Voicemail "auto-attendant"

not that i'm aware of, i used to sell macrovoice voicemails and thats exactly what their voicemail did upon the first call to your own voicemail.

doesn't that bug you when you install a system for someone and show them how to use it and a year goes by and they haven't even recorded a voicemail greeting.

This can be done. I'll hack some code over the weekend and will post on Monday.

Ok, here's the code that will force new users to enter in their voicemail prompts upon logging into their voicemail box for the first time. Sorry wasn't sooner, I didn't really get a chance to really look at it till last night. Better late than never! :)

The script asks for the users mailbox number, checks to see if its a new user.
If it is, they are asked to enter in their Name and Busy/Unavailable messages.

Once successful, they are sent to their mailbox.
I've tested it, but please test yourself.
This would be a nice feature request someone could place with FreePBX developers or Digium.

INSTALLATION

Here's how you can test to see if it will work for you
Open /etc/asterisk/extension_custom.conf

Paste the code below (everything below the =========== symbols)

Save and exit

In freePBX, you'll need to point to this context.
You can do it from a
ringgroup, IVR or Inbound route for example.
Simply select a "CUSTOM" destination in FreePBX and in the box put in:
custom-voicemail-newuser,s,1

Save your changes and click on the RELOAD bar in FreePBX.

Call the number you assigned. You should be prompted for a voicemail box.
Test and let me know.

TESTING PROCESS:
Create a new extension in FreePBX and assign it a mailbox.
Call the above script, enter in that new mailbox and try it.
Also call an existing mailbox.

IMPLEMENTATION
If you want to implement to work with *98 / *99 / *97 i would disable them in the feature codes in FreePBX.
Then, in extension.conf, scroll down to the context
[from-internal-xfer]
underneath that, put in:
include => custom-voicemail-newuser

save the changes and exit
Add the following line directly under [custom-voicemail-newuser] in _custom.conf

exten => *98,1,Goto(custom-voicemail-newuser,s,1)

Now when your users dial *98 they will execute the script automatically.

==============================
[custom-voicemail-newuser]
;this code if for demonstration purposes.
exten => s,1,answer()
exten => s,2,SetVar(vmnu_dstdir=/var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/default)

;Ask the caller for their mailbox number
exten => s,3,read(vmnu_mbx,vm-login)

;Check the users destination box for existing greeting files.
;Remove any temporary .wav files that might exist if the caller aborted early
exten => s,4,System(rm ${vmnu_dstdir}/${vmnu_mbx}/vmnu_tmpmsg.wav)
exten => s,5,System(ls ${vmnu_dstdir}/${vmnu_mbx}/ | grep wav)

;If there was existing greeting files, this means its an existing
;user and they can go straight to their mailbox (s,7 - s,9)
exten => s,6,GotoIf($["${SYSTEMSTATUS}" = "SUCCESS"]?7:20)
exten => s,7,Macro(get-vmcontext,${vmnu_mbx})
exten => s,8,VoiceMailMain(${vmnu_mbx}@${VMCONTEXT})
exten => s,9,Macro(hangupcall,)

;S,20 verifies the password to the usersmail box
exten => s,20,VMAuthenticate(${vmnu_mbx})

;we tell the user that we are going to step them through a vm process
exten => s,21,Playback(vm-newuser)
;creates the actual voicemailbox folder
exten => s,22,System(mkdir ${vmnu_dstdir}/${vmnu_mbx})

;The sections s,23 - s,31 simply set variables for a GOSUB routine.
;It allows the user to be prompted for their NAME, BUSY MESSAGE and UNAVIALABLE MESSAGE
;if you don't want to force the entry of all of them, just change
;the GOSBUB to NoOp and that will bypass the question

exten => s,23,SetVar(vmnu_msgtype=greet)
exten => s,24,SetVar(vmnu_msgprmpt=vm-rec-name)
exten => s,25,Gosub(vmnurecord)

exten => s,26,SetVar(vmnu_msgtype=unavail)
exten => s,27,SetVar(vmnu_msgprmpt=vm-rec-unv)
exten => s,28,Gosub(vmnurecord)

exten => s,29,SetVar(vmnu_msgtype=busy)
exten => s,30,SetVar(vmnu_msgprmpt=vm-rec-busy)
exten => s,31,Gosub(vmnurecord)

;Once all questions are asked, the system puts them into their voicemailbox
exten => s,32,VoiceMailMain(${vmnu_mbx}@default|s)
exten => s,33,Hangup()

;this code prompts and records for each greeting.
exten => s,40(vmnurecord),Playback(${vmnu_msgprmpt})
exten => s,41,Record(${vmnu_dstdir}/${vmnu_mbx}/vmnu_tmpmsg:wav)
exten => s,42,System(chmod +x ${vmnu_dstdir}/${vmnu_mbx}/vmnu_tmpmsg.wav)
exten => s,43,Background(vm-youhave&recorded)
exten => s,44,Playback(${vmnu_dstdir}/${vmnu_mbx}/vmnu_tmpmsg)
exten => s,45,Playback(to-accept-recording)
exten => s,46,Playback(1-yes-2-no)
exten => s,47,read(vmnu_yesno||1)
exten => s,48,Gotoif($["${vmnu_yesno}" = "1"]?50:40
exten => s,49,Goto(s,40) ;just in case they manage to go past the gotoif, forces them to re-record
exten => s,50,System(mv ${vmnu_dstdir}/${vmnu_mbx}/vmnu_tmpmsg.wav ${vmnu_dstdir}/${vmnu_mbx}/${vmnu_msgtype}.wav)
exten => s,51,System(cp ${vmnu_dstdir}/${vmnu_mbx}/${vmnu_msgtype}.wav ${vmnu_dstdir}/${vmnu_mbx}/${vmnu_msgtype}.WAV)
exten => s,52,Return

GAH! 45 Minutes of coding time down the drain programming in a feature that I had forgotten about!!
Thanks parrysands for the post, definitely an easier way to do it!

I'm guessing its your CLID.
looks like the system is seeing your entire caller id, not the extension number (?) (guessing here a little bit)
but i think the system is expecting 3/4/5 digit extension number, not 8 or more