CUPS 7.0.8 Number Expansion vs Application Dialing Rules

[muranskycotech]

Greetings!

I have just implemented CUPS 7.0.8 in a CUCMBE 7.1.5 environment. I'm new to both CUPS and CUCM, so please bear with me if this seems like a trivial issue.

I've gone through the process of setting up LDAP integration for my users so that they can continue to use their known usernames and passwords. So far, everything seems to be working pretty well... I can sign in, I get all green lights for statuses, and all I have full functionality, except that all of my address book entries for user properties display (123) 456-7890 for a user's phone number.

Normally, this isn't a problem, because these fields are stored in LDAP and is what my Exchange server and other applications expect to see. I'm quite lucky that all of my user extensions match the last 4 digits of this number scheme. So, my extension is 7890 and my number is (123) 456-7890.

So as I was looking around in CUPS and CUCM and then on these forums, I come across references to "Number Expansion" and "Application Dialing Rules", and I think-- hey, this sounds like what I want! So I start with Number Expansion since I really only want to change my dialing rule for calls made from CUPC, right? The rule I try to establish is supposed to strip the first 6 digits off those numbers so that it will only dial the last 4 digits. Unfortunately, I'm doing it wrong apparently, because I still get the same Invalid Number signal when I try to call a user with that number format.

Then I went to CUCM and went to Call Routing > Dialing Rules > Application Dialing Rules, and I tried to setup similar rules there... same symptom.

Unfortunately, I'm too new to all of this and not familiar enough with how these things work to stumble across a working pattern, and I obviously don't want to break things for my users (they have to dial 9 for an outside line).

So basically... what am I missing in all of this... what's the best way for me to make it so that calls from CUPC with a specific dial pattern-- let's say (123) 456-7XXX as a demo-- will only dial the last four digits? It would also be helpful if I could have additional rules setup so that if they double-click calls in the call history pane it will prefix a 9 on 7-11 digit numbers.

Thanks in advance!

[Joseph Martini · Accepted solution]

You're on the right track.  I've never used the CUPS number expansion feature but application dial rules will allow you to prefix a 9 to all numbers or a 91 so they are dialable or even strip the number down to just the last 4 digits.  There's no way to tell the system to prefix 91 to missed calls only and only dial the last 4 digits of the number for internal numbers unless your internal numbers all start with the same area code and prefix.  Application dial rules only apply to calls that use CTI so it won't impact normal phone calls unless you're dialing through an application like CUPC.  Also remember that you have to exit CUPC completely then open it back up for the application dial rules to work since they're downloaded in the configration file from the CUPS server.

[muranskycotech]

Ah, OK... didn't realize I would need to sign off and back on to take effect. I'll give that a try and report back shortly.

Before I proceed though, just some clarification:

If I setup my rules as follows do you think this should achieve the results I'm looking for:

Rule 1:

Number Begins With:     1234567

Number of Digits:           10

Digits to Remove:           6

Rule 2:

Number of Digits:      7

Digits to Remove:     0

Prefix with Pattern:   9

Rule 3:

Number of Digits:     10

Digits to Remove:     0

Prefix with Pattern:   91

UPDATE: Nevermind the question part of this, I went ahead and tried it out to see for myself, and it works perfectly as described above!

Thank you very much for your answer!