A new parameter of Sametime 8.5.2 IFR1 : videoCallNumberMatcher

Three months ago, I have presented in that blog (here) an unnoticed parameter of Sametime 8.5.2 IFR1: sutLiteNumberMatcher
That parameter is very useful to easily manage the cohabitation of a Polycom TCSPI integration and a SUT Lite implementation as illustrated in the schema below.

Today, I would like to present a new parameter: videoCallNumberMatcher
By default in the Sametime Phonebook, you have to different button when you want to initiate a call:

• Audio only Call
• Video Call

And, when you dial a number in the dialpad, it will only be an audio only call :(, which is not very interesting to call a video endpoint. Of course, you still have the option to escalate that audio only call to video, but this means each user must go through an additional step to add video to the call.
A new capability has been introduced to start a video call automatically when certain numbers are called. The solution IBM have implemented uses a client preference to control this behavior.

The client preference is a regular expression (using Java syntax) which is used to tested a called number to see is it a video device e.g. setting the preference to "60.*" would mean that when the user calls any number starting with 60 the client would know this is a video device. When the client detects the user is calling a video device, it will start a video call using the configured video provider rather than starting an audio call. That's exactly the same approach that sutLiteNumberMatcher uses.

So, if you have implemented sutLiteNumberMatcher, you can add a new line in your managed-setting xml file.The new managed-setting xml file will be similar than that:

<ManagedSettings>
<settingGroup name="com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.telephony.ui" lastModDate="20101008T101031Z">
  <setting name="sutLiteNumberMatcher" value="60\d{3}" isLocked="false" />
  <setting name="videoCallNumberMatcher" value="60\d{3}" isLocked="false" />
</settingGroup>
</ManagedSettings>

P.S: Open a service request with IBM Support to request a hotfix (#MEWE-8R4FD7) for IBM Sametime 8.5.2. IFR1 to leverage that parameter.