[Asterisk-Dev] Long comments and ideas for sip.conf

[Alastair Maw]

Rainer Jochem wrote:

>> Databases are overkill for config files [...]
> 
> 
> Hmm... tell me how you'd manage a sip.conf with 17000 users and 
> giving the users the possibility of changing their passwords... :)
> 
> Or if you want to use * in a large environment, where all the other 
> user accounts are already stored in a central database. Having 
> database support in asterisk, it could be easily integrated in such
> an installation.


IMO, Asterisk could do with some fast, standard, C-based modules/apps
that share a common framework for authentication and/or extension
routing, and that plug into different databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL,
LDAP, Oracle, flat text file for Steven :) , etc.). It'd be nice to use
some kind of database abstraction layer, so you could do things like so:

[default]
exten => _X.,1,DatabaseCallConnect("server1");

etc.
Then have a databasecallconnect.conf with:

[server1]
type             = mysql             ; mysql/pgsql/ldap/mssql/etc
host             = db.company.com
username         = asterisk
password         = xxxxxxxx
database         = asterisk
table            = extensions
exten_field      = ext
name_field       = name

etc.

That way, you could hook the module up to a pretty generic existing
database without having to hack at all the code manually, or be pushed
into using a database schema that someone else wants you to use.

-- 
Alastair Maw <al.maw at mxtelecom.com>
MX Telecom - Systems Analyst
http://www.mxtelecom.com