Translations

A translation table is a simple one-to-one mapping of one set of digits to another, different set of digits. For PMS translation tables, it is a mapping from the room (or extension) numbers sent by the PMS to the mailbox numbers used by the DV2000 voice server (VS). The translations may be created by the administrator using any of several different methods (adding or subtracting a value, pre-pending or appending one or more digits, removing leading zeros, etc.). However, the final translation table is simply a collection of one-to-one mappings to replace a given room number with an associated mailbox number.

For systems configured with multiple PMS instances, each PMS instance will have its own unique translation table. Only that table will be used to translate room numbers to and from the PMS.

The Translations page of the Hospitality Configuration dialog is used to configure the translations for the given PMS instance.

Each translation is listed on a separate line (or row) in the table and displays what is being matched and what that translates to.

To perform the translation, the VS would take the string given in the Room Number (PMS value) field and replace it with the string in the Mailbox field. For example, in the above translation table, if the room number was 71101, it would be replaced with 1101 as the mailbox number.

On the other hand, when the VS is sending a message to the PMS, it will perform a reverse lookup, replacing the mailbox number with the associated room number. If more than one Room Number (PMS value) is associated with the given Mailbox (as may be the case if the PMS is sending extension rather than room numbers), then the VS will send the message for each PMS value found. For example, if the VS is sending a maid status update for mailbox 1101 and there are translation entries for both 71101 and 81101, a maid status update will be sent for each one.

Translation types are used when adding translations so that you can add multiple, or a range of, translations without having to manually enter each individual translation. Once a translation is added to the table, it is essentially a simple one-to-one replacement.

The DV2000 supports the following translation types.

The following table provides an example of each translation type in action, except Mask, which is discussed in the next section.

For examples on using the Apply mask type, see below.

Uses the modifier string as a mask for converting the Room Number string into the final result. The mask string is interpreted according to the following rules:

The mask is interpreted left-to-right, one character at a time. Each instance of the * character copies a single digit from the room number (source) string to the mailbox (result) string, again working left-to-right. Likewise, each ^ character in the mask will discard the next character in the room number string, again proceeding from left-to-right order. Finally, any actual digit 0-9 that appears in the mask will be copied directly to the end of the mailbox string.

This translation type is the most complicated and, therefore, the most prone to being misconfigured. Consequently, it is recommended that you always use one of the other translation types unless you really need the flexibility that the Apply mask type offers.

The following table provides a selection of examples using the mask translation type.

To better understand how the mask string and room number string are processed together to create the mailbox number string, let's consider a more complex (if unlikely) example.

First, the translation in summary form:

Consider the steps used to arrive at the above result. In each step, the mask digit and the room number digit being processed are shown enclosed in square brackets, like so: [^]