Basic IVR Menu

A simple auto-attendant that plays a greeting and routes callers based on their keypress input.

Requirements

• Sound files: custom/welcome (or use built-in prompts)
• At least two destination contexts or extensions to route to

Dialplan

[ivr-main]
exten => s,1,Answer()
 same => n,Set(TIMEOUT(response)=5)
 same => n,Set(TIMEOUT(digit)=3)
 same => n(loop),Background(custom/welcome)
 same => n,WaitExten()

; Caller pressed 1 -- Sales
exten => 1,1,Goto(sales,s,1)

; Caller pressed 2 -- Support
exten => 2,1,Goto(support,s,1)

; Caller pressed 0 -- Operator
exten => 0,1,Goto(operator,s,1)

; Invalid input
exten => i,1,Playback(pbx-invalid)
 same => n,Goto(s,loop)

; Timeout -- no input
exten => t,1,Playback(vm-goodbye)
 same => n,Hangup()

How it works

1. Answer and set timeouts: TIMEOUT(response) sets how long WaitExten() waits for a digit when called without an explicit argument. TIMEOUT(digit) sets the inter-digit timeout for multi-digit extensions. Defining both at the top means you only need to change them in one place, even across a multi-level menu.
2. Background(): Plays the audio file while listening for DTMF. This is the key difference from Playback(), which ignores keypresses.
3. WaitExten(): Waits for input after Background() finishes, using the TIMEOUT(response) value set above.
4. Extension matching: Each DTMF digit is matched as an extension in the current context. Extensions i (invalid) and t (timeout) are special handlers.

Tips

• Record your greeting with Record() and save it as custom/welcome.gsm (or .wav).
• For multi-level IVRs, create separate contexts for each menu level and Goto() between them.
• Add exten => #,1,Goto(s,loop) to let callers replay the menu.