Call recording notification

[Martink]

Any ideas how to implement notification to called party that the phone call will be recorded for quality assurance???

I tried to put it in queue - intro prompt.
Unfortunately, caller will not hear it if call is answered before intro ends.

 

[Henk]

Can you make it part of the same message of the intro (eg on wav file)?

 

[Martink]

Yes.
Unfortunately answering the call will interrupt intro message

To comply with regulations we would have to instruct all employees not to answer phones earlier then after 4th ring or else.

There should be option to play message before phone will ring.

 

[Henk]

You can do that with digital receptionist.

Have it answer the call and than setup a group where your route the call to.

That should work.

H.

 

[Martink]

Great idea.

Is there a way not to play "Please hold while I transfer your call" when call is transfered from digital receptionist to queue or ring group.

 

[darrellchapman]

I'm not sure where you are located but in most US States only one person has to be made aware that recording is taking place. You and the people you work with are that one person. You may want to check the laws local to your area.

 

[Martink]

"In light of the differing state laws governing electronic recording of conversations between private parties, journalists are advised to err on the side of caution when recording or disclosing an interstate telephone call. The safest strategy is to assume that the stricter state law will apply.

For example, a reporter located in the District of Columbia who records a telephone conversation without the consent of a party located in Maryland would not violate District of Columbia law, but could be liable under Maryland law. A court located in the District of Columbia may apply Maryland law, depending on its "conflict of laws" rules. Therefore, an aggrieved party may choose to file suit in either jurisdiction, depending on which law is more favorable to the party s claim."

You can see more at: http://www.callcorder.com/phone-recording-law-america.htm

 

[darrellchapman]

Fair enough...

I would then require that all incoming calls are answered by a DR first which plays the message indicating that their calls may be recorded. After the timeout, have the call forward to the ring group that you have setup for that particular incoming line. Does that work or is your office requiring that a human answer first?

 

[Martink]

That would work for me.

Is there a way not to play "Please hold while I transfer your call" when call is transferred from digital receptionist to queue or ring group. I can change this recording to salience but it may be needed in some other instances.

 

[darrellchapman]

I do not know of way to disable that announcement.

 

[coelhopsi]

Martink,

You can change the file C:\Program Files\3CX PhoneSystem\Data\Ivr\Vxml\call_transfer.vxml, so the "Please hold while I transfer your call" won't be played anymore:

Change line that says:

<audio src="GetPrompt.php?id=PLSHOLD" />

to

<!-- audio src="GetPrompt.php?id=PLSHOLD" / -->

This is line 29 on the above file. After saving the file with this modification, you may need to restart the 3CX services.

Please note that this change will affect all call transfers that use this recording (not sure if only call transfers originated from DRs would be affected) and not only the ones to your call queue or from a specific DR. A better possibility would be to change this code to make a small "if" in the code that checks if the call is directed to your specific call queue and, if it is, it won't play the PLSHOLD recording. Maybe the following would work:

From:

	<block>
		<if cond="type != null">
			<assign name="type_param" expr="';type=' + type" />
		</if>

		<prompt bargein="false" cond="noprompt == null || noprompt == 0">
			<audio src="GetPrompt.php?id=PLSHOLD" />
		</prompt>
	</block>

To:

	<block>
		<if cond="type != null">
			<assign name="type_param" expr="';type=' + type" />
		</if>

		<prompt bargein="false" cond="noprompt == null || noprompt == 0 || destination == nnn">
			<!-- audio src="GetPrompt.php?id=PLSHOLD" / -->
		</prompt>

		<prompt bargein="false" cond="noprompt == null || noprompt == 0">
			<audio src="GetPrompt.php?id=PLSHOLD" />
		</prompt>
	</block>

where "nnn" is your queue extension number.

I don't understand anything about PHP, but the idea would be something like that. Maybe someone with a better understanding of PHP could provide a better solution. Anyone?

 

[darrellchapman]

coelhopsi,

Is that info documented somewhere or did you just figure that all on your own? The reason I ask is that 3CX can do a whole lot more (as you know) by customizing it. However, without detailed documentation of it's features, config, and API, it becomes a very difficult job.

 

[coelhopsi]

No Darrell, I just figured it out. It's not documented anywhere. That's the good part of 3CX... it's almost completely based on a script language, so you can customize it a lot if you understand how it works. It's really not complex...

Basically, everything that is played through the phone comes from this series of PHP files, which "call" the prompts according to what the scripts want to play for you. It's just a lot of IFs, GOTOs, ELSEs, like in any other programming language. They dictate the behavior and order on which the sounds will be played.

There's really a lot that can be done only by playing with the PHP files on 3CX. However, I don't think the 3CX staff is willing to document this because the same way you could do marvelous things changing the PHP codes, you could also screw your whole PBX. Somehow we're "hacking" 3CX, changing what we may call its source code.

 

[Henk]

I would not put to much dependency on the PHP code scenario, as you know 3CX currently runs on a web server which is non-native windows. I guess it is only a matter of time and they change to a full integration with windows, eg non php and/or webserver.

But your right, you can twiggle with it a bit. (that is the fun part really i sit now )

H

 

[darrellchapman]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought only the code for Web administration interface was in the PHP files. I believe most of the major functionality resides in the binary files; and that is next to impossible to hook in to (without documentation).

 

[coelhopsi]

No, not only the web administration resides in the PHP files. Actually, don't want to say most, but many of 3CX features come from the PHP files...

 

[rrisher]

I need to do this process however, when modifying the xml file it works but defaults to another msg. stating a system failure and hangs up on the caller.

Any ideas?

Martink,

You can change the file C:\Program Files\3CX PhoneSystem\Data\Ivr\Vxml\call_transfer.vxml, so the "Please hold while I transfer your call" won't be played anymore:

Change line that says:

<audio src="GetPrompt.php?id=PLSHOLD" />

to

<!-- audio src="GetPrompt.php?id=PLSHOLD" / -->

This is line 29 on the above file. After saving the file with this modification, you may need to restart the 3CX services.

Please note that this change will affect all call transfers that use this recording (not sure if only call transfers originated from DRs would be affected) and not only the ones to your call queue or from a specific DR. A better possibility would be to change this code to make a small "if" in the code that checks if the call is directed to your specific call queue and, if it is, it won't play the PLSHOLD recording. Maybe the following would work:

From:

	<block>
		<if cond="type != null">
			<assign name="type_param" expr="';type=' + type" />
		</if>

		<prompt bargein="false" cond="noprompt == null || noprompt == 0">
			<audio src="GetPrompt.php?id=PLSHOLD" />
		</prompt>
	</block>

To:

	<block>
		<if cond="type != null">
			<assign name="type_param" expr="';type=' + type" />
		</if>

		<prompt bargein="false" cond="noprompt == null || noprompt == 0 || destination == nnn">
			<!-- audio src="GetPrompt.php?id=PLSHOLD" / -->
		</prompt>

		<prompt bargein="false" cond="noprompt == null || noprompt == 0">
			<audio src="GetPrompt.php?id=PLSHOLD" />
		</prompt>
	</block>

where "nnn" is your queue extension number.

I don't understand anything about PHP, but the idea would be something like that. Maybe someone with a better understanding of PHP could provide a better solution. Anyone?

 

[cyberhostpro]

Hi

Does anyone know how to disable this in V10? as call_transfer.vxml dont exist.

 

[eagle2]

You may replace the system prompt you don't want to be played with empty one under the same name.
This is working fine.