[asterisk-biz] Maestro Control Panel for Asterisk

[Lee Jenkins]

Dovid Bender wrote:
> For starters why is this different than asternic ? Also I did download 
> it (going to try to play with it later), where do bug reports go to ? If 
> you go to Configure -> Start without putting in any settings it crashes.
>  
> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:24:35 -0400
> From: Lee Jenkins <lee at datatrakpos.com <mailto:lee at datatrakpos.com>>
> Subject: [asterisk-biz] Maestro Control Panel for Asterisk
> To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion
> <asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com <mailto:asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com>>
> Message-ID: <4692D1C3.1070509 at datatrakpos.com 
> <mailto:4692D1C3.1070509 at datatrakpos.com>>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> 
> We would like to announce a new product that we are working on called
> Maestro Control Panel.
> 
> What is Maestro?
> Maestro is a control panel utility that allows visual, real time control
> of calls within an Asterisk based PBX system. Maestro is a Windows based
> software program running on Modern Windows platforms (2000/XP/Visa,
> etc). Calls flowing through the PBX system are represented as visual
> objects or lists on screen. By Dragging and Dropping or through the use
> of short cut menus, the user can manipulate the calls visually
> represented on screen.
> 
> The mechanics of Maestro rely solely on the Asterisk Manager Interface.
>   Maestro fires events in response to the user's actions such as
> dragging on object (like a live device call) onto another object (such
> as a conference).  When this happens, Maestro runs a predetermined
> Manager Action in response to that event.  Maestro also surfaces
> relevant variables such as channel information about objects involved
> (device, conference, parked call, etc), which are then used in variable
> substitution against the Manager Action's text before the Manager Action
> is submitted to the AMI.  These variables are also sent to the channel's
> dial plan (where appropriate) and can be referenced there as well.
> 
> Through a combination of AMI commands and redirects to your own dialplan
> logic, you can create a customized "hud" like application for your users
> in minutes by writing simple AMI commands.
> 
> In early beta testing, Maestro is available for download and more
> information can be read on our website.
> 
> http://www.datatrakpos.com/pos/datatalk/maestro.aspx

I can't really say since I've never used Asternic/FOP although I am 
aware that it exists and hear that it is a great product.  We needed a 
control panel type app for a larger customer who has receptionists who 
need to perform many actions for their bosses like "Christine, can you 
get Mr. Jones on the phone for me?" or "John, can you call all 
department heads and get them into a conference for me?.  They wanted a 
visual way to do this instead of remembering dialing codes so we are 
writing the software.

Since I'm writing it anyway, I figured instead of hard coding some basic 
functions into the software, I would just rely on the AMI commands which 
can perform many different functions.  Functionality that is not 
included in the AMI can be more that made up for through custom logic in 
the dial plan (or AEL/AGI/FastAGI) and a simple Redirect AMI command to 
that context.

As an example, lets say that I wanted the ability to transfer a Parked 
call to a specific extension through Maestro's interface.  By using a 
simple Manager Action, I can redirect the active caller to a context 
which does much more than just transfer/redirect to the required 
extension.  Because any variables exposed by Maestro (such as the 
channel of the parked call) are available from both the Manager Action's 
text (through variable substitution) and from within the dial plan 
(through variable population), I can refer to those variables after the 
redirect from within my context:

[park-to-device]
exten=>s,1,AGI(SomeAGIToTestForSomething)
exten=>s,n,Background(transfer)
exten=>s,n,Dial(CHAN_TECH)

Again, I'm not sure if Asternic/FOP works like this or not.

We have also started a new discussion board on our web forums for 
Maestro software:

http://www.datatrakpos.com/forums/Default.aspx?g=topics&f=26


-- 

Warm Regards,

Lee