Sangoma Phone desktop client

Re: Sangoma Phone - New Desktop Client Announcement

I followed the steps in the wiki to try out the beta and it works well. Two minor comments:

The installation process on the PBX has a lot of steps. A wizard would be nice!

Zulu desktop has a generic search field where you can pull up contacts as well as history using the same search field. I like that and it’s missing from the new client (you can search contacts or call log but not both at the same time).

Otherwise, I like it. Thanks to the team behind this.

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Thanks for the suggestions Bill. I will share them with the various teams.

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Connect and Zulu were nothing like this. The wad of required modules is also bad.

I also installed it, had to follow all of the steps very closely and eventually got it working.

Nice clean interface, like the look of it, seems to work ok at first glance.

Really need some BLF’s on this thing so we can use it as a good alternative to a desk phone for remote users. BLF’s for call center and system features would be very helpful, not just for presence.

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THIS!

BLF’s with Drag-And-Drop, Park Buttons - make it like an actual phone - right now several of your competitors already have this feature, and without it, it seems a little barren.

Presence HAS TO BE CONSISTENT with Connect Mobile - this drove my Connect/Zulu users crazy - presence is not a optional luxury - it’s a requirement.

Close, but go all the way - it needs to be excellent - right now it’s minimal at best.

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Only being able to have contacts via UCP? No, no, no.

I have multiple lists in Contact Manager, one shows in my UCP, but nothing shows in Phone.

I just made a change, to viewable Contact Manger items within User Management, and it made no difference.

But I did restart Sangoma Phone just in case it did not poll right away. I got this certificate warning that I never got before.

image

But Safari says the certificate is fine.

Edit: The above was transient, this error went away, unable to find issue.

Edit 2: Someone missed switching an error message.

Is there a plan to implement chat/sms into this app? I currently cannot switch my Zulu users because of this.

Also, I’ll add my hat into the “This needs BLF” ring.

It’s the next feature to be released.

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Would echo the wizard, I started down the process to update what was needed in my FreePBX and got lost at which version of asterisk I evidently needed to upgrade too.

I would also vote very strongly for the following to be ‘standard functionality’;

  • Buttons to Transfer and/or PARK a call that you are in (one-click park to next available slot in default lot).

  • Ability to fetch a visual status of any Parked Calls (by CID/Matched Phonebook Name in your default lot) with ability to one-click to pick one up.

  • 3-char search of associated Contact Manager Groups with ability to one-click dial one of the matches (same as in Zulu Desktop App currently)

  • Call History & Voicemail should be visible regardless of which device was used previously (ie. It should show any calls made from a deskphone that might be configured to same Extn).

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Thanks for the comments @MAWalker. There’s a browsable parking lot app planned for near future, no ETA yet. The searchable contact manager based on a few characters already works like that now. Shared call history across all devices for the same user is a reality now for Sangoma Phone and the current Sangoma D/P series phones (not the EOL D phones). We are slowly working in that direction.

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Since there a numerous suggestions here, figure I’d add one more. Call center call control buttons. At base login/logout and pause buttons. Ideally an interface that lets users login/out of specific or all queues, and on the admin side the ability to create and deploy multipule types of pause (lunch, off-line work, training, etc.). This is something that I have not found on any competitor really, and would be an easy way to uniquely upsell the product, as almost all use cases for me include some sort of queue.

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@lgaetz - Out of Interest, can new the Desktop App be used to Dial/Answer your Deskphone (just like Zulu can) ?

I’m following the steps on the Wiki to install/setup the PBX dependencies for the ‘Sangoma Phone’ desktop client on my PBXact appliance (running v15).

I believe I now have later than minimum versions of the required modules (without using EDGE builds);

I am running v16.24 of Asterisk;

I now need to install to correct ‘freepbx_asterisk_modules’ RPM for my version of Asterisk;

Question: My Asterisk version is v16.24 & there appears to be TWO v16 related versions of freepbx_asterisk_modules - Which one should I use ?

  • asterisk16.8-freepbx_asterisk_modules.x86_64
    -OR-
  • asterisk16cert-freepbx_asterisk_modules.x86_64

and what is the difference ?

Asterisk 16 and Asterisk 16certified are different. You can determine which you’re running from the console:

 asterisk -r

I can start the Asterisk console no problem, however, I’m still unclear if/how that tells me whether I’m running 16certified or not - It seems to show the same version info as using ‘asterisk -rx “core show version”’

Am I to assume that because it DOESN’T say 16cert anywhere that I’m using Asterisk 16 (ie. Non-Cert) & should therefore install the RPM ‘asterisk 16.8 -freepbx_asterisk_modules.x86_64’ ?

BTW, this is a pre-loaded PBXact appliance with the official Sangoma Distro - Which edition (Cert/Non-Cert) of Asterisk is that supposed to use by default ?

Yes:

[root@uc-33435257 ~]# asterisk -r
Asterisk 16.8-cert12, Copyright (C) 1999 - 2021, Sangoma Technologies Corporation and others.

Consider involving Sangoma Support if you need assistance. PBXact POPMs includes credits for stuff like this.

ok, thanks for the clarification.

Can I respectfully suggest that maybe the Sangoma Phone install Wiki page could/should include a note to explain this (within the section about the installing one of these RPMs) for those of us that didn’t know this.

PS. I have a Sangoma POMP in relation to all my installations, however, I like to use the Community Forum to ask questions, find solutions AND have that shared with others. Is that not in the spirit of Open-Source projects & these community forums ?

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