[asterisk-users] AGI PHP

[Steve Edwards]

On Mon, 4 May 2009, James A. Shigley wrote:

> I'm just trying to make a real simple Survey via php. Just want it to 
> play the Question Files, wait for a response, save the response into the 
> correct variable and then email it all.

If it's "real simple," maybe AGI is overkill. Any particular reason you 
can't do it in the dialplan?

> I have no issue playing the audio or emailing. But I can't get it to 
> wait for digits or to properly capture those digits into the variables. 
> I know the code is technically right since the emails have this in place 
> of what Q1 should be "200 result=35 endpos=2400" instead of whatever 
> digit I pressed during testing.

The code is not "technically right" since you don't understand the AGI 
protocol. See your code snippet below.

> A.  How to have it play the whole audio file before it goes to the next 
> command, without having to use the sleep function preferably.

Use "stream file" with the appropriate escape digits.

> B.  How to make it actually wait for digits

Use "wait for digits" with the appropriate timeout. Accumulate digits for 
the desired effect.

> C.  How to get it to actually capture the digits (I think it would if it 
> wasn't streaming thru the whole file without waiting for a response.)

An alternative is to use the background, playback, and read dialplan 
applications from your AGI.

> // Q1
> fwrite(STDOUT, "STREAM FILE /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/1 ###\n");
> fwrite(STDOUT, "wait for digit 10\n");

You don't understand the AGI protocol. For every request (the bit you send 
to Asterisk) you need to read the response (the bit Asterisk sends to 
you). Issuing 2 requests breaks the protocol.

Please use an established library to handle all the little details of AGI 
for you. You will live longer :)

Using an established library will take care of all these seemingly 
insignificant details and save you a lot of time.

Thanks in advance,
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Edwards      sedwards at sedwards.com      Voice: +1-760-468-3867 PST
Newline                                             Fax: +1-760-731-3000