[asterisk-dev] Is externalivr really ready for "real" usage?

[David Ruggles]

I got handed maintainer responsibilities for ExternalIVR back in late '09.
It seems to me that EIVR has always been a sort of red-headed step child.
There are a few companies that use it, two of my former employers for
example, but most people don't even know it exists.

I got handed maintainer simply because I was fixing bugs in it. I don't
really have any C experience and I'm not able to give it the love and
tender care it needs, I've also neglected it due constraints on my time.

That being said, I think EIVR doesn't get the attention it deserves, it's a
very simple interface for creating solid key-ahead IVRs. The reason I first
started using EIVR is because the company I worked for did data collection
over IVRs. By always having the questions pre known, and allowing key
ahead, users were able to answer 20 - 40 questions in under a minute. We
were looking for a modern replacement to a Telephony system running on OS/2
and I headed the R&D effort. I started playing with Asterisk and developed
an interface using AGI, however we were having key ahead problems where we
would lose about 10% of the DTMF tones. EIVR solved that problem and the
rest is history.

After fixing bugs in the code and documentation, the version currently in
Asterisk 1.8+, I worked on extending it by adding SendDTMF and recording
functionality, however I wasn't happy with my implementation (see my
C experience above) and was never able to find anyone willing to work with
me. Unless there is some sort of purge, these projects are probably
still languishing somewhere on reviewboard.

Now that you've heard my sad tail of woe ;-) I'd be glad to assist with
further development of EIVR, and I'm glad to see renewed interest in it.
Oh, if it's not clear, I fully support adding new functionality to EIVR :-D

Thanks!

David Ruggles



On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 11:04 AM, Chris Tooley <chris at tooley.com> wrote:

> Not for our stuff, but others might.
> On Feb 13, 2012 8:28 AM, "Steve Murphy" <murf at parsetree.com> wrote:
>
>> Chris--
>>
>> OK, I guess, what I'm asking, is that if I could extend app_externalivr
>> to include
>> the ability to invoke the say_number, say_digit_str, and the rest, would
>> you find that
>> useful, or not?
>>
>> murf
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 6:34 PM, Chris Tooley <chris at tooley.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 7:19 PM, Steve Murphy <murf at parsetree.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 8:15 AM, Chris Tooley <chris at tooley.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I have quite a few very high volume applications using it
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> So, let me ask: you don't need to do any "say_number" or like things,
>>>> or...
>>>> you have a slick way to do it...?
>>>>
>>>> We have a lot of prompts. :-)
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Steve Murphy
>>
>> ParseTree Corporation
>>
>> 57 Lane 17
>>
>> Cody, WY 82414
>>
>> ✉  murf at parsetree.com
>>
>> ☎ 307-899-5535
>>
>>
>>
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