[asterisk-users] hotdesk and voicemail

[Leif Madsen]

Julian Lyndon-Smith wrote:
> We have several types of phones,
> 
> cisco 7940/7960
> aastra 55i/9113i/
> grandstream gxp2010
> 
> 
> I want to be able to implement hotdesking where an agent will logon to 
> any phone. I got all of that working, without having to reboot phones, 
> but then hit a brick wall.
> 
> Voicemail.
> 
> I still want each phone to use the BLF for voicemail indication, and to 
> use the "voicemail button" to dial voicemail directly. Is it possible to 
> do this dynamically, or will I have to rewrite the phone config and reboot ?
> 
> The issue I have with rebooting is that the cisco's take so bloody long 
> to reboot (mainly waiting around at the VLAN) that it is unusable. Does 
> anyone have any solutions to make the VLAN problem go away ? We don't 
> use cisco switches.

What you'll have to do is use the database (AstDB, MySQL, or whatever you're 
using to track the hotdesking portion), and configure the phones to dial the 
Voicemail() application with a general extension (for example, 8500, default on 
Cisco).

When you dial that, you'll need to do some pre_voicemail extension that will 
determine what device is requesting Voicemail() (i.e. ${CHANNEL(peername)} -- at 
least in the 1.6.2 branch, otherwise you'll have to use something like 
${CUT(CUT(CHANNEL,/,2),-,1)}  ). Then when you have that, you can lookup what 
extension number/voicemail box you are trying to dial, based on your logged in 
status.

With 1.6.2, you can use the MinivmMWI() to enable/disable the MWI for devices as 
your agents login and logout, and whenever you finish calling Voicemail() or 
VoicemailMain().

I have recently built a full system for a client using these methods, and will 
be writing an article on it over the next couple of weeks (as soon as I find 
some free time to write it!).

Good luck!
Leif Madsen.
http://www.leifmadsen.com
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/asterisk