Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant**DISCUSSION

[acolville]

How does the desktop replacement for 3CX assistant handle mutlipe PBX's connected via bridges? Some good progress was made in V9, are all the extentions grouped together now, rather than in tabs?

 

[KerryG]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

My understanding is that you will open a new tab for each one. This functionality is not complete in beta 1 so we really don't know what the final release will look like yet.

 

[acolville]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

No that RC1 has been released is it clear how mutliple pbx's are handled with the assistant?

Anyone using V10- with bridges etc?

 

[KerryG]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

I havent figured this one out yet either. I am guessing you have to run an instance of MyPhone for each PBX and that there is no drag&drop across bridges yet.

 

[acolville]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

After the progress of tabs for each pbx in a single assistant, going back to having to run multiple versions would be very disappointing. Drag and drop never worked, so I am not too concerned about that.

I get the distinct feeling that very few 3CX users use bridges and multiple PBX's, this was the primary reason for our initial choice, but it seems that multi-site features are now very low on the priority list.

 

[nb]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

We are going to do this - multiple connections and viewing of extensions and organization will be made. Extensions will be re-organized in columns and resolution of a monitor will be detected and rearranged.

However what I can say on the following:

Assistant v9 had multiple tabs. You still had to toggle between them. In v10 the MyPhone has the browser tabs. And you still have to toggle between them. I cannot understand what you are missing here.

Transfer between bridges is better in V10 because in the dialing options you can make your own customized outbound rules so you can transfer to another bridged pbx with more flexibility than the v9 assistant. I really cannot understand what stops you in this area to move to V10.

 

[acolville]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

Nicky,

Can you explain how to actually setup the Myphone (desktop version) to display multiple tabs for each pbx. Ie to get the same functionality as the V9 Assistant. I cannot find this anywhere in the docs. If this can be done then there will be no issues moving to V10.

Alistair

 

[nb]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

multiple tabs is only in browser mode. And we do nothing special at all. The browser opens 2 tabs and you see them as you used to see the older assistant and switch between tabs.

When the myphone is installed locally, you cannot do this in tabs because it does not have yet. But this is something we are discussing internally.

 

[acolville]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

For us this is a step backwards as now the user has to open the browser, naviagte to pbx1, add new tab navigate to pbx 2, add new tab etc.

With the Assisstant all the settings were saved and the app launched at startup.

In my experience most users, except those who are very IT literate think fo the browser as a way to use the internet. We have never been able to get most users to use the myphone portal.

You have recognised the need for a locally installed app, so why have you not included multiple site functionality into it? This is a step backwards from the V9 as far as functionality for mutliple sites. What happend to the drag and drop between sites fucntionality that was widely promoted for V9 I assume that this is now gone as well.

I like the 3CX product, but you seem to take away features without considering which type of user uses them, if you reduce the feature set then some users will be affected.

Can we continue to use the V9 assisstant? I am not too concerned over drag and drop, but I do need a desktop application that shows presence for all sites. Using the V9 assistant would allow to us to move to V10 before the desktop top version has support for multiple sites.

Alistair

 

[KerryG]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

Yes, in some ways the MyPhone portal is a step backwards from the v9 Assistant. If you need the multi-site functionality you will need to stay on v9 until MyPhone catches up to the v9 Assistant in features.

 

[igor.snezhko]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

The better way is to add "global" inter-site user roster. All linked 3CX PBXes should exchange user data between them.

So we will work with ONE roster and without any inter-site prefixes.

For example, if you working with Active Directory, you have not to be aware, were user actually is. The same thing with OCS server, I suppose.

 

[acolville]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

The better way is to add "global" inter-site user roster. All linked 3CX PBXes should exchange user data between them.

So we will work with ONE roster and without any inter-site prefixes.

For example, if you working with Active Directory, you have not to be aware, were user actually is. The same thing with OCS server, I suppose.

I have long since given up the hope that this would ever happen! We strip out the prefix so each site has an extention range, so no prefix is required. But yes having a central system to show presence would be a huge step forward.

Eventually IP connections will be reliable enough to have a single site system, but we are a few years away from that...

In the meantime can anyone confirm if the V9 assistant will work with V10? The V8 would not work with V9. Also where can I Download the latest V9 assistant?

 

[igor.snezhko]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

Yes, this is very important feature, far more impotant than many others.

 

[KerryG]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

The V9 Assistant will not work with V10 and the current v9 Assistant is part of the 3CX Phone System v9 Installation.

 

[acolville]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

So after having just renewed the upgrade insurance on three sites I cannot use the latest upgrade as a feature that we relied upon has been removed...what a waste of money that was.

 

[igor.snezhko]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

No, I sure, this feature will be implemented.

 

[smb1]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

I can see the regression in the assistant feature set stopping a few upgrades until the devs get on top of this.

 

[acolville]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

No, I sure, this feature will be implemented.

I do not have your confidence that this will be implemented.

I do not believe multiple sites could have been overlooked when deciding the feature set for the replacement for assistant, especially after the work done for V9 to get this into a single assistant.

A decision must have been made to not support multiple sites within a single myphone instance.

It will be much more difficult to go back and add this functionality now, rather than building it in from the start.

Perhaps mine is a lone voice, but it seems to me that 3CX are not really interested in multiple site installations. They provide bridges, but now with V10 they have taken the functionality back to V8 with the assistant - perhaps worse than that as with v8 we used the RunAs command to run multiple versions of the assistant.

Did anyone suggest moving the assistant to Silverlight on the Ideas site? I had now real issues with the desktop assistant and we never used the myphone brower version. What prompted this change?

Until we have an assistant, locally installed, that has the presence information for more than a single connected site (ie as per V9) we cannot move to v10 - even though there are some features we are desperate for eg class of service.

 

[igor.snezhko]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

I think, providing multi-site feature in Assistant is a wrong way. The only Global Address list and Global Roster will be big step forward.

For other side, Sliverlight Myphone is a wise choice, because as features added to 3CX Server, they will be immediately available at Myphone, without reinstalling at client PC.

So using this "cloud" approach, you will seriously reduce administrative efforts.

Personally I not installed Assistant on corporate PC's, because this is headache reinstalling it each time when new Service Pack is added.

 

[KerryG]

Re: Multiple PBX's in Replacement Assistant

Well...so far this cloud approach hasn't worked well. Each version has required you to uninstall and reinstall MyPhone on each client. They have said this will be fixed at some point, but for now, it is a very manual process.