When creating a system recording and enabling “link to feature code”, the first recording always seems to be “*291”. If you continue adding recordings, you’ll get to 299, and it then jumps to 2910.
I am aware that I can go in to Feature Codes and change the code of an individual system recording, but doing so does not change the next system recording feature code.
I’m quite surprised that there are no settings, that I can find, that allow me to change where the first system recording starts from. For example, start at 200. Alternatively, change the amount of digits, so for example, it starts at 1200, or 12345, and goes up, rather than the odd behaviour of changing from 299 to 2910, which personally I find unintuitive.
I’ve done an extensive Google and forum search on this and it doesn’t seem possible, but I would love it to be possible. Alternatively I should be able to enter the feature code myself when creating the system recording like with most other places across the FreePBX interface.
Well it may seem odd but its actually 2 feature codes.
The feature code to re-record a recording is *29 and then it starts with 1 and works up. So *291 is recoding 1 and *2911 is recording 11.
@PitzKey I sent an email and got the auto response but we will see. I’m not too hopeful.
@tonyclewis Interesting, as I cannot dial *29 on its own. In comparison, VitalPBX, which is also Asterisk based, I am able to choose my own feature code without needing to go for a default one and change it like I would have to do in FreePBX. However, in VitalPBX, while I cannot create a recording in the interface and have it call me, I can instead call a number, record, and then rename and add a feature code to that recording afterwards. I like being able to record in the interface, but the freedom with the feature code in VitalPBX is certainly better.
I hope FreePBX will only day allow me to edit the numbering, or let me choose the number instead.
Thanks for the request I can see it in our system. If this module was being coded now today, it may well have more flexibility than it does now. However, even with the current behavior, I don’t really see issue here. For a user to redefine a recording via feature code, they must know the code to dial. What difference does it make whether they dial *291 or *2901? or *290001? Is there an issue here with overlapping or conflicting with other numbers? Do you have some sort of automation going on that is complicated by the current number scheme?
@lgaetz Good to know that the feedback does actually go somewhere that is read
For me, I feel that:
It is more convenient to enter the feature code that I want there and then, without having to navigate to the feature codes page seperately, like in VitalPBX. The ability to enter the numbers I want is there across the interface for other things, so system recordings feels like the odd one out.
The numbers jumping from 299 to 2910 is just weird behaviour. I’d rather it doesn’t jump to 300, but if you’re used to using 3 digit codes, maybe even using the codes from memory, it suddenly jumping to 2910 just doesn’t seem logical.
Even if you choose no to having the feature code, it still seems to assign. So you make your first recording at 291, you make 50+ recordings without the code, and then you enable it on the next recording, you’re suddenly at 2940, which again just kind of breaks the user experience.
OK so I will bite and date myself here with a history lesson. As the guy who drove adding the feature code in System Recordings some 10 plus years ago, here was the logic.
Hey it would be cool if we could just dial a feature code to let a admin re-record an existing system recording. How do we handle all the existing system recordings when setting up the feature codes for them. The easy button was that each system recording is in the database and it has a “id” column. That id column starts with 1 and auto increments each time a new recording is added. If you delete a recording it does not reuse that id in MySQL and just keeps auto incrementing.
Since the feature code just needed to be something random but predictable to make sure it would not overlap feature codes and we knew the id in the database was already unique it was a easy way to make sure the auto generated code would always be unique. All system recordings start with the feature code of *29 and the id number after. Hence how you get *291 and after number 9 it jumps to *2910 for id 10.
If you really want to change it you can do so in the feature code admin module after its created. Should it allowed overriding that from within system recordings. Probably but in the 10 years it has existed I never recall someone asking for it but the cool thing about open source that you get with FreePBX but you do not with VitalPBX is you can go make the change and submit it to the project as a great new enhancement.
@tonyclewis Thanks for the input, and good on you for driving that feature. Even though I think the implementation could be much better after seeing how VitalPBX handles it, there’s no doubt that the feature is still very valuable to many people.
I understand the ID system as I’ve while I’m not a developer, I’ve worked with websites and MySQL. I can see “id=1” in the URL when opening my first system recording, and same applies across the interface, with the number incrementing on each addition, and not being re-used. Understanding the *29 that comes before the ID does make more sense of it, including how the number jumps.
However it’s still a bummer that there’s no easy setting to change that *29. If I could, I personally would choose something like *200 as the starting point, so recordings are always 4 digits at 2001, 2002, 2003, etc, and do not jump about, and can be remembered a bit easier. Equally, I have to jump in to feature codes to change it the code to something more usable, but VitalPBX asks me right from the recording interface.
Most people probably won’t care about my points here and will just get on with it, but I do feel the system of being asked in VitalPBX is superior, and it could come to FreePBX. But yes, at least FreePBX is open source so I could look to changing that, but as I’m not a programmer, I’d have to pay someone. By that point, I might as well just buy a hosted system elsewhere.
To me, it seems the best way to handle this going forward is to simply allow me to change the *29 part.
one solution for the picky is to record 10 system recordings, then immediately delete them, never to be dialed again, if you are going to have lots and lots, same recipe x 10
