Automatically Dial A Number, Then An Extension

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All;

I have an application that dials a list of numbers and then plays a recorded message. My customer uses it to dial a list of customers to confirm their appointment for the next day. No biggie, maybe 25 – 30 calls per day for customers who want the confirmation call. What they need now is a way to dial an extension after the number is dialed and answered. I’ve seen that before, but I just can’t remember where. I was wondering if anyone else has implemented something along these lines. Any insight at all would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Much;

John V.

10 thoughts on - Automatically Dial A Number, Then An Extension

  • In article <004201d2cd90$cad754e0$6085fea0$@us>, Tech Support wrote:

    That depends on how you are playing the message. If you are doing an Originate, either via the AMI or via a call file, then you dial the outbound call using the Channel parameter, and when the call is answered, it gets attached to the dialplan segment given by your Context, Extension and Priority parameters.

    The dialplan segment at its simplest could be something like this:

    [myplaycontext]
    exten => s,1,Playback(${MESSAGE})
    exten => s,n,Hangup

    You would give:
    Context: myplaycontext Extension: s Priority: 1

    You would need to supply the message filename in the variable MESSAGE in the AMI command or call file (maybe you need _MESSAGE or __MESSAGE when setting).

    But you can make it more complex, and could do something like:

    [myplaycontext]
    … exten => _X!,1,Wait(3)
    exten => _X!,n,SendDTMF(${EXTEN})
    exten => _X!,n,Wait(5) ; how long???
    exten => _X!,n,Playback(${MESSAGE})
    exten => _X!,n,Hangup

    So if your recipient has an extension number configured, instead of giving s as the Extension, you give the extension number.

    Alternatively, you could supply the DTMF to be dialled in a channel variable.

    The problem you will have is that, while for direct lines, you know when to start playing the message, as you can tell when the line has been answered, when dialling an extension number on the answering PBX, you have no way of telling when that extension has been answered and it is safe to play the message. That is why I added the comment “how long???”, as it is just a guess.

    Cheers Tony

  • Hi John,

    I think we need to known how you play the audio to the customers, before we can help you.

    Are you using AMI? Or AGI maybe? Or Call files?

    What Asterisk version do you have?

    El 15 may. 2017 12:35, “Tech Support” escribió:

  • Hey;

    What happens is that a script logs into the AMI and originates a call. When the call is answered, it jumps to a context in the dial plan.

    Thanks Much;

    John V.

    From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Victor Villarreal Sent: Monday, May 15, 2017 12:08 PM
    To: Asterisk Users Mailing List – Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Automatically dial a number, then an extension

    Hi John,

    I think we need to known how you play the audio to the customers, before we can help you.

    Are you using AMI? Or AGI maybe? Or Call files?

    What Asterisk version do you have?

    El 15 may. 2017 12:35, “Tech Support” escribió:

    All;

    I have an application that dials a list of numbers and then plays a recorded message. My customer uses it to dial a list of customers to confirm their appointment for the next day. No biggie, maybe 25 – 30 calls per day for customers who want the confirmation call. What they need now is a way to dial an extension after the number is dialed and answered. I’ve seen that before, but I just can’t remember where. I was wondering if anyone else has implemented something along these lines. Any insight at all would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks Much;

    John V.

  • All;

    What I did was add a line in the dialplan that used the SendDTMF() application and that worked great. The problem that I’ve run into now is that dialing the extension screwed up the answering machine detection. The sample context looks something like this.

    [play-audiomsg]

    exten => s,1,AMD

    exten => s,n,ExecIf($[“${EXT}” != “”]?SendDTMF(${EXTEN}))

    exten => s,n,Background(${AUDIOMSG})

    exten => s,n,Hangup

    As you can see, it’s very simple. Modifying the amd.conf configuration wasn’t the answer since I don’t know how long it will take for the extension to pick up. Simply placing the AMD command after the SendDTMF() wasn’t the answer I don’t know how to approach this problem.

    Thanks;

    John V.

    From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Tech Support Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2017 03:56 PM
    To: ‘Asterisk Users Mailing List – Non-Commercial Discussion’
    Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Automatically dial a number, then an extension

    Hey;

    What happens is that a script logs into the AMI and originates a call. When the call is answered, it jumps to a context in the dial plan.

    Thanks Much;

    John V.

    From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Victor Villarreal Sent: Monday, May 15, 2017 12:08 PM
    To: Asterisk Users Mailing List – Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Automatically dial a number, then an extension

    Hi John,

    I think we need to known how you play the audio to the customers, before we can help you.

    Are you using AMI? Or AGI maybe? Or Call files?

    What Asterisk version do you have?

    El 15 may. 2017 12:35, “Tech Support” escribió:

    All;

    I have an application that dials a list of numbers and then plays a recorded message. My customer uses it to dial a list of customers to confirm their appointment for the next day. No biggie, maybe 25 – 30 calls per day for customers who want the confirmation call. What they need now is a way to dial an extension after the number is dialed and answered. I’ve seen that before, but I just can’t remember where. I was wondering if anyone else has implemented something along these lines. Any insight at all would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks Much;

    John V.

  • Isn’t it safe to assume that if you’ve been given an extension number to dial after the initial call is answered, then it wasn’t answered by an answering machine?

    The extension might be answered by an answering machine, I suppose, but that’s not the problem you’re talking about (I think).

    I would create two contexts:

    1. Does AMD and gets called when there is no follow-on extension to dial

    2. Dials a follow-on extension and doesn’t do AMD (or at least, not at the start)

    Then you choose which context to place the call through depending on whether a follow-on extension has been supplied for that customer’s number or not.

    Why wasn’t it the answer? What happens or doesn’t happen when you try this?

    Antony

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  • Ok, the purpose of the answering machine detection (AMD) is to determine when the audio file should start playing *after* the call has been picked up. Typically, if a call has been picked up by a person, they say a short greeting, for example “Hello, this is John, how can I help you?” or simply “Hello?” or something similar. If a call has been picked up by an answering machine, usually the message is somewhat longer, maybe 10 seconds or so, maybe longer. Ideally, the AMD tries to make sure that the audio file starts right after the greeting is over. It’s not exact, but my experience is that it works fairly well.
    The problem that I am having is that when I also have to dial an extension, the call has already picked up and the AMD will start working immediately after the SendDTMF() even if dialing the extension means that it may ring anywhere from 5 – 20 seconds plus the greeting on the far end. There doesn’t appear to be a way for the AMD to wait until extension gets picked up, either by a human or a machine. So what happens is that the AMD gets confused and the audio file starts playing while the extension is still ringing. I hope this helps. Thanks;
    John V.

    —–Original Message—–
    From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] Isn’t it safe to assume that if you’ve been given an extension number to dial after the initial call is answered, then it wasn’t answered by an answering machine?

    The extension might be answered by an answering machine, I suppose, but that’s not the problem you’re talking about (I think).

    I would create two contexts:

    1. Does AMD and gets called when there is no follow-on extension to dial

    2. Dials a follow-on extension and doesn’t do AMD (or at least, not at the start)

    Then you choose which context to place the call through depending on whether a follow-on extension has been supplied for that customer’s number or not.

    Why wasn’t it the answer? What happens or doesn’t happen when you try this?

    —

  • Okay, so my suggestion still stands:

    Create two contexts:

    – one which does AMD and gets called when there is no follow-on extension to dial

    – another which dials a follow-on extension and doesn’t do AMD (or at least, not at the start)

    Then you choose which context to place the call through depending on whether a follow-on extension has been supplied for that customer’s number or not – if there’s no follow-on extenstion, use the first context; if there is, use the second one.

    Antony.

    —
    BASIC is to computer languages what Roman numerals are to arithmetic.

    Please reply to the list;
    please *don’t* CC me.

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  • I definitely appreciate your insight on this and I split the context into two contexts, but I still have a problem. That is, after I send the extension digits using SendDTMF( ), I need to be able to tell whether or not the far end extension picked up and I don’t know how to do that. Because of that, the message sometimes gets played while the extension is still ringing. Thanks Much;
    John V.

    —–Original Message—–
    From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] Okay, so my suggestion still stands:

    Create two contexts:

    – one which does AMD and gets called when there is no follow-on extension to dial

    – another which dials a follow-on extension and doesn’t do AMD (or at least, not at the start)

    Then you choose which context to place the call through depending on whether a follow-on extension has been supplied for that customer’s number or not – if there’s no follow-on extenstion, use the first context; if there is, use the second one.

    Antony.

    —
    BASIC is to computer languages what Roman numerals are to arithmetic.

    Please reply to the list;
    please *don’t* CC me.

    —