[asterisk-biz] The hunt for a workable Asterisk GUI

[Stelios Koroneos]

On Fri, 2010-04-09 at 11:09 +0100, Chris Bagnall wrote:
> Greetings list,
> 
> I've traditionally been a proponent of the "manual configuration " approach, using .conf files and command lines to give us the greatest possible flexibility when writing call flows for customers. I've shied away from web interfaces as being overly restrictive and limiting what we can do for our customers.
> 
> However, as we've grown as a company, taken on more customers (and hence more staff), there's become an ever-growing need for certain operations to be carried out by admin staff, rather than always having to be passed down to technical staff (who often have better things to do). I'm sure it's a problem faced by many companies on the list.
> 
> So, what to do about it? Obviously there are "user-friendly" interfaces like FreePBX available, but they take over the *whole* asterisk config, shoehorning the user into their own fairly tight confines. Don't get me wrong, FreePBX is great as a company PBX installed on an on-site server, but it isn't much good as a VoIP hosting platform.
> 
> What I think we're looking for is a fairly simple web interface to manipulate the tables used by Realtime. It doesn't have to be friendly. It doesn't have to be pretty. It just has to be easy enough for admin staff to use (with training, obviously) so that trivial call flow changes such as "please forward my calls to this mobile number" or "can you add extension 241 to this queue/ring group" can be made without having to involve technical staff.
> 
> Would be very interested to hear what others in a similar position have done to overcome this growth problem. Did you write your own interface? Did you buy something off the shelf? Is there something in the FOSS marketplace that'll do the job?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Chris

We have been working on our gui for sometime now, targeting mostly
embedded devices where mysql for settings its not just an overkill but
most of the times simply can't run due to system architecture and
resources.
With that factor, we decided to "bite the bullet" and build our own gui
from scratch.

What i can say after this experience is 1st that there is no "silver
bullet" regarding to gui's and 2nd that there are basically two types of
gui's people want.

One is what i call the "we do it all" gui like FreeePBX and others that
try to cover the diverse requirement their extended user base has.
The cost to this is an added "layer" of complex setup files and
dialplans, which is pretty much tailored to what the gui designer thinks
is the "correct way" of doing things.
This kind of gui's are mostly for end-users or power-users that don't
know or don't want to know the inner workings of a complex asterisk
system. "They just want it to work" (tm)
People more technically inclined with asterisk find this kind of gui
rather restrictive and/or complex

On the other hand there is the "spartan" gui, which does some pretty
basic and usually time consuming tasks like the ones you mention or
phone provisioning for example.
These type of gui's also add a layer but usually its much smaller and
are easier for professionals to customize.

The main issue i have seen in both cases, over the years i have been
working on this,is that the gui is pretty much "tied" with the
underlaying system and dialplan philosophy.
If you try to make a "generic", or "we do it all gui" you end up with
something so big which is pretty much a system on its own, with its own
quirks and gotsa's.

On the other hand, people are "accustomed" to gui's coming with "off the
self devices" (phones, routers you name it) and expect something similar
to exist for asterisk.

The problem here that few people realize, is that the "off the self
appliances" have "standard" hardware and philosophy to start with, while
with asterisk the sky is the limit.

Just think how many different interconnections there are from 1 port
analog, to isdn bri and multi port PRI with different channel drivers
and settings, or how "pickup" works over different channels and you get
the picture.

So my advise is if you think that the available gui's are too big or
complex find one of the "spartan" gui's and try to customize it or
(shameless plug follows) contact me of list to arrange of demo of or
gui.


-- 
Stelios S. Koroneos

Digital OPSiS - Embedded Intelligence

Tel +30 210 9858296 Ext 100
Fax +30 210 9858298
http://www.digital-opsis.com