[Asterisk-Users] dial plan logic

[Miles Scruggs]

Just starting to enjoy the full features of asterisk, I do have a couple 
questions though, that I can't seem to find answers for in the wiki, 
just wondering if someone could light my way.

after a caller has made their choice of options in the dial plan, I 
would like them to be placed on "hold" (music, not ringing) while the 
system processes through the rest of the dial plan attempting to locate 
a callee.  For instance if there is a complex logic of order of ext to 
try before going to voicemail then the callee would here "Please enjoy 
the music while your party is reached" ....tunes.....

during that time it can ring multiple extensions, at the same time, then 
after that hunt through various ext until the appropriate party is 
reached, or if not then it will fall to voicemail.

I understand a queue in its most basic function will do this, but a 
queue doesn't seem to be conducive to dialplan logic, it is setup more 
for a call center situation.  Ideally I would like to put in prompts 
which will ask them if they would like to continue to hold if need be 
(ie everyone is on the phone) or go to a voicemail, or if no one is 
answering then it will go to voicemail etc.  Also the second feature I 
would like to impliment in the logic, below, seems a little hard to do 
in a queue.

The second feature I would like, although it will be used in the above 
situation, can stand on its own.  This is the ability to call an outside 
line say a cell phone, but the two parties would not be connected unless 
a key combination was entered by a callee.

For instance, a caller would get music on hold while the system dialed 
out to someones cell phone, when the cell user answered they would here 
"you have an incoming call from ###-###-####, press 1 to take the call, 
press 2 to send the call to voicemail, press 3 to return the call to the 
system (which would then either hunt out someone else, or voicemail the 
caller)

The specific reason I need the key combo to answer the phone instead of 
just directly dialing the cell is that when the call reaches the cells 
voicemail it will assume it has been answered, and connect the two, 
which is not what I want to happen.

Again I can see some partial solutions here namely call parking, but 
that leaves a lot of questions unanswered such as how to have the system 
perform the outbound calling, and perform the logic based on the feedback.

I know I'm well outside the realm of the standard "please enter the ext 
of the person you are calling" /voicemail standard systems, but I'm 
guessing this is exactly what asterisk was designed for.

thanks

Miles Scruggs