Set up opening hours on queues

This information is primarily for administrators and/or people who manage Zylinc solutions

Zylinc automatically opens and closes voice queues and chat queues, based on dates, times, and weekdays.

These exercises will help you understand how queue opening hours work, and how you can manage them.

The exercises are based on opening hours for voice queues, but the same principles apply for chat queues.

Carry out the exercises in a test environment. When you've familiarized yourself with how opening hours work, you can make changes on your real Zylinc solution.

When you set up opening hours, its' useful to view if a queue is currently open or closed.

If you have administrator access to Zylinc Windows Application Server, you can use PowerShell to show the tail of queue manager log, running in real-time, and set up a filter, that only returns the lines in the log file, that contain the phrase is now. Those lines display information about the queues as they open and close.

On Zylinc Windows Application Server:

  1. Make a copy of the following PowerShell commands. Include the lines that begin with # when you copy.

    Copy 
    #
    $latest_queue_manager_log=dir "C:\ProgramData\Zylinc\QueueManager" -filter "QueueManager*.log*" -rec|Sort{[datetime]$_.lastwritetime} -desc|Select-Object -First 1
    Get-Content $latest_queue_manager_log.fullname -wait|where{$_ -match "is now"}
    #

  2. Open PowerShell and right-click inside the PowerShell window to paste the script code into the window.

  3. You should see lines that contain queue names, and the text is now open, or is now closed. The information will update when you save changes to opening hours in the Administration Portal.

  4. Leave the PowerShell window open. You’re going to use it later.

The window will keep updating until the log gets full, and a new log file with a different file name is created. If that happens, you can repeat the steps to get a new window that works again.

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Voice Queues

  2. Click the OPENING HOURS icon for a queue

The easiest way to understand the opening hours page is to read it from the bottom to the top.

First, Zylinc evaluates Exceptions on queue at the bottom of the page. If Zylinc finds, for example, three exceptions that are valid right now, the one closest to the top of the box wins.

After that, Zylinc evaluates Exceptions from Schema in the middle of the page. If Zylinc finds, for example, three schema exceptions that are valid right now, the one closest to the top of the box wins.

The last thing that Zylinc evaluates is Opening Hours. The weekly plan that you can see in the top of the page wins, if Zylinc didn’t find neither an exception on queue nor an exception from schema.

Create an Open exception, All day, for today:

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Voice Queues

  2. Click the OPENING HOURS icon for a queue

  3. In Exceptions on queue, select Open

  4. Click Date and select today’s date

  5. In Time select All day

  6. Click the right arrow icon to add the exception to the queue. Note that [Op] next to the date indicates that the queue will be open.

Create a Close exception, All day, for the date of today:

  1. In Exceptions on queue, clear Open

  2. Click Date and select today’s date

  3. In Time select All day

  4. Click the right arrow icon to add the exception to the queue. Note that [Cl] next to the date indicates that the queue will be closed.

Place the PowerShell script window next to the Administration Portal window so that you can view both of them.

In the Administration Portal, move the exceptions up and down. When you click Save, use the PowerShell window to watch how the queue opens and closes. Note that the first exception that Zylinc finds will always win.

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Calendars

  2. Click Add Calendar

  3. In Name, enter Holidays

  4. Click Save

  5. In Entries, clear Open

  6. In Entries, select All Day

  7. Click Date, select 24 December, and add the date to the calendar

  8. The date appears in the list. Note that [Cl] next to the date indicates the queue will be closed.

  9. Add 25 and 26 December as well

Most calendar applications can export a calendar to ICS format. You can import such an ICS file and use it as a holiday calendar.

  1. Download and unzip United_Kingdom_Holidays.zip

  2. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Calendar

  3. Click Import Calendar

  4. In Filename, select the unzipped file United_Kingdom_Holidays.ics

  5. In Range, select All Entries

  6. In Calendar Name, enter UK Holidays

  7. Click Import

  8. Verify that UK Holidays is visible and contains 111 entries.

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Calendar

  2. Click Holidays

  3. In Entries, clear Open

  4. In Entries, select All Day

  5. Click Date, select today’s date, and add the date to the calendar

  6. The date appears in the list. Note that [Cl] next to the date indicates the queue will be closed.

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Voice Queues

  2. Click the OPENING HOURS icon for a queue

  3. In Exceptions on queue, remove all exceptions

  4. In Exceptions from Schema, add Holidays

  5. Watch the queue open and close as you add or remove the schema exceptions and save your changes.

  6. In Exceptions from Schema, add Holidays

  7. Click Save

If you make changes to the calendar itself, you’ll notice a delay of up to one minute before changes take effect. This is intentional and helps save system resources.

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Calendars

  2. Click Holidays

  3. Remove the Close exception for today’s date and click Save

  4. Wait up to one minute and watch the queue open