Conference Bridge with Passwords

To compliment the fact that Voicemail Pro can offer conference meet me bridges, often, I get asked by a customer to create a way to password protect those bridges.  Luckily, VM Pro CAN do this….

Expanding off previous posts, we will create a short code in IP Office:
Code:    42XXX
Feature:  Conference Meet Me
Number:  .  (yes that’s a period)
LineGroup  0

This allows our 4 digit extensions (that begin with 2) to all have a conference bridge of 42100-42999, that matches their extensions…pretty cool.

Then, we need to set the password in the Manager config.  So open your IPO config, and go to the user, User>Source Numbers.  Add a new entry, P5150.  P, was used for older versions out-calling to a cell, when there was a new message.  On newer versions (R4.2 i think) we don’t need this, so we can use this entry as a password saver…

 

On to the Voicemail side of things.  To make things easy you can download the conference bridge module (Right click and save as), and save it on the desktop.  I think that running through these modules, help see the power of voicemail pro, but, its up to you.  Then, in your VM Pro client, click file>import or export and browse to the file you want to import (the bridge you just downloaded to the desktop).  Dont forget to save and make live.  Below is what the module looks like.

 

First we are going to make a menu action.  I like to have a timeout, and invalid.  If you already have the Change Password Module, you can add in your access code, here we used *7277(*PASS) and add your Module to connect that(if not, dont worry about adding it now, we can do later).  Then , we add a “$” as a menu choice.  This will allow any series of digits entered (4 digit extension number), to go to the next action point.

At the “Store Bridge” action, we are just saving what the caller entered ($KEY), as $CP0.

 

After getting the bridge (extension) number, it is nice to verify that is a valid extension number on the system.  So, if you add a Test Variable action, you can compare that your $CP0, matches an valid mailbox or user…

 

Off of that, you can make a new generic action to play a greeting that you entered an invalid number…and bring them back to the beginning of the module (Home)

Of that Test Variable action, your matches for Mailbox and Extension, can go to the next generic action that will request the password from the IPO Config (Manager) for the user entered ($CP0).  Select that you will use a “Generic command”, and that you will “Change User or Group Configuration” to “Get” the “Voicemail Callback Number->(dial string)” of user $CP0.

 

So here is where it is apparent as to what we are doing.  We are taking an old, non used feature in current IP Offices (the dial out number for outgoing voicemail notification or the “P” number in the users source numbers) and using that to save our password.  And, as you can see, we will save that number in the result at the bottom as “$SAV“.

Then we are going to add another menu action asking the user, whom we already have validated is an actual user, to enter their current password.  We dont need a timeout, or anything else, just “$” for any series of digits.

 

Once they enter the PIN, we are going to compare that to the PIN that was pulled from the IP Office system (PXXX in the users source number).  First we perform the arithmetic, then compare…  So open another generic action and name it “Check PIN against Config”.  Make it a “Generic Command” to do an “Arithmetic Evaluation”.  The result will be saved as “$CP15”.  The items to evaluate are: “$KEY-$SAV” (that is a dash in between them)

 

Now we are going to take new “Variable Routing” action, and select the variable we want to test, in our case “$CP15”.  Click the green PLUS sign to add a variable of “0”

 

This will take our saved password ($SAV) and subtract that from the password we just entered, and if the answer is 0 (zero), will route out the “0” matching option.  If the answers are not zero, meaning that the 2 numbers were different, then it follows the no match option.  Isn’t Voicemail Pro awesome?

So, now we have 2 actions to create.  The first, for no match, will just play a greeting that the passwords don’t match, and return them to the home, or start of the module.

The last action we need is to create one, that will transfer the caller to the correct bridge.  AND, since we have been using all valid extension numbers, but our meet me short code is “42XXX”, we need to insert a 4, to the transfer string.

 

So you see, we just  transfer to the users bridge ($CP0) and add a 4 in front of that so it is transferred to “4$CP0”

If you wanted a moderated bridge, you could use this post, and make a moderated bridge where the short code matched the extension, and then you would just remove the 4 on this transfer action….make sense?

Now we need to make our recordings.

 

Recording 1.  Please enter your conference bridge ID, followed by the “#” sign

Recording 2.  I’m sorry, that conference ID does not exist.

Recording 3.  Please enter your conference ID password, followed by the “#” sign.

Recording 4.  You will now be transferred to your conference.  After that greeting you could also add a $CP0to play back the conference iD to the caller.

Recording 5.  I am sorry, that is an invalid password.

 

Now you can direct a DID number to this module, or have the user press 9 off the main Auto Attendant, or a user on site can use the short code to enter the bridge.  Once in, you hear the greeting, and enter your bridge number.  This module will then take that bridge number, asks the caller for the PIN, and compares that to what is stored in the IPO config.  if they match, the caller goes into the bridge.

If you want to give users the ability to change this password, see the new post here, Change Conf Passwords.