vPanel Changes: Voicemail

[VOIPoTim]

The "Voicemail Email" link has been removed. It was confusing some people since it was a multi step process (add email, associate with mailbox, enable).

The notification options are now with all the other mailbox settings under the "Voicemail" link.

The first option for e-mail notification. This is the same as before.

For the TXT notification, you need to fill in your cell phone provider's SMS e-mail address. It will use the TXT message template and NOT the standard notification template. This way it all fits in one message.

We'll add some examples/instructions to the page when designer cleans it up.

Additionally, there have been several major backend changes on the notification delivery system. We've now moved away from the "hacked" notification system to the clean, reliable system.

We've also corrected an issue with VMail PINs changed by phone not saving and we're working on fixing the unavailable/busy greetings so they both work and the UI so you can manage the folders and old messages the phone portion references. We expect these to be in place in the next few days.

Please test and let us know if you see any issues with it.

[Montano]

Nothing has changed as far as my voicemail is concerned. Clicking on the number in the CP still does nothing. Clicking on the attachment in my email gives me an error with WMP. MMS message says the 'corrupted audio' has been removed. But SMS still works good

Edit: A couple other things I noticed..... The new SMS message says FRM: Asrerisk PBX where the old said FRM: VOIPo BETA. Also, for me here in CA, the time it shows the message was left is 2 hours ahead of my actual time.

Edit #2: It seems that I'm getting email/mms/sms from both the old system and the new system !! Old emails are from VOIPo BETA (attachments do not work), and new emails are from VOIPo (attachments DO work !!)

Edit #3: Looks like it's hit and miss as to which voicemail system I get my notification from. Sometimes it's the new system and sometimes it's the old.

[Montano]

Tim, now that voicemail is working correctly, will we be able to add multiple email and sms addresses ?

[VOIPoTim]

Tim, now that voicemail is working correctly, will we be able to add multiple email and sms addresses ?

For the time being, we're back to singles.... Here's why...

We use Asterisk strictly for voicemail. It has a buitl in notification engine which is reliable and works well...very tightly integrated.

With the multiples, we had a PHP script which was collecting info from Asterisk and handling the notifications. The new developers did not feel this could scale well and wasn't stable enough.

So we're back to using the proven method for notifications...which only supports single without spending a week or so writing C code to add the functionality. We'll do this a little later, but for now, it's not a huge priority.

[Montano]

Fair enough. When will the old VM system be done away with ? I'm still getting my messages from both old and new systems.

[fisamo]

For the time being, we're back to singles.... Here's why...

We use Asterisk strictly for voicemail. It has a buitl in notification engine which is reliable and works well...very tightly integrated.

With the multiples, we had a PHP script which was collecting info from Asterisk and handling the notifications. The new developers did not feel this could scale well and wasn't stable enough.

So we're back to using the proven method for notifications...which only supports single without spending a week or so writing C code to add the functionality. We'll do this a little later, but for now, it's not a huge priority.

Tim,

While I understand and agree with the "tried and true" philosophy, you had mentioned at one point that you were eventually going to use (or were at least considering using) a VM system that's NOT based on Asterisk. Is that still in the plan, or do you think you'll be running * voicemail for the foreseeable future?

If you do plan on migrating to either a homegrown or other off-the-shelf voicemail package, is that something you'd think would be done, say, within a year or two of launch, or farther out? (To be clear, I'm not looking for any kind of promise here, just trying to get an idea of what you're thinking. Even if you said, "Definitely within a year of launch, I'm 100% sure," I wouldn't hold you to it... )

To me, your decision to use Asterisk VM is definitely a minus in your column, but it wouldn't necessarily drive me away from your product (e.g. cancel during a trial period as a new customer)

[VOIPoTim]

It's something we've looked at moving away from for sure.

Right now though, we're in a launch mode and ready to just make sure what we do have is stable and ready to go.

Then we have a whole list of things to enhance...this being one.

Tim,

While I understand and agree with the "tried and true" philosophy, you had mentioned at one point that you were eventually going to use (or were at least considering using) a VM system that's NOT based on Asterisk. Is that still in the plan, or do you think you'll be running * voicemail for the foreseeable future?

If you do plan on migrating to either a homegrown or other off-the-shelf voicemail package, is that something you'd think would be done, say, within a year or two of launch, or farther out? (To be clear, I'm not looking for any kind of promise here, just trying to get an idea of what you're thinking. Even if you said, "Definitely within a year of launch, I'm 100% sure," I wouldn't hold you to it... )

To me, your decision to use Asterisk VM is definitely a minus in your column, but it wouldn't necessarily drive me away from your product (e.g. cancel during a trial period as a new customer)

[Montano]

Tim, if I disable VM in the CP, is there a way to forward incoming calls after a set number of rings ?

[VOIPoTim]

Tim, if I disable VM in the CP, is there a way to forward incoming calls after a set number of rings ?

Not currently. The forwarding right now is all or nothing unless you do a custom call route to forward all calls from a given number.

[fisamo]

To be honest, that's the answer I expected, and you have my full support (for what it's worth... ) . The most important thing is a stable system, especially at time of launch.