Reference9:Concept myPBX

Overview

myPBX is a web application that comes with the innovaphone PBX starting from V9. It is intended for assisting typical phone users with a number of common tasks like managing calls and contacts, setting their presence or instant messaging.

Requirements

A current web browser is needed. We support current versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer (from Version 8), Safari, Chrome and Opera. JavaScript must be enabled.

Web application

myPBX consists of two parts. On the one hand there is the user interface. It is an AJAX application that runs in a web browser. On the other hand the PBX holds a session object for each running user interface. This is where the actual logic is implemented. Both parts talk to each other using HTTP requests.

The picture shows how call control is done. The myPBX session has access to the phone registration as they are both located in the same PBX. Thus it can monitor and create or modify calls.

Windows launcher

The launcher is a tool for integrating myPBX into the Windows desktop. It is not needed in order to use myPBX but it adds some convenient functions that are not available otherwise.

At startup it opens myPBX in a window that can be minimized to the system tray. The system tray icon also shows notifications on events like alerting calls or incoming chat messages. Additionally you can define a hotkey for dialling numbers out of any Windows application.

Details

Profiles

The user can create multiple profiles, each with a differnt contact list. This is useful for using myPBX on more than one device. For example people might want to have different contact lists on their computer in the office and on their smart phone. The selected profile is stored together with the login so it is remembered until the next logout.

Contacts

The contact list works similar to a buddy list. You can add people in order to monitor their presence and calls. You can also call them, start a chat session or send them an email from the contact list.

There are three types of contacts: Internal, external phone number and external SIP.

	Internal	External phone number	External SIP
Start call using	Name or number	Number	Email
Start chat using	Name or number	Email	Email
Send email using	Name	Email	Email
Monitor presence and calls using	Name or number	Email	Email

For external contacts we assume that the Email-Address is the same as the SIP-Address (e.g. user@example.com). If the "use as domain" checkmark is set in the PBX we assume for internal contacts that the username matches the email name and the GK-ID of the PBX matches the email domain.

Presence

In myPBX the presence of users consists of the following items:

• Activity (e.g. lunch, vacation, ...)
• Note (a free text)
• Phone status (open when the user has at least one registered phone)
• IM status (open when the user is logged-in using myPBX or another instant messaging client)

The presence can be monitored by other users if they are allowed to do so (see #Visibility).

Visibility

Other people can add you to their contact list but they can't see your presence or call information if you don't give them a permission. In myPBX the set of monitoring rights that you gave to other people is called visibility.

There are three types of rights:

• Presence
• Busy state
• Calls

Rights can be given to:

• Users (by name, alice or alice@example.com)
• All users of a domain (by domain suffix, @example.com)
• All active users of a group (by group name)

If someone tries to monitor you who has no allow or unallow defined you are notified, so you can define rights for that user.

Call control

• User can select one of the registred phones or mobility
• Initiate, clear, hold, transfer park
• Numbers: user defined, from LDAP search, from contact list, from call list

Directory search

Users can search for phone numbers in an internal and an external LDAP directory. myPBX uses the same search filter format and returns equivalent search results as the phones. Therefore the directories must be configured in the phone config that is stored in the user object in the PBX. Templates can be used to share the same configuration across multiple users.

Call list

myPBX can be configured to obtain the user's call list from an instance of the innovaphone Reporting service. The call list contains all calls of the user, including the call flow before and after the user was connected. When a user calls someone back from the call list, the call is marked as answered in the reporting database. As this is done by the conference ID of the call even other users that have the same call in their list can see who has called back at what time.

myPBX notifies the user if there were missed calls since the last time the call list was viewed. On startup it asks the reporting service if there were missed calls in the time that myPBX was not running.

Instant messaging

• Chat calls
• Chat conferences

Audio conferences

The innovaphone conference interface can be integrated into myPBX. This feature is enabled if the administrator has configured the number that shall be dialled to create a new audio conference room.

If activated users can start an unplanned audio conference from a chat session by clicking a button in the chat window. myPBX initiates a phone call to the conference interface using the configured number. The conference interface creates a conference room and connects the call. The connected number is the same that other users have to dial to join the audio conference. This number is sent to all users in the chat using a tel link.

In order to ensure that there are enough slots in the audio conference myPBX reserves one more slot as there are participants in the chat. The user can also specify the desired number of slots, if needed.

Application sharing

Similar to audio conferences the user can start a meeting in an external application sharing solution from a chat session. myPBX connects to the application sharing service using a HTTP interface and creates the meeting. If that was successful it sends links for joining the meeting to the participants of the chat session.

Currently we support Microsoft Office LiveMeeting and WebEx.

User password

• Changing the user password from myPBX may affect the phone registrations

Email integration

Depending on configuration emails can be sent to contacts from the contact list. For external contacts the email function is available as long as an email address is configured. For internal contacts the email function is activated when the "use as domain" checkmark in the PBX configuration is checked. In this case it is assumed that the name of the user object (H.323 id) matches the email name and the PBX system name matches the email domain.

Login in a multi PBX scenario

In a multi PBX scenario myPBX must be connected to the same PBX as the phones. Therefore after login the user is redirected like follows:

• PBXes accept the login if they are in charge.
• Slaves redirect to the master if they are not in charge.
• The master redirects to the slave that is in charge.
• Inactive standby PBXes redirect to the master.
• Active standby PBXes accept the login.

Additionally you can configure an alternative URL in the myPBX launcher that shall be used when myPBX can't connect to the primary URL.

Configuration

• myPBX has to be enabled in the configuration of the PBX. It is disabled by default.
• Only users with a password can login to myPBX.
• The LDAP configuration is taken from the phone config at the user object.
• Only one registration for each device
• Registration with admin password mandatory for fixed registrations
• Naming conventions for users and PBXes