the lower left edge of the user's avatar indicates the presence activity you selected before
- a
home symbol is shown that allows you to put the user as an App to myApp's home screen


You may think that the new item on the home screen does not fit the group you have created lately.
Cleaning up your Home Screen
You already have seen that you can
toggle the show on home screen symbol in the list of all apps available.

There is also another method available, which might be more convenient: you can use the so-called long-press on any item on your home screen. This is done by clicking on the item without releasing the mouse button. Just like as if you wanted to drag the item to another place. However, in this case, you do not drag it. After short while, a dialog will pop up and you tick the Remove from home check-mark.

Yay, Practice!
To get a little familiar with using Apps in myApps, here is a little challenge!

If you have a nice one at hand, use it. If not, you can use this:


- download your avatar picture to your computer
- open a windows explorer which shows the directory where you have saved the picture
- go to myApp's home screen
- open the Profile App (you see your own profile)
- click on the image with the silhouette
- from the windows explorer, drag the picture in to the profile app
- adjust the frame so that it shows the part of your picture that you want to show as avatar
- save it
When you switch back to the home screen, you will see the entry for yourself with a (hopefully)
nice avatar .

Platform specific functions
To provide functionality that requires operating system support and is not available within a browser, myApps has a native install program. When it is installed, it adds features such as:
- docking. You can dock myApps to the right or left edge of the screen
- local installation. Apps are stored on the local machine when started for the first time, so they can be started even if the machine is off-line
- native video and app sharing instead of WebRTC (so you can share your screen actively)
- Hotkeys (e.g. to accept a call)
- Audio and Video for the Softwarephone
- URL handler (so you can click on a tel:// link and myApps would open)
- Access Outlook contacts

- When you start the native myApps it will
ask you for the server to connect to . Please use https://hq.<first-select-network>/PBX0/APPCLIENT/appclient.htm?lang=en and click Config.
If you had already started the native client before, it will log you in automatically. In this case, go to the settings and
log out
- now you can
sign in using your account name (remember? it is <first-log-in>)
- to the PBX, this native myApps is a new client, so it will
do the 2-factor authentication again (see chapter Two-factor authentication above for how to access the E-Mail)
- go to the settings using
the burger menu on the upper right
- Then click on
More under Settings
- select
Dock on the right
- close myApps using a
right-click on its tray icon
You think its difficult for users to type in this long server name (https://hq.<first-select-network>/PBX0/APPCLIENT/appclient.htm?lang=en) on the first log-in? Yes, you're right. In fact, it is sufficient to simply type the PBX's FQDN (hq.<first-select-network> in your case). We used the long version only to make sure the user interface is in English (as all the screenshots in this book are taken from the English UI).
Just as a reminder, when you need to approve your login, you can use your existing session in your browser. Or, you can use the link in the email sent to you. If you use our training email system, here are the credentials again:
- Web client:
https://training-mail.innovaphone.com/owa/
- User: CLASS\<first-select-network>
- Password: <first-select-network>
Summary
myApps is the primary user interface to the PBX functions (well, except for your phone perhaps). It is web-based and as such available on any platform that supports web browsing.
Some features however need native operating system support. For these, a platform specific install is provided (currently for Windows, Android and Apple).
myApps on its own provides only a very limited function set (such as authentication and the home screen which allows you to launch more apps). All other functionality is provided by further Apps which may be installed from an App Store. The App Store in turn is managed by the PBX administrator (so as to ensure full control over the choice of Apps available).