Sending messages to PDLs

[admin_2]

Can you use a PDL to send a voicemail broadcast to all members in the group? I know how to send a message to a private list. How do you record the message for the PDL created?<br><br>

[#2]

Sure you can... couple of ways to do this.

The most direct way is to assign a voice name and/or an extension number to an existing public distribution list (or create a new one for that matter) in Exchange. Do this in the SA on the Public Distribution List page. Once a PDL has an extension number and/or a voice name (it's gotta have at least one of those) you can address to it just like you do to a subscriber... you can use the ID or spell the name using digits on the keypad. This works for subscribers leaving messages for PDLs, however outside callers (i.e. folks not signing in as a subscriber over the phone) cannot leave messages to DLs this way.

You can also setup a call handler such that the message recipient is a PDL. This way you can let anyone leave a message for that call handler and the message gets sent to all the members of the PDL.


Jeff Lindborg
Unity Product Architect/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)

[#3]

Can I limit who can access which PDL? For instance, I want to make a PDL for my high School Admin for thier teachers only, but i do not want someone to get the extension by accident and some wise guy sending out a message to the group. i assume I would do this using the COS, but I can either allow or deny access to PDL's, not be selective?

------------------------------
Michael Perbix
Lower Merion School District
Telecommunicatons Specialist

[#4]

by the way... if I were to write a feature request up for this type of feature, would it be sufficient to have an option for distribtion lists that would limit subscribers who could address messages to the DL to members of that DL? This wouldn't, of course, apply to messages sent to the DL via call handlers.

The hard part there is we would have to "flatten" the address list for all public distribution lists (i.e. DLs can have other DLs as members) and store this list locally in SQL to check for memebership quickly when addressing messages by name/ID. Little more leg work than it sounds on the surface since we have to constantly keep the list up to date by polling since membership in the DL will change and we wont be notified (AD/Exchange has no concept of notifying external parties when items like this change). Kind of an ugly process.

This seems to me like the most logical approach, however. Having administrators have to manually maintain a list of folks that can/can't send messages to specific DLs is a quite a bit of overhead and in most cases I'd think that if you are in the DL you should be able to send messages to that DL.

I suppose the other option would be to limit folks who could address to a DL based on COS memebership... Not sure if that would meet folks' needs however and you'd still need a mechanism to create a list of COSes off each DL.

Either way, not a trivial amount of work but I'd like to write up something to get into the list of possible work items since this type of thing has been mentioned a few times. Let me know what you think about either of these approaches solving the problem at hand.



Jeff Lindborg
Unity Product Architect/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)

[#5]

To be honest, the COS would works the best for me, I can create a COS that has access to a few PDL's and assign that COS to only the individuals that I want access to the PDL. That would be great. I could give my administrators at a given school and PDL of their staff, and only allow them access to it.

-Mike

------------------------------
Michael Perbix
Lower Merion School District
Telecommunicatons Specialist

[#6]

You can't dicate which public DLs are accessible to which subscribers... it's an all or nothing access restriction via the COS. The subscriber can leave messages to DLs or not.

Keep in mind, outside callers wont be able to leave messages for DLs directly so who ever decides to be the wise guy will be known to you (i.e. they will have to had identified themselves as a subscriber first). The only way to let outside callers leave messages for DLs is to use a call handler with a recipient setup as a DL.



Jeff Lindborg
Unity Product Architect/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)

[kimberly]

Our Company does not want the basic user to be able to send (email or voice mail) messages to the All Subscribers PDL (that Unity creates).

We know we can't hide the All Subscribers DL from the GAL or change its name.

People keep emailing the All Subsribers PDL thinking its the "Everyone" default exchange PDL to send every exchange user in the GAL an email.

The All Subscribers PDL Unity creates leaves Exchange vulnerable to email viruses that spread through contact lists.

In my case, a restriction to the DL's based on COS would work rather than based on DL membership (because ALL subscribers are a memeber of the All Subscribers DL).

[#8]

couple of things...

first, you can hide the all subscribers DL from the address book if you're running 2.4.6 build 102 or later. This would probably solve your problem for you.

Second, you can change it's display name if you want... you can even remove it entirely if you like, it's not required. By default all subscribers added to the system are included in this DL but you can change that by editing the subscriber templates on your system to include different DLs other than that one.

The UnaddressedMessages DL, on the other hand, is very important and should be left alone...

You can also check out my DL builder tool on my site if you wish to create DLs specific to COS or other membership associations.

Jeff Lindborg
Unity Product Architect/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)

[kimberly]

Thanks Jeff