Guide for Systems Administrators

Scheduled Actions

Many actions within Softdial Contact Center™ (SCC) can be scheduled using Softdial Scheduler™, installed as part of the standard install of Softdial Contact Center™.

Using Softdial Scheduler™,

at specific times for specific days, by defining Group, Agent, Campaign, Dialer Message or Shell Command schedules within the Scheduler config.xml file. This can be found by default in C:\<root>\SCH\ and can be edited using any text editor.

From 10.7.1219 - the Scheduler functionality is in the Scheduler tab in Softdial Repository™. At this release, only agent and queue specfic schedules can be configured using Repository.

Schedules can be configured in config.xml for 5 types of actions:

  1. group (queue)-specific,
  2. agent-specific,
  3. campaign-specific,
  4. Softdial CallGem™ message-related
  5. Shell command-related
Type Section Details
group (queue)-specific groupSchedules Allows queues to be brought into and put out of service on specified days at specified times
agent-specific agentSchedules Includes login/logout and group assignment/removal configuration
campaign-specific campaignSchedules Includes campaign startup and shutdown configuration
Softdial CallGem™ message-related dialerMessageSchedules Covers configuration for scheduled dispatch of valid messages to Softdial CallGem™
Shell command-related shellCommandSchedules Enables the user to specify a shell command for execution at certain time

In order to perform actions, Softdial Scheduler must be connected to Softdial CallGem™, as configured in either Scheduler.exe.config or the Registry (which overrides any other settings).

In the <appSettings> section:

Key Default Value
Softdial Server localhost
Softdial Base Port 6502

If the ServerName and PortNumber values are present under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sytel\Scheduler

they will override the server name and port number specified in Scheduler.exe.config.

After the connection with Softdial CallGem™ is established, the Scheduler subscribes to Softdial CallGem™'s enumeration events (such as AgentData [AZ]). Enumeration events provide the Scheduler with all the necessary state information on entities (such as agents) registered with the Dialer.

Having received its initial enumeration update, the Scheduler checks whether the reported states are consistent with those specified in Config.xml.

Let us assume there is a schedule configured for an agent with identifier Agent1, and the schedule states that Agent1 should be logged in between 08:00 and 17:00. What follows is:

  1. The Scheduler processes all AgentData [AZ] updates from Softdial CallGem™ at 08:00, and detects that the state for Agent1 is not reported. This means that Agent1 is not registered with Softdial CallGem™ (or still logged off).
  2. This prompts the Scheduler to send an AgentLogin [AL] message to Softdial CallGem™ with that agent's data (as specified in config.xml).
  3. Moreover, if the agent is logging into the system campaign, the Scheduler will also send a GroupMembership [GM] message to assign the agent to the queue specified in config.xml.

All the messages that the Scheduler dispatches to and receives from Softdial CallGem™ (as well as other application events) are logged by the Scheduler in the C:\Logs\SCH\Scheduler.txt file by default.

The log file settings can be specified in Scheduler.exe.config file in the logFile section. However, if present, the LogFilePath value under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sytel\Scheduler

will override the name of the log file specified in Scheduler.exe.config.