Cisco Finesse Notification Messages

[srinivascisco]

Hi All,

I am new to the customization of Finesse and programming languages.

We have a .net thick client CRM using C#.net. Client is migrating from Cisco CTIOS to Cisco Finesse. In the current application with CTIOS API's they are doing screen popups based on the agents state changes and the events(basically they pull the data from the back end system based on the events and call data) we need to achieve similar when we migrate to finesse.

Finesse REST API's need to be invoked from the .net client and get the call data upon certain events occur. for example when the call answered/transferred i need to look at the PV Data and present the data to the CRM.

I need some example code snippets on how we subscribe to these finesse notifications and how we use them with XMPP. any detailed help here is greatly appreciated.

[dekwan · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Please take a look at the Subscription management section of the Finesse developer guide on how to subscribe to notifications. The Resources section of the guide explains what triggers an event for that particular node.

I hope this helps.

Thanx,

Denise

[srinivascisco]

Thanks Denise,

I have one more question for the below scenario,

We are replacing CTIOS(Integrated in CRM) with Finesse, The login of the user and call control should happen from the finesse browser, but the call events should also come to the CRM as we already have some integration based on CTI events and call data from previous version. When we subscribe to the notifications, does finesse server be able to send the notifications of the same user to Finesse desktop  as well as the thick client application?

[dekwan]

Hi,

Let me make sure I understand your question correctly, the thick client gets CTI server message events and you want to know if you can continue to use that thick client alongside with the Finesse browser (which gets finesse notifications).

If my understanding is correct, yes, you can use both of them at the same time. The only thing Finesse doesn't support is multiple instances of Finesse notifications. In your case, it seems like the Finesse browser is the only instance so that will work fine.

Thanx,

Denise

[srinivascisco]

Thank you so much, can you make me understand what you mean by "Finesse doesn't support is multiple instances of Finesse notifications", We would need events both to Finesse browser and thick client application, is this not considered as multiple instances of finesse notifications?

[dekwan]

Sorry. I think my understanding of your setup is incorrect.

Based off of your previous comment of "The login of the user and call control should happen from the finesse browser, but the call events should also come to the CRM as we already have some integration based on CTI events and call data from previous version.", is the thick client connected to UCCE via CTI Messages?

     If so, you can continue to get events via the existing CTI events and not have to subscribe to Finesse notifications. You can still use Finesse REST APIs to perform actions. Finesse notifications is just a wrapper around the CTI events from CCE. If you already have that hook in, you do not have to change it.

     If not, your thick client will need to have another instance of the Finesse notification (the browser being one) and you are correct, this is not supported because we have seen situations of missing events.

Please correct me on your setup so that I can give you direct answers related to your particular setup.

Thanks,

Denise

[srinivascisco]

Yes we are connected to the UCCE via CTI Messages, For my learning could you let me know what the other ways of connecting to UCCE?

Our goal here is, as cisco is deprecating CTIOS and replacing with Finesse.Do you think still connecting to CTIOS servers is the safe option? Though our requirement is little weird to get the events in two different instances, what could be the best possible way?

[dekwan]

The only way to connect to UCCE directly is via CTI messages. The other way would be to connect to Finesse that connects to UCCE.

So there is:

Client <--CTI SVR message--> UCCE

Client <--Finesse Notification--> Finesse <--CTI SVR message--> UCCE

Does that make sense?

I know that CTIOS client is EOL, but I am not sure if CTIOS server is depreciating. You would need to reach out to the UCCE team to get that answer. At this time, Finesse doesn't support multiple instances of connections to the Finesse Notification, so for your situation, you won't be able to use both your thick client and the Finesse browser like you are planning to.

The two options I see moving forward (assuming the CTIOS server is indeed depreciating) is:

1. Make your CRM into a gadget using the Finesse javascript library to get the call/agent events and put it on the Finesse browser.

2. Have your thick client be the instance of the Finesse notification and build your own Finesse desktop into the thick client.

[srinivascisco]

Thanks for the response, i would goto Cisco BU and get the CTIOS deprecation info, for now this is very much informative. i can post further of my findings here

[dekwan]

No problem. That would be great if you can post your findings on the CTIOS server here for others to see.

[srinivascisco]

Hello Denise,

We are yet to get the resposne from Cisco BU, mean time i would like to ask get more info on this,

After login into finesse, When we look to subscribe the notifications in the thick client, do i need to use the agent login/password to get the events or we can use the admin ID/Password to get the event then filter for the agent? Looks like events are disrupted when we try to login again with the same agent id and password!

[dekwan]

Wait, I thought that the thick client wasn't subscribing to Finesse notifications. If you are subscribing to Finesse notifications and are also going to use the browser, then that is considered multiple instances.

Anyways, to answer your question, you must subscribe to the notification with the agent's login/password. Agents are automatically subscribed to their User and Dialog nodes. You do not need to explicitly subscribe, but you just need to establish the XMPP connection. What do you mean that the events are disrupted. I just tried to login twice and didn't see a problem.

[srinivascisco]

Yes we are trying with multiple instances,

I have tried with Pidgin, logged in to pidgin at the same time logged into finesse. i could see pidgin getting events but the finesse wasn't functioning properly, we see timeouts when changing the status or answering the call or doing some outbound operation. we then logged into another agent(who's not logged onto Pidgin) and it worked fine. There is a statement in the developer forums, which say " If you login to finesse and Pidign at the same time to the agent, the events are disrupted", that raises eyebrows. We were thinking if we develop our thick client to subscribe only events and call data(Call control will happen in Finesse client) not sure it will give all the events to both finesse client and thick client.

Wanted to confirm, can we take this approach to monitor events in separate application along side finesse?

[dekwan]

Nope, you cannot, which is why I had stated that multiple instances is not supported. You are encountering the very reason why we had to make that statement. When more than one connection is made (in your case above, Pidgin & the browser), the notification server does not reliably send the events to both instances. As a result, you will get the timeouts that you are seeing. That statement in the developer forum is actually a quote from the Finesse developer guide itself.

I thought that your thick client is already connected to UCCE via CTI messages. Why does the thick client need to be connected to the Finesse notifications too? Like I mentioned before, Finesse notifications is just a wrapper around the CTI messages.

[srinivascisco]

But these thick client notifications are connected to CTIOS right not to CTI Server directly. Which will get deprecated soon... is my understanding correct?

If the above statement is right, this is just an intermediate step to make the things work, we are looking for notfification to thick client notifications even when CTIOS is not in picture.