We're exploring the use of "onScreenPop" in the CTI Extension to replace the standard softphone layout screenpop (with visualforce) we use today. In some instances, we pop multiple records to the lightning console using the tab features of the console to help with organization. Visualforce allows pretty robust control of the tabs.
Is there any way to achieve this level of control with the CTI Extension?
The dataToReturn map seems only to have a "url" element. I was going to explore creating a URL that would show multiple records, but it's painful... and probably pretty limiting. Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated.
In general, we've found that popping to multiple tabs (especially within the lightning environment) to not be particular efficient, from both an Agent Usability standpoint and an API/Browser resource standpoint. On the agent side, scattering information that the agent needs in order to effectively handle the conversation across a series of tabs is not the most efficient way to present the data to them, and loading a series of tabs requires individual API calls for each tab, which then starts to consume a significant amount of browser resources, potentially creating a degraded experience.
What we've seen more customers be successful with is either modifying the record detail view to include the relevant information from the related records (i.e. screen pop to a contact, but the contact detail record includes the information you're looking to include from the account and most recent cases). The other approach we've seen success with is popping to a visualforce page that is driven by data collected in the IVR. The visualforce page then displays all of the relevant data to the agent on a single page.
Typically we've seen this extension point be used more for the automatic creation of related records, invocation of workflows, scheduling of APEX jobs, etc. It's really more for implementing additional automation or custom business rules around the screen pop process than it is to create multiple screenpops.
The extension points aren't going to have access to the CTI screenpop method from your Apex code either, so if you're insistent on doing multiple tabs, it would likely have to be from a visualforce page.