For a few client’s systems I have setup a local calendar for when they need special messages. There is a time condition so whenever the time matches an event on this calendar it will go to a special recorded message. It is very easy to create a calendar event as opposed to changing a time group constantly.
The events on this LOCAL calendar have start and end times i.e. 1am to 5pm and last for several days… standard procedure.
However no matter what the end time of the event is, the time condition treats the event as if it’s ALL DAY, i.e. 00:01-23:59 therefore completely disregarding what is actually needed. What is actually needed is for the PBX to follow the start and end times and disengage the rule once the end time is over and before the start time starts, obviously.
Here’s a screenshot of a calendar event; it is supposed to be Aug 29-Sept 6/2022 from 1am-5pm. However when anyone calls outside the times of 1am-5pm (i.e. someone calls at 6pm) they are STILL hearing the time condition which is only supposed to be active during the event time of 1am-5pm.
I checked and it is not an issue with the time condition configuration on the PBX because that is really simple - if time matches event on “Special Message” calendar, then send them to a specific voicemail box. ELSE, send them to a ring group so they can talk with the receptionist. The problem is that no matter what time the event is configured, i.e. today from 6pm-8pm, the system thinks the event is 24hrs - the start and end times of the event are being completely disregarded. I am guessing this is a BUG. Can anyone else reproduce this and if so, Sangoma please fix this ASAP.
This is Sangoma PBXAct UC25
version 12.7.8-2203-2.sng7.
PBX 15.0.23.17
Ok that would explain the issue…
It didn’t indicate anywhere easy to see that calendars only match the day (and disregard event times). @lgaetz can this please be fixed so that calendars also match the times of events as that would be expected; it’s also more user-friendly and how other PBX systems work.
How does having an option to enter a start/end time for an event “work as expected” when the start/end time are disregarded? If there is box for start/end time and you enter times into it, it is supposed to be followed, by literally all standards that’s what makes sense.
In every other PBX system the start/end times of calendar events are followed, and in FreePBX’s case there hasn’t been any warning/notice on the calendar events page indicating otherwise so it’s expected that the system actually respects start/end times. If it’s not designed to respect start/end times then those boxes for start/end time shouldn’t even be there in the first place. KISS principle
Realistically the calendar module isn’t only used for setting all-day holidays; in many scenarios you need to set a holiday for a specific TIME that reoccurs for a few days, i.e. 9am-1pm Sept 1-6. So you can’t just create “all day” events as you suggested as that’s not what is needed. It’s much clunkier and more difficult to do it with time groups because you can’t select a date from calendar in time groups; it makes you select the day number and month. And if you need to create a rule between two months with time groups, i.e. Aug 30-Sept 2, then the work is double since you have to set start date 30 Aug, end date 31 Aug. Then you need to do another for the next month - Sept 1-Sept 2. Time groups is just not that practical anymore when the functionality for time rules during day can easily be set using calendar select like in all other PBX’s.
In FreePBX there are two ways how to set time based rules.
In time groups and in the calendar module.
In time groups, if you set start-day = Monday, end-day = Friday, start-time=09:00,end-time=17:00.
Then this will match every day between Monday through Thursday from 9 AM till 5 PM.
This technically creates an “event” for every day for the desired hours.
In the calendar module, you create events, there’s an event start time and an event end time, the ENTIRE time between the event start and end is what is being matched. This is how it was designed and this is how it should be working.
This is how most FreePBX admins have it set up, if we are going to change this now, you’ll have countless upset admins…
Like I mentioned above, in order to get it to work the way you want, you’ll have to create an event for the first day and set that it should reoccur for x amount of days.
I’m very familiar with how to set time based rules in FreePBX
I know how time groups work exactly
→ SO WHY is there even a box for event start/end time if supposedly everyone knows that those boxes do nothing?? The answer is because the system has a bug that needs to be fixed so that the calendar module works as expected for logical people.
The calendar event creation screen displays this: Start Date, End Date, All Day?, Start Time, End Time
And no, making the system actually respect start/end times wouldn’t confuse any admins because there is a button in the calendar event creation that is called “All Day” and this option also exists for a reason. Because of the event start/end times and the button for “All Day” event, it is clear that the original design is obviously for the system to respect start/end time of events and not just assume they are all “ALL DAY”.
→ NO that does not make sense. I mentioned I don’t want instructions on creating ALL DAY rules. I know that the calendar module works well for only all day events at the moment. I need to create rules that are only for a specific TIME during the day and repeat for a few days. i.e. for a special advisory message that needs to be played during X hours on certain days.
So please don’t say that the system is currently working as expected because it’s not. An option for All Day event and boxes for start/end time of event are there for a REASON and it’s expected that these options actually work, no matter what current users are used to. Failure to fix such a bug just result in massive confusion and people being forced to use time groups (which are worse for easily creating on the fly events) when they could use calendar events with start/end times and that would be much easier. So this means the software gets a bad reputation for old users of the product having too much influence in the way the program should function logically.
→ THAT’S what I want exactly.
I don’t think you understand the problem.
I expect the calendar to respect the start and end time of an event and I select “All Day” when I want an All Day event. The problem is that PBX is disregarding the start and end time of calendar events. PBX is currently treating all events as ALL DAY even when they are NOT “All Day.” I have local calendar events from 9am-1pm but the PBX is treating all events as ALL day no matter what start/end time is inputted.
In your screenshot, there’s an event that starts on 8/29 at 1 PM and ends on 9/6 at 5 PM. This is one long event. This is what I show in the second gif. It’s one loooooong event, that the entire time of the event is being matched.
If you want that it should only match on those days between the hours of 1-5 PM, then you’ll have to do a reoccurring event that ends on 9/6, as shown in the first gif.
OK that makes sense thank you very much. It never came upon me to use the reoccurring function.
To simplify for anyone else trying to make events during a specific period of the day and repeat, you need to do this:
i.e. for event that is 9am-1pm for Sept 1-3, you have to make new event, set event start date as Sept 1, set start/end times as 9am-1pm, click reoccurring, select repeats every 1 days, and set the end date as Sept 3.
