With the variable FROMAREA used in the inbound behavior of an extension, calls can be routed based on the incoming caller’s area code. This feature is useful for accounts that have multiple offices in different regions and want to use one number to direct calls to the appropriate office.
The FROMAREA variable is used in the “Perform Next Step Only If...” inbound behavior action for an extension. The “Perform Next Step Only If...” inbound behavior action allows for logic-based routing to take place, using schedules and variables, in an IF-THEN fashion. If all the criteria are met for the “Perform Next Step Only If..” behavior the call advances to the next step in the sequence, otherwise it skips the following action and proceeds down the list of routing steps.
Setting the FROMAREA variable in the “Perform Next Step Only If..” behavior has four components:
Once all the info is entered, it should form a logical query the system can evaluate, such as “Does the caller’s area code match one from this list: 111,222,333”
After setting the logic of the “Perform Next Step Only If…” step the proceeding step should be set to what should be performed if the logic statement is true (this action will be the same green as the if statement). A secondary Else action should be placed after the first for the routing to fail too if the if statement is false (this action will be in white or pink if using the Else action from the dropdown list). While you can use multiple IF-THEN statements together to provide many different routing options, an Else action should always be included as a contingency action to ensure that all calls are handled in a reasonable way.
Example of a Common Setup for the FROMAREA Variable
There are many ways that the FROMAREA variable can be used and numerous valid ways to set the logic for the IF-THEN statement, the following is an example of a standard setup for using the FROMAREA variable.
In this example, calls will be routed to either the main office (x2001 Lab 1) or the secondary office (x2002 Lab 2). The routing will be set so that area codes that surround the secondary office will be directed to Lab 2, all other calls will be directed to Lab 1. For this example, the area codes for the secondary office are 111 and 112. The following IF-Then statement will guide our setup:
IF the caller’s area code does match one of the followings: 111,112. THEN send the caller to the secondary office at extension “2002 - Lab 2”. Else, send the caller to the main office at extension “2001 Lab 1”.
Now let's look at how to build this in the NocTel control panel. In the control panel, navigate to the extension the routing will be added to, or create a new virtual extension (A new extension is used in this example). Once the extension is created, click the Edit link in the Inbound Behavior widget. Once you are in the inbound behavior editor perform the following steps:
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