[Asterisk-Users] dial-a-string (e.g. 2=a,b,c, 3=d,e,f)

[Ivan Fetch]

Hello,


   I've begun working on an AGI in PERL to provide the ability to dial a
string, similar to composing text messages on cell phones.  The current
idea is that it would allow you to use a telephone to enter a string of
text, (number 2 can be used for letters a, b, c, number 3 for d, e, f,
Etc), and one could review the text thus far, backspace over characters,
and  "commit" that they are done entering text and the AGI will set a variable
which the dial plan or future scripts can use how ever they want.  I
figure this could be useful in a number of settings, and it gives me a decent project
to get started with AGI anyhow.


   I'm curious - does anyone know of something (AGI, application) which
already provides this functionality?  Would this be helpful to anyone
else, and would they be interested in brain storming about features?



   MY development thoughts are:

   Stream a file ("please enter a string ... press ... for additional
instructions) - if someone interrupts the message with a tone, pass that
tone to the logic of the AGI - similar to how the read() application
works.

   As buttons are pressed to pick the desired letter (8 twice for the
letter u) the AGI can optionally speak each letter.  E.G. press 8 (AGI
says "t") - press 8 again (AGI says "u").  The alternative would be that
the AGI speaks the letter when it knows that letter is what the user has
decided on (see below).

   The AGI could decide that the currently selected letter is what the
user wants based on a timeout, or by requiring the user to commit to this
letter (this is the current behavior of my AGI).  I'm not sure if using
(1, 2?) second timeouts is a good idea, perhaps latency and how different
telephones send touch tones could be a problem there.

   The 1 button could be used to enter some punctuation and the number 1.
Perhaps the * key could invoke a menu with choices to delete the last
character, speak the string so far, and any other features which exist.
The menu approach isn't very swift, but we've run out of buttons...


Thanks for any feedback,
Ivan.