I’m setting up an IVR with four options. Each option will ring the same extension. But if there is no answer, I’d like it to go to a mailbox based on the IVR option chosen.
For instance, the IVR might be something like this:
Press 1 for John, press 2 for Chris, press 3 for Todd, press 4 for Steve.
No matter which option they press, it will ring extension 2004. But if there is no answer, then it will go to John’s voicemail if they press 1, to Chris’ if they pressed 2, and so forth.
I can think of a couple of ways that I might do this in plain Asterisk, but not sure where to get started with this in FreePBX. Am hoping that someone can point me in the right direction.
I’m running the FreePBX distro 5.211 with the Asterisk 11 option.
FreePBX is an incredibly robust system, but it might not fit every need.
If you want to stick with only using the GUI to program your required features then lgaetz solution is perfect. It is simple to program and does not require knowledge of the inner workings of Asterisk dial plan.
If you can do it more eloquently in plain Asterisk, so be it. If you are capable of writing your own dial plan you can hook into FreePBX to get the functionality you need.
FreePBX is designed for many circumstances but if it does not fit your needs there are plenty of _custom.conf files that you can use to inject your own configs.
You get the best of both worlds. An easy to use GUI that fits many needs as well as a very customizable platform to extend past the stock features.
That all sounds great! Can you point me to some documentation that will get me started in creating my own dialplans in the _custom.conf files?
The reason I used FreePBX on this install for my client was because they wanted a GUI so they could manage it. Now that it’s installed and working, every time they want to change something, they ask me to do it anyway.
I’m good on the Asterisk programming side, I’m just unsure as to how I would use the _custom.conf files to “hook” into FreePBX, which to me sounds like something FreePBX-specific (not something I’ve seen in any Asterisk books I’ve read). Other than knowing that I write standard dialplans in the _custom.conf files, I’m unfamiliar with their format and how they are integrated.
So any references that you can provide on that front would be much appreciated!
Coming from Asterisk, you know about specific files such as/etc/asterisk/extensions.conf. On a FreePBX system you will open that file and see a warning not to edit it, so you want to edit extensions_custom.conf. Same goes for everything else.
