asterisk users - Mar 2008 - Newbie IVR: How to read() before playback() is finished?

I am working on a menu to accept input from a caller like as follows:

Exten => 100,1,Answer()
Exten => 100,n,Playback(LONG-MESSAGE)
Exten => 100,n,Read(OPTION,,2)
...

When I tested it, I noticed if I start pressing a key before the
Playback() is finished, the input is not buffered (simply ignored) and I
have to listen to the whole message before I could re-enter again.

Is there a way that I could press a key and it will be Read() before the
Playback is finished?

It seems like a lot of IVR system in the market can doing that and I am
wondering if I have missed something in Asterisk.

Any thoughts?

Use Background instead of Playback, and put an 
exten => XX,n,Goto 
at the bottom of the context.

That should get you started.....

PaulH

	

On Thu, 2008-03-20 at 14:48 +1100, Lee, John (Sydney)
wrote:
> I am working on a menu to accept input from a caller like as follows:
> 
> Exten => 100,1,Answer()
> Exten => 100,n,Playback(LONG-MESSAGE)
> Exten => 100,n,Read(OPTION,,2)
> ...
> 
> When I tested it, I noticed if I start pressing a key before the
> Playback() is finished, the input is not buffered (simply ignored) and I
> have to listen to the whole message before I could re-enter again.
> 
> Is there a way that I could press a key and it will be Read() before the
> Playback is finished?
> 
> It seems like a lot of IVR system in the market can doing that and I am
> wondering if I have missed something in Asterisk.
> 
> Any thoughts?
> 
> _______________________________________________
> -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
> 
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
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In article <136A969E54082648AD45F9228A75F53C034D30B2 at
apac-syd-ex001.apac.cpwr.corp>,
Lee, John (Sydney) <John.Lee at compuware.com>
wrote:
> I am working on a menu to accept input from a caller like as follows:
> 
> Exten => 100,1,Answer()
> Exten => 100,n,Playback(LONG-MESSAGE)
> Exten => 100,n,Read(OPTION,,2)
> ...
> 
> When I tested it, I noticed if I start pressing a key before the
> Playback() is finished, the input is not buffered (simply ignored) and I
> have to listen to the whole message before I could re-enter again.
> 
> Is there a way that I could press a key and it will be Read() before the
> Playback is finished?
Try this:

exten => 100,1,Answer()
exten => 100,n,Read(OPTION,LONG-MESSAGE,2)

Cheers
Tony
-- 
Tony Mountifield
Work: tony at softins.co.uk - http://www.softins.co.uk
Play: tony at mountifield.org - http://tony.mountifield.org

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lee, John (Sydney)" <John.Lee at compuware.com>
To: <asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 11:48 PM
Subject: [asterisk-users] Newbie IVR: How to read() before playback() 
isfinished?

>I am working on a menu to accept input from a caller like as follows:
>
> Exten => 100,1,Answer()
> Exten => 100,n,Playback(LONG-MESSAGE)
> Exten => 100,n,Read(OPTION,,2)
> ...
>
> When I tested it, I noticed if I start pressing a key before the
> Playback() is finished, the input is not buffered (simply ignored) and I
> have to listen to the whole message before I could re-enter again.
>
> Is there a way that I could press a key and it will be Read() before the
> Playback is finished?
>
> It seems like a lot of IVR system in the market can doing that and I am
> wondering if I have missed something in Asterisk.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
Use Read( ) app to play your LONG-MESSAGE

Lee, John (Sydney) wrote:
> I am working on a menu to accept input from a caller like as follows:
>
> Exten => 100,1,Answer()
> Exten => 100,n,Playback(LONG-MESSAGE)
> Exten => 100,n,Read(OPTION,,2)
> ...
>
> When I tested it, I noticed if I start pressing a key before the
> Playback() is finished, the input is not buffered (simply ignored) and I
> have to listen to the whole message before I could re-enter again.
>
> Is there a way that I could press a key and it will be Read() before the
> Playback is finished?
>
> It seems like a lot of IVR system in the market can doing that and I am
> wondering if I have missed something in Asterisk.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> _______________________________________________
> -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>   
Besides the Background() app mentioned, you might like the WaitExten() app

Moj

> >
> Besides the Background() app mentioned, you might like the WaitExten()
app

Thanks guys for your response.

I have had much success with Read() as below so that whenever I press a
key before the sound file finishes playing, it will read the digit and
move to the next line.
exten => 100,1,Answer()
exten => 100,n,Read(OPTION,SOUND-FILE,1)
exten => 100,n,GotoIf($[${OPTION} = 2]?do2:doothers)
[...]

However, I noticed that sometimes when I call from the outside line to
this number, I need to press the key many many times before the digit
can be read.  This does not happen if I do it on the LAN.

Is there any way I could fix this problem?

Which is reasonably new, but an upgrade to the latest version (1.4.10.1)
will only take 5 minutes and is worth a shot.

PaulH


On Fri, 2008-05-09 at 15:24 +1000, Lee, John (Sydney)
wrote:
> > dmesg | grep -i zap
> > 
> > Should give you a version, and an echo cancellation technology.
> >
> Thanks Paul.
> 
> # dmesg | grep -i zap
> Zapata Telephony Interface Registered on major 196
> Zaptel Version: 1.4.6
> Zaptel Echo Canceller: MG2
> Zaptel Transcoder support loaded
> 
>