Using phrase macros to build sound prompts

It is frequently necessary to piece together smaller sound recordings to create longer ones. The FreeSWITCH phrase macro system is a very powerful tool for not only piecing together individual sound files, but also for adding a bit of logic so that your phrases are more than mere amalgamations of individual sound prompts.

In this recipe we will create a simple dialplan extension that will read back to the caller their extension number. We will use a phrase macro to handle the work of stitching together sound prompts and utilizing the say application to read back the caller's extension number.

Getting ready

You will need a text editor and at least one phone for this recipe. It is also recommended that you review the phrase file for your language. For English, this can be found in the FreeSWITCH source directory in docs/phrase/phrase_en.xml. The phrase_en.xml file contains both the filename of each prerecorded prompt as well as the actual spoken text...