[asterisk-users] Asterisk 11 queue calls - emulate Dial(b) functionality

[Richard Mudgett]

> I currently run an Asterisk 10 system with hotdesking functionality
> set up. Several of the users have worked with a system in the past
> that supported BLF on their IP phones, and would like their current
> phones to behave in a similar fashion. Right now I have a really
> kludgy system that mostly works, but doesn’t consistently trigger
> the cleanup macro to “clear” the device state on the end of a call.
> Rather than continue to beat my head against the wall playing “which
> context isn’t firing an h extension to dump calls into the cleanup
> macro”, I decided to investigate Asterisk 11 for the new Dial() b
> function and the new hangup handler CHANNEL variable.
> 
> 
> 
> I have the hints working more or less correctly on direct calls
> to/from the phones, making use of the b and U functions in Dial()
> and some judicious use of GROUP channel variables and
> CHANNEL(hangup_handler_wipe). But, on my live system, sometimes the
> users receive calls from a queue, and I don’t see any way with the
> queue calls to emulate the b functionality in Dial() to be able to
> set the agent extension’s device state to RINGING when the queue
> call gets created. Obviously, I can use membergosub to set the agent
> to “INUSE” after they pick up the call (like Dial() U), but is there
> anything that I can use to manipulate the channel that is calling
> the agent while/before it is ringing?

You could use local channels as queue members.  Then you can use Dial(b)
when the call goes out to the actual extension.

Richard