Re: [Asterisk-Users] Queue and Agent functionality
Hello, On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 00:49:35 -0400, Robert Jackson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [snip] 4. If a caller empties a handled queue (active agents) with no callers, the caller will still hear messages (you are first in queue, etc.). This should not occur. Someone posted a 2-line patch on -dev list recently to fix this issue. The patch works for us. I am assuming this will end up in CVS soon. If there is really an interest for this tiny patch I can post it to bugs.digium.com today. I don't know if Mark's or the author of the queues position announcements are ok with it.. Regards, -- Nicolás Gudiño Buenos Aires - Argentina ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Queue and Agent functionality
Chris,
I agree with your assessment of asterisk's queues. I took Robert's reply to
my original post, and came up with a way to tackle your first scenario (no
agents in queue=caller in limbo) with his idea of setting variables. My idea
deals with setting global variable states for each agent. I only have 4
agents, so it should work for me fairly easily. In the extensions.conf file
I would have something like this:
[globals]
GCSR1=off
GCSR2=off
GCSR3=off
GCSR4=off
Then, in the context where my agents log in/out of queue, I set the global
variable to on/off depending on their action. When the agent dials 800,
GCSR1 becomes 'on'. When they dial 801##, GCSR1 becomes 'off'.
[fromcsr1]
exten= 800,1,AgentCallbackLogin(101|[EMAIL PROTECTED])
exten= 800,2,SetGlobalVar(GCSR1=on)
exten= 800,3,Hangup
exten= 801,1,AgentCallBackLogin(101)
exten= 801,2,SetGlobalVar(GCSR1=off)
exten= 801,3,Hangup
Then, in my queue, I check for the value of GCSR1 before dumping them to the
queue. Otherwise, dump them to VM. Obviously, the GotoIf would have to check
if GCSR1 = on | GCSR2 = on | GCSR3 = on | etc... For my testing, I was just
using GCSR1.
[queue]
exten = 1,1,DigitTimeout,1
exten = 1,2,ResponseTimeout,1
exten = 1,3,GotoIf($[${GCSR1} = on]?4:5)
exten = 1,4,Queue(order|tT)
exten = 1,5,Goto(generalvm|s|1)
While this idea seems to make sense (in my head), I am unable to make it
work. For example, my GotoIF command does work, so the value of GCSR1 will
determine which path the caller takes. The part that doesn't work is in the
[fromcsr] context. My SetGlobalVar(GCSR1=on) seems to have no effect,
therefore, making my solution not work.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
Marco
-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chris Icide
Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2004 1:34 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Queue and Agent functionality
I've seen alot of posts lately on Queue and Agent functionality, and alot of
hacks to make them do different things that most call center managers want.
In the sake of doing this one time, I'd like to develop a single list of
request so we can consolidate a feature request for the Queue/Agent system.
Here are the ones that I run into the most:
1. Queue should know the status of agents assigned to a queue and act
accordingly.
Here are a couple examples of the problem.
A queue has no agents logged in and handling the queue, a call comes in for
the queue, the call remains in the queue until either an agent logs in, or
the queue reaches it's timeout. What it should do is immediately time out
setting priority +101. Normal timeout (caller in busy queue with agents
active) should exit with priority set +1.
A Queue has active agents in a prioritized fashion. Agent 1 is priority 1,
2 is 2, 3 is 3, and 4 is 4. Agent 1 needs to make an outbound call as does
agent 2. Both are now 'busy'. The Queue still attempts to call agent 1,
gets 'busy' back from the sip device (i've only tried this with sip), and
then the system appears to wait for something like 7-8 seconds before trying
the next agent in line.
2. The queue system should allow a set of messages to be played at specific
times. For example, a message that is played upon entry into the queue and
no other time, the current set of messages played every frequency=XX, a
message played to the caller when the call is accepted by an agent (eg
transfering), finally, a set of messages played to the user based upon a
predefined period int he config file.. see example below
message1-time=time in seconds
message1-frequency=never|once|always
message1=message1-file-loc
message2-time=time in seconds
message2-frequency=never|once|always
message2=message2-file-loc
Where a message messageX-file-loc is played never|once|always every
time in seconds.
if time is set to 0, or freqency is set to never, the message is not played.
If time is set to 0, and frequency is set to once, message is played at
messagex-time, and never again.
if time is set to 0 and frequency is set to always, message is played every
messagex-time in seconds.
3. Agent timeout (logs the agent off if they do not respond to a ring in a
defined about of time) does not track across calls. For example, if an
agent steps away and forgets to log out, then thier phone will ring based
upon whatever call strategy is used. If the agent timeout is set higher
than the time the queue polls a set of agents they will never be logged out.
The timer needs to increment per agent across multiple polls. So if my
queue poll timer is 20 secons, but the agent timeout is set to 60 seconds,
the preferred function would be to log the agent out of the queue if they
completely miss three poll events.
4. If a caller empties a handled queue (active agents) with no callers, the
caller will still hear messages (you are first in queue, etc.). This should
not occur. Someone posted a 2-line patch on
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Queue and Agent functionality
Hi! [fromcsr1] exten= 800,1,AgentCallbackLogin(101|[EMAIL PROTECTED]) exten= 800,2,SetGlobalVar(GCSR1=on) exten= 800,3,Hangup determine which path the caller takes. The part that doesn't work is in the [fromcsr] context. My SetGlobalVar(GCSR1=on) seems to have no effect, therefore, making my solution not work. Does anyone have any ideas? Unfortunately AgentCallbackLogin() _itself_ initiates the hangup, which means that any following priorities in your dialplan are useless. Besides your approach isn't yet perfect, what if an agent gets auto-logged out because he/she hasn't answered within the time limit? Cheers, Philipp ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [Asterisk-Users] Queue and Agent functionality
Here is my resolution to the problem, I use AgentLogin vs
AgentCallBackLogin.
This is a long post, but I think it is very useful... :)
Call comes in via DID, queueable is a macro I wrote. ty_voice and
voice are
two sound files. The first one is used to play a Thank you for calling
XXX.
The second is what the agent will here so they know what number was
dialed.
//Agents Dial 7100 to login
exten = 7100,1,Answer()
exten = 7100,2,AGI,SetAgent.agi
exten = 7100,3,AgentLogin(${AgentID})
//My AGI just gets the AgentID, verifies it exists and
//then adds it to the queue. This is done through an
//AGI because I add every agent to multiple queues
//
// I then have a script in my timeclock programming that when
// our employees Clock out they are removed from all queues.
//
// I did have it set so that when the employee clocked in, they were
// added to the queues automatically, but this causes problems when
// they are supposed to clock in but not get on the phones right away.
#!/usr/bin/perl
use Asterisk::AGI;
use Asterisk::Manager;
$AGI = new Asterisk::AGI;
open (F, /etc/asterisk/agents.conf);
while (F) {
if ($_ =~ /^agent = (\d*),(\d*),(.*)/) {
$Agent{$1} = 1;
}
}
close(F);
my %input = $AGI-ReadParse();
$ID = $AGI-get_data(agent-user, 3000, 3);
$ID =~ s/#//g;
while ((!$Agent{$ID}) ($Count 5)) {
$AGI-stream_file(agent-incorrect);
$ID = $AGI-get_data(agent-user, 3000, 3);
$ID =~ s/#//g;
$Count++;
}
if (!$Agent{$ID}) {
$AGI-stream_file(agent-incorrect);
exit;
}
$AGI-set_variable('AgentID', $ID);
$AGI-exec('AddQueueMember', 'PlaceOrders|Agent/'.$ID);
// This sets up for incoming calls, and passing them to a queue
exten = 1022,1,Macro(queueable,ty_voice, voice)
[macro-queueable]
exten = s,1,answer
exten = s,2,Wait(2)
exten = s,3,Playback(${ARG1})
exten = s,4,SetVar(Announce=${ARG2})
exten = s,5,Goto(MainMenu|s|1)
[MainMenu]
All s, extensions are used to play the menu
exten = s,1,Playback(MayBeRecorded)
exten = s,2,BackGround(Orders)
exten = s,3,BackGround(digits/1)
...
exten = s,18,WaitExten(15)
exten = s,19,Goto,2
# If 1 is pressed
exten = 1,1,PlayBack,hold_pcs # Play a please hold message
exten = 1,2,Queue(PlaceOrders|t||${Announce})
exten = 1,3,Goto(9|2)
On Saturday, September 25, 2004, at 05:43 PM, Marco Nicolayevsky wrote:
Chris,
I agree with your assessment of asterisk's queues. I took Robert's
reply to
my original post, and came up with a way to tackle your first scenario
(no
agents in queue=caller in limbo) with his idea of setting variables.
My idea
deals with setting global variable states for each agent. I only have 4
agents, so it should work for me fairly easily. In the extensions.conf
file
I would have something like this:
[globals]
GCSR1=off
GCSR2=off
GCSR3=off
GCSR4=off
Then, in the context where my agents log in/out of queue, I set the
global
variable to on/off depending on their action. When the agent dials 800,
GCSR1 becomes 'on'. When they dial 801##, GCSR1 becomes 'off'.
[fromcsr1]
exten= 800,1,AgentCallbackLogin(101|[EMAIL PROTECTED])
exten= 800,2,SetGlobalVar(GCSR1=on)
exten= 800,3,Hangup
exten= 801,1,AgentCallBackLogin(101)
exten= 801,2,SetGlobalVar(GCSR1=off)
exten= 801,3,Hangup
Then, in my queue, I check for the value of GCSR1 before dumping them
to the
queue. Otherwise, dump them to VM. Obviously, the GotoIf would have to
check
if GCSR1 = on | GCSR2 = on | GCSR3 = on | etc... For my testing, I was
just
using GCSR1.
[queue]
exten = 1,1,DigitTimeout,1
exten = 1,2,ResponseTimeout,1
exten = 1,3,GotoIf($[${GCSR1} = on]?4:5)
exten = 1,4,Queue(order|tT)
exten = 1,5,Goto(generalvm|s|1)
While this idea seems to make sense (in my head), I am unable to make
it
work. For example, my GotoIF command does work, so the value of GCSR1
will
determine which path the caller takes. The part that doesn't work is
in the
[fromcsr] context. My SetGlobalVar(GCSR1=on) seems to have no effect,
therefore, making my solution not work.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
Marco
-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chris
Icide
Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2004 1:34 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Queue and Agent functionality
I've seen alot of posts lately on Queue and Agent functionality, and
alot of
hacks to make them do different things that most call center managers
want.
In the sake of doing this one time, I'd like to develop a single list
of
request so we can consolidate a feature request for the Queue/Agent
system.
Here are the ones that I run into the most:
1. Queue should know the status of agents assigned to a queue and act
accordingly.
Here are a couple examples of the problem.
A queue has no agents logged in and handling the queue, a call comes
in for
the queue, the call remains in the queue until either an agent logs
in, or
the queue reaches it's timeout. What it should do is immediately time
out
setting priority +101. Normal timeout (caller
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Queue and Agent functionality
-Original Message- From: Chris Icide [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2004 2:34 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Queue and Agent functionality 1. Queue should know the status of agents assigned to a queue and act accordingly. Agreed. I propose that * actually monitors the channel that the agent logs in from. At the very least it keeps * from trying to pass calls to agents that are on outbound calls. 2. The queue system should allow a set of messages to be played at specific times. This is also a very important in a typical call center. 3. Agent timeout (logs the agent off if they do not respond to a ring in a defined about of time) does not track across calls. For example, if an agent steps away and forgets to log out, then thier phone will ring based upon whatever call strategy is used. If the agent timeout is set higher than the time the queue polls a set of agents they will never be logged out. The timer needs to increment per agent across multiple polls. So if my queue poll timer is 20 secons, but the agent timeout is set to 60 seconds, the preferred function would be to log the agent out of the queue if they completely miss three poll events. Agreed. 4. If a caller empties a handled queue (active agents) with no callers, the caller will still hear messages (you are first in queue, etc.). This should not occur. Someone posted a 2-line patch on -dev list recently to fix this issue. The patch works for us. I am assuming this will end up in CVS soon. I was planning to start coding on #1 this week as it is causing us much heartache. Please let me know any suggestions that you may have as to the best way to go about it. As I said above I was planning on either using a function similar to do_monitor in chan_sip which would monitor the actual channel that the agent logged in from or putting more code in the check_availability. I am also going to take a look at #3 while I have things opened up. Please let me know if we are on the same page. Robert Jackson ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
RE: [Asterisk-Users] Queue and Agent functionality
Philipp... Good point. I totally missed the auto-logoff angle. At this time, I'm not using auto-logoff, but I really should. Are you saying that the reason my code was not working is because AgentCallbackLogin() invalidates the lines afterwards? In my example, the global variable was not being set--or at least that's my best guess as to why it was not working. I can try setting the global variable FIRST, and the follow by using the AgentCallbackLogin(). Ok, I'm going to follow on the path that Robert mentioned a few e-mails back re: using the monestary script. I've experimented by telneting into the manager CLI, and was able to sucessfully get the 'show agents' command to work. Besides telneting into the manager CLI (or writing a script to do this), is there any other way to run this command and capture the results? Asuming I have to write a perl script similar to monestary one, what should I do once I determine if there is an agent logged in? Am I able to set an * global variable from within this external perl script? If not, what do you suggest? Thanks, Marco -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Philipp von Klitzing Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2004 5:03 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Queue and Agent functionality Hi! [fromcsr1] exten= 800,1,AgentCallbackLogin(101|[EMAIL PROTECTED]) exten= 800,2,SetGlobalVar(GCSR1=on) exten= 800,3,Hangup determine which path the caller takes. The part that doesn't work is in the [fromcsr] context. My SetGlobalVar(GCSR1=on) seems to have no effect, therefore, making my solution not work. Does anyone have any ideas? Unfortunately AgentCallbackLogin() _itself_ initiates the hangup, which means that any following priorities in your dialplan are useless. Besides your approach isn't yet perfect, what if an agent gets auto-logged out because he/she hasn't answered within the time limit? Cheers, Philipp ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users !DSPAM:4155ea5e217701945313673! ___ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
