[asterisk-users] Originate with label?

[Antony Stone]

On Tuesday 30 August 2022 at 18:17:08, Mark Murawski wrote:

> On 8/30/22 11:16, Antony Stone wrote:
> > If I write in my AEL dialplan:
> > 	Set(Tracker=${CDR(uniqueid)});
> > 
> > this results in executing:
> > 	Set(Tracker=eagle.domain.com-1661872057.2349)
> > 
> > Just what I want.
> > 
> > However writing:
> > 	Tracker=${CDR(uniqueid)};
> > 
> > results in:
> > 	MSet(Tracker=-1661872057.2349)
> > 
> > systemname is missing.
> 
> Hi Antony,
> 
> This is not a problem with MSet.

No, it is indeed the documented behaviour of MSet "MSet behaves in a similar 
fashion to the way Set worked in 1.2/1.4 and is thus prone to doing things 
that you may not expect."

> Keep in mind that AEL is a transpiler, the AEL itself is not evaluated
> at the time of execution... extensions.conf-style dialplan is what's
> being executed.

Agreed.

> Also... keep in mind that var=val assignments always use surround the
> value with $[]  which will either evaluate math or boolean expressions.
> 
> Since 'eagle.domain.com' is not numeric, and not boolean, it's expected
> it would not be included in the final value.

Yes, but to be fair, that is not what I would expect Tracker=${CDR(uniqueid)} 
to do in any other language.

> If you do a 'dialplan show' on the context after AEL has processed it,
> you'll clearly see the MSet and ${CDR(uniqueid)} being inside $[]

Yes.

> If you run the same code through extensions.conf you'll get exactly the
> same result... so I would call this expected behavior.

I think we'll have to disagree on what a programmer "expects" a syntax like 
var=value to do, then.

> The fix/workaround is to explicitly use Set() when you need to work with
> anything non-numeric and non-boolean

True, and that is precisely what I have been doing in order to avoid such 
problems.  This example slipped through my conversion process (I've been 
converting previously-non-AEL dialplans into AEL because I prefer the general 
style).

What I am suggesting is that Tracker=${CDR(uniqueid)} should be converted by 
AEL into Set(Tracker=${CDR(uniqueid)}) in order to avoid this sort of 
surprise.

If someone knows they want to perform arithmetic, they can write 
Result=$[${var1}-4] and end up with Set(Result=$[${var1}-4]) after AEL has 
done its transpilation.


Maybe you could offer an example of where MSet() does what most people would 
expect, and Set() does not?


I still intend to abide by the documentation for MSet "Avoid its use if 
possible.", and I simply think it would be good if AEL: did the same.



Antony.

-- 
+++ Divide By Cucumber Error.  Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++

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