Docs / Devices
The user portal
The user portal is where the people on the phone system look after their own phone: they call from the browser, set do not disturb and forwarding, listen to voicemail, see their recent calls and look after their own sign-in. Receptionists get a switchboard there, and call centre agents their queue controls. This chapter walks through every part of it, for you and for the people you hand it to.
The portal is at https://<server>/portal, for example https://pbx.example.com/portal/.
Giving someone a portal sign-in
A person signs in with an e-mail address and a password linked to their extension. To create one:
- In the console, open Extensions & numbers and the person's extension.
- On the User portal card, check the e-mail address (it is filled in from the extension) and click Create portal sign-in.
- Onyx shows the Address, E-mail and a new Password. Click Copy sign-in details and send them to the person. The password is not shown again; the person can change it after signing in.
Once the sign-in exists, the card shows who Signs in as and their Last sign-in. To reset a forgotten password, use New password on Sign-in accounts (see console). There is no "forgot password" link in the portal: people ask their administrator.
Signing in
- Open the portal address. The page asks for an E-mail address and Password; click Sign in.
- If the person has two-factor sign-in turned on, the page asks for the Code from their authenticator app, or one of their recovery codes, and Continue. Back starts over.
What a person sees depends on their account:
- A person linked to an extension gets the portal.
- An account that is not linked to an extension sees "Your account is not linked to an extension yet. Ask your administrator." An administrator account also gets Open the admin console there.
- An administrator who also has an extension gets the portal plus an Admin console button in the header.
The header shows the tenant's name, the colour themes (Slate Ops, Cut Obsidian, Swiss Precision, Tactical SOC and Daylight; the choice is remembered in that browser), the person's name and extension (with "no 2FA" when two-factor sign-in is off), and the sign-out button. Clicking the name opens Sign-in and security.
The softphone
The Softphone card at the top calls from the browser as the person's own extension: dial pad, Call, Hang up, Mute, Hold and Transfer, with Answer and Decline for incoming calls. It rings together with the person's desk phone. How it works, what its badge means and what it needs from the network are in softphones.
My calls: do not disturb and forwarding
The My calls card shows how many of the person's phones are online ("1 of 2 phones online") and lets them change where their calls go:
- Do not disturb: callers hear busy or go to voicemail, and no phone rings.
- Forward every call to: every call goes to this number instead. It can be an extension, or an outside number as you would dial it from a desk phone.
- When I am busy, forward to: where a call goes when the person is already on the phone. Empty means voicemail.
- When I do not answer, forward to: where a call goes when nobody answers in time. Empty means voicemail.
Click Save: "Saved. Your calls follow the new settings right away." The same settings can be changed from a desk phone with feature codes, as the card reminds: *76 toggles do not disturb, *72 followed by a number forwards everything, *73 stops it (see features). Whatever was set last, from either place, is what applies.
Forwarding to an outside number makes an outside call through the tenant's outbound routes (see numbers).
Voicemail
The Voicemail card lists the person's messages, newest first, with the count of new ones in the title.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| From | The caller's number and name, with New on unheard messages |
| When | Date and time, and how long ago |
| Length | Seconds |
| Listen | A player for the message |
- Press play to listen. Playing a new message marks it as heard, the same as listening on a phone.
- Delete removes a message (click again to confirm).
- The refresh button fetches the list again; it does not refresh by itself.
People can also listen on a phone: dial *97 from their own phone. Greetings and the voicemail PIN are changed from the phone's voicemail menu too; the portal has no greeting recorder yet. If voicemail is turned off for the extension, the card says "Voicemail is turned off for your extension." (Voicemail, its PIN and voicemail to e-mail are set on the extension, see extensions.)
Recent calls
The Recent calls card lists the person's calls: made from any of their phones, or rung to their extension.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| When | Date and time, and how long ago |
| Call | "To" and the number dialled, or "From" and the caller |
| Result | Answered, Not answered (an outgoing call nobody took) or Missed (an incoming one) |
| Talk time | Minutes and seconds of conversation |
The card shows the latest 25; Show all lists up to the latest 100. It refreshes after every browser softphone call. The full history is in the console's Call history (see calls-reports). Call recordings are not shown in the portal; administrators find them under Recordings (see recordings).
The switchboard (operators)
A receptionist or operator gets a Switchboard card when their extension is marked as an operator (the Operator box on the extension's page in the console). It refreshes every two seconds and shows:
- a tile for every other enabled user extension in the tenant: number, name and Free, Ringing, On a call, Do not disturb or Offline, with who they are talking to and for how long, or "Forwarded to" a number;
- the operator's own calls, on any of their phones;
- parked calls, with the slot, caller and time;
- each queue's waiting callers, the longest wait and how many agents are free.
What the operator can do:
- Transfer a call: drag one of your calls onto a person's tile. Or click Transfer on the call and then click the person. Or type a number next to the call and click Send. The caller goes straight there (a blind transfer) and your part ends.
- Take a ringing call: click Take this call on a tile that is ringing. The call comes to you instead.
- Take a parked call: click the arrow on a parked call.
- Hang up one of your calls.
The switchboard steers calls; the audio is on the operator's phone, a desk phone or the browser softphone. If the phone system cannot be reached the card says "The phone system is not reachable right now." More about running a reception desk, and conference rooms, is in conferences.
My queues (call centre agents)
A person who answers for one or more call queues gets a My queues card. It lists each queue with its number and name, and shows "(always in)" for a queue they are a fixed member of, "(logged out)" where they are not taking calls, and how many callers are waiting.
- Log in and Log out start and stop queue calls for the queues they log in to. The button is only there when at least one queue lets them log in and out.
- Pause stops queue calls for a while without logging out (for a break or paperwork); Resume brings them back. Calls to their own extension still ring.
These do the same as *45 and *46 on a desk phone. Queues, fixed and logged-in agents, and the wallboard are explained in call-centre.
Contacts and the company directory
The portal page has no phone book of its own. The company directory (every number in the tenant with who is online, and the outside contacts from Contacts) is used by the Onyx Softphone apps, and desk phones get it as their phone book (see contacts and desk-phones).
Sign-in and security
At the bottom, Sign-in and security has two cards.
Two-factor sign-in
Two-factor sign-in asks for a code from an authenticator app as well as the password, so a stolen password alone is not enough. Portal users choose for themselves whether to use it; a server can require it only for administrators (see security).
To turn it on:
- Click Set it up.
- Scan the code with an authenticator app (Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator, 1Password, Authy and the like). If you cannot scan it, enter the key shown under "Cannot scan?" (Copy the key copies it).
- Type the 6-digit code the app shows into Code from the app and click Turn on.
- Onyx shows ten recovery codes. Each works once, in place of a code from the app. Save them (Copy the codes), then click I have saved them. They are not shown again.
When it is on, the card shows how many recovery codes are left, and warns when fewer than three remain. With a current Code from the app:
- New recovery codes replaces the old ones.
- Move to a new phone sets up a new authenticator.
- Turn off switches it off; it also needs the Password.
Signed in with a recovery code, the person is told how many are left. Someone who has lost both their phone and their recovery codes asks an administrator to reset two-factor sign-in on Sign-in accounts (Reset 2FA).
Two-factor sign-in covers the portal only. The Onyx Softphone apps cannot take the code yet, so a person who turns it on cannot sign in to them (see softphones).
Password
To change the password, fill in Current password and New password (at least 10 characters) and click Change password. The person stays signed in on this browser and is signed out everywhere else, including the Onyx Softphone apps: sign them in again with the new password.