Set up Contact Synchronization from Microsoft SQL

Once Cloud Voice is connected to your Microsoft SQL database, you can pull contact records into the system on a set schedule. Imported contacts become dialable from the Cloud Voice App, and because each batch lands in a phonebook, you can also route incoming calls to the right team by matching a caller against a particular phonebook.

Capacity limits

How many company contacts and phonebooks your system can hold depends on the number of extensions it has.

Extensions (N)	N ≤ 50	50 < N ≤ 200	N > 200
Company contacts (total)	50,000	200,000	500,000
Company phonebooks	100	200	500

Before you begin

Map the contact fields you want to exchange between Cloud Voice and Microsoft SQL. See Integrate Cloud Voice with Microsoft SQL.

Sync contacts from Microsoft SQL

1. On the Microsoft SQL configuration page, scroll down to the Contacts Synchronization section.

2. Turn on Contacts Synchronization, then complete the settings below.

   

   Synchronize to Phonebook: Decide where the imported contacts are stored:

   • Create New: Build a brand-new phonebook for the synced contacts. Enter its name in the Phonebook Name field.

   • Read Specific Property Value and Create New: Generate phonebooks automatically from the values held in one column of your contact table. Enter that column’s name in the Property Name field.

     Note

     This is useful when you want to route inbound calls to different destinations based on phonebook matches. For example, if a column named belongto records the team that owns each contact, Sales or Support, entering belongto in the field creates two phonebooks, Sales and Support, when you save. You can then build inbound routes that send each caller to the responsible team based on which phonebook they match.

   • {existing_phonebook}: Send the contacts to an existing empty phonebook.

     Note

     The empty phonebooks offered here are the ones already defined under Contacts > Phonebooks.

   Data Synchronization Frequency: Choose how often contacts are synced, then set the time in the field that appears.

   Note

   Syncing a large number of contacts can affect system performance, so schedule synchronization for off-peak hours.

   Feedback Email: Optional. Enter an address to be notified of each synchronization result.

   Note

   You can enter up to 5 addresses. Separate them with a semicolon (;).

   Sync Contact Filter: Enter the SELECT statement that pulls records from Microsoft SQL, using the form select ${MAP} from {schema_name}.{table_name}.

   Note

   The TOP clause is not supported.

   For example: select ${MAP} from testpbx.contacts order by id desc

   • select ${MAP}, the database columns to bring into the system. At runtime, ${MAP} is replaced by the field values that correspond to the fields you enabled in the Map section.
   • from testpbx.contacts, the source table, written as a two-part name ({schema_name}.{table_name}).
   • order by id desc, sorts the results in descending order.

   Remove existing contacts which are not received from the server: When enabled, any contact that synced successfully last time but is missing from the current run is deleted.

   Caution

   This setting deletes contacts. If your Sync Contact Filter is too narrow, or the database is only partly reachable during a run, valid contacts can be removed because they were not returned that time. Leave this off until you have confirmed your filter returns the full set of records you expect.

3. Click Save.

4. Click Sync Now to synchronize contacts right away.

   

Check the results

• A banner appears showing how many contacts were synchronized into the system.

  

• Review the imported contacts and their phonebooks under Contacts > Company Contacts / Phonebooks. Records that came from the SQL source carry a source tag .

  

• Authorized extension users can view and dial the contacts directly from the Cloud Voice App.

  Note

  To make this work, grant users viewing permission for the relevant phonebook under Extension and Trunk > Client Permission > Contact Visibility, and have them update the Cloud Voice App to at least these versions:

  • iOS: 5.7.3 or later
  • Android: 5.7.4 or later
  • Windows desktop: 1.7.3 or later
  • Mac desktop: 1.7.3 or later

  

Next steps

To send incoming calls to specific destinations based on which phonebook a contact belongs to, set up inbound routes that match callers against your phonebooks.