8. Customer Self-Care Interfaces

8.1. The Customer Self-Care Web Interface
8.1.1. Login Procedure
8.1.2. Site Customization
8.2. The Vertical Service Code Interface
8.2.1. Vertical Service Codes for PBX customers
8.2.2. Configuration of Vertical Service Codes
8.3. The Voicemail Interface

There are two ways for end users to maintain their subscriber settings: via the Customer Self-Care Web Interface and via Vertical Service Codes using their SIP phones.

8.1. The Customer Self-Care Web Interface

The NGCP provides a web panel for end users (CSC panel) to maintain their subscriber accounts, which is running on https://<ce-ip>. Every subscriber can log in there, change subscriber feature settings, view their call lists, retrieve voicemail messages and trigger calls using the click-to-dial feature.

8.1.1. Login Procedure

To log into the CSC panel, the end user has to provide his full web username (e.g. user1@1.2.3.4) and the web password defined in Section 6.2, “Creating a Subscriber”. Once logged in, he can change his web password in the Account section. This will NOT change his SIP password, so if you control the end user devices, you can auto-provision the SIP password into the device and keep it secret, and just hand over the web password to the customer. This way, the end user will only be able to place calls with this auto-provisioned device and not with an arbitrary soft-phone, but can nonetheless manage his account via the CSC panel.

8.1.2. Site Customization

As an operator (as well as a Reseller), you can change the branding logo of the CSC panel by modifying the CSS via web interface. For changing the branding log you just need to access the web interface as asministrator and move to Reseller_ menu. Once there click on Details button for "default" reseller. Then on BrandingEdit Branding. Now you can upload your logo and copy/paste the CSS code line in the CSS__ field. The logo will be visible into the Customer Self Care interface.

Also Reseller can customize their web page (CSC and Admin interface) by uploading their logo and change the CSS. To do that, just access the Admin interface with the Reseller web credentials and then access the Panel Branding menu. From them you can upload the logo as explained before. The logo will appearn in the CSC web page related to that reseller as well as to the Admin page of the reseller.

You can also enable/disable specific languages a user can choose from in the CSC panel. Currently, English (en), German (de), Spanish (es) and Russian (ru) are supported and English is activated by default. You can change the default language provided by CSC by changing the parameter force_language in config.yml.

8.2. The Vertical Service Code Interface

Vertical Service Codes (VSC) are codes a user can dial on his phone to provision specific features for his subscriber account. The format is *<code>*<value> to activate a specific feature, and #<code> or #<code># to deactivate it. The code parameter is a two-digit code, e.g. 72. The value parameter is the value being set for the corresponding feature.

[Important]

The value user input is normalized using the Rewrite Rules Sets assigned to domain as described in Section 6.6, “Configuring Rewrite Rule Sets”.

By default, the following codes are configured for setting features. The examples below assume that there is a domain rewrite rule normalizing the number format 0<ac><sn> to <cc><ac><sn> using 43 as country code.

  • 72 - enable Call Forward Unconditional e.g. to 431000 by dialing *72*01000, and disable it by dialing #72.
  • 90 - enable Call Forward on Busy e.g. to 431000 by dialing *90*01000, and disable it by dialing #90.
  • 92 - enable Call Forward on Timeout e.g. after 30 seconds of ringing to 431000 by dialing *92*30*01000, and disable it by dialing #92.
  • 93 - enable Call Forward on Not Available e.g. to 431000 by dialing *93*01000, and disable it by dialing #93.
  • 50 - set Speed Dial Slot, e.g. set slot 1 to 431000 by dialing *50*101000, which then can be used by dialing *1.
  • 55 - set One-Shot Reminder Call e.g. to 08:30 by dialing *55*0830.
  • 31 - set Calling Line Identification Restriction for one call, e.g. to call 431000 anonymously dial *31*01000.
  • 80 - call using Call Block Override PIN, number should be prefixed with a block override PIN configured in admin panel to disable the outgoing user/admin block list and NCOS level for a call. For example, when override PIN is set to 7890, dial *80*789001000 to call 431000 bypassing block lists.

8.2.1. Vertical Service Codes for PBX customers

Subscribers under the same PBX customer can enjoy some PBX-specific features by means of special VSCs.

NGCP provides the following PBX-specific VSCs:

  • 97 - Call Parking: during a conversation the subscriber can park the call with his phone to a "parking slot" and later on continue the conversation from another phone. To do that, a destination must be dialled as follows: *97*3; this will park the call to slot no. 3. PLEASE NOTE:
  • Cisco IP phones provide a softkey for Call Parking, that means the subscriber must only dial the parking slot number after pressing "Park" softkey on the phone.
  • Other IP phones can perform Call Parking as a blind transfer, where the destination of the transfer must be dialled in the format described above.
  • Both the caller and the callee can park the call.
  • 98 - Call Unparking: if a call has been parked, a subscriber may continue the conversation from any extension (phone) under the same PBX customer. To do that, the subscriber must dial the following sequence: *98*3; this will pick up the call that was parked at slot no. 3.
  • 99 - Directed Call Pickup: if a subscriber’s phone is ringing (e.g. extension 23) and another subscriber wants to answer the call instead of the original callee, he may pick up the call by dialling *99*23 on his phone.

8.2.2. Configuration of Vertical Service Codes

You can change any of the codes (but not the format) in /etc/ngcp-config/config.yml in the section semsvsc. After the changes, execute ngcpcfg apply 'changed VSC codes'.

[Caution]

If you have the EMTAs under your control, make sure that the specified VSCs don’t overlap with EMTA-internal VSCs, because the VSC calls must be sent to the NGCP via SIP like normal telephone calls.

8.3. The Voicemail Interface

NGCP offers several ways to access the Voicemail box.

The CSC panel allows your users to listen to voicemail messages from the web browser, delete them and call back the user who left the voice message. User can setup voicemail forwarding to the external email and the PIN code needed to access the voicebox from any telephone also from the CSC panel.

To manage the voice messages from SIP phone: simply dial internal voicemail access number 2000.

To change the access number: look for the parameter voicemail_number in /etc/ngcp-config/config.yml in the section semsvsc. After the changes, execute ngcpcfg apply 'changed voicebox number'.

[Tip]

To let the callers leave a voice message when user is not available he should enable Call Forward to Voicebox. The Call Forward can be provisioned from the CSC panel as well as by dialing Call Forward VSC with the voicemail number. E.g. when parameter voicemail_number is set to 9999, a Call Forward on Not Available to the Voicebox is set if the user dials *93*9999. As a result, all calls will be redirected to the Voicebox if SIP phone is not registered.

To manage the voice messages from any phone:

  • As an operator, you can setup some DID number as external voicemail access number: for that, you should add a special rewrite rule (Inbound Rewrite Rule for Callee, see Section 6.6, “Configuring Rewrite Rule Sets”.) on the incoming peer, to rewrite that DID to "voiceboxpass". Now when user calls this number the call will be forwarded to the voicemail server and he will be prompted for mailbox and password. The mailbox is the full E.164 number of the subscriber account and the password is the PIN set in the CSC panel.
  • The user can also dial his own number from PSTN, if he setup Call Forward on Not Available to the Voicebox, and when reaching the voicemail server he can interrupt the "user is unavailable" message by pressing * key and then be prompted for the PIN. After entering PIN and confirming with # key he will enter own voicemail menu. PIN is random by default and must be kept secret for that reason.