Summary:	ASTERISK-00246: [patch] # out of VoiceMailMain2 "Password?" Prompt
Reporter:	ewieling (ewieling)	Labels:
Date Opened:	2003-09-11 11:46:48	Date Closed:	2004-09-25 02:46:18
Priority:	Major	Regression?	No
Status:	Closed/Complete	Components:	Core/General
Versions:		Frequency of Occurrence
Related Issues:
Environment:		Attachments:	( 0) poundout.diff
Description:	The attached patch for app_voicemail2.c will cause the app to restart if you press "#" or wait for the timeout when you are at the "Password?" prompt.  This will allow you to do the following in your dialplan: exten => 1000,1,VoiceMailMain2(${CALLERIDNUM}) When you call extension 1000 VoiceMailMain2 will default to the mailbox that is the same as your Caller*ID number.  If no matching mailbox is found in /etc/asterisk/voicemail.conf then it will ask you for the mailbox.  If it finds a mailbox with the same number as yur Caller*ID number it will skip asking you for a mailbox and go directly to asking you for a password.  If you press "#" at the password prompt (or wait for the timeout) then it will restart and ask you for a mailbox and password.  This is useful for people that check their voicemail from places other than their extension.
Comments:	By: ewieling (ewieling) 2003-09-11 13:18:00 Faxed disclaimer to Digium on Sep 11 2003 at 12:35 CDT By: dpobanz (dpobanz) 2003-09-11 13:45:26 Would you consider using '*' instead of '#' to back out of the voicemail password prompt? This is an attemp to get a consistent set of 'rules' of what different keys do. I would suggest the following definitions of keys. [*] cancel or backs up to previous option [#] end or skips ahead I do have a more complete suggested list of keys for voicemail if interested. Don Pobanz dpobanz@hastingsutilities.com By: John Todd (jtodd) 2003-09-11 14:10:16 I'd like to see Don's list of key suggestions, if they're an "industry standard", and please send them to the list.  I will note that on two systems I use (other than Asterisk) the # key is the "enter password" short-circuit during greeting playback. By: bradster (bradster) 2003-09-11 15:51:41 Don and I have talked about this too, and it's something that I have given a considerable amount of thought, and I have a couple brief comments. As part of my larger patch I also implemented '#' to get out of password entry and back to mailbox entry. The most obvious advantage to using # is that it's the timeout trigger anyways, and using * would require waiting a few seconds for the actual timeout, or pressing *#. To standardize # to complete entries and * to cancel them would really require ast_getstring (I think, I'm not at my PC) to be modified to work that way. At some point when you are bouncing back & forth between leaving messages, cancelling messages, logging into a mailbox, etc, it becomes confusing which you would actually call skipping (#) and which cancelling (*)... because you really might have several scenarios: - cancel? leaving this message, and leave a message for someone else - skip? leaving this message, and log into my mailbox - cancel? logging into this mailbox, and log into a different one - skip? logging into this mailbox, and leave a message for someone instead Oh yeah, and you might really just mean: - skip listening to the greeting and leave a message right away (the way that Asterisk currently uses # during that case) I have about a dozen other comments about the voicemail interface that I just don't have time to articulate logically at the moment. I will try to get to that soon... in brief, "industry standard" is a tough call, considering that 2 of the more significant commercial platforms, Octel type products and Nortel's Meridian/Call Pilot ones work quite differently, the former favouring more of an "enter something then # or * to cancel" approach, and the latter more like "enter something then # or just # to cancel". edited on: 09-11-03 15:36 By: dpobanz (dpobanz) 2003-09-11 17:01:01 1. I don't have all the anwers and am not aware of any industry standard. Of course if a majority of the world is using * then this will become the defacto standard!! 2. using # for done or finished or skip ahead seems to be consistent with the idea of John Todd's and Brad Bergman's. (ie. there are no more digits to enter so finish). I envision skip to mean skip to the end of as in 'it has now been completed', not skip as in I don't want to do this anymore. Maybe, skip is a bad word! ;>) By: ewieling (ewieling) 2003-09-11 17:23:52 I really should have described this patch as follows: This patch modifies VoiceMailMain2 to jump to asking for a mailbox number when it receives an empty password as the "Password?" prompt. ---------- The way you normally enter a password is "1234" and wait for the timeout or "1234#" (the # is so you don't have to wait for the timeout). The problem with changing the character to "*" is that currently "*" might be allowed in passwords, but "#" can never be part of a voicemail password. Therefore this patch causes a minimum of disruption for exisiting Asterisk installaions. ---------------- By: Mark Spencer (markster) 2003-09-26 21:24:56 Similar functionality already in CVS