Uccx auto attendant script

[dinesh joshi]

Hi,

Can we use UCCX auto attendant script for dial by name.

We dont have ASR but we want to use featue like caller will type user name and uccx

will transfer that call to that user.

Can default aa.aef script do this or i need to create different script.

Regards,

Dinesh Joshi                 

[Anthony Holloway · Accepted solution]

Yes you can.  For an example, go to File > New in your scritp editor, then under the IVR tab of templates, select the Auto_Attendant script template.

If you scroll down, you will see a menu output branch labeled: DialByName and it has all the logic to complete this task.

The magic happens with the Name to User step.  It's documentation is below:

Name To User Step

Note     The Name to User step is only available for the Cisco UnifiedIP IVR or Cisco Unified CCX Premium license options.

The Name To User step is used in the following ways:

- To prompt a caller for the name of the person being called (using either DTMF or speech), and then to compare the name entered by the caller with names stored in a directory.

- To automatically transfer a caller to the extension of the person being called.

Note     The Name to User Step supports only the 26-character English alphabet. As a result, the Cisco Automated Attendant Dial-by-Name feature and other Solutions that use this step accept English characters only when using CMT(Cisco Media Terminated).

- To assign a value to a variable that can later be queried using the Get User Info step, in order to retrieve information such as the extension, e-mail address, and spoken name of the caller.

Note     When any previous escalating prompt in a script enters the Name To User step, it is reset to the first prompt in its list.

Features of the Name to User Step:

- Using a CMT channel, the Name To User step receives DTMF input from a caller with the following numeric keypad mapping:
-- 2 = ABC
-- 3 = DEF
-- 4 = GHI
-- 5 = JKL
-- 6 = MNO
-- 7 = PQRS
-- 8 = TUV
-- 9 = WXYZ

- Using the information from this step, a script creates a subsequent prompt that plays the prerecorded name of the caller if it exists. If no recording exists, the script spells the caller name.

Note     The Name To User step is limited to spelling back (over CMT media names with ASCII-only characters, which may be a limitation under some international conditions.

- Using an ASR channel, the Name To User step receives the spoken input from the caller. If configured to do so, the caller can speak a nickname. 
The Name To User step produces the following output branches:
-- Successful—A successful match is made between the input from the caller and a name in the directory.
-- Timeout—The step has reached the maximum number of retries (as configured in the customizer) without receiving input from the caller.
-- Unsuccessful—The input from the caller does not match a name in the directory.
-- Operator—The operator's extension was entered

Note     The Operator output branch appears under the Name To User step in the script only if Yes is selected for the Operator option in the General tab of the Name To User customizer window.

Note     If the Name To User step matches the caller input with a single user defined in the Cisco Unified Communications Manager, that result is returned immediately without requiring the caller to confirm the selection. 

Good luck.

Anthony Holloway

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[dinesh joshi]

Hi Anthony,

I have checked the same. Thanks for your help.

[dinesh joshi]

Hi Anthony,

The first line of document says that name to user steps only available UCCX Premium license.

We have UCCX Enhance license . Is there any other option to do Dial By name feature or i have to take Premium license.

Regards,

Dinesh Joshi

[Anthony Holloway · Accepted solution]

Yes, you can use the Call Redirect Step to send the calls into Unity Connection and use a Directory Handler.

Outside of that, there may be a way to engineer an Ehanced friendly solution within UCCX to take DTMF and compute possible matches, but if you have CUC already, then I'd just go that route.

Anthony Holloway

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[dinesh joshi]

Hi Anthony,

Thanks for your reply. I have auto attendant server also, so i am planing to use that for dial by name feature.

Regards,

Dinesh Joshi

[collinks2]

Dear Mr Anthony,

Greetings.I would like to deploy the "dialbyname" using the uccx ivr script template. I have followed your steps but the challenge I am having is that I can't input any character. I am using cisco jabber for testing. I do not understand the Asr and cmt features.can you educate me on that,pls?

Collins

[Anthony Holloway]

First, you will need to use numeric entries for UCCXs dial by name feature, not letters. So, try that.

Second, ASR stands for Automatic Speech Recognition and you wont need that, if doing DTMF based dial by name. It would only be needed if allowing the caller to speak the name of the person.

Third, I think in this context the CMT is something internal to UCCX when it allocates a CTI Port and a Cisco Media Group port. This should be done automatically for each call, and not something you need to worry about. I.e., If your callers can already press menu options, you're good.

[collinks2]

Sorry I didnt get email notification that you have replied to this question. Yes ,the callers can enter the menu options. Yes I can enter the extension number and the call will be successfully transferred..
Option 2 (dial by name) is still a challenge to me. I know digit '2' is mapped to ABC. Does it mean if I want to enter ABC,I should press 2 for digit 2,another 2 for A ,another 2 for B and another 2 for C.please make me understand

[Anthony Holloway]

No, you don't need to press the button twice or three times, just once.

[collinks2]

I still do not understand. I want to dial the name 'Hutty Ian'
What button should i press?
2-- ABC
3-- DEF
4--GHI
5--JKL
6--MNO
7--PQRS
8--TUV
9--XWYZ

Update:

I think I got something working but its kind of weird.I just hope external callers will know what to do.

To dial that name "Hutty Ian"

I pressed 48889426

And the prompt said :" calling ",and the extension no will ring

Technically,how would the system no that 488889426 is 'Hutty Ian' ?

Because '4' is mapped to GHI

Could you please explain the technicality behind it?

[Anthony Holloway]

I have no idea how they implemented it, but the simple explanation to do something like this is simply:

1. User enters 4
2. Find all users who's name begins with either g, h, or i
3. User enters 8
4. Filter found users to only those whose second character is either t, u or v
5. User enters 8
6. Filter the filtered users to only those whose third character is either t, u or v
7. keep repeating

In programming, indexing the characters of a string is trivial to do.  E.g., username.scharAt(1) gets the second character in javascript

[James B W]

Thanks for your response Anthony.

I kinda thought that would be the path but was hoping to avoid some work

[collinks2]

Good explanation

[James B W]

Hi,

I've been able to get this to work flawlessly with a virtually unmodified script, which is great. And we have CUC which can also handle this. The challenge is, we have hundreds of agents and I want to give callers the ability to enter the first few characters of last name (because some names are difficult to pronounce far less spell) or play a pick list of all agents in a particular subset  (ie: a particular CSQ) of about 8 agents. That algorithm seems to be in the "Get User" step which doesn't appear to have a variable to be able to point a specific directory/file/csq. Is there another way to call that key search subroutine?