[Asterisk-Users] Very complicated dialplans?

[Eric Wieling aka ManxPower]

Robert Goodyear wrote:
>>>> Using 'r' flags makes baby Jesus cry.  Stop doing that.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Excuse me?
>>>
>>
>> r: Generate a ringing tone for the calling party, passing no audio  from
>> the called channel(s) until one answers. Use with care and don't  insert
>> this by default into all your dial statements as you are killing call
>> progress information for the user. Really, you almost certainly do not
>> want to use this. Asterisk will generate ring tones automatically  where
>> it is appropriate to do so. "r" makes it go the next step and
>> additionally generate ring tones where it is probably not  appropriate to
>> do so.
> 
> 
> Can you educate us all on the appropriate circumstances in which to  use 
> 'r'?

When you want to override the normal call progress tones.

For example, when a caller presses "0" in voicemail to be transfered to 
the user's cell phone, the cell phone telco may play a message to the 
caller WITHOUT ANSWERING the call.  One common message is something like 
"The subscriber you have dialed is either out of the area or has their 
phone turned off".  I don't want callers to hear that message and 
hangup.  So in this one specific situation I use the "r" option to dial 
so the caller hears a ringing tone no matter what the carrier sends 
back.  Then the Dial timeout can expire and the caller can be sent back 
to the user's mailbox (assuming the cell carrier didn't answer the call 
and send it to the cell phones voicemail).


-- 
Eric Wieling * BTEL Consulting * 504-210-3699 x2120

r: Generate a ringing tone for the calling party, passing no audio from
the called channel(s) until one answers. Use with care and don't insert
this by default into all your dial statements as you are killing call
progress information for the user. Really, you almost certainly do not
want to use this. Asterisk will generate ring tones automatically where
it is appropriate to do so. "r" makes it go the next step and
additionally generate ring tones where it is probably not appropriate to
do so.