[asterisk-users] Interact with IVR

[Yuan LIU]

>From: "Eric \"ManxPower\" Wieling" <eric at fnords.org>
>>>>I remember a thread similar to this a while ago but couldn't find.  How 
>>>>do I make Asterisk to interact with an IVR? (Nothing fancy, just plain 
>>>>predictable voice menus like a conference bridge.)  I get stuck at 
>>>>Dial(), which seems to wait for hangup after the other end picks up.
>>>>
>>>You can send dtmf to the IVR with the D option in the dial command. show 
>>>application dial on the console will show you the syntax.
>>>
>>>Leo
>>
>>Thanks for the reply, Leo.  D can do a maximum of one DTMF string.  What 
>>next? (At least two levels for calling card and conference bridges, more 
>>for other things.)  If people are using Asterisk as test equipment, there 
>>must be a way to conduct a "dialogue" with an IVR?
>
>Use "w" in the D() string to wait for .5 second.  Use multiple w's to wait 
>longer.

That's a neat trick.  Thanks, Eric.  To expand on the concept of a 
"dialogue", how sophisticated can it get?  I'm thinking of less predictable 
IVR's.

Although I'd not think of Asterisk as a replacement for Hammer, I'm 
imagining one Asterisk doing functional test of another.  Here's the 
scenario:

*A (tester) dials *B (testee), invoking an IVR.  Each menu item in *B ends 
(or starts, if background) with a specific DTMF string that *A can intercept 
so *A can easily identify where in the tree it is.  This way, I can program 
*B to walk every path in the IVR.

Is this possible?

Yuan Liu