Retrieving the values of server and system parameters from handlers

Server and system parameters are variables whose values are set in Interaction Administrator. These values can be retrieved from handlers, and from other locations within Interaction Administrator. For example, the Held Call Timeout server parameter determines the number of seconds a call remains on hold before the Held Call Timer initiator starts a handler.

You can create your own custom server and system parameters and retrieve their values form within handlers. For example, suppose you want to create a handler that retrieves the email address of the web administrator. If you hard coded the email address in Send Email steps, you would have to modify your handlers each time you change web administrators. If the email address is stored in a server parameter, any handler can retrieve that value each time it runs. When you change the email address stored in the server parameter, all the handlers that retrieve that server parameter value are dynamically updated the next time they run.

See the Interaction Administrator online help for a list of default server and system parameters.

The difference between server and system parameters

Server parameters are available only on a particular CIC server and system parameters are available on all CIC servers on a network. In a future release of CIC that supports multiple CIC servers, system parameters will become more useful. Until that time, you can store values in either server or system parameters.

Caution: Any custom server or system parameters you create are overwritten if you perform a full install. If you are just performing an upgrade or refresh install, you will not lose your custom server and system parameters.

To create a server or system parameter:

You can create, edit, and delete server and system parameters in Interaction Administrator. See the Interaction Administrator documentation for complete instructions on configuring server and system parameters.

After you have created (and assigned a value to) a server or system parameter, you can retrieve that value from a handler.

To retrieve the value of a server or system parameter from a handler:

Server and system parameter values are retrieved with a GetDSAttr step. The GetDSAttr step requires two input fields, Directory Services Path and Directory Services Attribute. Use the following descriptions as guidelines for the values you should place in these fields when you retrieve a custom server or system parameter value.

Directory Services Path

This is the path to server or system parameter in Directory Services. In the following examples, substitute your_server_parameter_name with the actual name of your server or system parameter.

If you created a server parameter, type:

"${Server}\Parameters\your_server_parameter_name"

If you created a system parameter, type:

"${Config}\Parameters\your_system_parameter_name"

Directory Services Attribute

This is the name of the attribute you want to retrieve. For custom server and system parameters, you should type:

"Value"

Specify an output variable to contain the List of Attribute Value. This output will contain the value in the custom server or system parameter. Remember that this is a List of String type variable. If you need to convert the value to a string, use the GetHead operation.

Once you have saved and published the handler, you can begin retrieving the values of system and server parameters from within handlers.