Change called number (through script/CFD?)

[biomas]

Hi everyone,
My company is planning to migrate a client's PBX to 3CX. The current system uses 3-digit extensions and allows users to link "short numbers" (4 digits long, starting with 7) to entries in the company contacts, which most users can edit. In the existing PBX, users can dial 123 to call an extension, or dial 7654 to quickly reach an external number.

I believe the default way to replicate this behavior in 3CX is by using a set of outbound rules. However, in this particular case, we don’t want to give average users permission to modify outbound rules.

Here's an idea I had: we could let users continue editing their company contacts and instruct them to populate a specific field with the desired short number. Then, we could write a custom solution to intercept outbound calls, look up the short number in the contacts, and replace it with the corresponding external number. We have experience with C# and have occasionally used the CFD, although we've never worked with Call Scripts.

Is there a way to achieve something like this? Any pointers to relevant documentation or examples would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you very much,
Lorenzo

 

[Evolute IT]

Can't intercept outbound calls with call scripts. Use outbound rules or simple contacts in the main phonebook.

 

[biomas]

What do you mean by simple contacts? Is there a way to specify a short number for a contact?

 

[edossantos_sipcaller]

Why don't you use BLF keys in your phones? I know there is limited space, but maybe that's enough....

To do that with the CFD, as @ConceptsWeb has mentioned you can't intercept outbound calls, but you could assign those numbers to a CFD app, which would then check the number and transfer to the appropriate destination. You would need to deploy the CFD app on each number though.

 

[biomas]

I hadn't considered using BLFs—that's probably a good suggestion. Unfortunately, they aren’t sufficient in this particular case.

The issue with creating numbers and assigning them to a CFD is that these short numbers are 4 digits long (at least in the current PBX), while standard extensions are only 3 digits.

It seems like intercepting outbound calls would have been the ideal solution—if only it were supported.

 

[edossantos_sipcaller]

In v20 you can define these 4 digits dial codes for CFD apps. The only thing is that you will need to deploy the app for each dial code.

 

[edossantos_sipcaller]

Here I deployed a sample CFD app to dial code 7555:


And the PBX has 3 digits extensions: