ACR - Import Source Configuration

The Avaya Contact Recorder (ACR) creates audio files of calls that have occurred on your telephone system.  Providing the ACR recordings are no longer taking place, these recordings can be migrated to VFC using the ACR Import Source.

The ACR Import Source migrates both ACR-only and ACR+15.2 systems using the native ACR API.

Both encrypted and unencrypted ACR recordings can be migrated by the ACR Import Source.

For a general description of Verba Import sources, please refer to Import sources.

Creating an ACR import source

Follow the steps in ACR before creating a a new Import source:

Step 1 - Open the ACR CRS Admin Page, navigate to System > Licence from the top menu.  Ensure Search and Replay API is Enabled.

Step 2 - Open the ACR CRS Admin Page, navigate to System > Edit Layouts from the top menu.  Click Copy and create a new segment based layout for the migration.  Ensure Call Start Range Start Time is the only field in the left vertical column.  Then click the checkbox and pencil in each of the horizontal column headings, selecting Start Time, Duration, UDFs, INUMs, Agents, Services, Skills and Other Parties from the field chooser popup. 

Step 3 - Open the ACR CRS Admin Page, navigate to System > Manage Users from the top menu.  Click Add User and under roles select May use external APIs and ensure the newly created layout above is ticked in the Search/Replay layout(s) available panel.  In the Access rights over recordings/sessions/devices owned by pane, ensure the new API user has rights to search for recordings to be migrated in the new layout.

Follow the steps in Verba to create a new Import source:

Step 1 - Open the Verba Web interface then select Data > Import Sources from the top menu

Step 2 - Click on the Add New Import Source link on the top right

Step 3 - Complete the configuration according to the requirements in the following table

Step 4 - Click Save to save the settings

Lua CDR Customisation

As historical recordings may include changes in field layout, data anomalies caused by software bugs and ultimately may not be required due to business re-organisation, embedded Lua scripting has been provided to control the migration process.

Use of a Lua script is optional, if not required, the Lua CDR Customisation field should be left empty.

For more information about Lua, refer to https://www.lua.org

Lua CDR Customisation requires the use of a template:

• The srcValues table first item value is "xml" and the second item value is one record of the xml string returned by the ACR Layout query.  This query may return many records and the Lua Customisation script is called for each.
• The dstValues table lists the fields which the Lua CDR Customisation Script may return.  Each value to be returned must replace the name of the field passed in the dstValues table.  

function compute_cdr(srcValues,dstValues)
   return dstValues
end

Presently, the field names are hardcoded as follows to match the ACR Template, but they could be generic in the future.

inumIndex = 1
startedatIndex = 2
durationIndex = 3
udfsIndex = 4
otherpartiesIndex = 5
ownersIndex = 6
switchcallidIndex = 7
directionIndex = 8
skillsIndex = 9
agentsIndex = 10
servicesIndex = 11
srcNumberIndex = 12
dstNumberIndex = 13

In order to parse the xml string passed in field 2 of the srcValues table, it is advisable to use a Lua XML parsing library such as Xml2Lua https://github.com/manoelcampos/xml2lua

Access to xml2Lua is then possible using this line of Lua:

package.path = "C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Professional/vcpkg/packages/lua_x64-windows-static/xml2lua161/?.lua"

Xml may then be parsed within the Lua CDR Customisation script using the following pattern:

local xml2lua = require("xml2lua")
local handler = require("xmlhandler.tree")
handler=handler:new()

local parser = xml2lua.parser(handler)

parser:parse(srcValues[xmlIndex])

local results = handler.root.results
if #results.result > 1 then
results = results.result
end

-- Iterate through the XML nodes/values
for i, p in pairs(results) do

for icm,cm in pairs(p.field) do

callMetadataName = cm._attr.name
callMetadataValue = cm[1]

if (callMetadataName == "udfs") then
udfs = callMetadataValue
end

While testing the Lua CDR Customisation script, it is possible to write to a local log using the following Lua function or if preferred in a self-contained single-step debug environment using https://studio.zerobrane.com/

function log(message)
file = io.open("C:/Program Files/Verba/work/cdrimport/luaCustomCDR.log", "a")

-- sets the default output file as test.lua
io.output(file)

-- appends a word test to the last line of the file
io.write(os.date("!%c") .. " - " .. message .. "\n")

-- closes the open file
io.close(file)
end

Separate libraries may be developed in their own file to aid readability and then referred to by the main Lua CDR Customisation Script, for example

lib = require "DemoLib"

File: "DemoLib.lua"

local demo_mod = {} -- The main table

function demo_mod.Split(s, sep)
local fields = {}
local sep = sep or " "
local pattern = string.format("([^%s]+)", sep)
string.gsub(s, pattern, function(c) fields[#fields + 1] = c end)
return fields
end

return demo_mod

Import Policy Configuration

Follow the steps below to configure the Data Import action:

Step 1 - In the Verba web interface, navigate to Data > Data Management Policies

Step 2 - Click on the Add New Data Management Policy button at the top-right corner of the page

Step 3 - For the action, select Data Import

Step 4 - Under Available Import Sources, select the Import Source that you created, then click on the Add button just below the text field

Step 5 - Configure the policy details, based on the information that is shown in the configuration items summary table below

Step 6 - Set up how frequently the Import should be run in the Scheduling section

Step 7 - Click on Save

Types of alerts raised by the ACR Import Source

Migration Status Reporting

No report files are generated, however at the end of each batch, a notification alert is raised containing details of recordings migrated from ACR into VFC.

ACR metadata

The system captures the following metadata specific to ACR recordings. These fields are available through the standard and the ACR specific custom metadata template.