[asterisk-dev] Adding an option to the Dial app in 1.4

[Olle E. Johansson]

2 nov 2009 kl. 18.40 skrev Matthew Nicholson:

> I would like some thoughts on my dial-caller-answer1.diff patch on  
> issue
> 15936 (https://issues.asterisk.org/view.php?id=15936).  That patch  
> adds
> an option to the dial command to answer the calling channel when the
> called channel is answered.  That behavior is useful in situations  
> where
> the the macro option or announce option is used.  In order to fix the
> reporter's issue, an option like this (in addition to some other
> changes), needs to be added to the dial command.
>
> I would like to know your general thoughts on the issue and my  
> purposed
> solution, and whether or not this option should be added to the Dial
> application in asterisk 1.4.
>

I see the problem based on billing, but the behaviour of the call will  
be strange.
If we answer the incoming call and do *nothing* while waiting for the  
outbound
channel to go through whatever happens (macro, announcements, jingles)
that will be very weird for the caller in some cases.

Also, the documentation has to be very clear that this is not about  
general
cases, as everyone will set that option for every call if we do. By  
default,
we DO send answer to the caller when the callee answers. Always,
unless you've added delay by using dial() options. This should be called
something like "premature answer" or "indicate answer" or something
better...

The current documentation doesn't do a good job here:

+"    a    - Answer the calling channel when the called channel  
answers.  This\n"
+"           can be used to answer the calling channel before playing  
an\n"
+"           announcement with the A() option.\n"


Reading this, everyone will set the 'a' option on every call, because  
what you
describe here is exactly what they want...

This is a new feature, even though something required by the reporter,  
but I am hesitating about merging it in 1.4.

/O