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.

[Pat Sullivan]

Mark-

I also would like to have a pop-up for any incoming chats.  Actually most of our users utilize chat much more than any phone-related feature, but I do appreciate the opportunity to give feedback to your questions.

1) Yes

2) Yes

3) Yes

4) Unchecked

5) If by Admin setting you mean that an admin could lock this down, then yes. If yo umean that a User would NOT have access to this setting then NO.

6) no experience with video

[Mark Congiusta]

Thanks for the feedback Pat.

IM notification improvements are also on our backlog but not currently scheduled for a specific release. Thanks for the bump though. I know that this has been something requested by several users and your input helps.

Mark

[ryan]

1. No, if at all possible don't even bring up the window, only bring up the window when someone clicks on their name for the chat facility there is no need for it to pop up during a phone call at all.

2. No the only time that window should appear in the forground is when someone clicks on someones name to get the chat window up, it should not pop up at all for phone conversations, in fact it shouldnt pop up at all it should only be accessable when someone wants to use the chat function.

3. YES!

4. Checked.

5. Yes.

6. If it is just for video call then yes deffinitly or people would have to go and open the window every time for makeing video calls which would annoy them just as much as having to minimize it for normal calls.

[s_mcnally]

I second Shane French

"

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."

[lja.mimpen]

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.) Preferably through GPO / ADM-file

6.) YES/NO, If you mean by "using desk phone video", a video-call on a Video Phone ( eg. Cisco Unified IP Phones 9900 Series): NO (Video is shown on deskphone). If Video is shown on the PC, YES, pop it up!

And YES, this is the biggest complaint, together with NO popup for chats.

[spsmith@4thebank.com]

1. Yes. This has been a complaint from my users. Some don't even use Jabber because of the pop up window
   
2. No, but an option to allow user to set to Yes would be nice
   
3. Yes
   
4. Not to bring to front would be the default so the "Do not bring window to front" would be checked by default
   
5. Yes (but a user option through the client should be the priority)
   
6. Yes (but an option to not bring it to front would be nice)
   

[Atllp_rtutt]

1.)NO, should not bring to front (preferably let this be a user setting default to NO also global option should be added to jabber-config.xml and as an option in the client )

2.)NO, should not bring to front (preferably let this be a user setting default to NO and have this being set in the config file.)\

3.) YES, but for crying out loud PLEASE put in bring to front and/or another way to notify users of Instant messages.

Almost everyone in my compay has either their computers muted or the speaker bar off completely.

I see that it is on the roadmap but ... this is the biggest issue people have next to your pop-up on call.

I have a user who calls people then starts trying to update the support ticket and when he is trying to do that it switches the call to Voicemail. Thus popping up and taking focus.

The flashing bar does not help them figure out that they have a new message at all. I would be rich if I had a dollar for everytime someone said they missed the message b/c they didn't see the flashing bar.

4.)Yes.  I think all new options added to the client going forward should be a user prefreance in the client and controllable via the options file we administer User setting taking pirority over global.

5.) YES for every new option added to the client

6.) YES/NO, If you mean by "using  desk phone video", a video-call on a Video Phone ( eg. Cisco Unified IP  Phones 9900 Series): NO (Video is shown on deskphone). If Video is  shown on the PC, YES, pop it up!

Always let the user choose then give the Jabber-config file the ability to affect this change aslo.

[Jonathon Bock]

Working with an Enterprise customer doing their world wide pilot now. This has the potential to affect over 70,000 users if they go live with Jabber. This seems to be a real show stopper and we need to know how soon this will be resolved!

1. Definitely No pop-up when on CTI. (Default - not bring to front! Option jabber-config.xml would be a plus not necessary)

2. Defintely No call control window should be hidden. (Default - immediately hidden or minimized! Option jabber-config.xml would be a plus not necessary)

3. Yes (Definitely a Plus)

4. Unchecked by Default (Should be a user preference in the client and controllable via the options file.)

5. No

6. Yes/No Yes if video is shown on PC / No if video is shown on desk phone like 9971

[oceanSDE]

Several messages in my email this morning asking about how to disable the pop-up because it takes up too much space on their screen.  Found this thread in my research, so here's more feedback for you.  Thank you for your persistence in helping to get these enhancements for our customers! 

1. Yes, if the User has selected an option to disable the pop-up on a new call allert.
   
2. Yes, if the User has selected an option to disable the pop-up on Accept.
   
3. Yes.
   
4. Unchecked. Give Users a chance to see how it works, then disable if they don't like it.
   
5. Yes, to give admins a way to set the default for their users based on how they work. I like Jonathon's response that it be controllable via the options file, so it can be set up differently for groups of users.
   
6. No, should be an option for the User.  We have several deployments of video phones where every internal call utilizes video.  These users will NOT want it to pop up for every call.  We have other deployments with the same setup; however, the users love that the video comes up for each call.  It's entirely dependant on the type of users and how they work.
   

Paul mentioned above about the interaction with UCCX and I would like to add that it's an issue with the Attendant Console as well.  1) users control their phone via the console software, so they don't need/want Jabber to pop up for each call as it takes focus away from the console and 2) there is a "Send Instant Message" option when you right click on a Directory entry, but it is grayed out.  We're told it's for future use, so it would be nice if that was integrated with the Jabber client as we were expecting.  The user clicks that link and it opens a chat within Jabber.

Are the enhancements in this discussion for the 9.4 release?  Other than "Summer 2013" is there a more specific timeline that we can anticipate that release?  Thank you!

[FredRugenJr]

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?

(DEFAULT TO NO - Prefer it to be a User Settable Option)

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?

(DEFAULT TO NO - Prefer it to be a User Settable Option)

3)Should there be a user option to "Never bring conversation window to the front when in desk phone control mode", yes or no?

YES

4)If this is a user option, should that user option be checked or unchecked by default?

Doesnt Matter to me

5)Should this option (also) be an admin setting, yes or no?

ALSO YES

Hey Cisco

Can i also please get an update as to where we stand on any of this..

I see this dating back for over a year, and here the last post as recent as July 2013..

And a lot of users just about everyone on this post requesting the exact same i am, however i am on the newest Jabber, and see no tweaks to any of the settings listed in items 1-6

Please advise to where we stand on this..

I  too have tons of users complaining about the "pop up" and wanting to disable, and in addition tons of users that love the pop up..

And SOME users WHO hate the fact that if you minimize the Converstation window and you get a new chat message it only blinks and doesnt POP UP!! this need to be another user customizable settting

Fred

[thisisfred]

1. Yes - This is a real issue for our Call Center - and most of them don't login to Jabber (which certainly makes the whole Presence concept ineffective.)

2. Yes - This would seem to more of a  "normal" function, but both issues 1 and 2 should be useer options.

3. Yes

4. Unchecked

5. Yes - especially if it could be configured on a per user basis. Then IT could set this based on department and job function withour having to train the users.

[David Koll]

1. Yes, many of our employees have asked if they could disable this feature.
   
2. No, many of our employees do not like the call window popping up in front of everything else on their screen.
   
3. Yes
   
4. Checked by default
   
5. Yes.  Also, the option to uncheck "let others know when I am in a meeting" should be an admin controllable function too.
   
6. No
   

Finally, I know you've already read this many times, but please configure an option in Jabber to bring the chat window to the front when a message is received.  This is the BIGGEST complaint that I have received from my users with Jabber.  This is more important than the call window because instant messages are being missed when the chat windows remains minimized in the taskbar.

One last thing, where can we submit feature requests?  The link provided in a previous post was not valid.  Statuses are extremely important in our organization, and we are migrating our employees to Jabber from an older app they used to set their statuses.  Unfortunately in Jabber you cannot see the status of someone else if they are offline.  Our employees are used to "marking" their phone saying that they are out of the office, back at x:xx AM.  However, they cannot do this in Jabber because once they log off their computer, they are offline in Jabber.  Any chance of having the ability to set an offline custom status that displays when the user is offline?

[s_mcnally]

Any ETA on these items, pretty much everyone wants the same thing.  I would like to give some sort of ETA to users and management. 

One further feature that would be nice is for Jabber to remember its location where the user moved the pop-up window to.  Upon exit of Jabber the location resets to a default position.   

[FredRugenJr]

I want to also jump on with s_MCNALLY.. Any ETA on these changes.. since it seems there are a ton of users bugging us in IT for these changes.. I am starting to do jabber training sessions with my users come next week, and i know the first couple quesitons are going to be all the points being brough out in this post.. Please cisco... pay attention to the users, and the IT Staff supporting them, this is NOT A SMALL request, this is something that is annoying the everyday user and leaving them with a BAD TASTE in there mouth about jabber.. i have users closing and not using it due to these issues!!!!

[timfnb101]

1. No
2. Yes
3. YES
4. Checked
5. Yes
6. Not sure

If you are typing on a document, web site, etc., users find it very annoying that some of their key strokes disappear because of the focus change. This is particularly annoying to people in our call center that get a lot of calls.

I would also like the option to have chat windows popup if the user would like that.

Thanks.