Available Actions Print

Overview

This knowledge base article lists all the actions available for an IVR extension, while also providing several examples of IVR scenarios created using these actions.

IVR Actions

1. Alter CallerID Name with content of variable

   You can choose one of the available actions Prepend, Append, Replace to modify the CallerID name using a recorded variable.

   This action is recommended if you want to modify the CallerID of the person calling the IVR. For example, you can Prepend the CallerID name with the sales value, recorded with the Record digits to variable action.

    

2. Alter CallerID Name with static value

   You can choose one of the available actions Prepend, Append, Replace to modify the CallerID name using a static value.

   This action is recommended if you want to modify the CallerID name of the person calling the IVR. For example, you can Prepend the CallerID name with the Sales value. When a call is placed to the IVR and then transferred to the Sales extension, the CallerID name will be read: Sales{callerid_name}, where {callerid_name} is the initial CallerID name.

    

3. Alter CallerID Number with content of variable

   You can choose one of the available actions Prepend, Append, Replace to modify the CallerID using a recorded variable.

   This action is recommended if you want to modify the CallerID number with a specific variable taken from the Record digits to variable action. For example, you can Prepend the CallerID number with the recorded value 021. When a call is made, the CallerID number will contain 021.

    

4. Alter CallerID Number with static value

   Choose one of the available actions Prepend, Append, Replace to modify the CallerID using a static value.

   This action is recommended if you want to modify the CallerID number of the person calling the IVR with a static value. For example, you can Prepend the CallerID with the 12345 value. When a call is placed to the IVR and then transferred to an extension, the CallerID number will be read: 12345{callerid_number}, where {callerid_number} is the initial CallerID number.

    

5. CallAPI interactive

   You can use the CallAPI mechanism to program the IVR to behave in a certain way using HTTP REST interaction with a remote application.

   Both request methods are available:

   • GET - This method requests a representation of the specified resource. This is the default value.
   • POST - This method submits data to be processed (e.g.: from a HTML form) to the specified resource. The data is included in the body of the request and may lead to the creation of a new resource, the revision of current resources or both.
     
     

   You need to define the URL address you want the IVR to send the request to. For more details, check the CallAPI documentation.

    

6. CallerID Number based jump

   This action enables jumping to another context, based on the CallerID number of the received call.

   This action is recommended if you want to have a call sent to a different context, based on the CallerID number. For example, if the CallerID number is 123456789, then the call will be sent to the selected destination of the specified context. You can also set the context and the destination of the call if the CallerID number is not 123456789. Here are the available options:

   • start
   • timeout
   • invalid
   • 0–9, *, #

      

   Any of these options can be configured with one of the available actions, depending on the purpose of the context.

   In the example below, if the CallerID number is 123456789, then the call will be sent to option * of context1. If the CallerID number is different, then the call will be redirected to option 4 of context3.

    

7. CallerID Name based jump

   This action enables jumping to another context, based on the CallerID name of the received call.

   This action is recommended if you want to have a call sent to a different context, based on the CallerID name. For example, if the CallerID name is John Doe, then the call will be sent to the selected destination of the specified context. You can also set the context and the destination of the call if the CallerID name is not John Doe. Here are the available options:

   • start
   • timeout
   • invalid
   • 0–9, *, #

      

   Any of these options can be configured with one of the available actions, depending on the purpose of the context.

   In the example below, if the CallerID name is John Doe, then the call will get sent to option <b2<> of context2. If the CallerID name is different, then the call will be redirected to the start option of context3.

    

8. Set variable

   This action is useful if you want to replace the content of a variable with a string.

   This action is recommended if you want to have the content of the variable replaced with a different string. It can be used when setting the language of the IVR. For more details, see Scenario 1.

    

9. Hangup after [X] seconds

   This action allows you to terminate a call within a specific period of time.

   This action is useful if you want to set specific Timeouts for calls. For example, in a context, you can add a Hangup after X seconds action for the Timeout option. In this way, the call will be hung up after the priorly set number of seconds.

    

10. Jump to context

    This action enables jumping to another context, based on the evaluation of a given condition.

    This action is recommended if you want to evaluate different conditions of a given Recorded variable. For example, if you record a variable such as 1234, then a specific context will be used if that variable satisfies the condition you have selected from the drop-down list.

     

11. Play company directory

    This action transfers the call to one of the extensions in the company directory. The caller selects the destination extension through the phone keypad.

    This action is useful if you know the name of the extension, yet you do not know its number. To see how a directory works, you can dial *22 and follow the instructions.

     

12. Play digits

    This action plays one or several sound files to communicate a given value.

    This action is useful if you want to verify the recorded value.

     

13. Play digits contained in variable

    This action plays a given value contained in a variable using one or several sound files.

    You can associate a numeric value to a variable using the Record digits to variable or the Set variable options.

14. Play sound

    This action plays a given sound file for the caller. You can select from the drop-down list if you want the sound to be played either in background or in foreground.

    If foreground is selected, then the caller will have to wait for the whole sound to be played before initiating a new action.

    If background is selected, then the caller can stop the sound by pressing a key and other actions may be initiated.

     

15. Record digits to variable

    This action stores the digits typed by the caller on the phone keypad to a given variable.

    You can specify the number of digits to be recorded and the name of the value for the digits. To stop recording after a period of time, you just need to fill in a value in the Stop recording after X seconds of inactivity field. The accepted values range from 1 to 9. The default value is 5 seconds.

    You can also specify if you want a specific sound to be played before the digits get recorded.

     

16. Set language to content of variable

    You can use this action to set the language of the call. All sounds will be played to the caller in the selected language.

     

17. Set language to static value

    You can use this action to set the language of the call by using the contents of a given variable. All sounds will be played to the caller in the language that you select from the available drop-down list.

     

18. Time interval based call transfer

    Based on the time interval during which the call is received, this action transfers the call to another extension on the client account.

     

19. Time interval based context jump

    This action enables jumping to another context, based on the time interval during which the call is received.

     

20. Transfer call to extension number

    This action transfers a call to another extension on the client account.

    This action handles transfers from the IVR to different extensions. Any IVR scenario should include this option among its 0-9 actions.

     

21. Transfer to number contained in variable

    This action can transfer the call to another extension on the same client or to an external phone number using the contents of a given variable.

     

22. Wait for [X] seconds

    This action introduces a delay between two consecutive actions.

     

23. Text to speech

    This action plays a custom text to the caller.

    This action is available only if the following conditions are met:

    • The IVR has the Maximum concurrent text to speech option set to a value greater than 0.
    • The Allow text to speech option was enabled from the Unified Communications >> System Preferences page.
    • At least one Cepstral voice engine is installed on your server.
    • At least one voice support license and one concurrency port license are installed on your server (licenses can be purchased from 4PSA store).