Contacts from Microsoft Active Directory

Microsoft Active Directory

In order to be able to read data from Active Directory, you require a user with the appropriate permissions. You could use the Active Directory Administrator for this purpose. However, as the pascom phone system needs to save the access credentials for the automated future imports and the the administrator as significantly more than the required permissions, it is advisable to create a user account for the pascom PBX:

If you use mobydick as the username, this will be automatically detected by the LDAP filter during the import process and will not be automatically added as a pascom phone system user.

Assign a password for the pascom user and select password never expires. The pascom PBX can then authenticate itself by the Active Directory with every execution of the connector sync. If you wish to change this password, you must change the password in both Active Directory and within the pascom connector profile:

“Telephone Book from AD” Connector Profile

Create a new connector profile by logging into the pascom Web UI and navigating to Settings > Connector > Add.

Select the option Telephone book from AD and enter the following information:

Field	Description
Name	Connector Name
AD Domain	Active Directory Domain Name
AD Server	Host server IP or DNS name
Enable SSL	YES: Secure SSL connection to Active Directory. NO: Connect to Active Directory without SSL.
Username and Password	The pascom user previously added to AD for authentication purposes

After saving, the template can be modified according to requirements under the tab Basic Data.

Basic Data

Under the basic data tab, you can configure your LDAP connection more precisely or update the previously configured settings.

Field	Description
Title	Connector profile name (automatically filled)
Mode	Create and update records. Remove missing records from previous imports.: (default setting) Imports only new phone book entries and compares updated entries, old entries will be removed. Create and update records: Imports only new phone book entries and compares updated entries. No entries will be removed.
URI	URI to Active Directory (automatically filled)
Base DN	Base DN to AD entries (automatically filled)
Username and Password	AD authentication credentials for the added pascom user (automatically filled)
Search Filter	AD search filter for filtering the destination telephone book read folders (automatically filled)
Comments	Serves as a documentation / description for the connector

Pre Filter

Per default, the template will import all users from the Active Directory. Using the Pre Filter tab you can restrict the import according to certain factors e.g. company-phonebook is populated. Simply replace “return array_key_exists(‘displayName’, $row);” with the following code:

# only import contacts with membership
if (!array_key_exists("memberOf", $row)) return false;

$groups = $row["memberOf"];
# turn a single group membership (string) into a list of memberships (array)
if (!is_array($groups)){
  $groups = array($row["memberOf"]);
}

# always search in a list of memberships
return preg_grep('/company-phonebook/i', $groups);

Telephone Book Fields in AD

Active Directory	pascom	Description
General > Display Name	Display Name	Display names appear on phone screens and within the pascom client call logs. Compulsory field.
Phone number > Private	Telephone	The contact phone number.
General > First name	First name	Contact’s forename.
General > Last name	Last name	Contact’s surname.
Organisation > Company	Organisation	Contact’s company.
Phone number > Fax	Fax	Conctact’s fax number.
General > E-mail	Email	Contact’s E-mail address.
Phone number > Mobile	Mobile	Contact mobile phone number.

These fields are only suggestions for the template. You can add and remove fields as required or if necessary completely modify the structure to match your needs.

Test and Activate the Import Process

After you have finalised your configuration, you can test the connector profile to determine which datasets will be imported using the Save and Simulate button. Once you are satisfied with the results, it is possible to either perform a one off import using the Action > Import Now option or automate the import to be performed at regular intervals by clicking the Automate button.

Individualised Display Names

The pascom telephone book display name is displayed for in- and outbound calls, desktop VoIP phone displays as well as in your pascom UC client. Should you wish to customised / change display names because the stored display name in Active Directory does not match your needs or requirements of your pascom phone system, it is possible to individually populate this field.

Where the information originates from in Active Directory can be found under the tab Variables. Per default, the display name (displayName) is taken directly from Active Directory.

Variable	Source
displayname	return $row['displayName'];

However, as the display name within your pascom phone system may not exceed 80 characters, it may be necessary to shorted the display name from Active Directory or, if desired, be read from different fields.

In the following example, the display name from Active Directory will be:

• Checked for length
• Automatically populated using the users' Surname and Forename (Givenname) should the AD display name not have been set
• Shortenedd to the maximum allowed 80 characters.

To do this, under the Variables tab, the displayname Source will be replaced with the following content:

# check if displayname is empty
if (!empty($row['displayName'])) {

  # check if displayname has more than 80 chars and cut it if necessary
  if (strlen($row['displayName']) <= 80) {
    return $row['displayName'];
  }
  # displayname will be cut from 0 to 80 chars
  return substr($row['displayName'],0,80);
}

# if displayname is empty use a combination of "Surname" and "Givenname" 
# and also cut it if it's longer than 80 chars
return substr($row['Surname'] . ', ' . $row['GivenName'],0,80);

Instead of forename and surname, it is of course also possible to read any other Active Directory field and use this as the display name source.

Optional Modifications

Do you want to make changes to source variables or the Connector structure? Then follow the links below to the appropriate instructions:

[Variable Assignment]( https://www.pascom.net/doc/en/connector/variables-assignment/ )
[Variables structure]( https://www.pascom.net/doc/en/connector/variables-structure/ )