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Shared Parking Screen on SmartPhone App

roadwings

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Another PBX very Zimilar to 3ZX has a section of their iPhone and Android app dedicated to shared parking and parked calls in a nice, pretty, easy to use and understand layout. Like 'Presence', 'Contacts', 'Phone' across the bottom of the app, Just add a screen for SP0-SP?

Putting this together will solve many customers gripes and work arounds. Some people have recommended some really strange work arounds to solve SP# issues. I'll admit that I have tried a few of them and abandoned trying most of them because they just felt horribly wrong.

In my experience of dragging new users to 3CX, overcoming users parking objections, properly implementing the functionality and training users to use parking are some of the hardest things to deal with. Solve this problem and you will be unstoppable.

UPDATE 11/30 - New iOS App Update removed the ability to use a Work Around. It is no longer possible to Pick or Park a Call with the 3CX iOS App - UPDATE
 
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Upvote 138
Are bumps allowed here? How do I vote on my own idea?
 
no voting on own ideas in this forum it seems.
 
Technically you can, you must dial the correct codes. But dialing the codes is not easy, and BLF's are awesome.

Try explaining to an old ape with clothes on that they need to dial 'SP' on their phone to pickup/hold a call. It is not user friendly to do, because 'sp' and 'Sp' will not work. Some people can't conceive dialing letters and numbers that way. They try to dial '77' for 'SP' like you would phonetically dial a vanity phone number.

On iOS, tap the 3cx logo from the dial screen, a keyboard pops up, dial 'SP' UPPER CASE, and then the park number; just remember to keep your eyes on the road while you do all of that.

Please still add a shared parking BLF screen.
 
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Oh WOW! Works on Android 3CX Phone too. SP1, SP2, etc. actually works after erasing any other numbers or characters after tapping on the 3CX logo. SP must be in CAPS. Doesn't work in lower-case.

And, yes, so obviously needs to be on a button not cryptic crazy pecking at tiny keys on a tiny screen.
 
Another older method or providing access to SP's from FXS/DECT/or Mobile 3CXPhone clients is to create dummy extensions and set them each to always forward to SP1, SP2, SP3, etc. i.e., ETC 601 forward to SP1, 603 to SP2, 603 to SP3, etc.

Users with full hard phones and modern 3CXPhone clients can have BLFs for SPs and just park/unpark from there, while the FXS/DECT/Mobile 3CXPhone clients can't see the status, they can transfer TO a dummy ext to park and Dial a dummy ext to retrieve a parked call. which is easier than trying to dial "SP" on the keypad.
 
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matrix8 said:
Another older method or providing access to SP's from FXS/DECT/or Mobile 3CXPhone clients is to create dummy extensions and set them each to always forward to SP1, SP2, SP3, etc. i.e., ETC 601 forward to SP1, 603 to SP2, 603 to SP3, etc.

Users with full hard phones and modern 3CXPhone clients can have BLFs for SPs and just park/unpark from there, while the FXS/DECT/Mobile 3CXPhone clients can't see the status, they can transfer TO a dummy ext to park and Dial a dummy ext to retrieve a parked call. which is easier than trying to dial "SP" on the keypad.

Yes, we all have worked with a few workarounds. The key point is that they are exactly that, workarounds. A workaround is a bypass of a faulty system. There should be a shared park screen on the software phone, iOS and Android Apps.
 
Agreed!
 
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To the top!
 
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I love those work arounds, helped me no end, but yes a button would be better.
Geoff.
 
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roadwings said:
Technically you can, you must dial the correct codes. But dialing the codes is not easy, and BLF's are awesome.

Try explaining to an old ape with clothes on that they need to dial 'SP' on their phone to pickup/hold a call. It is not user friendly to do, because 'sp' and 'Sp' will not work. Some people can't conceive dialing letters and numbers that way. They try to dial '77' for 'SP' like you would phonetically dial a vanity phone number.

On iOS, tap the 3cx logo from the dial screen, a keyboard pops up, dial 'SP' UPPER CASE, and then the park number; just remember to keep your eyes on the road while you do all of that.

Please still add a shared parking BLF screen.

This no longer works thanks to the new app 'Upgrade'. Please fix this problem.

Look into how the Zultys PBX solves this problem with their app and do that. Everyone might as well uninstall the app at our location if we can not pick/park calls from the app, practically unusable in our environment. I'm getting really tired of functions disappearing with every new version, service pack or upgrade.
 
Incidentally, I don't appear to be able to set an always-forward extension. In V15, if I put in SP1 as the number to forward to, it says "Invalid Outside Number." And, of course, you cannot use "forward to extension," because it will not show you system extensions like shared park. I could... set up a physical phone that forwards all calls to SP1, but... no. 2016-12-14 12_13_23-3CX Phone System Management Console.png
 
You can't forward it to mobile either, you get a (String property is not phone number) error. Dial codes *1/*0 (parking orbit) do not work with shared parking. Now that the iOS app no longer has a keyboard, there is no way to pick or park a call with the app using shared parking. There are a few ways to improve parking, two reoccurring forum requests have been, Create a dial code that is compatible with shared parking and/or Add BLF Parking support to the mobile apps. If BLF is too hard to implement, how about just a button that isn't a BLF?
 
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Current iOS release allows dialing of SPx. This of course is not easy to do since it must be in CAPS.

Also, you can create a Company Contact from Mobile Device - "_Shared Park 1" with number of SP1. I did the _ to put it at the top of the phonebook

finally, you CAN set up a dummy extension (801). Set the email address as you. Then send the Config File to your email. Load it into your Windows Softphone and setup the Forwarding to SP1.
 
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I also wish to say that we NEED this function.. A LOT. Cast your vote into the Poll at the top and let other know about this.
 
I have voted. I notcied the poll asking about Dial Codes - but they work perfectly fine on the mobile app.
I use *5 to block my caller id at times.
 
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Current iOS release allows dialing of SPx. This of course is not easy to do since it must be in CAPS.

Also, you can create a Company Contact from Mobile Device - "_Shared Park 1" with number of SP1. I did the _ to put it at the top of the phonebook

finally, you CAN set up a dummy extension (801). Set the email address as you. Then send the Config File to your email. Load it into your Windows Softphone and setup the Forwarding to SP1.

The mobile app will only permit numbers in the phone fields for me. I tried copying "SP1" from another field, too, but pasting it in just resulted in "1" being entered.

However, the second way does appear to work. I created extension 101, installed it on a 3CX windows softphone, set all the forwarding options to send to SP1. I appear to be able to transfer calls to it, etc.

It's really silly, though. This is entirely an artificial limitation. Since we can call to SP1 by tricking it into letting us type that in, we just need it to not restrict contact info to numbers.
 
Wolfgang - I just tried this on v15 and my iPhone,
Worked fine.
You don't mention Android or iOS.
 
Wolfgang - I just tried this on v15 and my iPhone,
Worked fine.
You don't mention Android or iOS.

3CX 15.0.71 on Lineage OS 14.1 (Android 7.1.2). The keyboards (Google's Gboard and the default Android keyboard both) switch to numeric entry in the phone number field. I tried typing "SP1" into one of the name fields and copying and pasting it, but only "1" was entered - the field appears to be restricted to numbers only.

Again, per your earlier idea, I was able to use the Windows desktop client to fool 3CX into forwarding my dummy extension 101 to SP1, so I have a solution for the time being - so that on the rare occasion it comes up for us, someone off-site can pick up a parked call. It's a sub-optimal solution, however, especially as you cannot see the status of the parking slot.
 

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So this must be an Android restriction..
 

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