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Call Prompting
5-4 Issue 4 September 1995
Removing Incorrect Digit Strings
The customer can (and probably should) include an announcement that requests
the caller to enter digits. As an option, the announcement can instruct the caller
to enter an asterisk (*) if he or she enters incorrect data. When the caller enters a
‘‘*,’’ the following happens:
1. Digits collected for the current
collect digits
command are deleted.
NOTE:
Also deleted are any dial-ahead digits that are entered and that do
not exceed the maximum digit count of 24. (Dial-ahead digits are
explained later in this chapter.)
2. Digit collection is restarted.
3. Announcement is not replayed.
Once the caller enters ‘‘*,’’ the caller can re-enter digits for processing.
Entering Variable-Length Digit Strings
The maximum number of digits requested from the caller must be specified in the
administration of the
collect digits
command. In some cases, the caller might be
permitted to enter fewer digits than the maximum specified. In fact, the number
of digits entered by the caller can vary for several variations of one
collect digits
command. Each such grouping of digits is called a
variable-length digit string
.
Call Prompting allows for variable-length digit strings by providing an end-of-
dialing indicator in the form of the pound sign (#). ‘‘#’’ is used to end any digit
string entered by the caller, and it does the following:
■ Tells the PBX that the caller has finished entering digits
■ Causes the next vector step to be processed immediately
Whenever the caller is permitted to enter a variable-length digit string, the
announcement portion of the
collect digits
command should specify the largest
possible number of digits that can be entered. Accordingly, the customer should
administer each
collect digits
command to collect no more than the intended
maximum number of digits. The customer can have the caller enter ‘‘#’’ as part of
a variable digit string entry either at the end of each variable digit string entered
or at the end of each such string that, not counting ‘‘#,’’ contains
fewer
characters
than the maximum number of allowable digits. In the first case, ‘‘#’’ should be
included in the count of the number of maximum digits that can be entered; in the
second case, ‘‘#’’ should
not
be included in this count.
If the caller enters more digits than the maximum number specified, the
additional digits are saved as “dial-ahead” digits for subsequent
collect digits
commands. ("Dial-Ahead Digits" are explained later in this chapter.) If the vector,