Last time we had reached a milestone. Internal calls working, outbound calls working, and incoming calls working.<\/p>\n
What next then? It would be nice if people calling our business or residential line got an answering machine when we weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?<\/p>\n
There are two dialplan functions needed for voicemail:<\/p>\n
Voicemail()<\/code> which connects a caller to the recording service \u00e2\u20ac\u201c lets them leave a message.<\/li>\nVoicemailMain()<\/code> which connects a caller to the listening service \u00e2\u20ac\u201c lets them listen to their recorded messages.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll begin with a slightly unrelated reorganisation. Recall that we did this to handle external calls:<\/p>\n
[external]\nexten => voiptalkRESIDENTIAL,1,Verbose(1,Incoming call on callbackextension=${EXTEN})\nexten => voiptalkRESIDENTIAL,n,Dial(SIP\/andyp&SIP\/wife&SIP\/handytone1)\nexten => voiptalkOFFICE,1,Verbose(1,Incoming call on callbackextension=${EXTEN} from ${CALLERID(all)})\nexten => voiptalkOFFICE,n,Dial(SIP\/andyp&SIP\/handytone2)<\/code><\/pre>\nThat is to say we used Dial()<\/code>. Instead, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s make the system slightly more flexible by using Asterisk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s queue system.<\/p>\nEdit the \/etc\/asterisk\/queues.conf<\/code> file and add a queue for each of our endpoint groups.<\/p>\n[residential]\nstrategy = ringall \nmember => SIP\/andyp\nmember => SIP\/wife\nmember => SIP\/handytone1\n\n[business]\nstrategy = ringall \nmember => SIP\/andyp\nmember => SIP\/handytone2<\/code><\/pre>\nThen we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll alter the [external]<\/code> context to use queue dial.<\/p>\n[external]\nexten => voiptalkRESIDENTIAL,1,Verbose(1,Incoming call on callbackextension=${EXTEN})\nexten => voiptalkRESIDENTIAL,n,Queue(residential,cnrtk,,,30)\nexten => voiptalkOFFICE,1,Verbose(1,Incoming call on callbackextension=${EXTEN} from ${CALLERID(all)})\nexten => voiptalkOFFICE,n,Queue(business,cnrtk,,,30)<\/code><\/pre>\nThis method gives us more flexibility in how we handle queue members coming and going (see the Asterisk documentation for the definitions of the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccnrtk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 flags).<\/p>\n
Now we add fallback to the voicemail if no one answers:<\/p>\n
[external]\nexten => voiptalkRESIDENTIAL,1,Verbose(1,Incoming call on callbackextension=${EXTEN})\nexten => voiptalkRESIDENTIAL,n,Queue(residential,cnrtk,,,30)\nexten => voiptalkRESIDENTIAL,n,Voicemail(household)\nexten => voiptalkOFFICE,1,Verbose(1,Incoming call on callbackextension=${EXTEN} from ${CALLERID(all)})\nexten => voiptalkOFFICE,n,Queue(business,cnrtk,,,30)\nexten => voiptalkOFFICE,n,Voicemail(business)<\/code><\/pre>\nThis isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite sufficient. We have to tell Asterisk the names of the voicemail boxes. Edit \/etc\/asterisk\/voicemail.conf<\/code>.<\/p>\n[default]\nandyp => IGNOREPASSWORD,Andy Parkins,andyp@localhost\nwife => IGNOREPASSWORD,wife,wife@localhost\nhousehold => IGNOREPASSWORD,Residence Voicemail\nbusiness => IGNOREPASSWORD,Business Voicemail,business-voicemail@localhost<\/code><\/pre>\nLeaving the andyp<\/code> and wife<\/code> voicemail boxes aside for a moment, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve established a way of leaving messages, but how do we pick them up? First we need to decide what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like.<\/p>\n\n- Dialling the special extension 1571 from
handytone1<\/code> gets you to the residential voicemail. (1571 is the BT number for their voicemail service, people already know it so why not leverage that?)<\/li>\n- Dialling the special extension 1571 from
handytone2<\/code> gets you to the business voicemail.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re seasoned users of the dialplan now. This is very straightforward.<\/p>\n
[internal-residential]\ninclude => internal-extensions\nexten => 1571,1,VoicemailMain(household,s)\nexten => _0X.,1,Dial(SIP\/voiptalkRESIDENTIAL\/${EXTEN})\n\n[internal-business] \ninclude => internal-extensions\nexten => 1571,1,VoicemailMain(business,s)\nexten => _0X.,1,Dial(SIP\/voiptalkOFFICE\/${EXTEN})<\/code><\/pre>\nWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve simply added the same extension to two contexts, but with different commands when it matches. The \u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 flag to VoicemailMain()<\/code> means don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ask for a passcode; we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need a passcode as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re using the context to establish security. Can we do better though? Yes. Scrap the previous. Recall one of our local extension endpoint definitions.<\/p>\n[handytone1](user,ht386)\n secret=handytonesecret1\n callerid="Residential" <2102>\n context=internal-residential\n mailbox=household@default<\/code><\/pre>\nThe mailbox<\/code> option also lets us write code that accesses a different mailbox depending on who dialled a common access number. Add the following:<\/p>\n[internal-extensions]\n; Numeric aliases\nexten => 2100,1,Goto(andyp,1)\nexten => 2101,1,Goto(wife,1)\nexten => 2102,1,Goto(handytone1,1)\nexten => 2103,1,Goto(handytone2,1)\nexten => 1571,1,Goto(voicemail,1)\n; Named extensions\nexten => andyp,1,Gosub(stdexten,s,1(SIP\/${EXTEN},${EXTEN}))\nexten => andyp,hint,SIP\/${EXTEN}\nexten => wife,1,Gosub(stdexten,s,1(SIP\/${EXTEN},${EXTEN}))\nexten => wife,hint,SIP\/${EXTEN}\nexten => handytone1,1,Gosub(stdexten,s,1(SIP\/${EXTEN},${EXTEN}))\nexten => handytone1,hint,SIP\/${EXTEN}\nexten => handytone2,1,Gosub(stdexten,s,1(SIP\/${EXTEN},${EXTEN}))\nexten => handytone2,hint,SIP\/${EXTEN}\n; Special extensions\nexten => voicemail,1,Ringing\nexten => voicemail,n,Set(mailbox=${SIPPEER(${CHANNEL(peername)},mailbox)})\nexten => voicemail,n,GotoIf($["${mailbox}" = ""]?end)\nexten => voicemail,n(message),Verbose(1,Transferring ${CALLERID(all)} to ${mailbox} voicemail)\nexten => voicemail,n,SendText(Connected to ${mailbox} Voicemail)\nexten => voicemail,n,Wait(2)\nexten => voicemail,n,Answer\nexten => voicemail,n,VoicemailMain(${mailbox},s)\nexten => voicemail,n(end),Hangup<\/code><\/pre>\nThis additional named extension, voicemail<\/code>, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t direct the caller to an endpoint, instead it checks to see if there was an mailbox<\/code> set in sip.conf<\/code> (or any other endpoint device defintion file), then runs VoicemailMain()<\/code> with a mailbox of that name.<\/p>\nThe advantage here is that we can specify the voicemail box independently of device name or context. We could now easily point andyp<\/code> at either the andyp<\/code> mailbox or the business<\/code> mailbox, and similarly for any other extensions we add.<\/p>\nOne final note, the mailbox<\/code> option in the endpoint definition primarily tells the phone its default mailbox (should it support that facility) to subscribe to for its message waiting indicator (i.e.\u00c2\u00a0a little light on the phone that tells you whether you have new voicemail). The vmexten<\/code> option in the user<\/code> template lets us tell the phone what extension to dial in response to a push of its voicemail button (should it support that facility) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this would save the user even having to know 1571.<\/p>\nasterisk1<\/a> asterisk2<\/a> asterisk3<\/a> asterisk4<\/a> asterisk5<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last time we had reached a milestone. Internal calls working, outbound calls working, and incoming calls working. What next then? It would be nice if people calling our business or residential line got an answering machine when we weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? There are two dialplan functions needed for voicemail: Voicemail() which connects a caller\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[31,6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fussylogic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fussylogic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fussylogic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fussylogic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fussylogic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.fussylogic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":775,"href":"https:\/\/www.fussylogic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions\/775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fussylogic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fussylogic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fussylogic.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}