There are also other versions of this article available: Reference13r1 | Reference13r3 | Reference14r2 (this version)

Applies To

App Contacts version 14r2

Overview

The App Service Contacts is an App Service which can be installed on an innovaphone App Platform. It is used for information retrieval of a database of contact entries, as well as maintaining personal contact books.

Inside Contacts, personal and general entries can be searched (forward lookup) or be used to resolve incoming numbers to their respective name (reverse lookup).

Features

Import: Semicolon (;) separated CSV file
Database for contact entries: A user interface for retrieval purposes is available.
API: Search API and Lookup API for other apps
Edit Functionality: Contact entries are editable.
Personal Address Book: Every user can maintain one or more personal address books.
Access Right Management: Owners can maintain access privileges for single users or even groups of users, in order to control visibility of an address book.

14r2 Features

Features added to the version 14r2

User-Interface improvements: Contact entries retrieved are rendered in a condensed card representation. A Details-button expands and displays remaining contact information
Presence Updates: Useful in federation scenarios. For displayed and currently visible contact entries, presence monitoring calls are placed, in order to display availablity status. Underlying resources are going to be freed immediately for entries scrolled out of visibility.
Fax button: Placing a call to a fax number is going to start the fax application
Adding Contacts from within the Softphone App or Call List App: Contacts can be added by means of a button Softphone/Call List/<entry>/"Add Contact"
Import, export for personal directories

New buttons Hamburger/Directories/<directory>/Import,Export allow for CSV-download and -upload respectively.

Requirements

innovaphone PBX and App Platform from on version 13r3 - version 14r2 is recommended.

Upgrade Considerations

From 13r3 to 14r2 no special upgrade scenarios need to be considered as the database structure remains the same. On the other hand, if the new com.innovaphone.contacts API will be used (which helps to add contacts from within the phone apps) and a manual update is performed then the Websocket Checkmark should be set on the PBX App Object.

For prior versions please consider the following:

As always, don't forget to backup an existing App Platform in prior. This 13r3 App Contacts does alter the underlying database scheme.

13r3 App on 13r1 App Platform, 13r1 PBX: Doesn't work. The 13r3 Contacts App does not work on an 13r1 Application Platform/Environment.
13r3 App on 13r2 App Platform, 13r2 PBX: The 13r3 Contacts App works with the restriction, that the reverse lookup for private address books doesn't work. For full feature set, also upgrade the App Platform and PBX to 13r3.

Apps

Contacts App (innovaphone-contacts)

The regular app

Contacts Admin App (innovaphone-contacts-admin)

Features a menu (top-right) to manually upload a CSV file

Contacts Search API (innovaphone-contacts-searchapi)

This hidden app rovides a search API and a lookup API to other apps, e.g. for the Phone App

Concept

General contact entries and entries for personal directories are stored within the same database. With the table acl which is acting as an access control list, restricted views and edit rights for personal directories can be granted.

This way, only the owner of a personal directory (and granted user or groups) can see the content.

Number handling

In principle, two versions of a phone number are always stored in the contacts database.

Original Number: This is the unchanged number imported by the user. This version includes all decorative characters, spaces, etc. (eg. +49-(7031) 730090)
Formatted number: A filter is applied to the original number before saving to remove all non-dialable characters. (This means that only 0-9,+,*,# remain after that) This formatted version of the call number is saved in addition to the data set. (eg. +497031730090)

If a number is searched for (reverse lookup), the cleaned version is searched for. Thus, it does not matter which decorative characters or formats are imported. If an entry is displayed to the user, the originally entered call number (incl. decoration characters) is displayed.

It is therefore best practice to import only international format numbers (Decorations can be imported as they will be removed anyway), as the PBX always converts the number into the international format for a reverse lookup, if the dialing location was configured correct.

Assign unique IDs for contacts entries

It is recommended to upload CSV files with an additional column extAnchor. The column extAnchor allows to identify individual entries uniquely and independent of renaming operations. The column extAnchor is supposed to contain an external unique database id, alike a guid. If extAnchor was provided the import procedure will perform an UPDATE of previously existing entries, instead of deleting and re-INSERTing the entries. Entries pinned on home are going to remain functional.

List of Attributes

The list of currently available attributes for a contacts entry follows:

extAnchor: unique id identifying the entry within the database
givenname: First name
sn: Surname/Family name
company: Corporation
displayname: Name to be displayed
email: e.g. example@example.com
telephonenumber: Internationalized land-line telephone number, e.g. +49 7031 730090
mobile: Internationalized mobile telephone number
homephone: Internationalized home phone number
facsimiletelephonenumber: Internationalized fax number
city: City/Town, e.g. Milano
street
postalcode
state: Federal state, e.g. some US states: Ca, Wa, Fl
country: e.g. Deutschland, Italia
privatecity: Home address
privatestreet
privatepostalcode
privatestate
privatecountry
title: Academic title
position: Position within company, department
department
description: Common description
roomnumber
info: Common info
url: Company URL
sip: Dialable SIP address
uuid: A constant universal unique id as string. Internally assigned during entry creation.

List of Text-Indexable Attributes

Attributes to be considered for the full-text index

cn
sn
givenname
company
displayname
city
street
postalcode
country
state
private_city
private_street
private_postalcode
private_country
private_state
title
position
department
description
roomnumber
sip

Built-in LDAP Server

The App incorporates a proprietary LDAP server functionality. The purpose of the LDAP server functionality is to service innovaphone LDAP clients, such as desk phones. The LDAP server only supports a proprietary search by means of a meta attribute^[1], whereby LDAP is just utilized as a transport vehicle for a user's search input one-to-one.

E.g. a user searching for John Doe innovaphone
- Possible user input jo do inno
- Resulting LDAP filter (metaSearchText=jo do inno)

Important:

Note, that access to restricted/personal phone books requires the proprietary scheme within the LDAP client, mentioned above.

Currently, this is available in the innovaphone IP phone LDAP clients from 13r3 on, but not on 3rd party devices nor our DECT gateways (IP120x). On these clients, only contact data in unrestricted phone books is searched.

Sample Phone Configuration, innovaphone

Phone/User-X/Directories/External LDAP Server

Enable: Active
Use TLS: Active
Server: <host adddress of App Platform>
Port: <can be left empty>
Username,Pw: <Credentials for LDAP Bind operation>
Search Base: dc=entries
Mode: <can be left on "basic">
Object Filter: <leave empty>
Sort Results: Inactive
Name Attributes: givenName,sn,company
Number Attributes: <can be left empty>
H323 ID Attribute: sip
Detail Attributes: title,company,street,postalCode,city,country,email,url
Meta Name Attribute: metaSearchText
Meta Number Attribute: metaSearchNumber

Personal Address Book Details

Contact entries can be added, edited and deleted. It is also possible to create and maintain personal address book(s), as well as share them with other users or whole user groups.

Only user/groups with sufficient rights, will be able to see other address books. An Access control list (acl) is used, to control these rights.

Groups correspond to PBX-groups. The Contacts App gets to know only active PBX-group memberships.

By default, only the user who created an address book, is able to see the content.

Maintain a Personal Address Book

Creating a Personal Address Book: Click on +Contact and proceed. If no directory existed before, one will be automatically created by the name pattern Personal Directory: <user's short name>.; Or click on the burger menu in the top right corner inside the Contacts-App, and there on the "Directories". Now click on the "+"-Symbol, choose a suitable name and confirm your name via "Save" button. A new address book is created.
Adding a new contact

Click on the "+"-Symbol in the top right corner inside the Contacts-App and select an address book, where you want the contact to be stored in. Now fill in the contact information (the fields "name" and "last name" have to be filled) and save it via "Save"-button.

Editing an existing contact

Search for the contact you want to edit via the search box inside the Contacts-App. Click on the "Details"-field on the right of the contact entry. Now click on the bottom on the "Edit"-button, click on the entry you want to edit and after your change, save it via "Save"-button on the bottom.

Delete an existing contact

Search for the contact you want to edit via the search box inside the Contacts-App. Click on the "Details"-field on the right of the contact entry. Now click on the bottom on the "Edit"-button, and on the "trashcan"-symbol at the top. After confirmation, the entry is deleted.

Sharing of Address Book

Share globally

Either remove all rules from a personal directory. Such a configuration corresponds to pre-13r3 capabilities. Up to 13r2 there weren't any visibility rules available.
Or make every PBX user an active member of a group e.g. "everybody" and add a directory rule for that group "everybody".

Share with single user(s)

Click on the menu in the top right corner inside the Contacts-App, click on "directories" and select a directory, you want to share.

Now click on the "+"-symbol and select "User" as type. In the input field, you can enter and therefore filter for all available users. Select the user, whom you want to give access and select either if the user should have admin-rights or not. Now click on Ok and submit your change with another click on Ok.

Share with a group

Click on the menu in the top right corner inside the Contacts-App, click on "directories" and select a directory, you want to share.

Now click on the "+"-symbol and select "Group" as type. In the input field, you can enter and therefore filter for all available PBX groups. Also select, if the user should have admin-rights or not. Now click on Ok and submit your change with another click on Ok-button.

Revoke of granted rights

You can also revoke previous granted rights by just clicking on the user/group at the access control list, and click on the trashcan symbol. Now submit your change with another click on Ok-button.

Upload a new Directory

The Contacts Admin App allows uploading a CSV file as known from the 13r2 version (Hamburger/Import). In the course of an upload operation, a new directory will be created. The newly assigned directory name will be the name of the CSV file. After uploading, the visibility setting of the new directory should be administrated as stated before under Sharing of Address Book

Terminology

ACL: Access control list. Refers the database table acl and rows/entries therein.
Directory: Refers the database table dbs and rows/entries therein. All contact entries referencing a dbs-row make up the content of a directory.
Address Book: Synonymous with Directory
Contacts Admin: A user utilizing the Contacts Admin App (via App URL, ending with ../innovaphone-contacts-admin)
Directory Admin: A user entitled the admin right for a directory. Either by user-wise or by group-wise ACL entry.
Directory User/Viewer: A user entitled the viewing right for a directory. Either by user-wise or by group-wise ACL entry.

Database Changes

Three tables realize the functionality for personal directories.

Table dbs. Each row represents a directory. Two new columns displayname, sip where added.
- displayname Name display.
- sip Creator's sip name, if available.
Table acl.New table acting as access control list. Each row references a directory as listed by table dbs and is going to grant view- and admin-right to a specific user or group.
- dbsid Reference into table dbs.
- name The name of a user or a group.
- acltype A numeric value: user(0), group(1)
- admin Granting edit right: admin(true), non-admin(false)
Table entries. Each row within this pre-exisisting table represents a contact entry. The column dbsid informs about whether an entry belongs to a specific directory.

#Excerpt for an additional directory ''Persönliches Verzeichnis: mst'' with one contact entry.

root@app-platform|/mnt/sda2/home/admin> psql -d "innovaphone.com_contacts" -c "select * from dbs"
 id |                         uri                          |          displayname           | sip
----+------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------+-----
  7 | file:///4eaae395-9971-40fb-9a05-dfae1d023f12?sip=mst | Persönliches Verzeichnis: mst  | mst      # Specification for directory ('Persönliches Verzeichnis: mst')

root@app-platform|/mnt/sda2/home/admin> psql -d "innovaphone.com_contacts" -c "select * from acl"
 id | dbsid | name | acltype | admin
----+-------+------+---------+-------
  5 |     7 | mst  |       0 | t              #user 'mst' can view and edit directory with dbsid=7 ('Persönliches Verzeichnis: mst')

root@app-platform|/mnt/sda2/home/admin> psql -d "innovaphone.com_contacts" -c "select sn,givenname,company,id,dbsid from entries where dbsid=7"
    sn    | givenname |   company    |  id   | dbsid
----------+-----------+--------------+-------+-------
 Duck     | Dagobert  | Duck Corp.   | 51394 |     7   # main table entries contains 1 entry belonging to ('Persönliches Verzeichnis: mst')

Reverse Number Lookup for Personal Directories

Queries into directories are access-checked by looking-up and enforcing ACL-rules. The information on whose name is being queried and which group memberships are taking effect is needed for this process.

Websocket connections to the Contacts App service carry those infos within the SDK method AppWebsocketConnectComplete(). LDAP connections pass this information within a proprietary LDAP control together with an LDAP searchRequest message.

The PBX's centralized Reverse Lookup service (see PBX/Config/General/Reverse Lookup URL) does support this mechanism. That is, for every LDAP searchRequest the affected user's name and active group memberships are going to be sent towards the Contacts App's LDAP server.

Upload Data by HTTP Post

A CSV file can be uploaded by means of an HTTP POST request. The following powershell script aims to demonstrate this procedure with the help of CURL^[2]^[3] The required user and password content corresponds to the configuration underneath PBX Manager/AP Contacts/Configuration/User(HTTP Post) and Password(HTTP Post)

# csv.ps1
# Sample powershell script demonstrating how to HTTP POST a CSV file towards the Contacts App service.
# .\bin\curl must be present, e.g. from https://curl.haxx.se/download.html
# Examples:
# powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command .\csv.ps1 -Dest 172.16.18.215 -File ".\myContacts.utf8" -User "contacts01" -Pw "pwd01" -Url "/example.com/contacts01/post/myContacts.utf8?op=csv"

param(
	[Parameter(Mandatory=$false, HelpMessage="Destination host")]
	[string]$Dest,
	[Parameter(Mandatory=$false, HelpMessage="Name of file to be POSTed")]
	[string]$File,	
	[Parameter(Mandatory=$false, HelpMessage="Authentication: User")]
	[string]$User,
	[Parameter(Mandatory=$false, HelpMessage="Authentication: Password")]
	[string]$Pw,
	[Parameter(Mandatory=$false, HelpMessage="URL, e.g.: /example.com/contacts01/post/myContacts.csv?op=csv&xml-stats=true")]
	[string]$Url
)

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Web

$Uri = "http://" + $Dest + $Url

function UploadToContacts {
	# Ensure file's there and has content
	if (!(Test-Path -Path $File)) {
		echo $File+" not downloaded!"
		exit 1
	}
	$lines = 0
	Get-Content $File |%{ $lines++ }
	echo "Lines of $File=$lines"
	if($lines -le 2) {
		echo "No Data to upload!"
		exit 1
	}
	
	$auth = "${User}:${Pw}"

	echo "POSTing towards $Uri"
	.\bin\curl "--digest" -s -S --trace-time -u $auth -i -H "Content-Type:application/octet-stream" -X POST --data-binary "@${File}" "${Uri}"
	echo "POSTed towards $Dest"
}

$timeStart = Get-Date
echo "===Begin: ${timeStart} ==="
UploadToContacts
$timeEnd = Get-Date
echo "===End: ${timeEnd} ==="
echo ""

The URL

The first part of the URL (example.com/contacts01) is the Webserver path configured for the Contacts instance in the App Platform Manager. It must be followed by the literal post. The last part (myContacts.csv) can be chosen freely.

Note that the last part of the URL used to post the file (myContacts.csv in the example above) needs to be chose carefully. Contacts will remember this name as source for each of the uploaded entries. When the file is posted again (that is, when a new POST using this last URL part is done), Contacts will first delete all existing entries previously uploaded with this name and then add the new ones.

Troubleshooting

To collect debugging data, activate the App and App WebSocket trace options at the contacts instance on the App Platform Manager. Now reproduce the issue and save the logfile.

Manually Deleting an uploaded File

A directory is deleteable by clicking Hamburger/Directories/<directory>/Delete(Symbol: Trash-Can) and a progressing through the confirmation dialog afterwards.

Manually Deleting all Contacts

Sometimes it may become necessary to delete all contacts from the database. This task can be accomplished by simply deleting the main table entries. The deletion will cascade from there into all sub-tables.

The database name, here: innovaphone.com_contacts can be retrieved from the settings within in the App Manager for the Contacts App.

Establish an SSH-session by means of e.g. putty^[4]

#Login
#===================================================================
login as: admin
Using keyboard-interactive authentication.
Password:

#Elevate to super-user rights, Command 'su'
#===================================================================
admin@app-platform|/mnt/sda2/home/admin> su
Password:

#List number of contacts in main table entries
#===================================================================
root@app-platform|/mnt/sda2/home/admin> psql -d "innovaphone.com_contacts" -c "select count(*) from entries"
 count
-------
    94
(1 row)

#Delete
#===================================================================
root@app-platform|/mnt/sda2/home/admin> psql -d "innovaphone.com_contacts" -c "delete from entries *"
DELETE 94

#List number of contacts in main table entries
#===================================================================
root@app-platform|/mnt/sda2/home/admin> psql -d "innovaphone.com_contacts" -c "select count(*) from entries"
 count
-------
     0
(1 row)

Known Issues

DECT Phones Cannot Access Personal Directories

DECT gateways do not support the mechanism required to query into directories with restricted access rules. Hence, DECT mobile phones cannot search into such directories.

No automatic ACL update on name changes

If a users h323 name is changed, all ACL entries in address books, to which the user has rights, also need to be changed manually, since there is no automatic update between the PBX and the address books.

↑ Meta attribute: Here an attribute with a special meaning and that is non-physical, not existing within the database
↑ For a windows distribution: e.g.: https://curl.haxx.se/download.html
↑ CURL is recommended(rather required), because it supports the simple POST mechanism with an initial tentative POST with the data length of 0, in order to get through the authentication phase
↑ putty: https://putty.org

[1] Meta attribute: Here an attribute with a special meaning and that is non-physical, not existing within the database

[2] For a windows distribution: e.g.: https://curl.haxx.se/download.html

[3] CURL is recommended(rather required), because it supports the simple POST mechanism with an initial tentative POST with the data length of 0, in order to get through the authentication phase

[4] utty: https://putty.org

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Reference14r2:Concept App Service Contacts

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