[Asterisk-Users] features while on hold

[Chris Wade]

For phones that can have unlimited (virtually speaking) calls on hold, 
how hard would it be to add a feature (post 1.2 obviously) where calls 
on hold are meetme bridged with a specific dialplan entry (maybe exten 
=> hold in the call's current context).  Allow me to illustrate with a 
bit of extensions.conf...

exten => hold,1,WaitExten(120,m)
exten => hold,n,Background(thank-you-for-holding)
exten => hold,n,Background(you-can)
exten => hold,n,Background(press-#-to-transfer-to-voicemail)
exten => hold,n,Background(or)
exten => hold,n,Background(press-*-to-transfer-to-another-extension)
exten => hold,n,WaitExten(2)
exten => hold,n,Goto(1)

Obviously channels bridged this way would not automatically start MOH 
when a call went on hold.  The other way of doing this would be to have 
calls repeatedly stop MOH, execute this extension, and then resume MOH 
on their own at a configurable interval, similar to this...

; MOH already stopped
exten => hold,1,Background(thank....)
exten => ...
exten => hold,n,Background(press-*...)
exten => hold,n,WaitExten(2)
; MOH resumes immediately

... this method would also require that while the channel is playing 
MOH, it must also listen for DTMF to allow the transfer behavior.

Regardless, is something like this possible?  Also, I know that all this 
would be possible using queues, but I want this (and I think others 
might like it as well) to work with answered calls that are on hold.

If this is a totally stupid idea, please let me know.

-- 
Christopher L. Wade, CCNA, CCDA, CQS-CIPTES, CQS-CWLSS