Connecting to and disconnecting from an autodialer
You can use the Dialer Administration main screen to carry out the following tasks:
▪connect to an autodialer, so that it is able to generate calls for telephone interviewers
▪disconnect from an autodialer, so that it is no longer able to generate calls
▪remove an autodialer from the Dialer Administration activity
▪check the status of an autodialer.
To use an autodialer, you also need to specify for each of your telephone interviewing projects that an autodialer should be used. For more information, see
Interview Settings.
The real-time display
The real-time display contains one record for each autodialer and shows information such as the number of active calls on an autodialer or the number of times that the connection to the autodialer has failed.
Dialer
The autodialer name as specified in the dialer configuration file.
State
The current state of the autodialer, which might be Starting, Active, Stopping, Stopped, or Failed.
Status
For an autodialer in the Active state, this field shows the number of interviewers who are dialing a participant or who are connected to a participant. To see the number of interviewers by project, expand the node to the left of the status. For an autodialer in the Failed state, this field shows the number of times that the connection to the autodialer has failed.
Buttons
The real-time display is refreshed only when you click one of these buttons. Click the Refresh button periodically to keep the display up-to-date.
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Button
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Description
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Connect to this autodialer
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Disconnect from this autodialer
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Remove the autodialer from the Dialer Administration activity
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Refresh the display
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Connecting to and disconnecting from an autodialer
When you connect to an autodialer, it can generate calls for telephone interviewers that request them. When you disconnect from an autodialer, it is cannot generate calls, but it does allow any active calls to finish. If a telephone interviewer requests a call when the autodialer’s current state is Stopped or Failed, a message explains that the autodialer is unavailable.
To connect to an autodialer
1 In the Real-Time display, select the autodialers that you want to connect to.
Select an autodialer only if its current status is Stopped or Failed.
2 Click the Start button
The autodialer status changes to Starting, and then changes to Active. The autodialer can now generate calls.
To disconnect from an autodialer
1 In the Real-Time display, select the autodialers that you want to disconnect from.
Select an autodialer only if its current status is Active.
2 Click the Stop button
The autodialer state changes to Stopping and the autodialer is no longer able to generate calls. When all active calls have stopped, the autodialer status changes to Stopped.
Autodialer removal
You can remove an autodialer from the Dialer Administration activity. Before you do this, be aware of the following:
▪If you need to restore an autodialer after removing it, you must import a dialer configuration file that contains an entry for that autodialer.
▪When you remove an autodialer, all positions specified for that autodialer are also removed. To continue to use autodialing at those positions, you must associate them with another autodialer. For more information, see
Creating a dialer configuration file.
▪You cannot remove an existing autodialer by deleting its entry from a dialer configuration file and importing that file. Instead, see
To remove an autodialer.
To remove an autodialer
1 In the Real-Time display, select the autodialer that you want to remove. Only select an autodialer if its current status is Stopped or Failed.
2 Click the Delete button
The real-time display is refreshed and the autodialer is no longer shown.
See also
