Course13:IT Connect - 03 The myApps client at a first glance

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A short walk through the myApps client, which is your interface to the complete PBX system.

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 into the address bar of your favorite browser, 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.dvl-ckl2.net
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.



Since we are going to walk through the client now, you may want to open a new browser-window and run myApps in it while you continue to view this book in parallel.

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 ckl and you should have noted the Password in your Setup-data.xls.


So go ahead and log in!

Two-factor authentication

Oops, so what is that?

myApps does not reject your login, but insists on "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.



You now need to open your E-Mail (the special training E-Mail which you have specified during the Install).

So open link_intern.png training-mail.innovaphone.com/owa and log-in using CLASS\dvl-ckl2 as user and ckl-pw as password.

You will see an E-Mail similar to this one:
Hello Christoph Künkel!

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.dvl-ckl2.net/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.dvl-ckl2.net/PBX0/session.xml?action=reject&id=27d72c0c1cc65b014d100090334000b3&code=6426&xsl=session.xsl

myApps Login (dvl-ckl2.net)

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 screenshot.png a page saying:

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.dvl-ckl2.net is known). If you open it for example on your mobile phone, it wouldn't work.


(Further Hints) You did not receive the E-Mail? Either run the Install again (and this time only continue if you really received the test E-Mail wink ) or have your trainer disable two-factor authentication on your PBX.

The Home Screen

Now that you're logged-in, you see what is called the home screen. Let's see what it has.

Your Presence

The left and middle part of the header bar allows you to manage you presence state. Your presence is made up of two parts.

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.

screenshot.png click on the square and change it to Do not disturb.

Right next to the coloured square, you find a text field that allows you to add a some text to your presence.

screenshot.png click into the text field and type some text to set a note.

Settings

The screenshot.png burger menu on the upper right edge gives you access to video2.png 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 screenshot.png Edit Profile dialogue. It has video2.png multiple tabs which can be selected. One of them are your call diversions for example. You can close them by video2.png clicking on the upper left cross.

For now it is enough to know that this is the way to access your personal settings.

More on call diversion


You have probably noticed the well-known call diversion settings for Always (CFU), Busy (CFB) and No response (CFNR). They are executed if you enable them explicitly, either in your profile or on the phone.

However, the PBX can also enable and disable them automatically based on your presence. This feature is enabled when the Call forward based on Presence switch is screenshot.png turned on in addition to the CFB or CFNR option.

If so, CFB will be executed when your presence is busy or do not disturb and CFNR when your presence is away.

If you screenshot.png activate the option Call forwarding when offline on myApps, a call forwarding is triggered if no myApps client is active for this user. The destination of the call forwarding depends on your CFNR configuration.

Tutorials App

There is a link to our tutorials app built into the burger menu. When you click screenshot.png the button called Tutorials, you will be redirected to a website that hosts tutorial videos created by innovaphone.


Apps

The screenshot.png 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 smile

While this is nice and useful, the home screen is a little crowded now. 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 screenshot.png grid icon on the lower right edge.

Click on the grid icon to display the screenshot.png list of all apps available to you. You will notice that some of them screenshot.png have a coloured home symbol and some don't. Those with the coloured symbol will be shown on your home screen.


To return back to the home screen, click on the screenshot.png home symbol on the lower left edge, and eh voilà, your home screen screenshot.png 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.

To give it a try, drag the Devices App downwards. As soon as it covers another item, this item will jump upward and you can video2.png drop the dragged App to the now free space.

Then create a new group by dragging the Devices App even further. You will see a new group title. video2.png Drop the App and edit the new group title.

You can even collapse and expand groups by video2.png clicking on the little caret symbol on the left 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.


To try this, just click on Users. The Users App will be started and video2.png shown in the myApps window.

Note that myApp's footer changed to video2.png 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 wink We will discuss this in much more detail later.

For the moment, you may want to click on the only item shown. This video2.png opens a dialogue which shows some details of the user. For now, just note the following things:
  • the presence note you entered before screenshot.png is shown
  • a screenshot.png coloured block on the lower left edge of the user's avatar indicates the presence activity you selected before
  • a screenshot.png home symbol is shown that allows you to put the user as an App to myApp's home screen
Go ahead and add yourself to your myApp's home screen! Then switch back to the home screen. It should video2.png include an App which represents yourself now. If you click on this contact-as-an-App, the Users App will open again and show the user details.

You may think that the new item on the home screen does not fit the group you have created lately.
OK, you already know how to fix it, so that your home screen video2.png looks more organized !

Pin an app

You can also video2.png pin an app. A pinned app is always running and cannot be closed accidentally. Even if you press X to close the app, it remains in the background. Also, a pinned app is launched automatically when myApps is started.

App focus

video2.png You can drag an app into the app focus (you can of course also drag the focus app out of the focus again).

An app in focus is automatically displayed once the myApps client is loaded. When other apps are closed, myApps returns to the app in focus instead of to the home screen (you can still switch to the home screen by selecting it explicitly using the home symbol on te lower left).

To video2.png deactivate this feature completely, you must click on it and then switch it off in the pop-up window that appears.

Cleaning up your Home Screen

You already have seen that you can screenshot.png 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.

Give it a try right now!

Yay, Practice!

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

Upload your own avatar (i.e. photo) to your user record in the PBX.

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


The video2.png way to go is as follows:
  • 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
Depending on the browser you can also drag and drop the picture directly from a webpage. Just drag the above picture to the profile app.

When you switch back to the home screen, you will see the entry for yourself with a (hopefully) screenshot.png 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 (also know as the launcher). 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
You can try that right now. Download myApps (Windows) from the https://class.innovaphone.com/moodle2/mod/resource/icon.gif Recommended Tools for this Course page, install it and configure it so it would dock to the right. Here is how:

To close the native myApps program:

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:

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, iOS and MacOS).

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).