Siebel Communications Server Administration Guide > Configuring Events and Commands > Event Handlers >

Handling an Inbound Call Received by an Agent

Communications events provide the following general options for handling device events for calls received by an agent. Such an inbound call may employ events like call incoming or event ringing, or call connected or event established, as defined for a communications system employing CTI.

• Handle when call connected after agent answers (default). In this scenario, the agent answers the call, triggering the event handler.

  The phone rings. The agent clicks Accept Work Item. The call connected or event established type of event is received. This event triggers handling such as to perform a query to generate a screen pop.

  In this case, an agent's work is not interrupted by an unexpected screen pop. An example follows.

  This scenario uses the TpAnswered device event for the Siebel CTI Connect driver.

• Handle when agent answers (for Siebel CTI Connect). In this scenario, the agent answers the call, triggering the event handler (before the TpAnswered event is received).

  The phone rings. The agent clicks Accept Work Item. The EventAnswerCall device event (for Siebel CTI Connect driver) is triggered when the AnswerCall command is invoked. This event triggers handling such as to perform a query to generate a screen pop. Then the call is connected, as described for the previous scenario.

  In this case, an agent's work is not interrupted by an unexpected screen pop.

  This scenario uses the EventAnswerCall device event for the Siebel CTI Connect driver.

  For more information, see Using Device Event to Enhance Screen Pop Performance.

• Handle immediately, when phone rings. In this scenario, the phone rings, triggering the event handler (before the agent answers the call).

  The phone rings. The call incoming or event ringing type of event is received. The event triggers handling such as to perform a query to generate a screen pop. The agent clicks Accept Work Item, then the connection is established.

  In this case, an agent's work could be interrupted by a screen pop when the phone rings, without any notifications or confirmations.

  This scenario uses the InboundCall device event for the Siebel CTI Connect driver.

NOTE:  If the user has modified the current record, this record is automatically committed anytime an agent clicks a button on the communications toolbar or anytime a screen pop is triggered. If the user has not provided values for all required fields, a pop-up window prompts the user to provide the values to complete the record.

The Siebel sample communications configurations provide examples of some of these scenarios. You can implement other screen-pop behavior using Siebel VB or Siebel eScript.

Example of Using Event Handler to Handle Inbound Call

Here is an example event handler, named InboundCallReceived, that is based on the default inbound call screen-pop scenario described above (handle when call is connected after agent answers). For this event handler:

• Set the Order field to 0 to make sure it takes priority over any other event handlers that may otherwise match.
• Set the Device Event field to one of the following:
  • TpAnswered (for Siebel CTI Connect driver)
  • event_name (for another Adaptive Communications driver, where event_name corresponds to an event like TpAnswered)
• Include the following event handler parameter:

  Filter.ANI="*"

The example event handler would be associated with an event response OnInboundCallReceived.

Because the Order field is set to 0, this event handler will be checked first for any event received where the device event is as specified. The event handler filters the event data field ANI. If this field exists, the event matches and invokes the event response OnInboundCallReceived.

To handle the call incoming or event ringing type of event without waiting for the agent to click Accept Work Item, you can create a similar event handler specifying the InboundCall device event for the Siebel CTI Connect driver. You might name such an event handler ImmediateRingingHandler, and invoke a similarly named response.