This blog explains how an agent can login to a queue directly through an extension. In asterisk’s terms an agent is human and an extension is device. Here an agent will be able to login into the queue through an extension by dialing a queue login number and you do not need to make any configurations in agents.conf or queues.conf.  For this setup to work properly, you need to have the correct dialplans in corresponding  extension files.

In the case of asteriskNOW, extension_additional.conf contains dialplans to handle  queue login.

[ext-queues]
exten => 5000*,1,Macro(agent-add,5000,)
exten => 5000**,1,Macro(agent-del,5000,5000)

If [macro-agent-add] and [macro-agent-del] contexts are already present in extensions_additional.conf you need to put the dialplans for these contexts in /etc/asterisk/extensions_override_freepbx.conf otherwise you can add the dialplans in /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf.

[macro-agent-add]
include => macro-agent-add-custom
exten => s,1,Wait(1)
exten => s,n,Macro(user-callerid,SKIPTTL)
exten => s,n,Set(CALLBACKNUM=${AMPUSER})
exten => s,n,AddQueueMember(${ARG1},Local/${CALLBACKNUM}@from-internal/n)
exten => s,n,UserEvent(Agentlogin,Agent: ${CALLBACKNUM})
exten => s,n,Wait(1)
exten => s,n,Playback(agent-loginok&with&extension)
exten => s,n,SayDigits(${CALLBACKNUM})
exten => s,n,Hangup
exten => s,n,MacroExit()
exten => s,n(invalid),Playback(pbx-invalid)
exten => s,n,Goto(a3)

; end of [macro-agent-add]
[macro-agent-del]
include => macro-agent-del-custom
exten => s,1,Wait(1)
exten => s,n,Macro(user-callerid,SKIPTTL)
exten => s,n,Set(CALLBACKNUM=${AMPUSER})
exten => s,n,ExecIf($["${CALLBACKNUM}" = ""],Set,CALLBACKNUM=${CALLERID(number)})
exten => s,n,RemoveQueueMember(${ARG1},Local/${CALLBACKNUM}@from-internal/n)
exten => s,n,UserEvent(RefreshQueue)
exten => s,n,Wait(1)
exten => s,n,Playback(agent-loggedoff&with&extension)
exten => s,n,SayDigits(${CALLBACKNUM})
exten => s,n,Hangup
; end of [macro-agent-del]

In this dialplan 5000 is the queue number. You can use any queue number instead of it. To login to queue dial 5000* from your phone (either a softphone like xlite or a hard phone like Linksys) and you will hear a login confirmation and to logout from the queue you need to dial 5000** as per the dial plan. The advantage of this method is that an agent can do a login or logout by just dialing the corresponding number. Once logged in we can check current members in the queue using the command.

From shell
#asterisk -rx "queue show 5000"   (5000 is the queue number)
From asterisk CLI
> queue show 5000

Tino Thomas linux asterisk, asterisk dynamic agent, asteriskNOW, asterisknow dynamic agent, asterisknow dynamic agent login, dynamic agent, dynamic agent login, freepbx dynamic agent

Customize call recording location in asteriskNow.

By default AsteriskNOW saves call recordings under the directory /var/spool/asterisk/monitor. This way of call recording has got some disadvantages since number of files can grow beyond a limit . You will find it difficult to recognize call recordings related to a particular extension. A solution to this issue is to customize the call recording location. You need to override the dialplan for the context [macro-record-enable] present in /etc/asterisk/extensions_additional.conf. To override these dialplans you need to add new dialplan in a file called /etc/asterisk/extensions_override_freepbx.conf.  Following is the default dialplan for the context [macro-record-enable] present in /etc/asterisk/extensions_additional.conf.

[macro-record-enable]
include => macro-record-enable-custom
exten => s,1,GotoIf($["${BLINDTRANSFER}" = ""]?check)
exten => s,n,ResetCDR(w)
exten => s,n,StopMixMonitor()
exten => s,n(check),AGI(recordingcheck,${STRFTIME(${EPOCH},,%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)},${UNIQUEID})
exten => s,n,MacroExit()
exten => s,1+998(record),MixMonitor(${MIXMON_DIR}${CALLFILENAME}.${MIXMON_FORMAT},,${MIXMON_POST})
; end of [macro-record-enable]

You need to add the following dialplan in /etc/asterisk/extensions_override_freepbx.conf, which will override the above dialplan to customize the call recording location.

[macro-record-enable]
include => macro-record-enable-custom
exten => s,1,GotoIf($["${BLINDTRANSFER}" = ""]?check)
exten => s,n,ResetCDR(w)
exten => s,n,StopMixMonitor()
exten => s,n(check),AGI(recordingcheck,${STRFTIME(${EPOCH},,%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)},${UNIQUEID})
exten => s,n,MacroExit()
exten => s,n(record),System(/bin/mkdir -p /var/spool/asterisk/monitor/freepbx/${STRFTIME(${EPOCH},,%Y)}/${STRFTIME(${EPOCH},
,%m)}/${STRFTIME(${EPOCH},,%d)}/${ARG1}/${UNIQUEID})
exten => s,n,MixMonitor(/var/spool/asterisk/monitor/freepbx/${STRFTIME(${EPOCH},,%Y)}/${STRFTIME(${EPOCH},,%m)}/${STRFTIME($
{EPOCH},,%d)}/${ARG1}/${UNIQUEID}/${CALLFILENAME}.${MIXMON_FORMAT},,${MIXMON_POST})

The changes made are

exten => s,n(record),System(/bin/mkdir -p /var/spool/asterisk/monitor/freepbx/${STRFTIME(${EPOCH},,%Y)}/${STRFTIME(${EPOCH},
,%m)}/${STRFTIME(${EPOCH},,%d)}/${ARG1}/${UNIQUEID})

Here we are using ‘System’ command to create directories during the call recording. Inside the system command we can execute the unix shell commands. Here we used ‘mkdir’ command to create directories followed by a number of variables in asterisk. Here ‘STRFTIME’ used to get the year, month & date . ${ARG1} used to get the asterisk user extension ,who is participating in that call ;${UNIQUEID} to get the unique id of that call. UNIQUEID is assigned by asterisk and it is the unix time of orgination of that call.

<pre>exten => s,n,MixMonitor(/var/spool/asterisk/monitor/freepbx/${STRFTIME(${EPOCH},,%Y)}/${STRFTIME(${EPOCH},,%m)}/${STRFTIME($
{EPOCH},,%d)}/${ARG1}/${UNIQUEID}/${CALLFILENAME}.${MIXMON_FORMAT},,${MIXMON_POST})</pre>

In succeeding priority we use MixMonitor command to record the conversations in that channel. The format of MixMonitor command is MixMonitor(<file>.<ext>[|<options>[|<command>]]). Here in the ‘filename’ field we will give path of created directory in the preceding line.

Once you made the above changes you need to reload the dialplan through either of the following two ways.

from shell

#asterisk -rx “dialplan reload”

from asterisk CLI

> dialplan reload

Tino Thomas linux asterisk, asterisk call recording, asteriskNOW, asteriskNOW call recording, call recording location, customize call recording, freepbx, freepbx call recording