Webex - Intercall interoperability

dyzmax123 · ‎11-17-2014

I work for Genentech, a member of Roche group.

My team is developing a custom app that would be interacting with the Webex and MobileMeet (Intercall) apps to provide some pre configuration and convenience options for our corporate users. During our work a couple of questions came up, can you please be so kind and help to answer them?

1. We have observed the following gap in Intercall – Webex interoperability: when a meeting organizer is calling into the meeting via phone, without opening a Webex client, he is able to talk to other participants that called into the same meeting via Intercall. The problem is however that the people joined the meeting via Webex do not know the meeting is started so the organizer needs to open a Webex client themselves. This breaks the one click experience we would like to achieve and we are looking for a way to workaround this. Is it possible to do some API call that would inform Webex that meeting has started (organizer has joined via Intercall) so the organizer does not need to open a Webex client?

2. Is it possible to use some API call to request Callback functionality? I mean an equivalent of clicking the “Call me” button on the screenshot attached.

3. how we can open a Webex App from a mobile device directly? We know that we can do it by clicking this kind of link on a mobile device: https://genentech.webex.com/genentech/m.php?AT=JM&MK=595014559, but this requires a network connection. We wonder if the Webex app supports an URL Schema that we could use to open it directly from our app on iOS.

Thanks,

Lukasz Indyk

Technical Lead, Enterprise Mobile Apps

nick.mueller · ‎11-18-2014

RE1: this should work by default, if your WebEx session is set to allow the guests to join before the host for scheduled meetings. If you don't have this option enabled, then the host must log in to launch the WebEx. Simple as that. You may be able to somehow "fake" the arrival of the host on the webex side thereby opening the meeting, but only if you can use an Intercall API (if one even exists) to "sense" that the host has in fact joined the Intercall bridge.

RE2: Not sure, but since the capability exists in the webex app, what would be the point of bypassing it? Just launch the WebEx app and request a call back. Here again I think this in part depends on the WebEx app seeing a user as having joined a meeting. You might be able to fake that somehow, but you'd be better off just using a Intercall API (should one exist) to have Intercall make the callback - it is Intercall's bridge that is in fact performing the callback.

RE3: Perhaps I am missing something, but if you have no network connection, how do you expect the webex app to actually connect to WebEx?

NPM

dyzmax123 · ‎11-18-2014

Hi Nick,

Thank you for your answer, I find it helpful.

RE1: unfortunately this does not work even if this is the host who joins first. If the host joins first using purely Intercall call-in (without opening the webex app), and later other attendees join via Webex, the result is that the attendees joining via Webex still see that the meeting has not yet started.

RE2: we would like to be able to have an API for that to be able to call it from our app, without opening the Webex app. Just a convenience for our users (one click less, stay in the same app), but in case of mobile apps this kind of things build good or bad user experience

RE3: you are right. Again this is a convenience - we do not want the users to first see the browser opened and only then the Webex app launched. This one less nasty page blink is worth doing that directly.

In your answers you mention the Intercall API frequently - do you by chance know if such an API exists and if there is a documentation for it?

Thanks,

Lukasz.

nick.mueller · ‎11-20-2014

RE1: to be clear, the host must join the WebEx first, or you must change the WebEx setting to allow guests to join before the host arrives.

RE2: I don't believe you'll be able to do this from WebEx APIs - it'll have to be via something directly interacting with Intercall.

RE3: I believe WebEx uses a custom URL format that is associated with a "url handler" that is in turn associated to the WebEx app to accomplish this, at least on iOS. I am not sure what that handler is, though if you modify your user agent in your browser to appear to be browsing from iOS Safari, you may be able to figure it out by looking at the html code of the web page. Or someone from WebEx could just tell you in this forum. I am not sure how this works in Android land, it may be the same.

I do not know if Intercall has an accessible API, or what the details of such a hypothetical API might be. I recommend you ask your Intercall rep. I don't think WebEx folks would know this either, as Intercall integrates to WebEx's TSP API, not the other way 'round.

NPM

dyzmax123 · ‎11-20-2014

Thank you for your help.

Thanks,

Lukasz.