Conversation window behavior in deskphone control mode

[Mark Congiusta]

As part of the next release of  Jabber for Windows, we are working through some designs for suppressing  the conversation window when using Jabber in conjunction with a desk  phone. We have heard the numerous requests on this community and  elsewhere for an alternate approach to the current model where anytime a  call is initiated, either from within Jabber or from a CTI controlled  desk phone, the active conversation window comes to the front of the  user's screen. This has created issues for many dedicated desk phone  users who find that this can interfere with multi-tasking and interrupt  other workflows contrary to their desired preference.

In  response we have agreed to explore other options for users who are  looking for a different user experience. We would be very eager to get  feedback to the following questions which will help us prioritize  feature specifics and allow us to confirm or reject our assumptions. Our  questions are:

1. When  in CTI (desk phone) control mode and I make or answer a call from my  desk phone Jabber SHOULD NOT bring the conversation window to the front  of all other open applications, yes or no?
2. When in CTI (desk  phone) control mode and I initiate a call from within Jabber on my  computer or click "Accept" on the Jabber call toast window on my  computer the conversation window SHOULD come to the front of all other  open applications, yes or no?
3. Should there be a user option to "Never bring conversation window to the front when in desk phone control mode", yes or no?
4. If this is a user option, should that user option be checked or unchecked by default?
5. Should this option (also) be an admin setting, yes or no?
6. When  in CTI (desk phone) control mode and using desk phone video, the  conversation window SHOULD ALWAYS come to the front of all other open  applications regardless of any user setting, yes or no?

Also,  please share with us any specific use cases that either aren't captured  in our questions or in any previous discussions on this topic within  previous community threads. All general feedback on this feature is  welcome as well.

To  be clear, we are not looking to have people vote rank these features,  we are instead trying to understand as precisely as we can what user  expectations are so we can then design the best solution with the  greatest amount of flexibility to appeal to the most users.

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback.

[Shane French]

Thanks for doing this:

1.)NO, should not bring to front (preferably let this be a user setting default to NO)

2.)NO, should not bring to front (preferably let this be a user setting default to NO)

3.) YES

4.) default to not bring to front

5.) Sure, why not?

6.) NO, user settings should always take precedence.

Just for the record, this issue is the biggest complaint I hear about Jabber.  Having a few user-preferences and admin controllable defaults would really help.

Thanks again.

-shane

[Ryan McAlister]

I've seen Operating Systems get written faster than these guys can add user configurable options to Jabber. Requests for this functionality go back over two years ago. We use Jabber and the new call pop-up is annoying and NOT having a pop-up for new chats is annoying. Seriously this is just pathetic. Jabber 10.0 anyone? We are still waiting Cisco...

[James Hawkins]

It looks like this is still an issue with Jabber 10.6(1) in softphone mode.

I have deployed UCCX with Finesse and the Jabber popup window leaps open with every call.

Is disabling the popup in softphone mode possible now or on the roadmap for the future?

[James Hawkins]

Just tried Jabber 11.2 and the option to disable the popup is there for both phone and softphone modes.

• Conversation Window Control for All Calls—Extended beyond deskphone control, you can now also control the conversation window behavior for calls when using softphone using theDeskphoneModeWindowBehavior and SoftphoneModeWindowBehavior parameters.

At the time of writing Jabber 11.x is not officially supported with UCCX 10.6(1)SU1 but I guess I will have to go with it due to agent demand.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/jabber/Windows/11_0/RN/JABW_BK_C5E7828C_00_cisco-jabber-windows-11-release-notes.html#JABW_RF_N7E2BF46_00 

[Falko Hoppe]

Hi James,

have you tested Version 11.2 or 11.1.2? At the Cisco download page i can only find the 11.1.2 and in this version the big conversation window is almost there.

regards

[j.huizinga]

You can disable it, so it won't pop-up in phone control and/or softphone mode

[Falko Hoppe]

Can you tell me how, i dont find the correct option.

regards

[Damien McCoy]

Hi Everyone

We'll be running a demo of this 'Conversation Window Control when in deskphone mode' feature, next Tuesday 29 April @ 16:00 GMT [17:00 London/BST Time]

The webex details are below. I'll record the meeting for those of you who can't make it and post the recording on this thread, and if there is sufficient demand for a second session to suit different timezones, we'll organize that too.

We can also cover on the call when the Community Early Adopter Program will open for 10.5 which will include a preview of this feature.

Looking forward to meeting with you on Tuesday

Topic: Jabber Demo of Window control 
 Date: Tuesday, 29 April 2014 
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[Paul McGurn]

1. Correct.  As a default, be as invisible as possible, and let the user decide which level of screen disruption they are comfortable with.  This should not be limited to CTI mode, since even soft phone mode has the toast popup in the systray.
2. By default, yes, but this should also respect #1's choice.  As an admin, I should be able to disable that globally, but have the end user override that default that I push.  If the user is a contact center agent, any popup is extremely disruptive, and wasteful since they are managing that same info/flow in another application.
3. Absolutely.  For our big complainers, this is the silver bullet to their woes.  This should not apply to video calls though, as that use case completely requires the window once the call is accepted.
4. I'm leaning toward checked by default, only because it eases the migration from old-school phone management and full-blown UC.  This should not, however, impact IM-only requests.
5. Yes.  I think all new options added to the client going forward should be controllable via the options file we administer.
6. Absolutely.  This is the one use case where the call control window has active functionality that'd be consumed within the first moments of any call (viewing the video).  In audio calls, the toast pop from the systray is helpful in indentifying the caller, and the docked menu is available for basic call control without being obtrusive to the user.

For the UCCX/UCCE environment, we'd like to disable the call window altogether.  The agents already have two other mechanisms for managing the call - their phone, and their CTI-enabled app such as Cisco Agent Desktop or Finesse.  Having a 3rd is forcing me to deploy Jabber to them with an intentionally broken CTI server profile, no CSF device, and a continued reliance on Cisco IP Communicator.

Additionally, we'd like for the controllable option (admin and end user) to not have messages all put in a single container window.  This is extremely common IM client functionality (both supporting containers and not, and being able to choose).  I personally find it overwhelming to manage a container fully of phone, video, and IM conversations that most often have nothing to do with each other.  Example, I'm in an IM session iwth one person, and some random 3rd party calls my DN.  Both of those conversations are grouped in the same container.

Any of these new  options should come with the ability for us admins to override the Cisco defaults with our own, via the jabber-config.xml options file.  The user, however, should be able to save their own changes to these if they prefer.  Since these aren't security-related, and wouldn't break the core UC funcitonality, that shouldn't present an issue.

[Falko Hoppe]

1] no

2] no

3] yes

4] checked (if admin can set it global it does not matter for me)

5] it is most important the admin can set all options global

6] yes but a checkbox in options menu is always a good idea

[rogierboeken]

1) should not come to the foreground (btw with YES in your question do you mean YES it should NOT COME to the foreground or NO it should NOT COME to the foreground, not entirely clear and it is pretty important user request

2) i think when a call is placed from jabber client it  can come to the foreground if a user likes this but an option to disable it is good (give the user the choice!)

3) yes

4) unchecked like everything else, that is what config files are for no?

5) yes

6) yes that makes sense but i would still make it an user and admin option to disable this although can't see the point of a video call when you cannot see the other person

many thanks for putting this on the roadmap, btw if this will be incorporated in 9.6 what does that mean in terms of becoming available for download?

thanks!

[Mark Congiusta]

Sorry for the confusion. In question 1, yes it should not bring the conversation window to the front.

We will get back to you as soon as we can on availability in a 9.6 drop as I do not have that information right now.

Mark

[Jean-Christophe Majchrzak]

1. Yes. It's too big, too intrusive and some call controls are duplicates of those present in the top quick search bar (Hang Up)
   
2. No. User preference would be a plus.
   
3. Yes.
   
4. checked
   
5. Yes
   
6. Sorry I don't understand the difference with 1.
   

Other regular feedbacks from users :

- IM always flashing in taskbar. People do not see it and loose IM . Should be a setting (roaming) to choose either pop up in front or stay flashing in taskbar. Maybe it's a Windows OS issue because I've heard Link IM also flashes in taskbar...?

- Top quick search bar is really a nice feature. The ability of using the call control "Transfer and Conference" from it when in conversation is missing. You can hang up only. "Transfer and Conference" are yet available in the big pop up.

JC

[Mark Congiusta]

JC,

Thanks for the feedback.

Question 5 is a little different from #1 in that not all users may be desskphone video users (voice only) and/or may not be running their Jabber computer tethered to their deskphone at all times which is required for deskphone video (video on the desktop, voice over the desk phone). Also not all calls may be video calls. So if I pick up my desk phone and it is not a video call we would not pop the conversation window to the front, but if it was a video call maybe the window should come to the front?

As for your other feedback:

• IM notifications are also being worked on by the design team but the work has not been comitted to a release yet.
• Glad you like the docked window and call control. Our intention is to keep that piece of UI as lean as possible. That said, we are exploring adding some additional functionality to it such as presence control but as of right now, mid call controls such as transfer and conference have not been considered. I will note your suggestion however.

Thanks.

Mark