Overview

Webex Calling manipulates digits before routing a call using translation patterns. The system applies these translation patterns to outbound and redirected calls, including transfers and forwards. However, translation patterns are not applied to the emergency, repair calls, and call center call backs. When applying translation patterns, patterns at the location level take precedence over those at the organization level.

  • Organization level: Defines patterns that are applied for calls within the organization. You can configure a maximum of 1000 patterns per organization.
  • Location level: Defines patterns that are applied only to calls within a specific location. You can configure a maximum of 500 patterns per location.

Here are some of the use cases where translation patterns can be used:

  • Operator dialing: At each location, if user dials 0 (or any digit), the call routes to an on-site operator.
  • Short number dialing: Allows you to dial abbreviated or short numbers instead of full-length telephone numbers. Organizations or telephone systems commonly uses short number dialing to simplify and speed up the dialing process. The system modifies and translates the dialed number to the appropriate number and route the call. For example, dial *88* to make a call to the IT help desk.
  • General digit translation with wildcards: Allows substitution or translation of specific digit or pattern in a phone number. Wildcards are special characters that act as a placeholder for a digit or string of digits. With this use case, you can define rules that specify how certain digits are replaced from dialed number.

The following allows you to navigate to the translation patterns configuration page:

  1. From the customer view in https://admin.webex.com, go to Services and select Calling.
  2. Select Call Routing, and then select Translation Pattern.
  3. The page displays any configured translation patterns including Name, Matching Pattern, Replacement Pattern, Level, and Location details.
  4. Enter the name or matching pattern in the Search to populate the page with the associated search results.
  5. Choose All Translation Patterns or a specific location from the drop-down to populate the respective patterns in the page. You can also choose Organization for the drop-down that filters to show only the organization level patterns.

Create a translation pattern

Create a translation pattern that can manipulate digits before routing an outgoing call.

1

Click Create Translation Pattern.

2

Choose the level at which you want to create the translation pattern:

  1. Organization level

  2. Location: Select a location from the drop-down list.


 

Location level patterns have precedence over organization level patterns.

3

Enter a unique Name within a location or organization. It allows a maximum of up to 50 characters.

4

Enter a unique Matching Pattern within a location or organization. Follow the constraints while setting the pattern:

  • Allows up to 50 characters.
  • Allowed characters are 0-9, *, #, and +.
  • If a '+' character is present, it must be the first character except the group opening character '('.
  • Allowed wildcard characters are:
    • “X”—indicates a single digit with the 0–9 range.
    • “!”—indicates a sequence of one or more digits. You can only define this character as the last character except the group closing character ')' in the pattern.
    • [ ]—indicates a range of numbers such as 1–3 or 4–8, or it can be a sequence of digits like 1, 5, 7, 9.
    • ( )—indicates a group. You can define multiple groups.
5

Enter Replacement Pattern. Follow the constraints while setting the pattern:

  • Allows up to 50 characters.
  • Allowed characters are 0-9, *, #, and +.
  • If a '+' character is present, it must be the first character.
  • Allowed group wildcard character is $. Includes a matched group using $<group index>. For example: $1.

    The $0 matched group is always available for use as an implicit group. It doesn't correspond to a defined group in the Matching Pattern and always represents the entire matched number.

    For example, with a matching pattern of XXXX and a replacement pattern of 123$0, dialing 4567 yields a translated number of 1234567.

6

(Optional) To test the pattern that you have configured, enter sample number to translate. Click Test Pattern.

  • Allows up to 50 characters.
  • Allowed characters are 0-9, *, #, and +.
  • If a '+' character is present, it must be the first character except the group opening character '('.
If the entered sample number doesn't match with the matching pattern, then the test pattern result displays an error message.

For example, if the configured Matching Pattern is 0, and the entered sample number is 7890, then Pattern doesn't match error message is displayed.

But, if the sample number matches with the pattern, then the result displays the translated pattern.

For example, if the configured Matching Pattern is 0, and the entered sample number is 0, then the number is translated to the configured Replacement Pattern. The Pattern matched. 0 is translated to 1234 success message is displayed.

7

Click Create.


 

The Test Pattern is only to perform a basic testing of the matching and replacement patterns in order to observe the result of a single match for the pattern. You can use Verify call routing feature in the Control Hub to verify all the applied translation patterns.

View or edit translation pattern

You can view or edit the translation patterns that are created and are displayed in the list.

1

In the translation pattern page, select an individual translation pattern from the list.

2

In the View/Edit Translation Pattern screen, you can view and edit the selected pattern details.


 
You cannot change the level selection while viewing or editing the pattern.
3

You can edit the name, matching pattern, or replacement pattern.

4

(Optional) To test the modified pattern, enter sample number to translate. Click Test Pattern.

  • Allows up to 50 characters.
  • Allowed characters are 0-9, *, #, and +.
  • If a '+' character is present, it must be the first character except the group opening character '('.
For results, see Create translation pattern section.
5

Click Save.


 

The Test Pattern is only to perform a basic testing of the matching and replacement patterns in order to observe the result of a single match for the pattern. You can use Verify call routing feature in the Control Hub to verify all the applied translation patterns..

Delete translation pattern

1

In the translation pattern page, select an individual translation pattern from the list.

2

Click in the Actions column, and select Delete to delete a pattern from the list.

3

(Optional) You can check the check boxes and choose one or more patterns from the list. Click Delete icon.

Bulk manage translation pattern

With bulk management, you can add or modify translation patterns up to 10,000 patterns at a time. Supports bulk export and import of patterns.

1

Go to Translation Pattern page and click Bulk Manage to modify translation patterns.

2

In the manage translation patterns screen, from the drop-down choose All Translation Patterns, a specific Location, or Organization. Click Download data and download the current .csv data. Edit the digit patterns in the spreadsheet.

3

(Optional) Click Download .csv template to download a blank .csv template. Add the digit patterns as required.

4

Edit the following columns in the CSV template for bulk management of translation patterns:


 
Never remove columns and headers from the CSV file when preparing. But, you can clear values from columns you don’t wish to modify. During import any blank cells in CSV means "no change".
Table 1. Bulk Management CSV Template
ColumnsDescription

Name

Name of the translation pattern

Level

Defined at organization or location level

Location Name

For location level, the location name column specifies the name of the location for which the translation pattern is defined

For organization level, the column is blank for a translation pattern.

Matching Pattern

Specifies the matching pattern

Replacement Pattern

Specifies the replacement pattern

5

Drag and drop your .csv file or click choose a file to upload the modified .csv file. You can upload the modified .csv file to apply all the changes made to the translation patterns.

6

Click Upload. On successful upload, the translation patterns from the csv file are added to the list.

Pattern match

The system matches the outbound dial number with the configured pattern and selects the best match to process the call further.


 

The system scans for matching patterns when translating a dialed number. If a match is found, it replaces the pattern with a replacement pattern and scans for matching patterns with the newly replaced number. This process continues until a maximum of 10 iterations to ensure accurate translation, or until no further matches are found.

Following are the pattern expansion algorithm for weighting the pattern choice:

  • Exact digit = 1

  • Digit range = number of digits in the range

  • X wildcard = 10

  • ! = 10 for each digit after the prefix match

For example, if the dial number is 123456, then based on the pattern expansion criteria, the expansion for the pattern 12X[0-5]! is 6000 (1 * 1 * 10 * 6 * 10^2). If there are no other patterns with lesser expansion weight than 6000, then 12X[0-5]! is selected as the matching pattern.

For multiple matches, the best matching pattern is determined based on the following rules:

  • Selects the pattern with the lesser number of possible expansions.

    For example, the dial number 1234 matches with two patterns P1: XXXX and P2: 123!, then compute the possible expansions for the patterns P1: 10*10*10*10= 10^4 and P2: 1*1*1*10=10. The number of possible expansions for P2 is lesser than P1. Based on the rule, P2 is selected as the best pattern.

  • If the number of possible expansions for a pattern are the same, then a wildcard precedence of the pattern is compared with a precedence order of exact digit, digit range, 'X' wildcard, and '!' wildcard.

    For example, the dial number 1234 matches with two patterns P1: 123X and P2: X234, then compute the possible expansions for the patterns P1: 1*1*1*10 = 10 and P2: 10*1*1*1 = 10. The number of possible expansions for both P1 and P2 are the same. But P1 has an exact digit match at digit position 1 while P2 has wildcard X. Based on the rule, P1 is selected as the best pattern.

  • If the number of possible expansions and wildcard precedence is the same, then the string in the patterns compared and the lexicographically lesser pattern is selected.

    For example, the dial number 1234 matches with two patterns P1: 1[0-5]3X and P2: 1[1-6]3X, then compute the possible expansions for the patterns P1: 1*6*1*10 = 60 and P2: 1*1*6*10 = 60. The number of possible expansions and wildcard precedence is the same, but P1 is lexicographically lesser than P2. Based on the rule, P1 is selected as the best pattern.

Translation pattern examples

Name

Matching Pattern

Replacement Pattern

Example

DigitExtension

XXXX

+91805555$1

0123 is translated to +918055550123

(Translates 4-digit extensions)

Operator

0

+918011223344

0 is translated to +918011223344

(Translates 0 to operator)

Site1Prefix

6222(XXXX)

+91804444$1

62220246 is translated to +918044440246

(Translates numbers with on-net prefix (6) and Site1 code (222))

DigitRange

[3-7]XXXX

+9180333$0

54567 is translated to +918033354567

(Translates 5-digit extensions starting with the digit range between 3-7 inclusive)

PrefixAdd

[2-9]X[2-9]XXXXXXX

91$0

8055552222 is translated to 918055552222

(Adds a country prefix in front of a 10-digit number with restrictions on the first and third digits)

ImplicitGrp

80[2-9]XXXXXXX

91$0

8036666666 is translated to 918036666666

(Translates 10 digits starting with 80 and thrid digit between 2 to 9)

VariableLen

8042!

800

80423 is translated to 800

(Match 8042 followed by 1 or more digits)

VarLenGrp

80(XXXX!)

+9180$1

8035353535 is translated to +918035353535

MultiGrp

80(XX)333(XXX)

+9180$1333$2

8012333456 is translated into +918012333456


 

The call history on Webex App or deskphone displays the translated number and not the dialed number. For more information, see View call history.