Phone book cannot be shared among several SIP accounts

[Maksym Kozub]

I have ben using 3CX Phone to connect to external SIP-providers. (I do not have an IP-PBX.) The phone works fine. However, there is one thing I can't find, so I would like to know whether there is no such feature at all, or is it just me unable to find it somewhere.
I have quite a number of contacts whom I call using different providers, depending on my location etc. However, when I add a phone book record while connected to Provider A, I do not see that record after I reconnect to Provider B. It seems like I have to add such contacts to the phone book for each SIP account I have, which is quite inconvenient.
Is there really no way to use the same phone book for all my accounts with external SIP providers?

 

[Vali_3CX]

Hi

Indeed, 3CXPhone's phonebook is per-PBX, not a global one. The reason behind this implementation has been following:
same extension (number) has, most probably, different corresponding persons on different PBXs (providers). Also, even for external numbers - such as mobile phone numbers - these can be accessed only by outbound rule prefixes which, most commonly, differs from one PBX to another.

However, probably in the future we will provide an "import phonebook" feature to our 3CXPhone.

Regards
vali

 

[Maksym Kozub]

Indeed, 3CXPhone's phonebook is per-PBX, not a global one.

Thank you Vali, you have confirmed my suspicions...

The reason behind this implementation has been following:
same extension (number) has, most probably, different corresponding persons on different PBXs (providers). Also, even for external numbers - such as mobile phone numbers - these can be accessed only by outbound rule prefixes which, most commonly, differs from one PBX to another.

Well, I see your reasons. However, I think it is quite logical to add a lobal phone book (not just an "import phonebook" feature which you mentioned). Please correct me if I am mistaken, but at least calls to SIP IDs in the full form (i.e. [email protected]) should work via any and every IP-PBX, ncluding 3CX Phone System, right?
Even if we are talking about PSTN numbers rather than SIP IDs, _all_ VoIP providers I have been using with 3CX Phone accept "pstn:00..." notation for calling various PSTN numbers. I think it is also possible to make 3CX Phone System accept them.
That means that even if I were to have my own IP-PBX, I would be able to enter my counterparts' PSTN numbers in the full form, as well as their full SIP IDs, in one global phonebook, and to call them from that phonebook, irrespective of whether I am in my office connected to my IP-PBX, or travelling somewhere connected to an external VoIP provider. I.e., a global phonebook would be really useful in situations where 3CX is actively used to make calls to external parties rather than intra-corporate extensions.

Other than that missing feature, this is an excellent softphone.

 

[igor.snezhko]

Who not integrate a Windows Phonebook into 3CX phone?

 

[Maksym Kozub]

Who not integrate a Windows Phonebook into 3CX phone?

As far as I understand, this suggestion is for developers, not for me? I do not currently see how one can do it .
I think this is a good suggestion. Another one would be to make it capable of using LDAP to retrieve contact data from external sources.

 

[Vali_3CX]

8) interesting - thank you both for suggestions, we will discuss them here 8)
As a paranthesis, I specified here at one time that 3CXPhone is, let's say, prepared to support phonebook provisioning, but this feature has not been fully tested and "polished" enough to be released.
Regards
vali

 

[Maksym Kozub]

As a paranthesis, I specified here at one time that 3CXPhone is, let's say, prepared to support phonebook provisioning, but this feature has not been fully tested and "polished" enough to be released.

Thank you again.
While phonebook provisioning from an external source will be a nice feature, I am even more interested at the moment in a global (not per-PBX) phonebook _in the softphone_, which should probably be even easier to implement.
Anyway, thanks again for your generosity in developing and offering this great free softphone.

 

[igor.snezhko]

Also its a good practice to integrate windows applications with Windows Address Book or Windows Live Contacts.

 

[Vali_3CX]

While phonebook provisioning from an external source will be a nice feature, I am even more interested at the moment in a global (not per-PBX) phonebook _in the softphone_, which should probably be even easier to implement.
Anyway, thanks again for your generosity in developing and offering this great free softphone.

Hi, Maksym

First - thanks for appreciating our phone 8)

Now, about a global phonebook, I am interested to know how you - as user - imagine using and handling this global phonebook. From your user perspective. For instance, when you have a call and you want to add the caller/callee to PBX's and/or global phonebook - at this moment, this can be done by clicking its image in the corresponding call history record. Or, when you want to manually create a new entry in the phonebook, how do you think is confortable to decide to which. Things like this. From my side, I have very few - in fact, I don't have at all :mrgreen: - feedback about 3CXPhone's phonebook, about its features like picture, eMailing, multiple phone numbers and so on. Such kind of informations would be very useful to improve. At this moment, due to the lack of feedback, I can only think either people don't use it, either is perfect :mrgreen:

Regards
vali

 

[Maksym Kozub]

From my side, I have very few - in fact, I don't have at all :mrgreen: - feedback about 3CXPhone's phonebook, about its features like picture, eMailing, multiple phone numbers and so on. Such kind of informations would be very useful to improve.

I do have some ideas, and I will write something later today or tomorrow.

 

[Maksym Kozub]

Vali and everybody interested,
I am really sorry for my failure to reply with my suggestions much earlier .

Now, about a global phonebook, I am interested to know how you - as user - imagine using and handling this global phonebook. From your user perspective. For instance, when you have a call and you want to add the caller/callee to PBX's and/or global phonebook - at this moment, this can be done by clicking its image in the corresponding call history record. Or, when you want to manually create a new entry in the phonebook, how do you think is confortable to decide to which.

I would prefer to have a global phonebook where I create all my entries (be it by clicking on a call in the log to add the recipient to the phonebook, or by creating a new entry nanually). After that, whenever I want to make a call using that entry, there will be some button etc, in the softphone, to select which PBX/phone line to use for this call. Depending on that selection, different prefixes can be added. I must say, however, that I do not really care that much about prefixes. I use softphones to call recipients worldwide using various VoIP providers. All those providers simply accept "sip: [email protected]" and "pstn: 00some_numerical_PSTN_number" formats.
However, I understand that many people use 3CXPhine to call short extensions within the PBX (i.e. intra-office calls) rather than external PSTN numbers. For that reason, it may make sense to implement both a global phonebook (as I have just described), and per-PBX ones.
It would also be nice to be able to use either Windows Address Book (which would also mean that directory services can be integrated), or, even better, to be able to connect directly to my LDAP server.
The whole idea is to have a single source of contact information for my 3CXPhone, my e-mailclient, etc.
I would also like to be able to import and export vCard and comma-separated records.
Speaking about phonebook entries, pictures are not that important (although this is a nice feature).It is good you have implemented multiple numbers within one entry, but I would like to be able to indicate a free-form label, but also to select a pre-defined category for each number. I.e., there may be an entry with two Mobile type numbers, one labelled as "Private mobile when Jack goes abroad", and the other as "Main mobile".

If you are not tired yet, I will try and recollect some more ideas I had .

P.S. I have just seen another topic, http://www.3cx.com/forums/import-phonebook-15026.html, where somebode wanted to be able to import from CSV/ Now I know I am not the only person who wants such feature .