Set up Contact Synchronization from Microsoft SQL

Once contacts flow from Microsoft SQL into Cloud Voice, your team can dial those records straight from the Cloud Voice App. Because the synced records land in phonebooks, you can also have Cloud Voice send incoming calls from those contacts to whichever destination you choose, based on the phonebook a caller belongs to.

Capacity limits

How many company contacts and phonebooks you can hold depends on the number of extensions on your system. Use the table below to check the ceiling for your deployment.

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 sync between Cloud Voice and Microsoft SQL first. See Integrate Cloud Voice with Microsoft SQL.

Configure synchronization

1. Open the Microsoft SQL configuration page and go to the Contacts Synchronization section.

2. Turn on Contacts Synchronization, then fill in the settings described below.

   

   Setting	What it does
   Synchronize to Phonebook	Choose where the synced contacts are stored. See the phonebook options below.
   Data Synchronization Frequency	Pick how often contacts sync, then set the time in the field that appears.
   Feedback Email	Optional. Enter an address to be notified of each sync result.
   Sync Contact Filter	Enter the SELECT statement that pulls contacts from Microsoft SQL. See the syntax below.
   Remove existing contacts which are not received from the server	When on, contacts that synced successfully last time but are missing from this run are deleted.

   Phonebook options for Synchronize to Phonebook:

   • Create New: Build a brand-new phonebook to hold the synced contacts. Type its name in the Phonebook Name field.
   • Read Specific Property Value and Create New: Generate phonebooks automatically from the values in one column of your contact table. Enter that column’s name in the Property Name field.
   • {existing_phonebook}: Store the contacts in an empty phonebook that already exists on the system.

   Note

   The empty phonebooks you can pick are the ones defined under Contacts > Phonebooks.

   Tip

   The Read Specific Property Value and Create New option is useful when you plan to route inbound calls by phonebook. For example, if a column named belongto labels each contact as either Sales or Support, entering belongto in Property Name tells Cloud Voice to create a Sales phonebook and a Support phonebook when you save. You can then build inbound routes that send each caller to the right team based on the phonebook match.

   Caution

   Syncing a large number of contacts can slow the system down. Schedule the job for off-peak hours where possible.

   Feedback email limit: up to 5 addresses are allowed. Separate them with a semicolon (;).

   Sync Contact Filter syntax: write the statement in the form select ${MAP} from {schema_name}.{table_name}. For example:

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

   • select ${MAP}, Names the database columns you want to bring into Cloud Voice. At run time, ${MAP} is replaced by the field values that correspond to the Cloud Voice fields you enabled in the Map section.
   • from testpbx.contacts, The source table. You must use a two-part name in the form {schema_name}.{table_name}.
   • order by id desc, Sorts the results in descending order.

   Note

   The TOP clause is not supported.

3. Click Save.

4. Click Sync Now to run the synchronization immediately.

   

What you’ll see

• A banner appears showing how many contacts were synced into Cloud Voice.

  

• The synced records and their phonebooks appear under Contacts > Company Contacts / Phonebooks, each carrying the Microsoft SQL tag .

  

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

  Note

  For this to work, grant users viewing permission on the relevant phonebook under Extension and Trunk > Client Permission > Contact Visibility. Users also need a Cloud Voice App that meets the minimum version for their platform:

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

  

Next step

To send incoming calls to specific destinations based on the phonebook a caller belongs to, set up inbound routes that match contacts across your different phonebooks.