How to implement a dial-out queue
2006-05-09
Note: this FAQ applies to an outdated approach. See the document "Tracing outbound calls through QueueMetrics in TrixBox" version 2.0, available form the Downloads page.
The following is is a piece of real-world dialplan one of our clients is using:
This example needs a three digit campaign number, like '301'. If you have to dial the number 01234567 for campaign #301, you actually dial 9 301 01234567 so that the system knows on which outbound queue the call is being handled. The agent code is inferred from the current terminal it is being used and all calls are saved to disk for future reference with a name that QueueMetrics can understand (so you can listen to them with a click from the mouse).
As this feature requires making a number of changes to the Asterisk configuration, we suggest you proceed one step at a time during its implementation:
The following is is a piece of real-world dialplan one of our clients is using:
exten => _9XXX.,1,Set(MY_QUE=${EXTEN:1:3})
exten => _9XXX.,2,Set(MY_NUM=${EXTEN:4})
exten => _9XXX.,3,Set(MY_AGENT=${CALLERID(num)})
exten => _9XXX.,4,NoOp,Ag: ${MY_AGENT} N: ${MY_NUM} Q: ${MY_QUE}
exten => _9XXX.,5,MixMonitor(Q-${MY_QUE}-${UNIQUEID}.wav|b|)
exten => _9XXX.,6,DeadAGI(queueDial.agi|${MY_NUM}|Zap/g0/${MY_NUM}|q-${MY_QUE}|Agent/${MY_AGENT})
exten => _9XXX.,7,Congestion
This example needs a three digit campaign number, like '301'. If you have to dial the number 01234567 for campaign #301, you actually dial 9 301 01234567 so that the system knows on which outbound queue the call is being handled. The agent code is inferred from the current terminal it is being used and all calls are saved to disk for future reference with a name that QueueMetrics can understand (so you can listen to them with a click from the mouse).
As this feature requires making a number of changes to the Asterisk configuration, we suggest you proceed one step at a time during its implementation:
- First change the dialplan in order to have a NoOp() console output - like the example above steps 1-4 - so you can see that your changes to the dialplan are correct and do indeed work
- Then try adding the queueDial.agi in that point in the dialplan so that you are sure it is called through the diaplan (you can see it being called through the Asterisk command line interface, though it might not work yet)
- Once you are sure it is called, check if all file permissions are OK and the queueDial.agi does actually what it is supposed to do - places a call and adds lines to the queue_log. If it does not, chances are it is not being executed at all - see "Why doesn't my AGI file seem to work?"
- When everything is ready, configure QM to pick up the new queue you created.