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

[Brad Templeton]

On Mon, Nov 27, 2006 at 01:46:58AM -0800, Steve Langstaff wrote:
>  > -----Original Message-----
> > From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com 
> > [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of 
> > Brad Templeton
> > Sent: 25 November 2006 21:02
> 
> [snip]
> 
> > ...the UI I think most people want, which is, just put 
> > the call on hold, and go somewhere else and push a button to 
> > pick it up.
> > 
> > That is not only an eaiser interface, it's actually a more 
> > powerful one, because it gives you the ability to put a call 
> > on hold to go away to check on something, and then decided 
> > after the fact that you
> > want to pick it up from another extension.   Indeed, you could create
> > an interface if you wanted to so that you could pick up the 
> > call from any pstn phone (ie. cell phone) by dialing a magic 
> > number and entering a code, without having decided to 
> > explicitly park it first.
> 
> I think that you are describing shared line appearances.

I don't believe so, not as I understand them, but perhaps they are
planned to be different from my conception in Asterisk.

My understanding of a shared line is it mimics the traditional
analog phones, a line is shared on many phones, calls ring on all
phones, if you put on hold on one phone and pick up on another it
works.

What I describe is different.   There are no shared lines, but if
you put a call on hold on one phone on a non-shared line you can go to
another -- any other in the pickup group, whether it is registered
to have the shared line or not, and pick it up, as you can (in a more
cumbersome way) with call parking.

Or do I have it wrong, and with SLAs all lines will effectively be
shared, and accessible from every phone?

Both SLAs and what I describe allow you to do a very quick move from
one extension to another by putting a call on hold and picking it up.
However, what I describe is far more general.    In some systems,
shared line also includes multiple extensions ringing for a call on
the line (already possible with Dial to multiple channels).   It also
means barging, in that I can pick up a shared line that is already in
use and I join the conversation.

The latter is done by shared lines and not by what I propose.   Some
PBXs have a barging system where you can say, "Barge in on the call
on extension xxx" (this needs permissions typically.)   This is
also more general but not as intuitive as shared line if people all have
phones with line appearances.

In my home, for example, we really just have two people.   There is
no desire for a shared line.   However, there is desire for a phone
in the living room that rings whether her office line is being called
or my office line.   And there is desire for very simple call park,
so I can pick up the call on the living room phone, and quickly put it
on hold and go up to my office and pick it up quickly without
the annoyance of current parking.  I could do much of this with shared
lines as I understand them but not in as nice a way.