asterisk users - Sep 2004 - New to Asterisk, questions about IVR and MySQL integration

Hello list,

  I am new to Asterisk and have a few questions, I hope you can tell me 
if Asterisk can do what I need.  I'd like to create a simple IVR menu 
that will allow people to enter prices using their telephone.  The goal 
of my project is to create a central database of gasoline prices in my 
area, which will be published online.

  I would like to have an automated system place a call to a gas station 
to get their latest prices.  When the clerk answers the phone, they'd 
hear a prerecorded message letting them know who's calling, and then 
they'd be prompted to enter their prices.  Ideally, this information 
would then be saved to a database.  This method would allow the database 
to stay up to date without any intervention on my part.  Unfortunately, 
I do not think a scenario where the stations call me to update their 
prices would work.

Does anyone have comments for me?

Thank you

----- Original Message ----- 
<snip>
>   I would like to have an automated system place a call to a gas station
> to get their latest prices.
look on the wiki (www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk) for .call files.  * has a
facility to make outbound calls and connect them to an extension in a
particular context that would put them into your IVR script.
>When the clerk answers the phone, they'd
> hear a prerecorded message letting them know who's calling, and then
> they'd be prompted to enter their prices.
look in the wiki for information about AGI scripting.  You seem to be
knowledgeable enough to probably have a language of choice that you know how
to write in (PHP, PERL etc).  I usually build all of my logic into a web
page and then port it over to an AGI script in PHP.
>Ideally, this information would then be saved to a database.
>This method would allow the database
> to stay up to date without any intervention on my part.
> Unfortunately, I do not think a scenario where the stations call me
> to update their
> prices would work.
What makes you think that calling them will be any different?  * does
everything that you want it to do pretty easily.  Build a system, attach a
couple of softphones to it and learn how * works.

the wiki is your friend. Have fun and welcome to *!

Jason Kawakami
www.optellabs.com