HowTo implement some checking in dialplan?

[AndrewZ]

Hello

I do not understand how to do this even after reading manual & readme.
I want to implement 2 checks in my dialplan.

1. before attempting sip2skype call I want to check if my server was able to successfully connect to Skype network.
Now I have this:
OURSTATUS=${SKYPE_ACCOUNT_PROPERTY(MySkypeNameHere,availability)}

is it the right way? BTW, replacing "availability" with "status" causing an error, but according to the manual it's an allowed "property".

And a side question. From the README:

Skype account properties are stored on the Skype P2P network and include things like availability, birthday, and geographical information. These settings can be set both in chan_skype.conf, and via the SKYPE_ACCOUNT_PROPERTY() dialplan function.

What is the right syntax for this in chan_skype.conf ?

2. then I want to check if the destination Skype user (my "buddy") is available to take my call. What is the right way to check this?

Thanks!

[twilson]

1. I would check availability since should be queryable even if there is a problem connecting. You can set properties in chan_skype.conf by just doing something like:
[my_user]
about=This is information about me!
phone_mobile=+15555551212
email=me@example.com

Basically just property name = value.

2. It occurs to me that the only thing we have for dialplan buddy info actually iterates over all of the buddies--which really isn't that useful. I should add a SKYPE_BUDDY(buddyname) function that maybe retrieves a hash of all of that buddies properties...I could make it SKYPE_BUDDY(buddyname,propertyname), but due to the underlying architecture that would be fairly inefficient. I'll see what I can do.