PBX Firmware: 2.210.62-5
I am bringing up a new implementation live in a few days and one of my users came upon some unwelcome behavior in the “dial by name” or “Phonebook Directory” or “feature code 411”, all seems to be the same to me. I installed the “Asterisk Phonebook” mainly as a CID lookup and included the *0 speedial as an added bonus. I populated the Phonebook with all the names and cell numbers of all the people in the office, many also having an internal extension, of course the names matched exactly.
Anyway I set the “PhoneBook Directory” feature in my main IVR facing the public inbound calls. I thought it would only included the names of the persons with extensions. NOT! The two are merged. Even the Customers and Vendors I added to the “Asterisk Phonebook” were available to be dialed by an inbound caller. Seems that which name it caught first for the extension or cell number was a toss up. Lucky one user tried her name and was so surprised when her cell phone rang.
Bug or Feature? I don’t know, nasty bug, nice feature. I found no documentation on this. My workaround: Put a “-” in front of all the “Asterisk Phonebook” names. There is no “-” on the keypad so “Dial by Name” will never match them and it makes a nice spacer when it shows up on the phone.
James McGaugh
Adams Extract & Spice
Gonzales, TX