[asterisk-users] Proper AGI use with MySQL

[Michelle Dupuis]

How about forking the process when the AGI launches, and pass the PID back
to Asterisk in a variable.  When the call ends (caught at the "h"), call
another AGI script to kill/stop that pid. 

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of
lists at infoway.net
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 5:45 PM
To: lists at infoway.net; Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial
Discussion
Cc: Asterisk Discussion
Subject: RE: [asterisk-users] Proper AGI use with MySQL

Sorry, just to make sure this is clear, in #2 below, when I said "We would
like for the AGI script to stay running for the life of the call...", I also
meant after the call is transfered to the customer service queue. This is so
because we need to note that the call ended (update callend = NOW())
regardless of whether the call stayed only in the IVR or the caller spoke
with a customer service agent.

Thanks again

On Mon, May 14, 2007 5:40 pm, lists at infoway.net said:

> Hi,
>
> We have a "simple" AGI script that provides some IVR functionality. It 
> connects to a MySQL database in order to create a call record and capture
IVR data.
>
> During the IVR process, we need to store the time the call started, so 
> basically we INSERT a new MySQL row with callstart = NOW(), uniqueid = 
> AGI(agi_uniqueid). As the user selects different options, we update 
> the row to reflect the user's selection. There are a couple of options 
> within the IVR that allows the user to speak with a live customer 
> service rep. So, in those cases, we do a AGI exec to Dial out to the 
> customer service queue and transfer the caller there. In the dialplan, 
> we have extension h, execute DeadAGI which basically looks up the
agi_uniqueid and updates the time the call ended in MySQL (e.g. callend =
NOW()).
>
> All this seems to be working. However, we just don't feel we are doing 
> things properly and reading up on the wiki more about AGI and dialing 
> out, etc, just makes me feel we could be doing things better.
>
> Here are some of the things we think we could be doing better but are not
sure:
>
> 1) Ideally, we would like for the AGI script to know when the call 
> hangs up so that it properly updates "callend" without having to run 
> the DeadAGI command in the h extension.
>
> 2) We would like for the AGI script to stay running for the life of 
> the call and keep in memory all the user's IVR selections until the 
> call is hung up. At which point, we could actually INSERT the row in 
> MySQL with all the data, instead of constantly hitting the database with
updates.
>
> 3) We read on the wiki the following: "If the AGI application dials 
> outward by executing Dial, control over the call returns to the 
> dialplan and the script loses contact with the Asterisk server. The 
> script continues to run in the background by itself and is free to 
> clean up and do post-dial processing." In our IVR, we always exit with 
> -1. So, this statement confused us. Does it mean that when we transfer 
> the call to the queue, we should actually return 0 instead of -1 to
indicate that the AGI is still running? Can anyone explain this further?
>
> 4) When should we close the database handle? Currently, we have it at 
> the end of the AGI script and also as part of the DeadAGI script. 
> However, which one is actually closing it, we don't know.
>
> Comments are extremely welcomed and appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
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