[asterisk-users] How to park calls on a specific extension

[Brad Templeton]

On Sat, Nov 25, 2006 at 07:17:47AM -0500, marvin horst wrote:
> The valet system gets us partway from what I read, but it still uses the
> >arbitrary number slots.  It still requires the user know to transfer a
> >call to the valet.
> >
> >no you can park to a specific number (lotname)
> 
> exten =>
> _6XX,1,ValetParkCall(auto|8${EXTEN:1:2}|180|${CALLEDEXTEN}|1|internal)
> 
> ;  Valet unpark from an extension
> exten => _5XX,1,Playback(beep)
> exten => _5XX,n,ValetUnParkCall(filo|8${EXTEN:1:2})
> 


Definitely better, and I will install this add-on, but still not at the
UI I think most people want, which is, just put the call on hold, and
go somewhere else and push a button to pick it up.

That is not only an eaiser interface, it's actually a more powerful
one, because it gives you the ability to put a call on hold to go
away to check on something, and then decided after the fact that you
want to pick it up from another extension.   Indeed, you could create
an interface if you wanted to so that you could pick up the call from
any pstn phone (ie. cell phone) by dialing a magic number and entering
a code, without having decided to explicitly park it first.

The other reason it's superior is that call transfer differs on various
phones, and sometimes transfer to the parking lot doesn't work right,
it's one more thing to go wrong.   However, almost all phones have the
same interface for putting a call on hold (a hold button) and it is
more likely to work.

The only downside to the implicit park UI is that somebody else can grab a call
you put on hold that you didn't intend to park.  That's not an issue
in a house or small office, though.   And it's low risk.  For example,
you can wait 5 seconds to put a call into implicit park so that if you
are putting them on hold to do attended transfer, this can be spotted
so that there is no implicit park.   Implicit park would require you put
the call on hold and do nothing do it for some amount of time if you
like.