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Polycom Phone Directory Functionality

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instantexpert

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For a long time, I thought 3CX did not yet support directories on Polycom phones. I was mistaken, you have to specifically generate the phonebook from the advanced tab. I would have thought it would be regenerated when I added an extension but I can see why it wouldn't be.

There is a problem with the Polycom phones, though. There are two directory levels. The first is created by 3CX and is a general directory titled "000000000000-directory.xml". This is all well and good and gets the directory to the phones the first time.

That last bit "the first time" is where the problem comes in. The phones do not re-download the global directory unless you wipe the directory from the phone. With any significant directory size, this means a full reformat of the phone.

They will, however, always download "MACADDRESS-directory.xml" every time and would automatically add the updates to the phone. There are downsides to this method.

1. It would overwrite any speed dial settings on the phone. The BLF feature of 3CX could be used to alleviate this problem if implemented.
2. 3CX doesn't generate these phone specific files.

So, I could write a utility to generate MAC address specific directory files based off of the global directory but I'm hoping for something simpler and more elegant. For now, a statement from 3CX that they've got a solutions planned for the future would ease my mind but I'll take any ideas anyone has.
 
Hi

To make sure we got this correct.

So '000000000000-directory.xml' is 100% OK for first provisioning attempt BUT if phonebook is updated and reflected in 000000000000-directory.xml , then a reboot of the phone will not update . Is this correct?
 
Correct.

The pertinent portion of the manual is here:

"Telephones without a local directory, such as new units
from the factory, will download the 00000000000-directory.xml
directory and base their initial directory on it. These files should be
edited with an XML editor. These files can be downloaded once per
reflash."

and this section seems to indicate that the phone can save its settings to the server:

"The user can edit the directory contents if configured in that way.
Changes will be stored in the phone’s flash file system and backed up
to the boot server copy of <Ethernet address>-directory.xml if this
is configured. When the phone boots, the boot server copy of the
directory, if present, will overwrite the local copy."
 
Hi

We have no immediate solution at hand, however we shall look into.
 
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