[asterisk-users] Interact with IVR

[Eric "ManxPower" Wieling]

Yuan LIU wrote:
>> From: "Eric \"ManxPower\" Wieling" <eric at fnords.org>
>>>>> I remember a thread similar to this a while ago but couldn't find.  
>>>>> How do I make Asterisk to interact with an IVR? (Nothing fancy, 
>>>>> just plain predictable voice menus like a conference bridge.)  I 
>>>>> get stuck at Dial(), which seems to wait for hangup after the other 
>>>>> end picks up.
>>>>>
>>>> You can send dtmf to the IVR with the D option in the dial command. 
>>>> show application dial on the console will show you the syntax.
>>>>
>>>> Leo
>>>
>>> Thanks for the reply, Leo.  D can do a maximum of one DTMF string.  
>>> What next? (At least two levels for calling card and conference 
>>> bridges, more for other things.)  If people are using Asterisk as 
>>> test equipment, there must be a way to conduct a "dialogue" with an IVR?
>>
>> Use "w" in the D() string to wait for .5 second.  Use multiple w's to 
>> wait longer.
> 
> That's a neat trick.  Thanks, Eric.  To expand on the concept of a 
> "dialogue", how sophisticated can it get?  I'm thinking of less 
> predictable IVR's.
> 
> Although I'd not think of Asterisk as a replacement for Hammer, I'm 
> imagining one Asterisk doing functional test of another.  Here's the 
> scenario:
> 
> *A (tester) dials *B (testee), invoking an IVR.  Each menu item in *B 
> ends (or starts, if background) with a specific DTMF string that *A can 
> intercept so *A can easily identify where in the tree it is.  This way, 
> I can program *B to walk every path in the IVR.
> 
> Is this possible?

Not in the dialplan with Dial().  You MIGHT be able to do so with a 
.call file and an AGI script, but I don't know for sure.