These will cause the execution of the script to pause, waiting for the dialing to complete and return an indication of the outcome to the script so that suitable action may be taken. GetDialMode() will get the value from the system variable, whereas GetDialingMode() will get the value directly from the system engine. It will return a numeric value as below.

1 = Manual
2 = Preview
3 = Automatic
4 = Predictive (not supported with the TCI dialer add on)

Similarly, the dial mode can be set inside a script node in authoring as follows:

SetExtensionNumber(value)

Where value is either 1, 2, 3 or 4 based on the list above.

GetDialStatus()

When a company has the CATI telephony add on enabled, GetDialStatus() returns the outcome of a dial attempt made by the dialer. The call returns a numeric value as below.

Dial status value	Description
0	Connected call
2	Busy
3	No reply
7	Answer phone
8	Modem
9	Fax
10	Congestion
11	Unobtainable
12	Nuisance
15	Returned not dialled
18	Not automatically dialled
25	Returned dialler expired
28	Stopped
29	Telephony failure
30	Error

Typically this would then be used to control either continuing the call or finishing the interview accordingly. As shown in the image below:

Figure 1 - Setting the Extended Status with the GetDialStatus function

With the script doing the following:

Figure 2 - Script to set the Extended Status based on the value returned by “GetDialStatus”

You can have the dialer use a specified telephone number as a Caller ID, and the respondent will see this as an incoming telephone number. To accomplish this the user should enter the desired number in the corresponding sample record in the ‘ExtensionNumber’ column, or edit this sample record in the Authoring module.

On a supporting dialer the system field for ‘ExtensionNumber’ will be sent to the dialer as a call property to specify the desired Caller ID (CLID). Contact support to check if your system supports this functionality.

Hybrid Automated Dialing (Preview in Predictive mode)

In a predictive survey you can set some calls to be dialed in Preview mode. This can be achieved in the following ways:

Via sample - (using the ‘DialMode’ column). This will assign the call to be dialed with the given mode. (for example, 2 for Preview).

Via scheduling - (using the ‘Set dialing mode’ action). This action can be executed on sample upload by loading sample with ‘Full Scheduling’ set.

Via Call Management - use the Dial Mode column in the Call Management view to search and filter calls. You can also modify the value set for the dial mode by right clicking on the calls to bring up the context menu. The context menu provides the following options:

Set Preview Dialing Mode

Reset Dialing Mode

Telephony Object - this is a special item that can be inserted into the survey tree to initialize dialing or to hang up the call. The command has the following options

Dial - place at the start of the interview to dial the number contained in the specified telephone number background variable.

Note: When dialing is enabled for a project under ‘Survey Settings > CATI Options’, with the dial mode specified as ‘Preview’, it is also possible to display some information on the screen to the interviewer whilst the dialing takes place. Text (including piping) is entered into the ‘Dialing text’ box of the dial command.

Hang up - place at the end of the main interview to end the call.

Note: Stop nodes will automatically execute a hang up operation, so when a Stop node is defined there is no need to issue a hang up command.

Forsta CATI Support

Automated Dialing

Articles in this section

In this article

Hybrid Automated Dialing (Preview in Predictive mode)