RESERVE BOUNTY: Aastra XML SLA (Share "Line" Experience)
Submitted by ethans on Tue, 04/01/2008 - 2:56pm.
RESERVE BOUNTY: Aastra XML SLA (Share "Line" Experience)
I've put some more thought into this application. I think it will work like this, but I would appreciate comments:
Each button can be registered to listen to either a specific channel (ie. Zap/1-1) or groups of trunks (Zap, SIP, IAX). If the buttons are registered for a single channel, they will only display behavior for that channel. If they are registered for blocks of channels, they will behave in a round-robin manner where the first active channel in a group or groups will be assigned to the first button "Line 1", the second to "Line 2" and so on.
When a line that is registered is ringing, a SIP message will be sent to the phone with an encapsulated XML object informing the phone to display a blinking LED. When the call is answered, it will go solid, when "on hold" it will go fast blink. Pushing a button while it actively holds a channel will drop the caller into the parking lot and link that slot number with that button and channel. Users will only be able to put a caller on hold on a channel they have answered, but they will be able to take a call off of hold on any channel that has a held call.
The backend of the application will be a script connected to the Asterisk manager processing all applicable channel requests and sending SIP messages to the phones with XML objects. Metermaid and devstate BLF hint capabilities should not be required.
This application will require the latest 2.2 firmware for support of SIP messages with encapsulated XML. It will only work on the 5i series of phones, but should work on the new 913x and 48x phones that are coming out soon based on newer hardware and support for 5i XML capabilities (according to Aastra).
CAVEOTS: I have no idea what kind of load this is going to place on phones. It should be negligable on the server, however. Certainly, it is going to have some kind of total phone limitations, so will most likely only be suitable for smaller "key system like" systems. I won't know the limitations until it's basically done.
There are a lot of things to work out on the technical and configuration sides, but theoretically everything is possible. I'm putting an ETA of 3-4 weeks for a first release if there is enough support to begin development.
This will be developed under the new Reverse Bounty system, as with the Aastra Away (Presence) capabilities (http://trixbox.org/forums/trixbox-forums/open-discussion/bounty-a...). Under the Reverse Bounty system, "heros" contribute a set amount to get the application immediately, have access to premium support and feature requests, and get memorialized in the forums, documentation and installers.
The reserve bounty will be set at $2400 (8 separate $300 "heros"). Due to the unknowns, I will not accept payment until the application is working and I am able to communicate exactly what the capabilities and limitations of it are, but I would like some general feedback and soft commitments before development begins. Upon meeting the reserve bounty, the application will convert to GPL and be distributed to the community.
As with all applications developed under this model, any "heros" contributing towards previous projects under this model will receive this and all future applications under this model in a priority manner.
And as always, all past, current and future Open Telephony Training Seminar participants will receive priority access to these applications during development and premium support. Sign up now for Vegas in May. It looks like you will get a special treat in addition to expanded Aastra XML applications and training.
druid has similar
Thu, 04/10/2008 - 4:51am
Not sure if you've checked out Druid OSE (www.voiceroute.org)
They have a similar SLA running behind *1.2 using the aastra 5xi phones. You may want to check it out and see if it gives some direction.
-Mike
Emulating SLA (Shared Line Appearances) In Asterisk
Thu, 04/10/2008 - 9:57pm
http://www.asteriskpbx.org/node/48342
This should cut your development time down to one weekend!
SLA .pdf:
http://svn.digium.com/view/asterisk/branches/1.4/doc/sla.pdf?view...
SLA .conf Example:
http://svn.digium.com/view/asterisk/branches/1.4/configs/sla.conf...
Oh, and you can send the bounty my way when you get a chance.
I would prefer Ethans idea
Fri, 04/11/2008 - 12:30am
If this is still looking
Fri, 04/25/2008 - 5:48pm
If this is still looking good, i can put in a fairly firm commitment. This is the single biggest feature my users will miss when i port them over, and if i can have something similar, i'll be a hero twice :) If HUDLite ever works properly, will this have any affect on its parking lot, or will it continue to operate as usual?
Maury
Just a quick note to rstebih
Fri, 04/25/2008 - 6:14pm
Just a quick note to rstebih (Rudy)
The references you put in your post have been looked at, prodded at, and they don't-work-at long before you posted.
No one has made them work (or I should say work correctly).
So........ no bounty for you. :-)
Ethan, how is this project coming?
I know my customers would
Sun, 05/04/2008 - 6:44am
We are in!
Sun, 05/04/2008 - 12:19pm
Ok we (my company) are in. I am sure we will have a client that needs this functionality.
This is a firm commitment, Ethan and John have my email.
I need to decide what endpoints to buy for testing. Need to be simple, 57i is way overkill for the users I have in mind.
Scott
--
Scott
aka "Skyking"
Just a couple more
Sun, 05/04/2008 - 10:17pm
Just a couple more commitments and I'll start working on this. The timing should be right, anyway, given I am booked until the end of this month with training stuff.
Stay tuned to this thread, as I am going to post some highly detailed technical options that will greatly impact the direction this project takes, and I will need feedback in order to make a decision on the direction of the project.
Too much to do, not enough
Wed, 06/11/2008 - 9:13pm
Too much to do, not enough hours in the day. I'm skipping between supporting people installing the magic button and call screening right now:
http://trixbox.org/forums/trixbox-forums/trixbox-projects/call-sc...
The magic button install troubleshooting is a major time consumer...
The call screening is relatively easy for me to accomplish, so everyone will see this pretty soon. Be sure to thank Kerry for drumming up support, and if anyone is interested in this feature, feel free to throw in a couple bucks. I'm actually really excited about this feature for myself and my customers who have been requesting this for a long time.
As far as the SLA, I'm still committed to this project and appreciate everyone's bounties (including Fonality), but it is a scary project and I need some serious blocks of time to devote to it. It will come in due time.
Just Keep It Simple
Tue, 06/24/2008 - 11:39pm
Ethan:
My suggestion is to keep it simple. Don't go overboard with XML commands this and XML commands that. Just make it so we can have shared SIP extentions or lines. This way we can program each LINE SIP to a shared extention and use the keys that are already on the phones. This would also allow all these useless cordless phones to have SLA as well.
One thought I had is to develop sub extentions, IE an extention under an already existing extention. So if you have ext 101, then you would create 101.01, 101.02, etc. Each subextention would then be assigned a phone as a line. Now what ever happens to x101 gets passed down to each sub extention so if a call comes into x101, then x101 and all the sub extentions would ring. If a call is placed on hold, then it's showing on hold on all the substations as well. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:
Extentions Phones
101 Line 1 on phone x101
101.02 Line 1 on phone 102
101.03 Line 1 on phone 103
101.04 Line 1 on phone 104
102 Line 2 on phone 102
102.01 Line 2 on phone 101
102.03 Line 2 on phone 103
102.04 Line 2 on phone 104
etc..
I think you get the idea on how the extentions would be created.
So if a call comes in and rings X101, then it would ring 101, 101.02, 101.03 and 101.04 at the same time. If anyone grabs the phone, then all four extentions would show the call in progress. If the call is put on hold, then all four extentions would show it on hold, etc..
Now this idea may end up being an extention of Asterisk but if done right I think it would solve most if all of the SLA type features everyone's been asking for.
Hope this helps.
Dean
Anaheim, CA
Dean -
This is an XML,
Wed, 06/25/2008 - 8:32am
Dean -
This is an XML, application in today's Asterisk reality the data structures do not exist to create the functionality, the Aastra XML extensions and other 'vendor specific' solutions is the only answer.
None of these solutions will solve your cordless phone issue.
Parking Lot BLA's seem and one touch parking have solved the immediate need, and they scale well.
If you feel strongly about the direction of the project I suggest you become a contributor.
You have posted numerous times in search of a different answer for your application of Asterisk. Personally I think you have tunnel vision based on this experience.
Those of us with 100's and 1000's of users are focused on the features required to place Open Source Telephony on parity (and better) with our real competition, Cisco, Nortel, Mitel, Avaya and Shoretel. Together they represent 97% of the market for systems with over 25 extensions.
Scott
--
Scott
aka "Skyking"
There's gotta be a better way...
Wed, 06/25/2008 - 2:10pm
Scott:
I have two Aastra phones here and I do think that for an Aastra solution what's there with the XML scripts are great. But like you said it's vendor specific and will only work on the Aastra phone. To me, that's tunnel vision if it only works for one phone vendor. I'm trying my hardest to come up with a solution that's NOT vendor specific so it will work with any SIP phone regardless if it's a real phone or a soft phone.
To you suggestion of contributing, I do. Did you see the WIKI article I posted on how to setup your Trixbox behind a dynamic firewall for remote phones to work (http://www.trixbox.org/wiki/how-configure-trixbox-remote-phones-c...)? I've also started to help some folks with other issues as well so althought I'm new I am trying to 'add value' to this forum by making posts and contributing where I can. Hopefully during the summer time I can take a course to better understand Linux, then I'll start diving into the realm of Asterisk itself. But for now, I am reaching out to the great folks like yourself to help me along.
Now let me ask you an interesting question. After spending the time to research things out I can see why the SLA feature in Asterisk does not work well. Therefore do you have a suggestion for another Open Source SIP phone system that I can download that has SLA working properly?
Thanks!
Dean
Anaheim, CA
I know you contribute
Wed, 06/25/2008 - 3:32pm
I know you contribute support, I was talking about financially. We are so close to the bounty being met I was trying to drum up the last few bucks. Sorry I was not clear about that in my reply.
As far as another project www.freeswitch.org has the features. The GUI is very raw, many of the features FreePBX provides are not there so you have to config it by hand.
The cool thing is it supports XML config files which are way easier to work with (using an XML editor) that Asterisk flat files.
There is already a bounty that crosses all geo-socio-politico boundaries to integrate FreePBX with freeswitch. Just search this site for freeswitch.
Personally SLA does nothing for me. In that area I would like to see the Asterisk park() extension include an attribute to include park destination. That would allow you to use custom contexts and carve up the parking lot for multiple departments. Once we have that Aastra could be pushed to include a new BLF mode key that would allow you to combine park and BLF in a single key.
Scott
--
Scott
aka "Skyking"
I did contribute
Wed, 06/25/2008 - 5:45pm
Scott:
If you are referring to the bounty for the SLA that Ethan posted, then yes I've already committed money to him in helping him with that. I haven't received instructions yet on how to get that money to him, but I did leave a post in that thread stating that I would contribute money to help get that done. Am I missing something else???
I downloaded freeswitch (trixswitch.com) last night and was looking for the web interface so that would explain why I couldn't find one. I'll have to dig deep into that website (which isn't as good as Trixbox) and see how to get it going with those XML files as you stated.
Thanks!!
Dean
Anaheim, CA
Quote:
Am I missing
Wed, 06/25/2008 - 6:49pm
Quote:
Am I missing something else???
No actually putting way more into it, I was just drumming up support for the SLA Bounty. I should have checked that thread before I opened my big mouth.
Quote:
I'll have to dig deep into that website (which isn't as good as Trixbox) and see how to get it going with those XML files as you stated.
You can't really think of Freeswitch in terms like trixbox. Freeswitch is at the core, similar to Asterisk.
Trixbox could one day support Freeswitch, since trix is CentOS + Asterisk + FreePBX + trixbox Applications.
Have you installed Asterisk from scratch on CentOS?
I am a bit confused when you say you downloaded Freeswitch. Did you download the FreeSwitch RPM for CentOS or the "trixswitch" ISO? Trixswitch has nothing to do with trixbox, however I do think there is a simple GUI.
I tested it in a Windows Virtual PC on top of CentOS.
Scott
--
Scott
aka "Skyking"
FreeSwitch or trixswitch
Fri, 06/27/2008 - 4:12pm
Unfortunately, I have run
Wed, 08/20/2008 - 11:20am
Unfortunately, I have run into a situation where I am owed about $1300 in bounties that weren't paid, so I have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth right now and am apprehensive about taking on such a large project on faith alone. It's too bad, too, because I was going to start it this week and hopefully have something done in a couple weeks.
Come on Pay up you
Wed, 08/20/2008 - 11:30am
Come on Pay up you deadbeats. Ethan is worth 10 times that and you can't say you will pay and then don't.
Ethan, you should publish the list of people that have not paid you, that will certainly be motivating.
Ethan is nice enough to work on this stuff for all of us. I see no one else out there that can even do this stuff so please pay him ig you use his products and especially if you posted that you would pay the BOUNTY.
M2M
Publish the list -
Wed, 08/20/2008 - 11:30am
Ethan -
Please publish the names of the loosers who stiffed you.
To anybody reading this thread this is why bad attitudes surface on the forum. What is the possible incentive to share any of this stuff if people won't honor their commitment?
Maybe a little perspective would help. Ethan is an expert programmer and his company Schmooze Communications authors applications for their users.
The reverse bounty process was brilliantly conceived. A small stipand (certainly not enough to cover the value of his work) is posted. Then the work is returned in the form of Open Source.
So I implore those who have not paid to do the right thing and Paypal those funds today.
--
Scott
aka "Skyking"
Thanks everyone for the
Wed, 08/20/2008 - 2:08pm
Thanks everyone for the support. The vindictive side of me really wants to call people out when they do things like this, but I'm honestly really sick and tired of all the drama around here lately so I'll hold my tongue. It seems like I've been holding my tongue a lot lately, even when good people doing very important work for the community are getting attacked.
If I don't get the money, I don't get the money. It's just too bad that it will make me a lot more cautious in the future. I really want to trust people, but it never seems to work out.
It just really gets to me when I work so hard on things for people, fulfill my end of the bargain, and then get slighted. It's great when I can work on a project that benefits my business, benefits others in the community, and puts some extra money in my pocket all at the same time. My time is important to me, though.
Ethan Is your paypal the
Wed, 08/20/2008 - 3:42pm
Ethan
Is your paypal the same as your email. I am going to send you a few bucks just to get things going. I hate to see this happen.
Edit: I sent you a few bucks to your account. I hope others will do the same, even if everyone sends 5 to 10 it will be better than loosing 1300..
How do I pay?
Thu, 08/21/2008 - 7:56am
I am new to his whole 'bounty' idea so I've been waiting for an email with instructions on how to send you the money. In fact I left a post here on 06/25/2008 asking for instructions on where to send the money and I have yet to receive said instructions to date.
Therefore Ethan can you please post instructions on this thread on how to send you your money so we can get that processed next week when my AP person comes in.
Thanks!
Dean
Anaheim, CA
I have the money now though
Thu, 08/21/2008 - 8:33am
OOOOhhh......
Then please let me know ASAP when I can get you the money that I promissed you for this bounty. If it would help you, I bet most of us here on this thread would be willing to send you either all or partial of this bounty up front to show you that we are trustworthy. I for one will be willing to send you the money NOW if that will help move this project up to the top of your list.
Dean
Anaheim, CA
Ethan can you please let us
Thu, 08/21/2008 - 8:51am
Ethan can you please let us know what your paypal email address is. We really do want to help.
We should all look out for good people getting attacked around here also. I agree with Ethan that all the drama is killing the forums karma. People really want to help and if you are helping please do so without attacking noobs or anyone asking a question. We can get this forum on the good Karma track again.
Member Since:
2007-01-16