TMS Video Address in Booking Email

[Patrick Sparkman]

I noticed that the video address for dial in participants doesn't get added to the booking email sent by TMS when all the participants are to be dialed automatically.  Which means the video address is only shown in the email when someone is configured within TMS to dial into the conference themselves.  Is there a way to make the video addresses for the conference always present in the email, no matter the dialing method be it always dial out, mixed of dial out/in, or just dial in?  I've tried to edit the template myself, but can't seem to figure it out.  It would be nice to have the video addresses always there, just in case someone decides to dial in, and if they have the email, they can without having to contact someone to get the information.

Thanks

[Nick Halbert-Lillyman]

What method are you using to book?

When I Book a conference where all participants are "automatic connect" whoever books the conference gets an email containing the Numeric ID (because that's what I have in the template, rather than "Video Address").  This happens when booking directly from TMS or when using Outlook/TMSXE.  TMS 14.3.2.

Does this match your scenario?  Have you also tried adding the Numeric ID variable to the email template to see if it makes a difference?  In our dial plan, the "Video Address" is just [Numeric_ID]@our-domain.com so it would be fairly easy to generate if only the "Numeric ID" worked.

[Patrick Sparkman]

We just have TMS, no TMSXE, conferences are set to automatic connect and always dial out from our MCU via Conductor.

I've only tried to edit the default template so far, I've tried to make it so the video address is always shown, but some of the variables that are based around the video address seem to be based on if dial in participants are in the conference.

Since our dial plan involves Conductor they are based on aliases within it, and not directly on the MCU.  Not sure if numeric ID will work, but will try it tomorrow.

[Nick Halbert-Lillyman]

I actually read somewhere that you can't generate a Numeric ID when using Conductor although I haven't tried this.

I suspect the behavior you are seeing is specific to TMS bookings via Conductor... it would be interesting to see if the same thing happens if you schedule directly on the MCU (if you have one available that isn't managed by Conductor).

[Patrick Sparkman]

I tried to use the numeric ID variable, but it didn't work with Conductor.  The video address variable works, just can't seem to get it to show when I don't have any dial in participants.

[Nick Halbert-Lillyman]

Am I the only one who really wishes you could use Numeric ID even when using Conductor (even if it's not in the template by default)? 

Video address makes it very difficult to send to audio-only participants.

[sharon carasenti]

Numeric id is needed on conductor . I'm just install it and it's most needed

[Patrick Sparkman]

Hello Nick and Sharon -

The video address variable will work, however the way Cisco has it's coded, it won't appear unless there is a dial in participant added to the conference, and numeric ID isn't supported with Conductor.

Suggest you both contact your Cisco Account Manager as Kjetil mentions below and ask that they revisit feature request CSCui83431.  I already have, but the more people that do so, they might see that it's very much needed.

[sharon carasenti]

Thanks i will do so.

[Neil McCauley]

Hi Patrick,

Just my 2 cents. In our case, we also needed to use Numeric_ID value at booking invite, but it was not working because of Conductor.

We managed it to work (appear at the email) just changing the ForEach loops, making it open before the td commando that displays values meeting_title and numeric_Id. I copy part of the structure of the html code:

<FOREACH:VIDEO_ADDRESS_PROTOCOL>
   <FOREACH:ZONE>
      <FOREACH:VIDEO_ADDRESS>
      ...

      <td>Room <VAL:MEETING_TITLE><VAL:NUMERIC_ID></td>

      ...

          <SECTION:VIDEO_ADDRESS>

               <SECTION:VIDEO_ADDRESS_TITLE>

            ....

                </SECTION:VIDEO_ADDRESS_TITLE>

            ....
          </FOREACH:VIDEO_ADDRESS>

     </FOREACH:ZONE>

</FOREACH:VIDEO_ADDRESS_PROTOCOL>

          </SECTION:VIDEO_ADDRESS>

Regards,

[Patrick Sparkman]

FYI, since this discussion, TMS 14.5 has included the dial-in address in booking confirmation emails, which works with Conductor.  So no editing of the email templates are needed.  See the TMS 14.5 Release Notes for more information on this change.

[Kjetil Ree]

Hi,

• "[...] I noticed that the video address for dial in participants doesn't get added to the booking email sent by TMS when all the participants are to be dialed automatically. [...]"

That is expected behavior in all TMS versions since 14.2. If there is no one manually dialing in to the conference, no dial-in number should be needed.

• "[...] I tried to use the numeric ID variable, but it didn't work with Conductor. [...]"

That's also expected, NUMERIC_ID only works with direct managed TelePresence Servers and MCUs.

Regards,
Kjetil

[Patrick Sparkman]

Hello Kjetil -

Is it possible to be provided a variable that will allow the video address to be shown no matter what?  As I mentioned in an earlier post, if someone does need to join, that wasn't added to the conference when booked, and they happen to have the email from TMS, it can provide them the address to dial in.  I'd hate to have to add a generic "dial in participant" to get the address to show as that seems to be the only option.  :(

[Kjetil Ree · Accepted solution]

Such a feature request has already been opened, but it was closed about six months ago. The closing comment was "Please re-open with additional use cases if you still feel this is something needed", so I guess there still is an opening if you can demonstrate a strong need for it.

If this is important to you, contact your account manager or other Cisco point of contact, and refer to CSCui83431. Try being very clear about which problems you run into as a result of this limitation, and perhaps we can get it on the agenda again.

Regards,
Kjetil

[Patrick Sparkman]

Good ole "feature request" lol.

I'll see what I can do.  I mean, being able to send the booking email to others that might want to join that you don't have pre-scheduled into the conference is a big thing, unless you get the conference address from TMS yourself, and put it into an email to send to them, just easier to forward the nicely formatted TMS email that you guys have created that contains that information.