[Asterisk-Users] Anyone ever implement an *outbound* dial-by-name??

[El Flynn]

Michael Jones wrote:
> Hi All;
> 
> I'm a newbie so please be gentle.
> 
> I'm a new * user and am using it to control the 3 IP phones in my  
> house.  I'm using asterisk because I enjoy the flexibility and I'm  sort 
> of a tinkerer.
> 
> Here's my question:  Everyone has used the "dial by directory"  function 
> where you dial the user's name to connect to that  extension.  Instead 
> of an inward dial, I'm thinking how cool it'd be  to have an outward 
> "dial-by-name", where from any extension you can  spell a name and dial 
> it outbound via a trunk line.
> 

Off the top of my head..

specify a context in voicemail.conf:

[outward-dial-by-name]
1000 => 1000,John Smith
1001 => 1000,George Lucas

then another context in extensions.conf

[outward-dial-by-name]
1000 => Zap/g1/5551234567  ; john smith's phone number
1001 => Zap/g1/5551238888  ; george's mobile phone

and finally in your dialplan (assuming you use a context called "internal" for 
all your internal phones..)

[internal]
; some other stuff
exten => 123,1,Directory(outward-dial-by-name|outward-dial-by-name)


disclaimer: untested stuff. your mileage may vary. don't sue me if it don't work

Flynn