'BLF' for Away/Holiday mode

[dandenson]

I'm looking for a way to setup a BLF button for Away mode or Holiday mode. Sometimes scheduling these away periods is not possible so the users need to be able to enable this.

I'm coming from a different PBX system that allowed me to create states that I could toggle via feature codes and then setup a call flow with a condition.

*45 toggle away variable on/off

call flow inbound call > is away variable on or off
if on, then go to holiday IVR.
if off, then proceed to open-hours IVR.

Is this doable with Call Flow Designer and if so, any guidance? I installed and opened call flow designer and I'm pretty intimidated by it as a first time 3CXer.

Thanks!

 

[apostolis_3CX]

Hi dandenson,
Kindly clarify if you want to change the status of a particular extension or set the whole PBX in holiday status.

 

[dandenson]

hi apostolis, my need would be for the whole PBX to be set this way.

In my current configuration, I am able to use a BLF by setting a virtual extension to 'in use' so the button lights up red so it's easy to see at a glance what the status of holiday mode is.

possible?

 

[apostolis_3CX]

Navigate to Dashboard >> Settings >> Dial codes and check the value of the parameter Force 3CX Phone System to IN or OUT of office. If no value is set, please assign one (eg. *45).

If you dial from an extension *452, you will hear a message informing that the PBX is now set to OUT of office hours and the configured routing for OUT of Office hours will be applied. Be advised that if the PBX will be set to out of office hours using *452 it will not be reset according to your schedule to IN office hours again on the next day.

You will have to dial *45. Again a message will inform you that the default office hours are now applied. Now the PBX will be set again to IN office hours based on your settings.

Regarding the "virtual" extension mentioned above, do you forward all calls to this extension and use it's status to forward accordingly? If this is the case you could just change it's status manually without the need to use the dial codes.

 

[dandenson]

thanks for the response.

*45 must be reserved by the system, it acts just like *4. *55 (*551/*552) do work. I don't see a way to get an indication on the phones that it's in 'out of office mode' though. Like you said, this setting will ignore the scheduler so I want some indication that it's enabled else I'll be getting support calls frequently.

Using an extension's available/away status is a nice solution, but I still don't have that status in BLF. With the softphone I do see the status but that's tough to rely on because many customers won't use that.

 

[VoIPTools]

There currently is no way of turning on/off the BLF light. The best we could do is a web page or windows app showing the current status using the Call Control API. There might be a way of using the phone's programming features to turn on/off the light, but nothing is available in any of the 3CX APIs.

 

[dandenson]

Thanks. I’ll shift to using the desktop app