Trivial Local channel example

In our dialplan (extensions.conf), we can Dial() another part of the dialplan through the use Local channels. To do this, we can use the following dialplan:

The output of the dialplan would look something like the following. The output has been broken up with some commentary to explain what we're looking at.

We dial extension 201 from SIP/my_desk_phone which has entered the [devices] context. The first line simply outputs some information via the Verbose() application.

The next line is another Verbose() application statement that tells us our current channel name. We can see that the channel executing the current dialplan is a desk phone (aptly named 'my_desk_phone').

Now the third step in our dialplan executes the Dial() application which calls extension 201 in the [extensions] context of our dialplan. There is no requirement that we use the same extension number - we could have just as easily used a named extension, or some other number. Remember that we're dialing another channel, but instead of dialing a device, we're "dialing" another part of the dialplan.

Now we've verified we've dialed another part of the dialplan. We can see the channel executing the dialplan has changed to Local/201@extensions-7cf4;2. The part '-7cf4;2' is just the unique identifier, and will be different for you.

Here we use the Verbose() application to see what our current channel name is. As you can see the current channel is a Local channel which we created from our SIP channel.

And from here, we're using another Dial() application to call a SIP device configured in sip.conf as [some-named-extension].

Now that we understand a simple example of calling the Local channel, let's expand upon this example by using Local channels to call two devices at the same time, but delay calling one of the devices.

lmadsen 2010-10-21