[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk as an outbound call machine?

[Jim Archer]

Hi Ken and thanks!  That's great!  I had never heard of the superdialer app 
for Asterisk.  I'm not sure what you mean by predictive dialing.  But we 
can write php code to go through the database.

I need to get this thing to run unatended.  Is it possible for Asterisk to 
recognize busy signals and answering machines?  I realize answering 
machines are tricky, but can it at least detect silence?

Thank you!

Jim


--On Saturday, September 18, 2004 11:25 AM -0700 Kenneth Shaw 
<ken at expitrans.com> wrote:

> Jim,
>
> What you are probably looking for is a superdialer mechanism, as it is
> tricky to get Asterisk to do predictive dialing.
>
> A superdialer (if you don't know what it is) is basically a forward call
> succession plan. What happens is that you connect to one phone number
> after another in successive order, with your agent sitting and listening
> on one end.
>
> Accomplishing this in Asterisk is fairly easy, and I approached a
> similar problem with an AGI script (written in PHP to interface with our
> database).
>
> All you would need to do is have an agent connect to a specific
> extension and then launch the AGI script. Here's something off the top
> of my head:
>
> ------------ extensions.conf ------------
> exten => 5000,1,Wait(1)
> exten => 5000,2,Answer
> exten => 5000,3,AGI(superdialer.php,${INSERT_SOME_PARAM_HERE})
> exten => 5000,4,Hangup
>
> ------------ superdialer.php (using PHP AGI) ------------
>
> <?php
>
> require_once('phpagi/phpagi.php');
> require_once('AwesomePhoneNumberSelectCode.inc.php');
>
> $agi = new AGI();
>
> $numbers = AwesomePhoneNumberSelectCode_Execute();
> // assume it returns an array of phone numbers
>
> foreach ($numbers as $number) {
>
> 	$agi->conlog("SuperDialing: $number");
>
> 	// dial with a 30 second timeout (approx. 5 or 6 rings)
> 	$result = $agi->agi_exec("EXEC Dial
> IAX2/username at voicepulse/$number|30");
>
> 	if ($result['code'] != 200) {
> 		// error here
> 	}
>
>        $result = $agi->agi_exec('channel status');
>        if (!is_array($result) || $result['code'] != 200) {
> 	// asterisk terminated on us, so exit out
>               break;
>        }
> }
>
> ?>
>
>
> Something like the above should allow you to accomplish what you're
> looking to accomplish.
>
> -Ken Shaw...
>
> On Sat, 2004-09-18 at 10:56, Jim Archer wrote:
>> Hi All...
>>
>> I have a need to phone a large number of people and collect information
>> from them.  I know Asterisk has a nice IVR system, but can it be used to
>> initiate a call to people listed in a database or text file?
>>
>> Don't worry, this is not an annoying marketing thing.
>>
>> Thanks...
>>
>>
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>