Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Microsoft Messenger for Mac 7 has been released!

Recently I published an article about how to configure your Mac Messenger 6.0.3 with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Now Microsoft has great news!

Microsoft Messenger for Mac 7!image

Built for corporate Mac users on Office Communications Server 2007, Messenger for Mac 7 gives co-workers new ways to communicate easily with each other in different locations or time zones. Additionally, personal users will find a few improvements for managing their contact lists.

More information see: here

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Making the most out of toast...

Toast, as the OC team calls it, is a notification that appears near your desktop’s systray (i.e. the thing with the clock in it). Toast’s primary goal is to let a user know that there is an incoming communication request and to give as much context about the request as possible. More information see the Microsoft Communicator Team Blog. Here

image

Windows Speech Recognition Macros Technical Preview

Michael already gives his information about these macro's!Windows Speech Recognition Macros Technical Preview is released. You can download it from now.

Validation is required. Source my buddy at Microsoft. More technical info see

Quick Details

Version:
TP1

Date Published:
4/23/2008

Language:
English

Download Size:
42 KB - 2.8 MB*

Overview

The Windows Speech Recognition Macros tool – or WSR Macros for short – extends the usefulness of the speech recognition capabilities in Windows Vista. Users can create powerful macros that are triggered by spoken commands which can perform a series of tasks from as simple as inserting your mailing address to as complex as providing a completely different speech interaction with applications.
While we have tried to make it easy to use, this release of WSR Macros is a technical preview of technology we are planning to release in the future. Not all the features we have planned are included, and some are incomplete. Users are cautioned to treat this release as “pre-beta.” While creating simple macros is very straightforward, the creation and editing of more complex macro files is best suited for advanced users. We welcome your feedback on how we can improve WSR Macros to best suit your needs.

System Requirements
  • Supported Operating Systems: Windows Vista
• A computer running a genuine copy of Windows Vista (x86 or x64)
Currently, only English-language editions of Windows are supported.
• A working microphone
• Optionally, speakers or headset for sound and voice output
We recommend the following in addition:
• A minimum of 1GB of memory is recommended when using speech alongside of other applications.
• Speech recognition works best when the computer can hear you clearly. We recommend high-quality microphones for best results. Microphones that are placed near the speaker’s mouth are optimal, such as a headset microphone.
• We recommend that you complete the Microphone Wizard and additionally the Windows Speech Recognition tutorial before using WSR Macros. This will ensure that your microphone is setup properly and help the speech engine become adapted to your voice.
• Please note that most Bluetooth microphones do not function well with Windows Speech Recognition due to limited audio bandwidth.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Error in Conference Center configuration

Recently we had some problems with our own Conference Center configuration. As you can see below you will get an error message with the exact text:

"Content failed to download due to a problem with the Conference Center configuration. Contact your administrator"

image

The best way to resolve these issues is to check the following items:

  • Check your eventlog on your OCS server
  • Check your eventlog in Windows Vista  (make sure you use the Snooper.exe tool to filter error messages)
  • Run the Deployment Validation Tool

Checking these we saw that there was no error message at all. So we get al little bit confused. Still we had some moments thinking that we can resolve these issues. And we did! When you have the error above please make sure your check the following configurations.

1. Check if you are using the correct proxy in the IE browser. For ultimate testing just disable the proxy for one moment. Try to re-connect. Make sure the IE browser is restarted.

2. Another reason may be that the WMI (InternalClientContentDownloadURL) property isn't configured correctly.

Log on to an Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition Server or a server in an Enterprise Edition pool, or a server with Office Communications Server 2007 administrative tools installed, as a member of the RTCComponentUniversalServices group or an account with equivalent user rights.

  • At the command prompt, type wbemtest.exe.
  • In the Windows Management Instrumentation Tester dialog box, click Connect.
  • In the Connect dialog box, in Namespace, type root\cimv2, and then click Connect.
  • In the Windows Management Instrumentation Tester dialog box, click Query.
  • In the Query dialog box, type the query, such as:
  • Select * from MSFT_SIPDataMCUCapabilitySetting where Backend = “contoso-sql”
  • In the Query dialog box, click Apply.
  • In the Query Result dialog box, double-click MSFT_SIPDataMCUCapabilitySetting.
  • In the Object editor dialog box, do the following: To change the location of meeting content, double-click the InternalClientContentDownloadURL property. In the Property Editor dialog box, change the value to  your URL (for example: https://contoso-ocsav.contoso.com/etc/place/null), and then click Save Property

image

When hitting this URL you will get an HTTP Error 403 - Forbidden
Internet Explorer. With this configuration the Conference Center works again for us.

Virtual Directory (Null Virtual Directory). On each virtual directory etc/place/null we configured anonymous authentication (out of the box).

image

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

New UC events!

On 27th of May Heliview and Microsoft organise the conference Unified Communications.

Be inspired by the possibilities that unified communications can offer your organisation.
Unified Communications & Collaboration: integration and innovation.

Also visit the presentation of Bas Krikke, Business Consultant at e-office. Expierence the ease of unified communications during working with colleagues and partners within and outside your organisation.
Come and find out for yourselves at the e-office ‘working easier’ exposition. Subscribe youself here. If you are having questions more technical I'm also on the e-office stand.

and hot from the press:

SESSION: the new way of work

The new way of work – June 19 2008
In June, e-office and Macaw, both Microsoft Gold Certified Partners, organise the event: the new way of work.

image and image

This new way of working is the central theme of the session and the major topic for the presentations of Microsoft, Macaw and e-office.
Even the way of presenting is completely new. You join the event either at the offices of Macaw or e-office and still attend all sessions. These sessions are completely driven on Live Meeting Console 2007 and Microsoft Office Roundtable.
Curious? Come and find out working in the 21 century!

e-office helps organisations to improve working processes of employees and raise their productivity, by providing them with a digital working environment including the right portal solutions.
Solutions that optimally assist employees in performing their complex, knowledge intensive activities and which supports them to take more and better decisions. This increases the distinctive power of an organisation.
e-office is Microsoft Gold Certified Partners and uses the unified communications and collaboration-platform of Microsoft. By combining the e-office digital working environment with Unified Communications of Microsoft, you are able to handle all daily signals from e-mail, telephone, instant messaging and videoconferencing.

DMZ webcast by Byron Spurlock

Byron Spurlock Microsoft Consultant just delivered a webcast about Edge Server roles in your DMZ. Byron did reference to the different Edge Roles and go through the different topologies.

You can download the recording on:

https://www106.livemeeting.com/cc/mseventsbmo/view?id=1032372435&role=attend&pw=2A9BDB1F

Source:

http://blogs.msdn.com/byrons/archive/2008/04/23/webcast-all-about-dmz-and-edge-servers-in-communications-server-2007.aspx

Monday, April 21, 2008

Presence information in MOSS 2007

As you probably saw a time ago e-office is currently working on OCS/MOSS integration. As we make some little steps forward we would like to share some progress on this.

image

imageThe solution for setting your presence status can be controlled directly from the SharePoint 2007 page. Different presence levels can be controlled (online to online-idle etc etc)

For more technical information review the latest blogpost on this. Here. If you have some tips or maybe feature requests give me this information. You can contact me at sip:joachim.farla@e-office.com or just use the chat button on top of the weblog.

Mac Messenger 6.0.3 compatible with OCS2007

Recently Microsoft announced that the Mac Messenger for the Mac will support OCS functionality. image One of our graphical designers is having a iBook and also installed the latest Mac OS/Office 2008 version. Today we had a short discussion about his Mac Messenger 6.0.3 (link). He had some complains about his Mac OS integration and ability to chat with contacts into the OCS-infrastructure. 

So we did some tests and the Mac Messenger is fully compatible with OCS2007. If its supported I don't know but it works. Some people in the community had some problems importing the correct certificates. We didn't change anything in the Client Connection Filter on both the internal OCS server or the OCS Access Edge.

When signing in we get the following error message:

Microsoft Messenger cannot sign you in:

Either the date and time settings are incorrect, or the digital certificate file is not valid or installed on your computer.  If date and time are correct, see your network administrator to verify that your digital certificate file is valid and installed.

Below the steps to correct this error.

Step 1. Import the correct certificates (be sure importing both the External Edge (RA) certificate if you have it and also the internal certificates (so import both the root/subordinate CA).

image

We went to Applications -> Office 2008 -> Office - Microsoft Cert Manager and imported the certificate in the Apple trusted root certificate authority. Make sure all these certificates are trusted for everyone on the system  (we had some difficulties with it)

image

Step 2.

to configure the Mac Messenger, we choose to Manually configure settings and entered the FQDN of the OCS server and checked to communicate with TLS. You can also use the Automatic setting (make sure the internal and external SRV-records in DNS are entered correctly).

Step 3.

to connect the Microsoft Messenger. Make sure the domain name is entered correctly and that the SIP address space is correct (example: joachim.farla@e-office.com).

image

Friday, April 18, 2008

New plantronics discovery 925

Today we were a little bit surprised to receive the new Plantronics Discovery 925 headsets! This device is really a good looking headset especially when you on the road so much. Let`s give you some interesting features: See the video:

Features:

  • VFrame™ design captures your eye as well as your
  • voice Rechargeable case keeps you in charge
  • AudioIQ® noise control technology for clear calls
  • Three sizes of self-stabilizing ear tips let you tailor the fit
  • Quick and easy set up with Bluetooth phones
  • Available in metallic and jewel tone colors
  • Enjoy up to 5 hours talk time or 7 days standby from a single charge

image

When I dropped down my bag at home the first thing I was doing - unpack this little man ;-) The charge case is really cool you can charge your case and seperately the headset itself. And the coolest thing is that the charge case can power up your headset. I already test that and it works great. Next week we test the device with Windows Vista and Office Communications Server 2007. Pushing twice you can call-back the latest number in your call list. You can using Voice dialing. Absolutely a very nice looking device and a broad band of technical functionalities.

Pricing and Availability:
The new Plantronics Discovery 925 Bluetooth earpiece in Black Onyx (MSRP $149.99) will be available at major consumer electronics retailers, www.amazon.com and www.plantronics.com in April 2008. The Plantronics Discovery 925 in Alchemy Gold and Cerise Pink will be available in May 2008.

Tags van Technorati:

Communicator 2007 Phone Edition Update: April 2008

Microsoft did release an update package for the Office Communicator Phone Edition. The version will be upgraded to 1.0.522.71. More information available on the link below:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;949659

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

e-office greatest place to work 2008 (2nd Gold status)

"e-office is the greatest place to work 2008 (2nd place - Gold status)"

As e-office we are very happy to be the second on the list. So, get some cake! ;-)

The list is divided in Gold, Silver and Bronze.

More information (NL): here

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

MOCM and OCS Edge Server

Recently we upgraded our OCS Edge server and put the server in our DMZ-VLAN. Before the initial upgrade we already use the consolidated standard edition edge server for our federation and remote user access. The environment was working perfectly.

The last thing we had to do was making the Edge server available for Live Meeting 2007 Audio and Video Conferencing. Alan Shen, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft did an excellent job to describe how OCS uses the Audio/Video ports etc etc. Find it here. Great post. He also discuss things like security.

As an working easier company e-office uses all the critical components to work unified and simplified. Especially working with the Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile 2007 aka MCOM2007 is really great.

Before upgrading our OCS Edge Server we had several goals to accomplish:

  • the Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 which is deployed/configured by Group Policy is currently set to manual configuration. A couple of users need to enter the OCS transport settings manual. Other users do not configure their transport settings so the best option for them is Automatic configuration.

image

  • all functionality must be available (internal and external), no additional configuration is needed. So we had to make sure all the OCS components are published correctly (Group Expansion etc), please make sure you created the SRV records in DNS (internal and ofcourse external) so no errors in your MOC-icon  image
  • MOCM2007 is currently connected to 5061 (TLS). How do we configure MOCM to talk over 443 (SSL)? After some investigation there is a option to configure MOCM over port 443.

In order for external access to succeed, Communicator Mobile needs to use TLS transport. By default, port 5061 is used, but other ports, such as port 443, can be used for external access. If you configure a nondefault port for external access, the Communicator Mobile clients that connect to the server must be configured to include the port information in the server address. The correct format is <server address>:<port number>. For example, the client should be configured to use sip.contoso.com:443 if port 443 has been configured on the sip.contoso.com server.

Monday, April 14, 2008

LCS chat functionality back online!

The chat functionality is back online. Cool for people who like to chat with me. Do not hesitate and contact us by chat on this weblog or the SharePoint public internet page Microsoft Team.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Communicator Phone Deployment Guide

Not available in the Microsoft Search Engine but released and well today!

File Name: Communicator_Phone_Deployment_Guide.docx
Version: 1.0
Date Published: 4/9/2008
Language: English
Download Size: 1.3 MB

What can you expect:

Communicator Phone Edition is an intelligent IP phone designed to get the most out of Microsoft's unified communication platform. Combining advanced network voice performance, user-driven design, up-time reliability, high-quality sound, and the enhanced communication and collaboration of Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007.
This document describes the high-level steps necessary to deploy Communicator Phone Edition within an organization.

Top referring domain..

What never happens, happens a couple of days ago. http://communicationsserverteam.com is top referring domain of the Unified Communications weblog in the Netherlands.

"I would like to thank the guys of the OCS Team Blog referring to my website"

As you probably know looking for UC stuff Microsoft also launched two nice websites:

In special, thanks to Marc Wetters and Rogier Giessen our UC-developer dudes, John de Breij (technical Mitel specialist Benelux and Nordics) and of course the guys who support me the last months John Lamb, Michael Dunn, Dennis Lundtoft and Thomas Lee (OCS MVP's). Last but not least I would to thank my manager Menno Windsma (e-office).

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Creating a Click to Call Application w/Speech Server (2007)

A very nice blogpost from Michael Dunn about creating a click to call application. Absolety nice to read. Here

(MUI) Package for Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Whitepaper

File Name: MUI_Pack_Communicator_2007_White_Paper.doc
Version: 1.0
Date Published: 4/4/2008
Language: English
Download Size: 201 KB

Download

Monday, April 7, 2008

Integrate OCS in webpages using JavaScript connecting through the webservice

For a couple of months now e-office and the guys of the UC development team (Rogier Giessen and Marc Wetters) are working on very nice things to integrate with MOSS/OCS. As you probably know e-office is a working easier company and constantly looking for special MOSS/OCS projects. Especially projects where we can integrate both products. Constantly looking for innovation. Unified Communications is really the future for upcoming software. So be prepared for the 21st century.

Today, we would like to tell you something about integrate OCS in webpages using JavaScript connecting to the webservice. Special thanks to our UC-guy Rogier Giessen working on this project for the last couple of weeks. By using the Unified Communications weblog in the Netherlands we are trying to inspirate other users or customers who like to integrate MOSS and OCS. Launching our new functionalities into the community means you can also give your feedback. It's very welcome.

Scenario (case):

The integration of OCS and Sharepoint is available through the ‘rich client’. In some corporate environments or on public computers installation of the ‘rich client’ is not possible or desirable.

Public extranet websites can also be enhanced with OCS functionality. Problem can be that variation and configuration of browsers, plugins and/or firewalls can cause many problems.

Solution:
Create a lightweight set of functions in JavaScript, that communicates through the OCS webservice and generates and manages controls.
According to requirements and/or design, functions can easily be added with the use of just one small JavaScript file. (According to functionality additional images or a small HTML file need to be added)

Example application:
Integration with Sharepoint without the use of the rich client and working without using additional protocols or ports.

Desired functionality:

  • Single sign-on: without additional programs or dialogs the ocs-functionality integrates in the sharepoint-site
  • The user can see and change his state using a dropdown-list
  • The user can see the availability of other users.

The biggest technical problems we encountered

  • How do I log in and maintain logged in
  • How do I manage all sessions and incoming requests
  • What is the best way to interact with the host page and user
  • How can the interaction be manageable and, at the same time fast and independent on the type of browser/platform.

The solution for these problems:

1. the “Unified Communications AJAX SDK” helpfile is a big help in getting the requests XML-syntax right. At the moment we have the single sign-on part in development. For now we have to enter our password again to be able to generate all the other functions.

2. Using a minimal set of variables helper-functions and variables the incoming events are passed to al the needed objects. Between pages cookies are being used.

3. We have created a handful of objects based on the desired functionality. If you want to add OCS- functionality to a page, you have to initiate the functions mentioned in the items above. The desired element you want can be added with a small line of code. At the end of the article there is a sample.

4. First we had to look at the required functionality. In the process of development the re-arrangement of objects were numerous.
The way to integrate is using id’s of an element. This is independent of whether it is a hyperlink or entire section of a page. Besides the JavaScript-file with our logic file and two simple .html files (one for firing the desired functions and one for the layout of the chatwindow). And off course images for the colored bullets in front of the names and the image in the chatwindow. The size of this is 26kByte for the JavaScript, HTML and CSS and an additional 20kByte for the images)

Example:

The following html code was added to a “content editor webpart” in sharepoint.

clip_image002

Which results in the following page:

clip_image002

The possibilities seem endless with the overload of information you can send and receive from the service. The integration with a portal or content management system can be seamless. The danger is the application can get bloated.
The beautiful thing about Unified Communications is: you can use it in parallel with other clients and they work together. Just open a dedicated program like the rich- or webclient from Microsoft, or perhaps you prefer your smart phone. The OCS-Webclient is another step closer to integrating UC in an intuitive way.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Simultaneous Ringing and Dual Forking

We use simultaneous ringing and dual forking for a couple of weeks now and we constantly trying togerther with Mitel to improve the user experience. To get everything in a more clear perspective how simul/dual forking works with OCS please read the following information.

Simultaneous Ringing:

When an OC softphone is setup as Enterprise Voice without PBX integration, you can use the Simultaneous Ringing functionality on Office Communicator to “twin” a call to another destination. How it works with an example:

  • OC client with number +31306912785 with simultaneous ringing destination +3161234567 (mobile number)
  • If a call is made to the OC user, ie +31306912785, the call is offered both to the OC user AND to the mobile phone (standard GSM mobile user)
  • If a call is answered at the OC softhpone call status is changed to “in a call” BUT if the call is answered on the mobile phone it is NOT (nor will this happen in near future)

So this should be clear to end users who might expect this but as said this is not functionality delivered. The advantage of simultaneous ringing is that it is set at the user level and therefore giving flexibility to change the destination, whereas dual forking is at the active directory level.

Dual forking:

When an OC softphone is setup as Enterprise Voice with PBX integration, an OCS user can have multiple destinations setup belonging to their profile. An example:

  • OC client with number +31306912785 with forking destination 385 (IP phone on OCS)
  • If a call is made to the OC user, ie +31306912785, the call is offered both to the OC user AND to the forked number 385
  • If a call is answered at the OC softhpone call status is changed to “in a call” AND if the call is answered on the forked IP phone it will do as well
  • The call can’t be forked to an external destination, ie GSM/mobile number, so when the call is answered on the mobile the status does NOT change to “in a call” on OC

There will be some enhancements in Office Communicator Mobile where the mobile user could be a SIP connected device to OCS…..but for the time being the only way to get status changes with a non OC user is to use dual forking to a fixed IP phone. Further both Simultaneous Ringing and Forking act similar with regards to call routing, keep in mind you need to have capacity on the gateway box or SIP connected PBX to have the this working properly.

Each twinned call will have 2 active channels as OCS doesn’t do optimalisation of voice channels (like the voice world does with Qsig and DPNSS). Special thanks to John from Mitel Netherlands he is an outstanding guy in the world of Mitel. This is really a great product.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

New Communicator 2007 upgrade package KB946164

File Name:
communicator.msp

Version:
2.0.6362.61

Knowledge Base (KB) Articles:
KB946164

Date Published:
4/2/2008

Language:
English

Download Size:
4.9 MB

Download it today!

Issues that the update fixes
This update fixes the following issues:• 949894 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949894/) Presence functions are disabled in Communicator 2007 when you use a time zone that includes a negative partial hour on a client computer 
• 948733 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948733/) Error message when you try to shut down a client computer that is running Office Communicator 2007: "The data file 'Mailbox - user' was not closed properly" 
• 950492 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950492/) You cannot manually change your status from "Away" in Communicator 2007 when you use a portable computer to connect to a remote computer 
• 948159 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948159/) Error message in Communicator 2007 if the Outlook profile file name contains non-English characters: "There was a problem connecting to Microsoft Office Outlook" 
• 948737 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948737/) A Communicator 2007 user hears a long dial tone mixed with the streaming audio if the user takes a USB telephony device handset off the hook and then uses the device to stream audio from another application 
• 948120 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948120/) An audio conference or a video conference fails in Communicator 2007 when you try to invite a new participant to create a multiparty conference 

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Using UCMA to create a custom routing bot!

Using UCMA to create a custom routing bot!

Scenario (case):
A service/help desk wanted to expand their services using OCS as an extra communication channel. The big question in this case is how can we use a single point of entry for the employees who want to connect to the service desk? How can we show that the service desk is online? How do we make sure that an available service desk employee gets the question/incoming messages? How can we maintain the pool of service desk employees?

Solution:
Create a custom application using UCMA . This application registers itself as THE service desk. If one of the employees of the service desk is online/available the service desk is online/available.  If none of the employees is online the application shows itself as offline. If somebody sends a message to the service desk the message will be routed to the next available service desk employee. We wanted this to use for text messages but also for incoming video and audio calls.

Example application:
For demo purposes we created a Windows application.
In this case, if at least one of the 3 users is online/available the application is online. The colors show the availability of the different users.image
If we send a message to the application (in this case TUser4), we are routed to the next available user.
The logic to which person to route is build in the application.

 image

The biggest technical problems we encountered:

1.    How can set the presence of the application.
2.    How can we get the status of the different users in the “pool”.
3.    Even better how can subscribe to the presence of the users in the “pool”.
4.    How can we refer the incoming session to a different user.

The solution for these problems:

1.    You can set the presence using the UCMA api by creating a presence container(this is done by a SipServiceRequest) , after the presence container is created you can publish the presence ( also a SipServiceRequest) .

2.    If you want to get the status of a user in the “pool” you can send a SipServiceRequest to the user from which you want to know the presence.

3.    Subscribing to presence was really a difficult one. In this case we used a SipSubscription and a class implementing the ISipSubscriptionProcessor interface.

4.    At the moment you cannot refer a SignalingSession to a different user(OC client doesn’t support it). So there are two scenario’s. Use the application to set up a session from the application and proxy Instant messages back and forth through the application. This only works for instant message and not for audio and video calls. So the other solution is that to use TerminateWithRedirection on the incoming  SignalingSession this also works with audio and video calls.

At this moment I cannot get deeper into the exact details of the SipServiceRequest , SipSubscription , ISipSubscriptionProcessor we used in this application.

Microsoft says that it is not possible using the UCMA to get the presence or subscribe to presence. But actually it is, if you know the exact protocols to use!!!!

For more information contact sip:marc.wetters@e-office.com