Speed-dialling

[DeepB]

Hello,

we just moved from Askozia (our former PBX) to 3CX because askozia was bought by 3CX.

All in all 3CX seems like a nice and capable system, and one of the huge remaining problems I have is speed-dialling.

We extensive volumes of speed-dialling (a few hundred defined). They all start with 6.

So for instance when a user dials 6115 it automaticially goes out to 0043123456789.
We have many users with dect handsets where the integrated phonebook is not really user-friendly and CTI is not an option.

As far as I understand I have 2 options:
1) Use outbound rules. Which unfortunately is not really possible for me, as I have hundreds of 6XXX speed-dials, and an outbound rule can only take 4. But I also have more than for with for instance 61XX. Also I have more than 4 with 611X. So as far as I understand this path is not possible for me (even if it would be possible it would be an administration nightmare).

2) Use a virtual SIP-Trunk and DIDs. This is also not really an option, as we use speed-dials extensively and this would in reality halve the available concurrent calls, as each one then counts as 2 calls?

So as far as I understand I do not really have a realistic option for using speed-dialling, something EVERY PBX I used in the last 10 years was able to handle very easily. Or am I overlooking something?

thanks
Daniel

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Hello @DeepB

If i understand correctly, what you want can be achieved by using the outbound rules. You will however need to create an outbound rule for each speed dial number you have. You will use the speed dial as prefix and then you can strip it and prepend the whole number you need dialled.
The example you provided would be setup like the screenshot below.

Please note that outbound rules are handled from top to bottom so you have to arrange them accordingly. Also the more outbound rules you have the longer it will take the system to go through all of them if for example the outbound rule to match is the last on the list.

 

[DeepB]

How long (approximately) will it take if I have 600 Outbound rules?

Is this really the only option? This seems extremely complicated for such a basic thing.

EDIT: Also do I reall have to add 600 Rules by hand?

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

How long (approximately) will it take if I have 600 Outbound rules?

Assuming that the machine meets the minimum hardware requirements you might notice a notable delay (~1 second) when you exceed 2500 outbound rules.

Is this really the only option? This seems extremely complicated for such a basic thing.

EDIT: Also do I reall have to add 600 Rules by hand?

This is the only way i can think of. Perhaps another user has implemented this in a different way and wants to share.
You could add a feature request in our ideas section of the forum so it can be upvoted by other users and evaluated by the appropriate department.

 

[leejor]

Is this really the only option? This seems extremely complicated for such a basic thing.

EDIT: Also do I reall have to add 600 Rules by hand?

I assume that you already have the speed dial list in something like a CSV file and were hoping to simply copy that over.

Over 600 speed call numbers is not really a "basic thing". Many PBXs don't have that many extensions.

As suggested, a feature request, and manual entry, is the only option at this point.

 

[Ben Eubank]

@DeepB One thing I've done is create an Extension, add a Mobile Number, and select "Ring my mobile simultaneously." I also set all the Forwarding Rules to "Forward to Mobile" and disable Voicemail to be safe. You can edit Forwarding Rules for multiple extensions at a time so that would cut down on time to add everything you need.

 

[DeepB]

I saw that that feature request is already there, and upvoted a lot, which seems to not have mattered so far.

I found another solution. For anyone haveing the same problem: I use imacros (there is a 30-day trial version). This can load a csv-file and input it into the 3cx web-management console.

The script I used is this:

SET !DATASOURCE C:\Users\XXX\XXX\asdf.csv
SET !LOOP 1
SET !DATASOURCE_LINE {{!LOOP}}
URL GOTO=https://IP_OF_3CX:5001/#/app/outbound_rules
TAG POS=1 TYPE=BUTTON ATTR=ID:btnAdd
TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:TEXT ATTR=* CONTENT={{!COL1}}
TAG POS=2 TYPE=INPUT:TEXT ATTR=* CONTENT={{!COL1}}
TAG POS=1 TYPE=SELECT ATTR=TXT:BLOCK<SP>CALLSXXX_The_right_route '(make one makro to record to check which is the right one)
TAG POS=1 TYPE=SELECT ATTR=TXT:0123456789 CONTENT=%number:4
TAG POS=5 TYPE=INPUT:TEXT ATTR=* CONTENT={{!COL4}}
TAG POS=1 TYPE=BUTTON ATTR=ID:btnSave