[asterisk-users] How to park calls on a specific extension

[Brad Templeton]

On Wed, Nov 22, 2006 at 04:51:26PM -0800, Ira wrote:
> At 03:14 PM 11/22/2006, you wrote:
> >The missing piece of the puzzle: I'm extension 203. I want any call I park
> >to get parked at extension 2203. I want a call my boss parks to park at
> >2205, since he's ext. 205. In other words, I want calls parked FROM
> >extension XYZ to be parked AT extension (XYZ+2000).
> >
> >I don't see a way to force parked calls to a specific extension. I'm
> >probably just missing the answer, but I've googled for it and I can't find
> >it.
> 
> 
> That doesn't seem to be the way parking was designed.  It's a first 
> available distribution of a series of numbers you choose. The problem 
> with your plan is that it can't handle a second call on an extension. 
> Coming up in V1.4 is something called SLA or shared line appearance 
> which might do what you want depending upon how it's implemented. For 
> the moment you just need to tell people extension to pick up to 
> retrieve a parked call.  Here it's always 701 as we've never yet 


As I was noting in an earlier message, the parking lot concept is to my
view not a thrilling interface at best, and I can't see many times one
would want it in a SOHO environment.    It seems best for a large PBX
where people are moving to random places to pick up calls, and many calls
may be parked at any given time.

For many people, a far simpler interface is to just put the call on
hold -- by pressing just one hold button, and then go pick it up as
easily as possible somewhere else.    Shared line systems help to do
that but from a different direction.

The parking lot approach has you remember a somewhat random number told
to you, and then to go dial it.    People can remember their own extension
much more easily, so one good interface in that case is a way to dial
a number "<prefix>NNN" to pick up a call held on a specific extension (in my
pickup group).   Or more simply, to dial the pickup number, and if there
is only one call on hold, it gives it to you, and if there is more than one,
it lets you dial the extension that put it on hold and reads the extensions
that have calls on hold to remind you.   This is a better interface in
an environment were the small security risk here is minimal, such as a home
or small office.

The nice thing about this interface is that a phone speed-dial function button
can be programmed to the pickup number.  This means that parking and getting
a call can amount to pressing one button to put the call on hold, moving to
another phone and pushing another button to get the call, which is about the
simplest interface and the one found on key systems and some pbx.


Where security is a concern (and the current call parking lot does not actually
provide a great deal) you can have a call transferred to a valet, but not
require the user to remember a parking lot number if they know the number of
the extension that put the call on hold.

The valet system gets us partway from what I read, but it still uses the
arbitrary number slots.  It still requires the user know to transfer a
call to the valet.

Of course if you know what phone you are going to, you can just do unattended
xfer to it, as long as there is not too short a voicemail timeout.  But
again that's a way more complex interface than "push hold" and "push pickup."