Hi all: I’m trying to figure out if there is any way of setting up a call flow control (or time condition) that acts on all extensions at once, without of course creating the same call flow control (or time condition) for all extensions, so it can be activated with only one feature code.
Specificaly, from 1:00pm to 2:00pm everybody goes to the lunch room to have their lunch. I would like that for any incoming call to any internal extension, whether external to internal, or internal to internal, the destination gets re-directed to the lunch room extension (116 in this case) when enabled, but goes to the actual dialed extension when disabled. Thanks in advance.
The external call to internal call is easy. Just have a time condition or feature code on your incoming route(s) send the call to x116.
If everybody goes to the lunch room from 1:00pm to 2:00pm who is making an internal to internal call? Additionally if everybody knows that everybody goes to the lunch room from 1:00pm to 2:00pm why would they be calling a direct extension rather than x116?
Maybe I need to explain myself a little further. Lets focus on the external to internal calls. I have an IVR that directs the calls to specific extensions according to the dailed digit, like "Press 1 for support (extension 101), 2 for marketing (extension 102), 3 for billing (extension 103), …, or wait in line for the operator"
What I want to achieve is a call flow control (or time condition) that, if enabled, will redirect any extension to extension 116, no matter what the “original” extension was. It seems that the only way to do this would be to create one call flow control (or time condition) for each extension, since source and destination must be chosen. What I want to achieve, if possible, is to create only one call flow control (or time condition) that redirects any source to destination 116, and not one for each source.
If all external calls are going to x116 during lunch why do you need the IVR? Put the time condition in front of the IVR if not lunch go to the IVR if lunch bypass the IVR and go to x116.
I guess you could make 2 IVRs with the same recording. One IVR sends each option to the correct extension, the other IVR sends each option to x116. Use a time condition or call flow control to determine which IVR the call is sent to. You are using the same IVR recording so there is no need to redo that. It will only take 15 minutes to program this and your done.
Dear Alan: thanks for your input. Currently the setup is just like you mentioned, call flow control that redirects to 116 when enabled and IVR when disabled. But I would like that external callers would always get IVR no matter what status the call flow control is, but if call flow control is enabled, any option chosen form the IVR’s menu would redirect to 116, instead of going to the programmed extension. I thought about creating a second IVR just like you described, but I guess I was trying to find the way to achieve that without a second IVR or call flow controls for each of the programmed extensions on the IVR. I assume that there must be a way to tell asterisk to redirect all calls to a specific extension according to a time condition using only one GotoIfTime() clause, no matter what the source is, something the like of GotoIfTime(original_extension=*, new_extension=116), so it can be controlled with only one toggle button. This way, one person can enable the call flow control for everybody with one button, instead of every person activating its own dedicated extension’s call flow control. But since I’m not an expert on plain asterisk dialplans, and since FreePBX doesn’t seem to have an option to do it through the GUI, I was trying to get some help from someone more knowledgeable than me. I guess that I prefer to go the harder way… hehehe. In any case, if you know whether that is possible, I would really appreciate your tips. Regards.
If one were writing the dial plan them self I am pretty sure it could be done. This level of dial plan is well beyond my current skill set.
I do not think there is an easy way to program this with the FreePBX GUI.
I think the easiest way is to have the call flow control and use 2 IVRs. Program the call flow control on a button on a phone.