Do phones with custom templates always show up in red?

[msnyder]

Do phones with custom templates always show up in red?

 

[AndreasPo_3CX]

Hello @msnyder

Yes, phones will be listed in red if they are using a custom template or different than the latest supported firmware.

 

[Teddy F.]

Please, please, please change this 3CX. Having custom template in BRIGHT RED is not fair. Remember we are building support for devices that otherwise would NOT be supported by your software and that is good for business! Why penalize us?!

 

[N_G]

Please, please, please change this 3CX. Having custom template in BRIGHT RED is not fair. Remember we are building support for devices that otherwise would NOT be supported by your software and that is good for business! Why penalize us?!

Changed templates or unsupported phones are the number one reason for support tickets @3cx and they are the hardest to troubleshoot. Ultimately unhappy customers for both reseller and 3CX too. So customers should be aware that they are running a modified / unsupported configuration, which might cause issues.

In the latest update we have provided most of the configuration from our interface so as to avoid the need for custom templates, if there are features that we can add we are ready to add more.

 

[complex1]

if there are features that we can add we are ready to add more.

Please update user password in Yealink template to add more security.
The user password is after factory reset in default setting, so everybody can login the phone, even hackers and criminals.

security.user_name.admin = admin
security.user_password = admin:%%DESKPHONE_PASSWORD%%
security.user_name.user = user
security.user_password = user:%%DESKPHONE_PASSWORD%%

 

[nb]

Custom templates will remain in RED. Actually denoting them in RED is very fair. What's not fair is when someone makes a custom template and breaks the interop between the phone and 3CX. Then the customer comes to us and says that it is a 3CX problem. That is not fair. So when it's red, the customer will come to the author of the template first.

Your job is to absorb these, and if it is not because of custom templates, then you replicate the problem with the standard template and if you can rule out your template as the cause of the problem, then contact support.

Why do you still need custom templates after the major phone provisioning features we made in 15.5 sp1?

 

[nb]

Also this is not a problem

You have 2 accounts
Admin account and user account.

We get the admin password that you set and we push it for both accounts - admin and user.

So yes - if you go around giving the admin password (should be more protected) you can simply login to the admin account and to the user account.

To add more security you simply need to implement the most basic of practices i.e. You keep the admin password secret. to login to the user account they still need to use the admin password. Its just one password specified in 2 places.

 

[giwm]

Why do you still need custom templates after the major phone provisioning features we made in 15.5 sp1?

Because the added options (though a great step forward) were quite limited compared to the full list of settings that still require custom templates for your users. As well as the cumbersomeness of changing things on every phone (such as 12/24 time) that is much easier to set in a single custom template.

I understand 3CX's stance, but the reality of the situation is that Custom Templates are a necessary evil and likely always will be. I have a custom template for a single phone because of how it is locked down - I doubt all those options would make it into the 3CX console.

As such, it'd be great to see a variation in the colors used at least: Red for firmware, maybe orange for Custom Templates. Still denotes an issue, but allows administrators to understand why at a glance.

 

[nb]

We will make sure that custom templates are a thing of the past for most users. Limited or not, we have cut off 65% of custom template usage in one service pack. Some people don't want to use custom templates and had to use them. The joy we gave them when we added these features was exhilarating!!

A good thing that spawns from your point is global settings. We wish that we can have a global setting template, you configure this, and all your phones that are generated after will borrow common settings from the global template. We are discussing options - but will not happen right now. We need more time.

The color will remain the brightest red I can manage to find in the spectrum of colors - To show the admin that this installation has been tampered with internally. And that the phone might be misbehaving because of this change. So use custom templates only when you really really need to and you have no way out.

For the time you have to reason like this. How often do you need to change the time? Do this once and you are done for all.
You have this choice to evaluate:
Either 5 min work to configure phones to use default template and reprovision. ok if you have 100 extensions, you will spend 1 hour. But it is done.
OR
you get a series of repercussions - A) When we release a new update you have to stay merging changes, and still you have to reprovision, Dashboard is with red alarms, and you cannot use the stock template that 3CX interop team + the phone manufacturer use to test. This means that you get the usual "unsupported" drill + delays etc

 

[[email protected]]

Maybe for small installations, but any installation that 64 or above HAS to use custom templates - Multicast Paging, multiple phone books, etc

 

[Joe W]

Why do you still need custom templates after the major phone provisioning features we made in 15.5 sp1?

You touched on it later but setting all phones to 24H time or 12H time. Setting a phone wallpaper to be the logo of the company. Turning off the screensaver on a T19, not just a time out period. Setting a standard BLF key for a speed dial to say the helpdesk. We have over 300 phones and going to each phone by itself is a pain.

 

[nb]

Then lets add all these features to ideas because we are looking to see what to implement. Multiple phonebooks is a hot one. Can we discuss this in more detail? How do you solve this via custom templates?
Multicast paging is straightforward.. Thats easy..
Lets add them as separate ideas. Thanks guys.

 

[[email protected]]

Multiple Phone books is easy - maybe limit to max of 3. Show them the default one for the #1 position, then give them an option for 2 or 3 more .

If the customer is smart enough to know how to bridge and create multiple phone books, then they are smart enough to know how to build the URL, local or remote or both. I actually delete the if/then logic for local vs remote in the template and just hard code in my two. It even works well for the Yealink CP860 conference room phones.

remote_phonebook.data.1.url = http://location1.xxxxxxx.biz/provisioning/5jv7vvasdj/yealink_phonebook.xml
remote_phonebook.data.1.name = ARH Hammonton

remote_phonebook.data.2.url = http://location2.xxxxxx.biz/provisioning/lr31h12zg266b/yealink_phonebook.xml
remote_phonebook.data.2.name = ARH Bloomfield

 

[jericho991]

Second extention on the phone

dialplan

still need custum template

 

[nb]

Can you give me some examples for dialplans.
You can put an extract of a template as an example how you customize the templates for dialplans - I would like to see it.