How is the Transfer to VM Phone App supposed to work? conflicting information so far

[afassas]

I do not understand how the “Transfer to VM” phone app is supposed to work.
Our FreePBX has “Phone Apps” version 13.0.92.30. Other system details are at the end of the post.

What we are seeing on a Sangoma S505 phone is: When we press the phone button marked “Transfer to VM”, with a live call on the device extension, we are presented with the “Dial Extension” prompt. The phone will not accept or show any digits keyed in. There is a softkey labeled “Change”. We have to press “Change” and then enter the extension number. Then press “Done”, then “Select”. Then the Transfer to VM occurs.

What the wiki documentation shows: (last edited 30 Dec. 2015) https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/PHON/Transfer+to+Voicemail+App

What the community and issue tracker refer to: There are multiple message threads and issue trackers that refer to “Transfer to VM” functionality that gives the phone app user a list of voicemail extensions to scroll through and select on.

What a previous post topic and subsequent support ticket said: The previous topic is https://community.freepbx.org/t/transfer-to-vm-rest-api-does-not-accept-direct-extension-entry/56549
The support ticket resulted in the following:

Dear Alex,

Sorry for the confusion,

This change was introduced by developers recently for a particular fix, if you require that this goes back to the default behavior please assist us by performing a feature request as instructed here: Sangoma Documentation

Sorry again for any inconveniences

Warm regards,

While the support response acknowledges that something was taken away and could possibly be requested to be put back. I am just confused by the various descriptions of the Phone App functionality.

Please someone please steer me in the direction we need to go, to understand how “Transfer to VM” is supposed to function, the setup of same and version necessary to achieve. We are using Sangoma S505 and S705 phones that are configured through Endpoint Manager.

Alternatively, we would be simply happy if we could press a phone button to initiate a transfer to VM, then press a BLF key to select the extension to transfer to. Two button presses.

I am starting with the community post, as I am not sure this is a support issue or a user misunderstanding. Also, not sure this is a bug either.

Our installation is:
FreePBX distro firmware: 12.7.5-1902-3.sng7
Service pack: 1.0.0.0
Installed on a VMWare esxi 5.1 virtual machine.
FreePBX 14.0.5.25 on Asterisk 13.22.0
All “yum update” current as of February 16, 2019
All Module Updates current on Stable track as of February 16, 2019
using Endpoint Manager 14.0.2.188
using Phone Apps 13.0.92.30
Sangoma firmware pkg 1.51, S505 & S705 3.0.4.57

Thank you to the community in advance for your help,
Alex

[necits2015]

Not sure about the VM transfer Phone apps issue but you should at least be able to accomplish the transfer to voicemail with three button presses. First assign a key as type prefix with a value of * and label it VM-Xfer. After that you should be able to press transfer, VM-Xfer button and then the BLF. I know Sangoma phones support short and long press BLF’s. Maybe that can be programmed for VM transfer via BLF.

[afassas]

I want to apologize. My previous Sangoma support response basically gave me my answer. The XML-API “Transfer to VM” enters a transfer to VM with a blank extension. You must select “Change”, then type in the extension desired. Then press “Done”. Transfer to VM accomplished. I know I didn’t like this behavior.

After further reading, the following solutions became apparent:

1. Setup for 1-button transfer to VM when a BLF is present on the Sangoma phone that is transferring the call. In Endpoint Manager, phone template, Options, scroll down and edit “BLF Long Press Idle State” by adding “*” (don’t include the " "). Save, Rebuild, Update phones, then Apply. This will allow you to transfer an answered call directly to an extensions VM by pressing their BLF key for 1+ seconds. Do hangup so the caller can hear the greeting.

2. Setup for a transfer to VM when there IS NOT a BLF present on the Sangoma phone for the extension that you are transferring to. In Endpoint Manager, phone template, Model, select the phone model, choose a Line Key to program as a VM XFR button, type DTMF, label VM XFR (or your choice), value “##*”. Save Model, then Save, Rebuild, Update phones, then Apply. This will allow you to transfer an answered call to an extensions VM by, pressing the new VM XFR button, then dial the extension. This is a blind transfer, so go ahead and hang up.

These two setups accomplish what I am trying to do expeditiously. I am sure I am merely duplicating the knowledge and efforts of others, but it bears repeating. A lot of this type of typical setups is not readily findable in the Wiki. And much of the Forum information can be misleading because of version differences. FreePBX is a quickly evolving platform and that comes at some cost.

I understand that by the nature of FreePBX being available in use at so many version levels, and installable on multiple versions of Asterisk, that it is nearly impossible to have a separate documentation for each iteration. Kudos to the development team and to the community for the fine job they do.