nested service flags

[andrewgroup]

A common situation is the need to provide a client with the traditional night button. Customers use this as an ad-hoc method to close early or stay late.. With the current functionality you have to build various service flags and put them in order (manual flags first) and the following are just a few CLOSED, LUNCH, HOLIDAY, SCHEDULED. then matching mailboxes with messages or autoattendants with call routing.

 

I think the right approach might be having he ability to nest service flags. By this I mean if this service flag is set, then check and process the SUB service flags first.

 

I think this would overcome some problems we have that result in creating more than necessary service flags, or timing issues with scheduled service flags.

[Vodia PBX]

Interesting thought. You mean we should add another setting to the service flag which says "when that flag is active, this flag is also active". And probably another setting saying "when that flag is inactive, this flag is also inactive". Or we may as well add an expression that supports boolean logic, something like this: "(582 || !583) && 589"; this can probably be put into the service flag settings of the accounts.

[mattlandis]

sure would be nice to solve the issue of automatic flags that need to be set manually as an exception.

[andrewgroup]

Interesting thought. You mean we should add another setting to the service flag which says "when that flag is active, this flag is also active". And probably another setting saying "when that flag is inactive, this flag is also inactive". Or we may as well add an expression that supports boolean logic, something like this: "(582 || !583) && 589"; this can probably be put into the service flag settings of the accounts.

 

I like the boolean thought, but the example that we think is most common is a business with 8:00 to 17:00 MF business hours..

Autoattendent 400 takes all inbound calls from the trunk and looks at the NORMAL HOURS service flag So this AA wants to take all calls M-F 8 to 5.

 

the Other service flags on the PBX are

Lunch Mon-fri 12:00-13:00

Closed Manual

Open Manual

Holiday Scheduled 12/25 7/4

Holiday - Emergency Manual For unscheduled holidays or weather related closes

 

Message Boxes on the System ar;

500 for after hours messages

501 for Lunch hour messages

502 for Holiday Messages

503 for Emergency close messages

 

If the Normal Hours are set then forward all calls to the regular Hunt Group or business auto attendent

 

But during the time of the normal flag being set, continue to look at the other flags and branch conditionally on them..

If lunch is set during normal work hours then forward calls to the lunch message box

If the manual closed flag is set, then override the current close hours and be closed normally

if Emergency close is set then override the current close time actions and forward calls to the emergency message box..

 

the current listing of service flags and action boxes on the same line is a first come first serve and you have to be careful about how you list the automatics vs the scheduled..

 

This would overcome what Matt just posted too as it allows for the appearance of a reset of a schedule flag with a manual override.

[stoneracer]

And probably another setting saying "when that flag is inactive, this flag is also inactive". Or we may as well add an expression that supports boolean logic, something like this: "(582 || !583) && 589"; this can probably be put into the service flag settings of the accounts.

 

As this request is more than one year old I would also like to vote for it. Our most important demand is a negating service flag which says "when that flag is active, this flag should be inactive" and the other way around. The boolean logic would be the best solution as it's most flexible and allows any combination of service flags. This would allow us for example to enable the extension cell phones in the out of office hours when the attended is put into night mode.

[Vodia PBX]

As this request is more than one year old I would also like to vote for it. Our most important demand is a negating service flag which says "when that flag is active, this flag should be inactive" and the other way around. The boolean logic would be the best solution as it's most flexible and allows any combination of service flags. This would allow us for example to enable the extension cell phones in the out of office hours when the attended is put into night mode.

 

We actually did start with a little script language that could take care about it. For example, something like if (flag1) return "2121234567"; else if (flag2) return "123"; else return ""; However franky we got deeper and deeper into this interesting topic to the degree why don't we script the whole PBX. At that point we decided to keep on with incremental changes and put this topic on hold...

[andrewgroup]

We've taken the following approach.

 

 

Burn an invisible autoattendent and create the following service flag

 

601 Normal Closed (Sheduled close hours) NOT OPEN

 

602 Holiday Closed Hours

 

603 Manual Closed (gone home for weather of early close)

 

Then place the service flags in the AA service flag field in least used order

 

603 602 601

Then brach to to the appropriate AA,HG,AG, or EXT.... in the matching order...

 

Make the timeout settings so if none of these are set, then send the call to a CLOSED AA....

 

Burning this AA allows you to create other Manual or scheduled service flags.. (IE Extended Hours 17:00-19:00 M-F, this would be placed just after Holiday)

 

This at least gets the following Logic in place....

 

IF CLOSED FOR BAD WEATHER go to the WEATHER ALERT AA, or if on Holiday go to the Holiday AA, or if OPEN goto the OPEN AA, ELSE we must be closed so play the Closed Greeting on this AA..

 

The logic is the stack whatever service flags you need in LEAST LIKELY to OCCUR Order....

 

We have begun to standardize our Service Flags and Matching Actions beginning at

 

601 through 610 for the3 service flags and 701 through 710 for the associated AA's, HG, and AG,,