[Asterisk-Users] This newbie gives up for now - sadly

[Tim Thompson]

I don't think this will entirely work, but I'm brainstorming to get
wheels turning,  

I don't know if there is a built in $DIALED_FROM_EXTEN, or you might
have to put it into the macro as $ARG2 or something like that.


Something like


;extensions.conf
[macro-transfer]
;
exten => s,1,Answer
exten => s,2,Playback(transfer,skip)
exten => s,3,Dial(${ARG1},5)|20
exten => s,4,Dial(${DIALED_FROM_EXTEN})

;;;;Snip

exten => 2222,1,Macro(transfer,Zap/1)





I see flaws in that all calls going to exten 2222 would follow this
pattern, but there has got to be a work around somehow.

Maybe an AGI Perl script with if/then statements that would check to see
if the call was coming internal channel or external channel and then
would apply the "Callback/Transfer" code when appropriate.


I'll let someone else comment.



Tim Thompson
Commercial Sales Engineer
http://www.amatechtel.com
(806) 722-2227


-----Original Message-----
From: John Coll [mailto:john.coll at csoft.co.uk] 
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 1:45 PM
To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] This newbie gives up for now - sadly

This newbie has been trying out Asterisk. It has been both a)
surprisingly
painful and b) impressive in terms of helpful support from other users.

Having got two phones to communicate and then got voicemail MWI going
(neither painlessly) I decided the next step was to implement call
transfer
as per nearly all commercial PBX systems i.e.

	hold call
	consult another extension
	either exit and let the two speak
	or get back the original caller

- an utterly fundamental office procedure on a PBX.

And I've spent the requisite few hours on Google and all the docs I have
printed out. Eventually I found the thread "transfer with three-way
calling"
(circa Mon, 15 Dec 2003 20:45:08 -0600)  and it seems that I can't do
that
basic operation in Asterisk.

I found comments like

"This is where it might come down to redesigning the way calls are dealt
with in an organization. Sometimes new phone systems do this, and
hopefully
the company sees new efficiencies with dealing with the customer in
general."

unhelpful and out of touch with user's and managers needs: new products
that
replace old should not require significant retraining to perform
functions
that are well understood and heavily used.

I agree that Asterisk needs to deliver an out of the box and well
documented
solution for a fully featured (say 2+10) PBX and, as it clearly does,
have
an army of well informed specialists able to implement and maintain more
complex systems.

I have no interest in whining, I am much more keen to contribute and was
considering documenting what I have found actually works on a website to
help other newbies to get going but I think its time to give up and
re-visit
Asterisk in some months time. I am really disappointed not to be able to
use
asterisk now.

Thanks to those who helped me get as far as I did. I am sure this is
going
to be a killer app.

regards

john
---------------------------------------------------------
John A Coll, Director, Connection Software
391 City Road, LONDON, EC1V 1NE, UK
Tel: 020 7713 8000 From outside UK Tel: +44 20 7713 8000
Fax: 020 7713 8001                 Fax: +44 20 7713 8001
Email: john.coll at csoft.co.uk       Web: www.csoft.co.uk
PGP Public Key from keyserver


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