Hiding names in Directory. 1

[lopes1211]

Sorry for posting this as I've seen it a million times but can't find it in my searches. From CM4 on, : or * no longer hides the station names from showing up in the directory. ~ does hide the name but garbles the displayed name when that person makes a call or is called (unacceptable). What is the magic character to use in front of the Name on the station form to hide it from the directory in post-CM3 systems?

-CL

 

[TechJimF]

I'm on CM5 and use ~~. in front of all names I want to hide. i think you need to use two tildes to hide the name. I also put another character after the two tildes so that if you export a list, you can still tell which extension's names were hidden using ~~

Jim

 

[lopes1211]

yay!!! that appears to be the right answer! Thanks!

-CL

 

[SF0751]

I have also used an underscore _ to hide names from the directory. Has the additional value of being *almost* invisible to the users, so I don't have to explain "why is that strange character showing up in front of my name when someone calls me".

Susan
"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." - Oscar Wilde, An Ideal husband, 1893

 

[TechJimF]

I first started using ~~$ and realized the dollar sign was getting that exact reaction. I switched to a period '.' and it barely noticeable.

 

[lopes1211]

~~ actually shows no special characters when calling. i.e.:

"~~John Smith" does not show up in the directory. When I call his extension, my display shows "John Smith". the tildes are not displayed.

-CL

 

[SF0751]

True. The only flaw I can see (and it's very minor) is that if I use ~~. to precede the entry in the name field, that is 3 fewer characters I can type in, while using the underscore gives me two additional characters and still has the end result of hiding the name in the directory.

Again, it's a minor flaw, but when your users name is 25 characters in length (first and last), you need all the space you can take!

Susan
"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." - Oscar Wilde, An Ideal husband, 1893

 

[TechJimF]

That's true, but if you export a list of extensions, the double tildes will not show up either. This makes it impossible on an exported list to tell which were hidden and which are not.

Jim

 

[SF0751]

Wouldn't it be nice if Avaya would put in a new field so we could CHOSE if a name was displayed or not, without having to put strange characters in the name field?

For that matter, I want to be able to list VDN names in the directory, too.

And I want a pony for Christmas. (Hey, since I'm putting together an impossible wish list.....)

Susan
"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." - Oscar Wilde, An Ideal husband, 1893

 

[lopes1211]

Susan, just to clarify, it's only 2 characters, just the ~~ there is no need for a period or any other 3rd character.

-CL

 

[alienpotato]

This is an excellent post. I have been using the underscore and a comma at the end (if there is no other comma) but I just tried the double tilde and it's much better.

 

[avayastrongman79]

No doubt, thanks for the confirming which characters actually take the name out of the directory. We're on CM4, and have been curious for a couple months.

 

[Tolson]

Depending on the version of PBX you are running, on the COR administration pages, page 2 there is a field "Mask CPN/Name for internal calls:" setting this to yes will mask the entries from the Directory. As you go through to Directory it will show as "Info Restricted" and will not display either the name or extension.

I am still looking at how to do it for outbound calls.

 

[sekitori]

FYI:
We're at CM3.1 and use @ before a name to hide it in the directory.
Does show up on the display of our 46XX phones, though....

~~ works too and looks better - think I'll change to that.

Thanks for the posts !