7.3.7. Alias Banks¶
Alias Banks is a feature that lets you to modify incoming metadata information to make it easier to understand, or to name channels on the fly as new calls come in, to move metadata from one field to another. It is useful for sites with complex needs, but also for simple tasks like taking calls that come in on one physical channel and assign them a resource name based on their talk group.
7.3.7.1. Add Alias Bank¶
Click this button to add a new Alias bank. Each field has a tool tip in a ? icon. Hover your mouse pointer over the icon to see an explanation of the field.
- Alias Bank Name
The Name of the Alias Bank
- Output Formatter
This field is used to format the output of the alias. By default it is {{ALIAS}}, which passes on the output as is.
- Enabled
Checkbox to turn on or off this Alias Bank
- Alias From → Alias To
This Alias Bank will take metadata from Field 1 and put it in Field 2. It can also be used to take metadata from Field 1, process it, and put the updated version back into the same Field 1. These pull down menus have a search bar at the top to assist at sites with many custom fields configured.
- Only Apply Alias If
This field lets the alias be predicated on a condition.
=exact match~=contains this string!~=does not contain this exact string!=is not this exact string
- Applied Channels
Which boards and physical channel numbers will this alias apply to. The field can contain * for all channels on this board, a comma delimited list of numbers, or ranges with a hyphen, or a mixture of these such as “1,4,7,9-12,15”
- Alias Rules
These fields can accept Regex processing to take incoming metadata and format it into a new more readable format. See the examples below for details.
Note
If CALLDIRECTION is one of the fields involved in aliasing, please use ‘i’ instead of ‘Inbound’, ‘o’ instead of ‘Outbound’ and ‘u’ instead of ‘Unknown’.
When editing a board on the Recording Interfaces page, there is an Alias Banks tab that will show any Alias Banks relevant to the channels of the board being edited. You can jump directly to any Alias Bank in the list by clicking its name.
7.3.7.2. Alias Bank Examples¶
7.3.7.2.1. Scenario 1¶
A common use case for Alias Banks is for Radio Integrations where the Radio system sends a numeric RadioID showing which radio is talking, but does not provide Alias information. If the RadioID is put in a metadata field called RadioID, and we want to put a corresponding Alias in a field called RadioAlias. Lets say RadioID 100 should map to B.Smith, 101 to R.Jones, and 102 to J.Doe.
If you want to leave RadioAlias blank for RadioIDs with no match, here is how to configure it:
Source: {{ALIAS}}
Alias From: RadioID
Alias To: RadioAlias
Only Apply Alias If: n/a
Applied Channels: (as needed)
Alias Rules:
Source: 100 Alias: B.Smith
Source: 101 Alias: R.Jones
Source: 102 Alias: J.Doe
7.3.7.2.2. Scenario 2¶
If instead you want to put “Unknown” into RadioAlias for RadioIDs with no match, put a wild card match as the final rule, to catch all other options:
Output Formatter: {{ALIAS}}
Alias From: RadioID
Alias To: RadioAlias
Only Apply Alias If: n/a
Applied Channels: (as needed)
Alias Rules:
Source: 100 Alias: B.Smith
Source: 101 Alias: R.Jones
Source: 102 Alias: J.Doe
Source: * Alias: Unknown
7.3.7.2.3. Scenario 3¶
If instead of adding the Alias to RadioAlias, you want to change the RadioID to the Alias, do the same as scenario 2 and just change the Alias To to be RadioID as well:
Output Formatter: {{ALIAS}}
Alias From: RadioID
Alias To: RadioID
Only Apply Alias If: n/a
Applied Channels: (as needed)
Alias Rules:
Source: 100 Alias: B.Smith
Source: 101 Alias: R.Jones
Source: 102 Alias: J.Doe
Source: * Alias: Unknown
7.3.7.2.4. Scenario 4¶
If you wanted the RadioID field to contain “RadioAlias (RadioID)” eg. “BSmith (101)”, with “Unknown (135)” for unmapped values (such as 135) for a given Radio ID.
Output Formatter: {{ALIAS}} ({{SOURCE}})
Alias From: RadioID
Alias To: RadioID
Only Apply Alias If: n/a
Applied Channels: (as needed)
Alias Rules:
Source: 100 Alias: B.Smith
Source: 101 Alias: R.Jones
Source: 102 Alias: J.Doe
Source: * Alias: Unknown
7.3.7.2.5. Scenario 5¶
If a data integration provided a talk group name in a field called TalkGroup, and you wanted to set the ChannelName for each call to ‘TG_{Talkgroup_Name}’, eg “TG_FIRE1”, here is how you would configure it:
Output Formatter: TG_{{ALIAS}}
Alias From: TalkGroup
Alias To: ChannelName
Only Apply Alias If: n/a
Applied Channels: (as needed)
Alias Rules:
Source: REGEX{{.*}} Alias: REGEX{{$0}}
7.3.7.2.6. Scenario 6¶
Suppose you wanted to set CALLTYPE to ‘RADIO EMERGENCY’ if the ChannelName for a call was ‘EMERG1’ or ‘EMERG2’, but otherwise wanted to not modify it. This would require two Alias Maps, one for each ChannelName:
EMERG1:
Output Formatter: {{ALIAS}}
Alias From: CallType
Alias To: CallType
Only Apply Alias If: ChannelName = EMERG1
Applied Channels: (as needed)
Alias Rules:
Source: * Alias: RADIO EMERGENCY
and EMERG2:
Output Formatter: {{ALIAS}}
Alias From: CallType
Alias To: CallType
Only Apply Alias If: ChannelName = EMERG2
Applied Channels: (as needed)
Alias Rules:
Source: * Alias: RADIO EMERGENCY
7.3.7.2.7. Scenario 7¶
If, for example, you had a T1 with DID (so every extension has its own phone number), every outgoing call will have CallerID identifying the outgoing line, and every inbound call will have DTMF indicating the same. If you wanted to set the ChannelName to an Alias based on the DTMF For Outbound Calls and CallerID on Inbound calls so that 555-1212 would get a channelname of “Main Office” and 555-1234 would get “Records Department”, here is how you would configure that:
Outbound Calls:
Output Formatter: {{ALIAS}}
Alias From: CallerID
Alias To: ChannelName
Only Apply Alias If: n/a
Applied Channels: (as needed)
Alias Rules:
Source: 555-1212 Alias: Main Office
Source: 555-1234 Alias: Records Department
and Inbound Calls:
Output Formatter: {{ALIAS}}
Alias From: DTMF
Alias To: ChannelName
Only Apply Alias If: n/a
Applied Channels: (as needed)
Alias Rules:
Source: 555-1212 Alias: Main Office
Source: 555-1234 Alias: Records Department