Re: Dynamic screen pop-up

[Tom Jedrzejewicz <tomjedrz@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 12/11/05, Mike Pantzopoulos - (H/O) <mpantzopoulos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I have a curiousity question concerning display files.
>
> My company has recently installed a new telephone system. I understand
> that the system is capable of identifying an incoming telephone number.
> I was thinking about using that number as a key to the client file so
> that I could then 'pop-up' a list of recent contacts so that the person
> taking the call could be immediately familiar with any recent contacts
> of relevance.

In the interest of clarification -- the switch getting "caller id"
info from the telephone system is one thing, passing that info along
to another application or system is quite another.  For the purposes
of this discussion, we assume you are talking about the second.

The key issue is *how* the switch notifies the application that it is
sending a call.  If the switch can send messages to a single system
(i.e the iSeries), then you should be able to get that message and
implement Rich D.'s concept or something similar.  It is possible that
the switch has a companion PC application which talks to the switch. 
I have come up with 5 or 6 different ways this could be happening in
the 10 minutes I have been writing this email.  Could be a PC client
and network communication - could be a PC client and a serial
connection from the phone to the PC - could be a sockets connection to
a server - could be a serial connection a la many UPS's.

What you might consider, before automatically integrating, is to setup
the application to have the rep key the phone number to start the
call.  That can mimic the auto-notification and you make that work
properly.  It is quite possible that the whole call and app flow
changes if the phone number is already known.  Then you can eliminate
the phone number entry when the automation is ready.

> As I was thinking about the problem there are some issues in terms of
> implementing this:
>
> *       How do I know who the employee is who has taken the call? I'm
> presuming that the telephone system will be keeping track of where the
> call has been diverted to, and that I may be able to associate this with
> their user profile.

Actually, you probably DON'T want to connect phone with user, because
then all hell will break loose if a user changes desks.  Better to
associate extension with workstation; generally the computer and phone
don't move, and when they do IS knows about it and can update the
table.  But this is only necessary if the switch notifies the server
rather than the client.

> *       The second question concerns the identification of the job the
> user is currently active in. Our users can have two  concurrent
> sessions, one of which is inquiry mode and the second of which is in
> 'production update'.
>
> *       The third question, which is the primary objective of this
> e-mail, is how do I interpose a pop-up window over the production
> session? Do I (and can I) use the Dynamic Screen APIs?

I think Rich provided a good idea in another email using message
queues.  But his solution assumes that the call info is coming from
the switch to the iSeries, and the iSeries has to figure out which
display to "pop".

It is harder if the call info is coming into the PC; you could
implement Rich's idea and use an HTTP call to an iSeries CGI program
to trigger the screen pop.  If there is a client app, it is possible
you can tell it how to respond to the incoming call, and you can tell
it to do the web call.

>
> I realize this is rather a large question, so I really only want a guide
> in order to not waste time with dead-end research. Getting to a working
> solution would be wonderful from a functional point of view and would
> enable me to stretch my wings technically.

The best initial resource would be the phone switch documentation and
the technical resources of the vendor and manufacturer.  Once you know
the options available for getting the call info, pass it to the list
and we will be better able to help.

> It's this sort of stuff that helps us prove to our user community that
> the iSeries is not an 'old-fashioned' system

True enough.  This sounds like fun - please keep us apprised!


--
Tom Jedrzejewicz
tomjedrz@xxxxxxxxx