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Introduction to Initiators

An initiator is always the first step in a handler. It tells Interaction Processor which event starts an instance of that handler. When one of the modules in CIC, such as Telephony Services, generates an event, that event is seen by the Notifier. Notifier then tells other modules about that event. One of these modules is Interaction Processor, where the handlers are registered. When the Notifier tells the Interaction Processor about an event, Interaction Processor starts an instance of a handler.

When you publish a handler, the handler’s initiator tells Interaction Processor which event to watch for. An event is something that happens to an object. For example, a call (object) can be sent to voice mail (event). If you configure an initiator in a handler to start when calls are sent to voice mail, then Interaction Processor starts that handler any time it is notified of that event.

Note: Subroutine initiators are different from other initiators because they are started by a call from another handler instead of an event that occurs on the CIC system. See the Subroutine initiator documentation for more information.

Initiator Properties

On the Initiator Properties page for most initiators, there are three settings. (HTML, Chat, Timer, and Subroutine initiators are different.) The combination of these three settings determine when Interaction Processor will start an instance of a handler containing that initiator. These three settings are described below:

Notification Object Type

An object type is an entity that can be manipulated or managed by CIC. Examples of some of these objects include calls, chat sessions, and faxes. Queues are also objects, including User, Station, Workgroup, and line queues. The Notification Object Type of an initiator cannot be changed.

Object ID

One property for an instance of an object is a unique object id. This is a unique number that differentiates one instance of an object from another. In most cases you should leave this setting to any so that the handler starts for an object with any Object ID. For example, every call that comes through CIC has a unique Object ID. If you want a specific handler to run each time a specific event occurs to that call, set the Object ID to any. The default value for this setting is any to allow an initiator to start with all occurrences of an event to an object. For some initiators, you cannot change this setting.

Notification Event

An event is an action that can occur to an object. Examples of some of the events that occur on a call object are transfer, send to voice mail, and new outgoing call request. Events also carry information that can be retrieved by the initiator for use in the handler. For example, caller ID is passed along as information in the event. The initiator can retrieve this information, assign it as the value of a variable, and then use the value from that variable in the handler.

The best way to understand how these three settings work together is to look at an example. For this example, pretend there is an initiator called Dog Barking. To understand how the Initiator Properties interact, look at the following examples:

Notification Object Type: Dog

Object ID: {all}

Event: Bark

With these settings, the initiator would start any time any dog barked.

Notification Object Type: Dog

Object ID: Fido

Event: Bark

With these settings, the initiator would start any time a dog named Fido barked.

Notification Object Type: Dog

Object ID: Fido

Event: {all}

With these settings, the initiator would start any time a dog named Fido did anything.

Notification Object Type: Dog

Object ID: {all}

Event: {all}

With these settings, the initiator would start any time any dog did anything.

Outputs

Initiators can pass information (attributes of the object) to a handler. The information initiators pass into handlers is specified on the initiator’s Outputs page. For, example, the Incoming Call initiator passes into its handler the Call Identifier, the Line Identifier, the number the caller dialed, and other information. This information is used by a handler to perform actions on the incoming call object.