asterisk users - Aug 2004 - <<< AGI and EXEC function CONFIRMATION >>>

Howdie-

Can anyone please confirm that the BACKGROUND application does ***NOT*** 
return IMMEDIATELY when called from within an AGI EXEC command?

It seems that EXEC waits until DTMF or THE END OF THE AUDIO FILE to return 
to the AGI script.

This essentially prevents repeated calls to BACKGROUND (or I assume any 
other asterisk dialplan application) from within an AGI, and prevents 
"building" a "queue" of audio files--- which is the default
functionality of
launching ***SEQUENTIAL*** BACKGROUND entries from the DIALPLAN.

Is there a work-around from within AGI which will return IMMEDIATELY?

The practical application here is to queue-up the following INDIVIDUAL audio 
segments from within the AGI and go on to other tasks without EXEC (or is it 
AGI command?) blocking the building of the audio queue:

Build Queue with calls to EXEC Background--
segment 1: "Option 1"
segment 2: "Press 11 for Sales"
segment 3: "Option 2"
segment 4: "Press 22 for Marketing"
...etc
Return and do other stuff IMMEDIATELY.

Thanks & Cheers-
JJQ

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At least with my php scripts, it retuns immediately, which is why i get 
it to check for what the function returns

eg.
fputs($configSettings['handles']['stdOut'],"STREAM FILE
$filename \"\"\n");
gets it to play a background message

This line keeps my script from continueing (and thus, ending and 
preventing asterisk skipping)
$temp = fgets($configSettings['handles']['stdIn']);


hope that helps

Try waiting until

jeff quade wrote:
>
> Howdie-
>
> Can anyone please confirm that the BACKGROUND application does 
> ***NOT*** return IMMEDIATELY when called from within an AGI EXEC command?
>
> It seems that EXEC waits until DTMF or THE END OF THE AUDIO FILE to 
> return to the AGI script.
>
> This essentially prevents repeated calls to BACKGROUND (or I assume 
> any other asterisk dialplan application) from within an AGI, and 
> prevents "building" a "queue" of audio files--- which
is the default
> functionality of launching ***SEQUENTIAL*** BACKGROUND entries from 
> the DIALPLAN.
>
> Is there a work-around from within AGI which will return IMMEDIATELY?
>
> The practical application here is to queue-up the following INDIVIDUAL 
> audio segments from within the AGI and go on to other tasks without 
> EXEC (or is it AGI command?) blocking the building of the audio queue:
>
> Build Queue with calls to EXEC Background--
> segment 1: "Option 1"
> segment 2: "Press 11 for Sales"
> segment 3: "Option 2"
> segment 4: "Press 22 for Marketing"
> ...etc
> Return and do other stuff IMMEDIATELY.
>
> Thanks & Cheers-
> JJQ
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Don?t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! 
> http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/
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>

Clayton/group--

Thanks for the quick response...
I think we may be on a different wavelength on the "queue problem,"
though.

I cant get the following "native" agi commands to Return ***BEFORE***
a user
response-- which makes sense-- because these commands want to return with 
the response DATA.

Stream File
Get Data

By the looks of your code fragment--- I think you are getting a return only 
***AFTER*** a user presses a Key to generate DTMF or a timeout, yes? (please 
advise)

If not-- Ill have another look at phpagi, which provides my interface to the 
AGI API.

My particular problem lies in the fact that any Dialplan Application (ie: 
Background) launched through the native ***EXEC*** agi command seems to 
block until after the audio segment plays completely-- which prevents the 
"queueing" functionality provided by the Background application.

Im still tinkering with this... but thought someone might have some more 
insight.

Thanks again!
Cheers-
JJQ

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