VICIDIAL Inbound DID - Call Menu asking for a code

[puccibox73]

Hello,
I need to create an INBOUND DID with a Call Menu asking to our customers for a code ( a phone number ) then we need the system to repeat the previously inserted number and if it's correct (for example press # if the number you've heard is correct) then start a recording ...

Is it possible with the GUI with standard Inbound DIDS and Call Menus?
We have Vicidial 2.4.362a and i have bought Vici Manuals , agent and manager .... but i don't find all the information i need in order to create this scenario

Thanks in advance

[puccibox73]

in order to be precise... the number must be inserted by the customer pressing the digits with the phone... and must also be inserted in some variable in order to rename the VoiceRecording with this number... but this part can be managed with a custom script... it's not a problem... we only need to create a call menu able to catch an inserted number... using this as a variable...

[williamconley]

This is a feature of Vicidial already as part of the DID entry, but is used in several places when passing a call from place to place when this variable is requested. Except there is no validation at present. In the below, the Vendor Lead Code is used for lookup.

In-Group Call Handle Method - If IN_GROUP is selected as the DID Route, then this is the call handling method used for these calls. CID will add a new lead record with every call using the CallerID as the phone number, CIDLOOKUP will attempt to lookup the phone number by the CallerID in the entire system, CIDLOOKUPRL will attempt to lookup the phone number by the CallerID in only one specified list, CIDLOOKUPRC will attempt to lookup the phone number by the CallerID in all of the lists that belong to the specified campaign, CLOSER is specified for VICIDIAL Closer calls, ANI will add a new lead record with every call using the ANI as the phone number, ANILOOKUP will attempt to lookup the phone number by the ANI in the entire system, ANILOOKUPRL will attempt to lookup the phone number by the ANI in only one specified list, XDIGITID will prompt the caller for an X digit code before the call will be put into the queue, VIDPROMPT will prompt the caller for their ID number and will create a new lead record with the CallerID as the phone number and the ID as the Vendor ID, VIDPROMPTLOOKUP will attempt to lookup the ID in the entire system, VIDPROMPTLOOKUPRL will attempt to lookup the vendor ID by the ID in only one specified list, VIDPROMPTLOOKUPRC will attempt to lookup the vendor ID by the ID in all of the lists that belong to the specified campaign. Default is CID. If a CIDLOOKUP method is used with ALT, it will search the alt_phone field for the phone number if no matches are found for the main phone number. If a CIDLOOKUP method is used with ADDR3, it will search the address3 field for the phone number if no matches are found for the main phone number and optionally the alt_phone field.

[puccibox73]

william thanks for your reply... anyway i think i wasn't too clear to let you understand what we need...
we are an outbound call center and we are migrating from a third party software to vicidial, it's not immediate because we have developed a lot of crm with associated back office activities in past years, associated to this third party software...
Our problem is that in italy each sale need a voice recording in which the agent asks a few questions to the customer who must agree in order to avoid any problem... before this sometimes happened that a customer could say.. "'i've never bought this from you"...
Our campaigns natively born with vicidial have no problem at all... you know this better than me, an agent just need to press "start" and then "stop" recording... and voila...
The problem now is the integration with other crm i spoke before... my idea was to create in vicidial something like an "inbound voice recorder" ... so that when an agent makes a sale with the third party crm he has to create a 3-way conference with this "vicidial voice recorder" and create there the recording...
The need of inserting the code is that the person who really calls this inbound recorder isn't the customer, but the agent... so we need the agent to insert the customer phone number in order to retrieve the recording ... I hope now is more clear what we need... and it should not be forever we just need during the process of migration to vicidial... i know you are in the other side of the world and probably you will read this later... now i will try to do it by myself but any suggestion is appreciated... obviously i will post the solution in case i will find one
thanks again....

[williamconley]

I am beginning to see the picture. but do you need this for making the recordings or for playback ... or both?

There are methods of recording outbound 3rd party calls, but I m not sure what we are doing at this point. Since (as you've said), Vicidial can already record ... and we're IN vicidial ... I'm not sure where the problem is at this point.

[puccibox73]

we need to use for a few period, till completing the migration, a third party outbound software... connected to his E1 PRI lines... with predictive and so on... but we are abandoning it and migrating to vicidial...
what i need is the ability to make voice recordings from this third party software, calling an "inbound recorder" created with vicidial... so i thought that creating a DID and an in-group that was possible... i just need to record....no playback... we have developed in these years our back office application... so i've already managed the integration of these with vicidial database... i just need to make a 3way conf from a non-vici phone in call with a customer, so vici is the "third" component of the conference and record this calls... the better solution would be something like VIDPROMPT in order to have vici asking for a code... and then finding this in the recording_log table, or even a join with this and other tables... easily retrieve this recordings... thanks !

[puccibox73]

basically what i need is an unattended inbound campaign, that needs no live agents logged in... with a VIDPROMPT (or XDIGITID) handle method... so i can call this number when in conversation outside vicidial, and then after inserting the code, and confirming it (like normal VIDPROMPT behavior) automatically recording the call till the hangup... then the rest of the process is not a problem... i think i will find a record in the recording_log table with the filename and something related to the code inserted and confirmed... and from there no problem ....

[puccibox73]

our old software had a similar way of working... unfortunately at the moment is broken and we have no more maintenance due to migration to vicidial... the way it works (or worked) was through "non human" agents.... at the moment i succeeded in creating a DID and an in-group with recording on by default and VIDPROMPT asking me code and confirmation.... but after that without logging a human agent, i get only a MoH and obviously no recording... is not possible in vici to create "Non human" agents ? so no need of x-lite or other sip/iax software , no need of logging... no need of "real" answering, but every time i route a call from the in-group to one of these i can record the call...
am i clear?
thank you....

[williamconley]

You can use an agi script for this to accomplish any task you like. Transfer the call to the AGI script at whatever point you want it to begin the process. But this is not a part of Vicidial, per se.

although you could experiment with the DID recording method (and the ingroup method) and see if the recording will catch what you want it to catch.

[puccibox73]

agi scripting can be a solution, but i think it requires much more time cause I need to study the technique and i need just for one month or more.. i would like to try with the other method, but i don't succeed in having the call "auto answered" in order to start the recording... i need 30/40 recordings at a time... i cannot use 40 agents just to let them hear a call while it's recorded...

[williamconley]

inbound calls can be recorded automatically via the did settings. the question is what it is exactly that is being recorded. if there is no agent on the call, who is talking to be recorded in the first place?

if these are calls from your old system and you want them recorded while the conversation is taking place on your legacy system, there is an extension (i believe) that the calls could be sent to for recording. and failing that, you could send the calls to conference rooms and possibly record the room content.

but i am still a little unsure of what exactly is being recorded if there is no agent! why would anyone even be talking if there is only one party on the line ...

[puccibox73]

that's what i need... calls are taking place in my old system, and during the call i create a conference, with my old system, and the number to call for the conference must be the extension in vicidial / asterisk ... so even if there's no live agent in the asterisk side, the audio coming into this extension is a call between two parties.... i'm wondering to manually create this extension in extensions.conf hoping this won't break vicidial... i need an extension with a prompt for a code, a confirmation for this and then a recording with the inserted code as a part of the filename recorded.... using vicidial will simplify things because i can work with database and search there the recordings, instead than via filesystem....

[puccibox73]

is it possible to create such extension in vicidial without the need of a live agent? i didn't succeed to create this... if there's no agent the calls remain in the queue... giving me MoH... iknow i could disable this... but anyway without and agent who answers the call the recording doesn't start... that's where i was yesterday...

[puccibox73]

william do you think it's possible to create a custom-context with an extensions to which send all the calls from a certain did created in vicidial, with VIDPROMPT handle method... passing the inserted code to this extension in order to create the recording with the code as a filename? at the moment this is maybe the simplest solution...

[williamconley]

I believe it would be entirely possible to create this solution within the Vicidial GUI. It may be possible without any actual changes using a "record all" method from an existing call path. But definitely by using custom extensions, which can be applied in System Settings, so it will even survive an upgrade.

You could probably mimic any of the existing recording methods, such as creating a meetme room (with silent entry and auto-recording). This would even allow someone in Vicidial to monitor the conference easily.

Or you could create a "remote agent" that happens to be a recording extension. Then you'd get to watch what was happening in the real time screen as well.

[puccibox73]

I've created for testing a custom extension and i've associated to the did an in-group with VIDPROMPT handle method, with the drop timeout set to 0 and this custom extension as drop extension... now I'm dealing to asterisk limitations... as you know if I don't dial someone, Monitor or MixMonitor (that I use in my custom extension ) don't start recording... working this way i have a new lead added to the list chosen in the DID with the vendor lead code inserted by the agent ... i feel i am close to solution , now i need just to "dial" someone (also a fake/virtual sip) and with monitor naming the filename with the call unique id i am able to retrieve any information i need... i just need to understand how to "simulate" the dial in order to let monitor start recording... any suggestion ?

[puccibox73]

Ok i succeeded with local channels in doing so... now i have only a little problem, the vendor id inserted by agent is in the vicidial_did_log table, but the unique id is in the vicidial_list... is there a way to call with Monitor the recording file with the vendor id instead of unique id ? is it in someway usable inside extensions.conf as a variable ?

[williamconley]

nope. the purpose of the naming convention in vicidial is to allow linking to the recordings later in the lead or user record. you could place an appropriate entry in the vicidial recordings table to link the lead to the recording (and link anything else to anything else ... so you can come here later and get the recording record, or just view it on the lead record as designed).

otherwise, you'll need to pass to an agi script so that script can acquire the data from the live calls tables.

[puccibox73]

thanks william, now i've found how to do what i need , with remote agents and custom dialplan i reached all my goals, the only "bad things" (but not so bad hehehe) is that i cannot use the "auto-record" option of the DID, very useful 'cause it fills the recording_log in a very complete way.
Doing recording this way i will find in my recordings also the ivr menu prompted and if the agent speaks during this, i hear also these "background voices"... it's not so professional... but it's not a problem, i've added to all dialers of my cluster the asterisk-addons and now i manually record with Monitor(), and i can insert records in that table with MYSQL application, directly from the dialplan... it works well, it's fully customizable, very quick to implement without any agi-script... and for reaching this i've to thank you, because brainstorming with such an expert person about vicidial has been really constructive ( i hope the meaning of this word is the same in english as in italian ;P )
thanks again...

[williamconley]

we've had to perform this brainstorming for many clients over the years. however, many of the brainstorm functions have been gradually added to vicidial over the years. so now many of the functions we built become obsolete during upgrades. but that leaves us to build more and more ...