By default FreePBX sends voicemail attachments as WAV files which don’t work particularly
well on smartphones and can end up being fairly large. Here’s a walkthrough on how to enable
MP3 attachments in FreePBX.
1. If it’s not already installed then install Make.
yum install make
2. Download the latest Lame
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/lame/files/lame/3.99/lame3.99.5.tar.gz/download
3. Uncompress the tar file
tar -zxvf lame-3.99.5.tar.gz
4. Install the lame files
cd lame-3.99.5
./configure
make
make install
5. Lame should now be installed.
6. Create a new file called sendmailmp3 in /usr/sbin/
cd
cd /usr/sbin/
touch sendmailmp3
vi sendmailmp3
* Press Insert
* Copy text in Step 7
* Press ESC
:wq
7. Paste the following script in to the file.
#! /bin/sh
# Asterisk voicemail attachment conversion script
# Revision history :
# 22/11/2010 - V1.0 - Creation by N. Bernaerts
# 07/02/2012 - V1.1 - Add handling of mails without attachment (thanks to
Paul Thompson)
# 01/05/2012 - V1.2 - Use mktemp, pushd & popd
# 08/05/2012 - V1.3 - Change mp3 compression to CBR to solve some smartphone
compatibility (thanks to Luca Mancino)
# 01/08/2012 - V1.4 - Add PATH definition to avoid any problem (thanks to
Christopher Wolff)
# 01/06/2013 - V1.4G - Modified by DeltaEnd to provide integration with
Google STT
# 01/10/2013 - V1.4G1 - Made script more robust with more error checking and
retry attempts
# 01/11/2013 - V1.5G - Script now enhances the original MP3 script by fixing
the pager/cell message bug that prevented short voicemail notifications from
being sent. Also changed some lines around to try to help with Pi users.
# set PATH
PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"
# save the current directory
pushd .
# create a temporary directory and cd to it
TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d)
cd $TMPDIR
# dump the stream to a temporary file
cat >> stream.org
# get the boundary
BOUNDARY=`grep "boundary=" stream.org | cut -d'"' -f 2`
# Additional plain-text checking
PLAIN=`grep -c "boundary=" stream.org`
# cut the file into parts
# stream.part - header before the boundary
# stream.part1 - header after the bounday
# stream.part2 - body of the message
# stream.part3 - attachment in base64 (WAV file)
# stream.part4 - footer of the message
awk '/'$BOUNDARY'/{i++}{print > "stream.part"i}' stream.org
# if mail is having no audio attachment (plain text)
PLAINTEXT=`cat stream.part1 | grep 'plain'`
if [ "$PLAINTEXT" != "" -o "$PLAIN" == '0' ] ; then
# prepare to send the original stream
cat stream.org > stream.new
# else, if mail is having audio attachment
else
# cut the attachment into parts
# stream.part3.head - header of attachment
# stream.part3.wav.base64 - wav file of attachment (encoded base64)
sed '7,$d' stream.part3 > stream.part3.wav.head
sed '1,6d' stream.part3 > stream.part3.wav.base64
# convert the base64 file to a wav file
dos2unix -o stream.part3.wav.base64
base64 -di stream.part3.wav.base64 > stream.part3.wav
# Attempt to encode the first 15 seconds (will fail if less than 15 seconds
exists)
flac --best -f --sample-rate=8000 --totally-silent --until=0:15.00
stream.part3.wav -o message.flac
# Detect Flac encoding failure due to less than 15 seconds of audio and
instead encode the whole thing
if [ $? -ne '0' ] ; then
flac --best -f --sample-rate=8000 --totally-silent stream.part3.wav
-o message.flac
fi
# Run output file through Google STT system to get text
echo -e '\n\tTranscription (First 15 Seconds):\n' > output.txt
TEXT=`/usr/local/sbin/speech-recog-cli.pl message.flac | head -2 | tail -1
| cut -f 2 -d ":"`
# If initial transcribe fails, try 3 more times
COUNT='0'
while [[ "$TEXT" == *message.flac* && "$COUNT" -lt '3' ]] ; do
TEXT=`/usr/local/sbin/speech-recog-cli.pl message.flac | head -2 | tail -1
| cut -f 2 -d ":"`
((COUNT++))
done
# If the transcribe fails, put a generic failure message
if [[ $TEXT == *Openning* ]] ; then
TEXT='We were unable to transcribe this message.
instead.'
Please listen to it
fi
echo $TEXT >> output.txt
# convert wav file to mp3 file
# -b 24 is using CBR, giving better compatibility on smartphones (you can
use -b 32 or -b 64 to increase quality)
# -V 2 is using VBR, a good compromise between quality and size for voice
audio files
lame -hm m -b 64 stream.part3.wav stream.part3.mp3
# convert back mp3 to base64 file
base64 stream.part3.mp3 > stream.part3.mp3.base64
# generate the new mp3 attachment header
# change Type: audio/x-wav to Type: audio/mpeg
# change name="msg----.wav" to name="msg----.mp3"
sed 's/x-wav/mpeg/g' stream.part3.wav.head | sed 's/.wav/.mp3/g' >
stream.part3.mp3.head
# generate first part of mail body, converting it to LF only
mv stream.part stream.new
cat output.txt >> stream.part2
cat stream.part1 >> stream.new
cat stream.part2 >> stream.new
cat stream.part3.mp3.head >> stream.new
dos2unix -o stream.new
# append base64 mp3 to mail body, keeping CRLF
unix2dos -o stream.part3.mp3.base64
cat stream.part3.mp3.base64 >> stream.new
# append end of mail body, converting it to LF only
echo "" >> stream.tmp
echo "" >> stream.tmp
cat stream.part4 >> stream.tmp
dos2unix -o stream.tmp
fi
# send the mail thru sendmail
cat stream.new | sendmail -t
# go back to original directory
popd
# remove all temporary files and temporary directory
rm -Rf $TMPDIR
sendmailmp3.txt
8. Make the file executable.
chmod +x /usr/sbin/sendmailmp3
9. In the FreePBX interface it’s time to get your new script to be used when sending out
email. Go to Settings > Voicemail Admin
10. Change the parameter Attach to Yes.
11. Scroll down and find the mailcmd setting. Change this to “/usr/sbin/sendmailmp3″
(without the quotes)
12. Submit your settings and be sure to click the Apply Config button.
Note: You might have to add if what you did above does not work. format = wav|gsm|wav49