text
stringlengths
0
152
worse than a prompt recorded through a phone set.
5 Unless you are an expert in these areas, in which case go for it!
Building Your AA
|
253
Using the dialplan to create recordings
The simplest method of recording prompts is to use the Record() application.
Add this new subroutine at the bottom of your extensions.conf file:
[subRecordPrompt]
exten => 500,1,Playback(vm-intro)
same => n,Record(daygreeting.wav)
same => n,Wait(2)
same => n,Playback(daygreeting)
same => n,Hangup
exten => 501,1,Playback(vm-intro)
same => n,Record(mainmenu.wav)
same => ... etc ... (create dialplan code for each prompt you need to record)
In order to use this context, you will need to include it in the con‐
text where your sets enter the dialplan. So in your [LocalSets]
context, you will want to add the line include=>UserServices. In a
production environment, you’ll probably want a password on this
so that not just anybody can record prompts.
This subroutine plays a prompt, issues a beep, makes a recording, and plays that
recording back.6 It’s notable that the Record() application takes the entire filename as
its argument, while the Playback() application excludes the filetype extension
(.wav, .gsm, etc.). This is because the Record() application needs to know which for‐
mat the recording should be made in, while the Playback() application does not.
Instead, Playback() automatically selects the best audio format available, based upon
the codec your handset is using and the formats available in the sounds folder (for
example, if you have a daygreeting.wav and a daygreeting.gsm file in your sounds
folder, Playback(daygreeting) will select the one that requires the least CPU to play
back to the caller).
You’ll probably want a separate extension for recording each of the prompts, possibly
hidden away from your normal set of extensions, to prevent a mistyped extension
from wiping out any of your current menu prompts. If the number of prompts you
have is large, repeating this extension with slight modifications for each will get tedi‐
ous, but there are ways around that. We’ll show you how to make your prompt
recording more intelligent in Chapter 16, but for now the method just described will
serve our immediate needs.
6 The vm-intro prompt isn’t perfect (it asks you to leave a message), but it’s close enough for our purposes. The
usage instructions at least are correct: press # to end the recording. Once you’ve gotten the hang of recording
prompts, you can go back, record a custom prompt, and change priority 1 to reflect more appropriate instruc‐
tions for recording your own prompts.
254
|
Chapter 14: The Automated Attendant
Here’s the dialplan (in bold) that’ll create all our prompts. Place it wherever you wish
in the [sets] context:
exten => _4XX,1,Noop(User Dialed ${EXTEN})
same => n,Answer()
same => n,SayDigits(${EXTEN})
same => n,Hangup()
exten => 500,1,GoSub(subRecordPrompt,${EXTEN},1(daygreeting)
exten => 501,1,GoSub(subRecordPrompt,${EXTEN},1(nightgreeting)
exten => 502,1,GoSub(subRecordPrompt,${EXTEN},1(mainmenu)
exten => 503,1,GoSub(subRecordPrompt,${EXTEN},1(holdwhileweconnect)
exten => 504,1,GoSub(subRecordPrompt,${EXTEN},1(faxandaddress)
exten => 505,1,GoSub(subRecordPrompt,${EXTEN},1(transfertoreception)
exten => 506,1,GoSub(subRecordPrompt,${EXTEN},1(invalid)
exten => 507,1,GoSub(subRecordPrompt,${EXTEN},1(holdwhileweconnect)
exten => _555XXXX,1,Answer()
same => n,SayDigits(${EXTEN})
exten => _55512XX,1,Answer()
same => n,Playback(tt-monkeys)
The recordings (aka prompts) will be placed in the /var/lib/asterisk/sounds folder. You
can put them elsewhere, so long as you specify the full path when recording and play‐
ing back (and ensure the directory where you put them is readable by the asterisk
user). In a production system, you should put them elsewhere, so as to separate your
custom prompts from the generic prompts. For now, we’ll keep things simple and put
them in the same folder as the system prompts.
The Dialplan
Here is the code required to create the AA that we designed earlier. We will often use
blank lines before labels within an extension to make the dialplan easier to read, but
note that just because there is a blank line does not mean there is a different
extension.
You can place this code at the end of your [TestMenu] context, right before your
subroutines: