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In Progress 3CX Night Mode Visual Indication

datatech1

Joined
May 17, 2010
Messages
7
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Hi Guys,
We have noticed that the 3CX system does not currently have a way of being able to visually see when the phone system is in day or night mode (Office Hours or Out of Office Hours).

This is a huge pain in the backside for all of us who come from a traditional TDM based phone system. We have worked on several traditional (digital and electronic) phone systems over the years and all of them have had this functionality as standard where you are able to program a button on the reception phone (or as many phones as is required) to allow the user to put the system into day or night mode, some system even offer a Day, Day2 and Night mode which can be very handy.

3CX have a very useful feature where you can program the systems office hours so it will automatically go into the night mode when the time is outside of these hours, but sometimes customers need the ability to be able to manually put the system into day or night mode.
Luckily the guys at 3CX have allowed the use of a short code which will allow you to force the system into day or night mode or put the system back into the default auto mode:-
  • *641 - force the system to use "In Office Hours"
    *642 - force the system to use "Out of Office Hours"
    *64 - force the system to use "Default Office Hours" (auto mode)
This is great, but there is still no visual indication on the IP Phones to show what mode the system is in.

I recently contacted the support department to see if there was a way of getting the developers to look into this as I have noticed there are lots of forum posts relating to this very frustrating issue and they advised me to post on the 3CX ideas forum and get it up-voted.
I even contacted out account manager at 3CX as well as their CEO (Nick Gelea) and they both advised me to do the same, so this is what I am doing.

I have heard from Nick and he said they may be able to do something on the 3CX client as it may be easier to implement, but I don't think this will suit most people's needs as we really need the phone system to be able to light a button on a phone or change the colour of the button if the phone supports that, so I have come up with a couple of possible ways that the development team could easily implement this on the system so that we can start to sell more systems as direct replacements for their aging TDM systems.

The ways I have come up with to get this working could be as simple as a global extension (say 799) as the older 3CX v14 used to show the system extensions (under System Status > System Extensions).

The global extension number could be programmed to be as follows:-
  • Available when the system is in Day Mode (In Office Hours)
    Busy when the system is in Night Mode (Out of Office Hours)
This would then allow us to be able to program that extension on the reception phone (or as many phones as required) and give a clear visual indication of what mode the system is in.

We use the Yealink T46G IP Phones in the office (or will do when we can finally get a visual indication for Day / Night mode) and they will show an extension as green when it is not in use or red when it is busy, we also have some clients who have Cisco VoIP phones and they behave in exactly the same way.

It would be even better if they were able to make the button have the ability of being able to show an extension status and being able to dial a short code to put the system into day or night mode like this guys has managed to do with the Asterisk phone system and a Cisco IP Phone:-
http://forums.kerio.com/t/28825/


I hope many of you will see this post and vote it up as I know there are a lot of us on the forums asking about this feature and requesting that it gets implemented as soon as possible as it would be a very valuable addition to the 3CX system and I am sure it will allow us all to sell more system to customers.
 
Upvote 243
Yes please add this feature
 
  • Like
Reactions: safemode
If it's possible to subscribe BLF to SP0, SP1, SP2, etc as parks, surely something similar can be done for the status of even the global "office hours" setting?
 
  • Like
Reactions: craigreilly
I have a proposed solution that might work for you.

1. Install 3CX Phone on your 3CX server (or elsewhere), registered to a designated extension.

2. We could write a windows service that monitors the PBX status (Office Hours or Out of office) and modifies the extension's presence automatically

3. Register this designated extension on the reception phone as a BLF. This will change the color of the light based on the extension's presence.

4. When the BLF button is pressed on the reception phone, we could toggle the PBX state.
 
  • Like
Reactions: craigreilly
Yet again another basic feature missing.
 
You shoot seeing this on the dashboard of de 3CX panel and even on de the 3CX client.
 
We have just changed to 3cx and this is the one feature (or lack of) that has given me so much grief!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Satisfaction
Has any progress been made on this in the latest 3CX version?
There has been several votes on this and I am sure we would all like to know if this has even been discussed by 3CX in their meetings?
 
Hi Guys,
We have noticed that the 3CX system does not currently have a way of being able to visually see when the phone system is in day or night mode (Office Hours or Out of Office Hours).

This is a huge pain in the backside for all of us who come from a traditional TDM based phone system. We have worked on several traditional (digital and electronic) phone systems over the years and all of them have had this functionality as standard where you are able to program a button on the reception phone (or as many phones as is required) to allow the user to put the system into day or night mode, some system even offer a Day, Day2 and Night mode which can be very handy.

3CX have a very useful feature where you can program the systems office hours so it will automatically go into the night mode when the time is outside of these hours, but sometimes customers need the ability to be able to manually put the system into day or night mode.
Luckily the guys at 3CX have allowed the use of a short code which will allow you to force the system into day or night mode or put the system back into the default auto mode:-



    • *641 - force the system to use "In Office Hours"
      *642 - force the system to use "Out of Office Hours"
      *64 - force the system to use "Default Office Hours" (auto mode)
This is great, but there is still no visual indication on the IP Phones to show what mode the system is in.

I recently contacted the support department to see if there was a way of getting the developers to look into this as I have noticed there are lots of forum posts relating to this very frustrating issue and they advised me to post on the 3CX ideas forum and get it up-voted.
I even contacted out account manager at 3CX as well as their CEO (Nick Gelea) and they both advised me to do the same, so this is what I am doing.

I have heard from Nick and he said they may be able to do something on the 3CX client as it may be easier to implement, but I don't think this will suit most people's needs as we really need the phone system to be able to light a button on a phone or change the colour of the button if the phone supports that, so I have come up with a couple of possible ways that the development team could easily implement this on the system so that we can start to sell more systems as direct replacements for their aging TDM systems.

The ways I have come up with to get this working could be as simple as a global extension (say 799) as the older 3CX v14 used to show the system extensions (under System Status > System Extensions).

The global extension number could be programmed to be as follows:-



    • Available when the system is in Day Mode (In Office Hours)
      Busy when the system is in Night Mode (Out of Office Hours)
This would then allow us to be able to program that extension on the reception phone (or as many phones as required) and give a clear visual indication of what mode the system is in.

We use the Yealink T46G IP Phones in the office (or will do when we can finally get a visual indication for Day / Night mode) and they will show an extension as green when it is not in use or red when it is busy, we also have some clients who have Cisco VoIP phones and they behave in exactly the same way.

It would be even better if they were able to make the button have the ability of being able to show an extension status and being able to dial a short code to put the system into day or night mode like this guys has managed to do with the Asterisk phone system and a Cisco IP Phone:-
http://forums.kerio.com/t/28825/


I hope many of you will see this post and vote it up as I know there are a lot of us on the forums asking about this feature and requesting that it gets implemented as soon as possible as it would be a very valuable addition to the 3CX system and I am sure it will allow us all to sell more system to customers.


Referencing one of 3CX own case studies (https://www.3cx.com/company/case-studies/cellografica-gerosa-case-study/) where engineers were able to interface factory production line equipment to a 3CX platform, I would think there are a plethora of IP based relay boards that can be used to control real world devices such as LED lights, Strobes for Night Ring in warehouses and possibly even start the coffee maker in the morning. Considering the amount of Home Automation & Z-Wave equipment available, the ability for 3cx to control this would give tremendous leverage to VAR's closing the deal with customers. Engineers, you may want to start with a simple 2 relay module that will allow the control of an electric strike for a doorphone application, and give DATATECH1 the Night Mode light his customer needs!
 
Add me to the list of customers wanting this feature.
 
Yes this feature would be very useful.
 
+1
3CX needs to focus on some of these key PBX features that were important 10 years ago and are still important now. Another one is the BLF's recognizing DND status.
 
+1Have been asking/looking for this feature since we move from Asterisk
 
I just actually switched to 3CX and was amazed that something so simple is not built in.
I feel like this is something that can be added in a matter of minutes. The option is there with "Force 3CX Phone System to IN or OUT of office"
Not just make it the same code to turn it on/off and make it have the ability to be BLF
 

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