[Asterisk-Dev] Queue behavior clarification

[Adam Goryachev]

On Mon, 2005-05-02 at 23:26 -0400, Derrick Shields wrote:
> I know this is question is more appropriate in the user forum, but I
> saw a recent thread in the dev list about this and wanted to get
> clarification.
>  
> Regarding queue behavior: if a caller enters a queue and agents are
> logged in but are all busy, does the caller get 'queued' and wait
> until an agent becomes available, or does the Queue function return
> and its up to the dial plan to loop back to the Queue function?  I
> would think intuitively that a Queue function would queue the caller,
> otherwise the function should be called "ConnectToAgent" or something
> like that.  Not to mention that if it returns, you lose all context of
> the caller's position in the queue, no wait announcements, etc.
>  
> I know leavewhenempty (and joinwhenempty?) affect these, but I've
> interpreted these to mean no agents logged in.  If agents are logged
> in but just busy, I would expect that the caller waits their turn.
> Several postings earlier seemed to imply that if all agents were busy
> then the Queue function returned.
>  
> Just want to make sure I understand - I've started looking at the
> source but get lost in the ring_one, wait_for_answer logic.

Well, it depends on your configuration as to the behaviour...
essentially, yes, the caller will wait in the queue
(indefinitely/forever) until an agent becomes available to answer the
call.

There are some config options to avoid having a caller wait so long, and
to give additional options. eg, joinwhenempty/leavewhenempty, so that if
a caller arrives at 5:01pm and your call centre closes at 5pm, they
won't wait on hold until the next day :). You can play a message saying
"Sorry, we are closed".
Also, there is an timeout option, so that if they sit in the queue for
more than x seconds, they will then drop out of the queue back to the
dialplan.

Hope that helps.

Regards,
Adam

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Adam Goryachev
Website Managers
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