[Asterisk-Users] Queue and Agent functionality

[Kurt Bauer]

Hi,

I do it more generally by just looking if any agent is logged in:

-) define a global variable -> AGENTS_AVAIL=0
-) when agent logs in increment -> 
SetGlobalVar(AGENTS_AVAIL=$[${AGENTS_AVAIL} + 1]);
-) when agent logs off decrement -> 
SetGlobalVar(AGENTS_AVAIL=$[${AGENTS_AVAIL} - 1]);
-) when queue is called evaluate and goto label -> 
gotoif,$[${AGENTS_AVAIL}]?${Q}:${NO_Q)

Maybe that helps someone, at least it works for me,

br,
Kurt


--On Saturday, September 25, 2004 04:43:51 PM -0500 Marco Nicolayevsky 
<marco at misterart.com> wrote:

> Chris,
>
> I agree with your assessment of asterisk's queues. I took Robert's reply
> to my original post, and came up with a way to tackle your first scenario
> (no agents in queue=caller in limbo) with his idea of setting variables.
> My idea deals with setting global variable states for each agent. I only
> have 4 agents, so it should work for me fairly easily. In the
> extensions.conf file I would have something like this:
>
> [globals]
> GCSR1=off
> GCSR2=off
> GCSR3=off
> GCSR4=off
>
> Then, in the context where my agents log in/out of queue, I set the global
> variable to on/off depending on their action. When the agent dials 800,
> GCSR1 becomes 'on'. When they dial 801##, GCSR1 becomes 'off'.
>
> [fromcsr1]
> exten=> 800,1,AgentCallbackLogin(101|101 at dispatchlogin)
> exten=> 800,2,SetGlobalVar(GCSR1=on)
> exten=> 800,3,Hangup
> exten=> 801,1,AgentCallBackLogin(101)
> exten=> 801,2,SetGlobalVar(GCSR1=off)
> exten=> 801,3,Hangup
>
>
> Then, in my queue, I check for the value of GCSR1 before dumping them to
> the queue. Otherwise, dump them to VM. Obviously, the GotoIf would have
> to check if GCSR1 = on | GCSR2 = on | GCSR3 = on | etc... For my testing,
> I was just using GCSR1.
>
> [queue]
> exten => 1,1,DigitTimeout,1
> exten => 1,2,ResponseTimeout,1
> exten => 1,3,GotoIf($[${GCSR1} = on]?4:5)
> exten => 1,4,Queue(order|tT)
> exten => 1,5,Goto(generalvm|s|1)
>
>
> While this idea seems to make sense (in my head), I am unable to make it
> work. For example, my GotoIF command does work, so the value of GCSR1 will
> determine which path the caller takes. The part that doesn't work is in
> the [fromcsr] context. My SetGlobalVar(GCSR1=on) seems to have no effect,
> therefore, making my solution not work.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Marco
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Chris Icide
> Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2004 1:34 PM
> To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Queue and Agent functionality
>
> I've seen alot of posts lately on Queue and Agent functionality, and alot
> of hacks to make them do different things that most call center managers
> want.
>
> In the sake of doing this one time, I'd like to develop a single list of
> request so we can consolidate a feature request for the Queue/Agent
> system.
>
> Here are the ones that I run into the most:
>
> 1.  Queue should know the status of agents assigned to a queue and act
> accordingly.
>
>  Here are a couple examples of the problem.
>
> A queue has no agents logged in and handling the queue, a call comes in
> for the queue, the call remains in the queue until either an agent logs
> in, or the queue reaches it's timeout.  What it should do is immediately
> time out setting priority +101.  Normal timeout (caller in busy queue
> with agents active) should exit with priority set +1.
>
> A Queue has active agents in a prioritized fashion.  Agent 1 is priority
> 1, 2 is 2, 3 is 3, and 4 is 4.  Agent 1 needs to make an outbound call as
> does agent 2.  Both are now 'busy'.  The Queue still attempts to call
> agent 1, gets 'busy' back from the sip device (i've only tried this with
> sip), and then the system appears to wait for something like 7-8 seconds
> before trying the next agent in line.
>
> 2. The queue system should allow a set of messages to be played at
> specific times.  For example, a message that is played upon entry into
> the queue and no other time, the current set of messages played every
> frequency=XX, a message played to the caller when the call is accepted by
> an agent (eg "transfering"), finally, a set of messages played to the
> user based upon a predefined period int he config file.. see example below
>
> message1-time=<time in seconds>
> message1-frequency=<never|once|always>
> message1=<message1-file-loc>
>
> message2-time=<time in seconds>
> message2-frequency=<never|once|always>
> message2=<message2-file-loc>
>
> Where a message <messageX-file-loc> is played <never|once|always> every
> <time in seconds>.
>
> if time is set to 0, or freqency is set to never, the message is not
> played.
>
> If time is set to >0, and frequency is set to once, message is played at
> messagex-time, and never again.
>
> if time is set to >0 and frequency is set to always, message is played
> every messagex-time in seconds.
>
> 3.  Agent timeout (logs the agent off if they do not respond to a ring in
> a defined about of time) does not track across calls.  For example, if an
> agent steps away and forgets to log out, then thier phone will ring based
> upon whatever call strategy is used.  If the agent timeout is set higher
> than the time the queue polls a set of agents they will never be logged
> out. The timer needs to increment per agent across multiple polls.  So if
> my queue poll timer is 20 secons, but the agent timeout is set to 60
> seconds, the preferred function would be to log the agent out of the
> queue if they completely miss three poll events.
>
> 4. If a caller empties a handled queue (active agents) with no callers,
> the caller will still hear messages (you are first in queue, etc.).  This
> should not occur.  Someone posted a 2-line patch on -dev list recently to
> fix this issue.
>
>
>
> -Chris
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