Web Request Missing Variable Is Null

This is actually a Switchvox question – but I was directed to this being an Asterisk problem, so please excuse me if I’m making rough guesses at what is happening internally (I’ve configured bare Asterisk systems before, but have no clue what Switchvox is doing internally).

So in Switchvox 5.x I had an IVR where we set a variable, then called a web request. If the web request timed out, or the web request returned a blank/missing entry for the variable, it kept the old value, this allowed us to have “defaults” for the very rare instance that our web services would be down.

In Switchvox 6.x it will now set that variable to “null”, which is a massive pain, Switchvox has no way for checking for “null” and in order to set a variable on a conditional I must jump into an IVR to do the switch, then jump back into my original IVR, it’s a huge pain, and creates a very messy IVR.

The engineer I talked to said that the Asterisk versions were changed between 5.x and 6.x and this change was internal to Asterisk, so I’m elevating here to see if there is a reason for this change, or if it was an unforeseen side effect, and maybe see if some Asterisk engineers can’t discuss this with the Switchvox team (or at least create IVR tooling for us to be able to support this new workflow). It makes systems automation with fallback a huge pain (and HA isn’t really on the table for the services as of this time).

It’s case #00635556 at Digium, let me know if I can provide anymore help.

IVRs in Switchvox are handled in Switchvox-specific AGIs outside of Asterisk. The workings of those IVR AGIs are unknown to the Asterisk team. I checked your Support ticket and followed it to the internal Switchvox ticket and reviewed the notes there. There’s not enough information on either ticket for anyone on the Asterisk team to know anything.

There was absolutely a major change in Asterisk version between Switchvox 5.x and Switchvox 6.x. Sadly, no one on the Asterisk team is going to be able to tell you whether there’s a difference in behavior of Asterisk or some behavior in Switchvox that’s resulted in the change.

Thanks for looking into it, this will at least give me enough information to pressure the Switchvox team to do something about it (or at least detail the ticket adequately).