Asterisk: The Future of Telephony, 2nd Edition

voicemail.conf

The voicemail.conf file controls the Asterisk voicemail system (called Comedian Mail). It consists of three main sections. The first, called [general], sets the general system-wide settings for the voicemail system. The second, called [zonemessages], allows you to configure different voicemail zones, which are a collection of time and time zone settings. The third and final section is where you create one or more groups of voicemail boxes, each containing the mailbox definitions. For more information on adding voicemail capabilities to your dialplan, see Chapter 6.

General Voicemail Settings

The [general] section of voicemail.conf contains a plethora of options that affect the entire voicemail system:

format

Lists the codecs that should be used to save voicemail messages. Codecs should be separated with the pipe character (|). The first format specified is the format used when attaching a voicemail message to an email. Defaults to wav49|gsm|wav. The reason that the voicemail might be saved in several different formats is to minimize the amount of transcoding that Asterisk does when the voicemail is played back.

serveremail

Provides the email address from which voicemail notifications should be sent.

attach

Specifies whether or not Asterisk should attach the voicemail sound file to the voicemail notification email.

maxmsg

Sets the maximum number of messages that may be kept in any voicemail folder.

maxmessage

Sets the maximum length of a voicemail message, in seconds.

minmessage

Sets the minimum length of a voicemail message, in seconds.

maxgreet

Sets the maximum length of voicemail greetings, in seconds.

skipms

Specifies how many milliseconds to skip forward/back when the user skips forward or backward during message playback.

maxsilence

Indicates how many seconds of silence to allow before ending the recording.

silencethreshold

Sets the silence threshold (what we consider “silence”—the lower the threshold is, the more sensitive it is).

maxlogins

Sets the maximum allowed number of failed login attempts.

userscontext

Specifies which voicemail context the mailboxes defined in users.conf should be a part of. This defaults to the default voicemail context.

externnotify

Supplies the full path and filename of an external program to be executed when a voicemail is left or delivered, or when a mailbox is checked. It can also be set to smdi to use SMDI for external notification. If it is smdi, the smdiport should be set to a valid port as specified in smdi.conf.

smdiport

Specifies the communications port used by SMDI. This should correspond to a valid port as specified in smdi.conf. This is used when the externnotify setting is set to smdi.

externpass

Supplies the full path and filename of an external program to be executed whenever a voicemail password is changed.

directoryintro

If set, overrides the default introduction to the dial-by-name directory.

charset

Defines the character set for voicemail messages.

adsifdn

Specifies the ADSI feature descriptor number to download to.

adsisec

Sets the ADSI security lock code.

adsiver

Indicates the ADSI voicemail application version number.

pbxskip

Causes Asterisk not to add the string [PBX]: to the beginning of the subject line of a voicemail notification email.

fromstring:

Changes the From: string of voicemail notification email messages.

usedirectory

Permits a mailbox owner to select entries from the dial-by-name directory for forwarding and/or composing new voicemail messages.

odbcstorage

If support for ODBC voicemail storage has been compiled into Asterisk, this option allows you to specify which ODBC connection to use. ODBC connections are defined in res_odbc.conf.

odbctable

This option is used in conjunction with the odbcstorage option. This option specifies which database table to use for voicemail messages.

emailsubject

Specifies the email subject of voicemail notification email messages.

pagerfromstring

Changes the From: string of voicemail notification pager messages.

emailbody

Supplies the email body of voicemail notification email messages.

Tip

Please note that all the emailsubject, emailbody, pagersubject, and pagerbody settings can use the following variables to provide more in-depth information about the voicemail:

• VM_NAME

• VM_DUR

• VM_MSGNUM

• VM_MAILBOX

• VM_CALLERID

• VM_CIDNUM

• VM_CIDNAME

• VM_DATE

emaildateformat

Specifies the format of the date and time for outbound email notifications. For more information on the format, see the strftime(3) manpage.

mailcmd

Supplies the full path and filename of the program Asterisk should use to send notification emails. This option is useful if you want to override the default email program.

nextaftercmd

Skips to the next message after the user hits 7 or 9 to delete or save the current message. This can be set only globally at this time, not on a per-mailbox basis.

Voicemail Zones

As voicemail users may be located in different geographical locations, Asterisk provides a way to configure the time zone and the way the time is announced for different callers. Each unique combination is known as a voicemail zone. You configure your voicemail zones in the [zonemessages] section of voicemail.conf. Later, you can assign your voicemail boxes to use the settings for one of these zones.

Each voicemail zone definition consists of a line with the following syntax:

zonename=timezone |time_format

The zonename is an arbitrary name used to identify the zone. The timezone argument is the name of a system time zone, as found in /usr/share/zoneinfo. The time_format argument specifies how times should be announced by the voicemail system. The time_format argument is made up of the following elements:

' filename '

The filename of a sound file to play (single quotes around the filename are required)

${ VAR }

Variable substitution

A or a

The day of the week (Saturday, Sunday, etc.)

B or b or h

The name of the month (January, February, etc.)

d or e

The numeric day of the month (first, second... thirty-first)

Y

The year

I or l

The hour, in 12-hour format

H

The hour, in 24-hour format—single-digit hours are preceded by “oh”

k

The hour, in 24-hour format—single-digit hours are not preceded by “oh”

M

The minute

P or p

A.M. or .P.M.

Q

“today”, “yesterday,” or ABdY (note: not standard strftime value)

q

“” (for today), “yesterday”, weekday, or ABdY (note: not standard strftime value)

R

24-hour time, including minutes

For example, the following example sets up two different voicemail zones, one for the Central time zone in 12-hour format, and a second in the Mountain time zone, in 24-hour format:

[zonemessages]
central=America/Chicago|'vm-received' Q 'digits/at' IMp
mountain24=America/Denver|'vm-received' q 'digits/at' H 'digits/hundred' M 'hours'

Defining Voicemail Contexts and Mailboxes

Now that the system-wide settings and voicemail zones have been set, you can define your voicemail contexts and individual mailboxes.

Voicemail contexts are used to separate out different groups of voicemail users. For example, if you are using Asterisk to host voicemail for more than one company, you should place each company’s mailboxes in different voicemail contexts, to keep them separate. You might also use voicemail contexts to create per-department dial-by-name directories.

To define a new voicemail context, simply put the context name inside of square brackets, like this:

[default]

Inside a voicemail context, each mailbox definition takes the following syntax:

mailbox=password,name[,email[,pager_email[,options]]]

The mailbox argument is the mailbox number.

The password argument is the numeric code the mailbox owner must enter to access his voicemail. If the password is preceded by a minus sign (-), the password may not be changed by the mailbox owner.

Tip

If the password is set to d, then this line is assumed to provide an alternate name that can be used for this mailbox in the dial-by-name directory. In the following example, people can reach extension 123 by searching for either Robert or Bob, along with a popular misspelling of his last name:

123 => 4444,Robert Schauerhamer
123 => d,Bob Schauerhamer
123 => d,Robert Showerhammer

The email and pager_email arguments are email addresses where voicemail notifications will be sent. These may be left blank if you don’t want to send voicemail notifications via email. The message sent to the pager_email address is usually shorter and suitable for sending to a cell phone (via an email to SMS gateway) or to an alpha-numeric pager.

The options argument is a pipe-separated list of voicemail options that may be specified for the mailbox. (These options may also be set globally by placing them in the [general] section.) Valid voicemail options include:

tz

Sets the voicemail zone from the [zonemessages] section earlier. This option is irrelevant if envelope is set to no.

attach

Attaches the voicemail to the notification email (but not to the pager email). May be set to either yes or no.

attachfmt

Specifies the format of the voicemail message that should be attached to the message sent to the notification email. Ordinarily, Asterisk uses the first format specified in the format parameter listed in [general] (covered earlier), but this may also be changed on a per-mailbox basis. This option may be set only on a per-mailbox basis.

This option is often used if Windows users want wav49 attachments but Linux users want their attachments in gsm format.

saycid

Says the Caller ID information before the message.

cidinternalcontexts

Sets the internal context for name playback instead of extension digits when saying the Caller ID information.

sayduration

Turns on/off the duration information before the message. Defaults to on.

saydurationm

Specifies the minimum duration to say when sayduration is on. Default is two minutes.

dialout

Specifies the context to dial out from (by choosing option 4 from the advanced menu). If not specified, dialing out from the voicemail system will not be permitted.

sendvoicemail

Specifies the context to send voicemail from (by choosing option 5 from the advanced menu). If not specified, sending messages from within the voicemail system will not be permitted.

searchcontexts

By default, Asterisk searches only the default context if no context is specified. To have Asterisk search all contexts, set this option to yes.

callback

Specifies the context to call back from. If not specified, calling the sender back from within the voicemail system will not be permitted.

review

Allows senders to review/re-record their messages before saving them. Defaults to off.

operator

Allows senders to hit 0 before, after, or while leaving a voicemail message to reach an operator. Defaults to off.

envelope

Turns on/off envelope playback before message playback. Defaults to on. This does not affect option 3,3 from the advanced options menu.

delete

Deletes voicemails from the server after notification is sent. This option may be set only on a per-mailbox basis; it is intended for use with users who wish to receive their voicemail messages only by email.

volgain

If your voicemail attachments to email are too quiet, you can set this option to increase the gain on the message before it is attached to the email notification.

Note

This option only works if the sox application has been installed on your Asterisk system.

forcename

Forces new users to record their names. A new user is determined by the password being the same as the mailbox number. Defaults to no.

forcegreetings

Forces new users to record greetings. A new user is determined by the password being the same as the mailbox number. Defaults to no.

hidefromdir

Hides the mailbox from the dial-by-name directory. Defaults to no.

tempgreetwarn

Warns users that their temporary greeting is still enabled.

You can specify multiple options by separating them with the pipe character, as shown in the definitions for mailboxes 102 and 103 below.

Here are some sample mailbox definitions:

[default]
; regular mailbox with email notification
101 => 4242,Example Mailbox,[e-mail]

; more advanced mailbox with email and pager notification and a couple of
; special options
102 => 9855,Another User,[e-mail],[e-mail],
attach=no|tz=central

; a mailbox with no email notification and lots of extra options
103 => 6522,John Q. Public,,,tz=central|attach=yes|saycid=yes|dialout=fromvm|
callback=fromvm|review=yes