[Asterisk-Dev] External Call Control/ CTI

[Francois Lambert]

For those of you that are interested, we have modified the queuing model
of Asterisk to support CTI functionalities for both Outbound and Inbound
calls. The CTI module is external (running on Windows 2003). We are
sending all call related status (AGENT_IN_CALL_OUTBOUND, RINGING,
ESTABLISHED, AGENT_IN_CALL_INBOUND, CALL_QUEUE, CALL_DISTRIBUTED,
CALL_ABANDONED, etc). For those of you familiar with Genesys, It is very
similar. 

We have also developed the ANSWERING MACHINE DETECTION to support
outbound calls.

The CSR softphone is IAX2 based. 
This is now in production since 3 months. 

In our case, CTI was absolutely necessary to complete those tasks. But I
believed that this should not be part of Asterisk except that Asterisk
should only send messages to an external party.

Francois Lambert
COO
Atelka Inc.
Tel. : 514-448-4905 #2200
Cel. : 514-570-4797



On Sun, 2004-01-11 at 12:16, Jonathan Tew wrote:
> I posted on this topic a while ago (see Architecture for CTI on 
> 12/9/2003) and it went no where.  Asterisk does lack in this area.  
> Asterisk should provide CTI capability so that an application can be 
> completely aware of the state of the hard/softphone and control it.
If 
> you look at Cisco IPCC (a VoIP platform) it provides all this 
> capability.  And in the non-VoIP realm.... Avaya, Genesis, etc. all 
> provide CTI capability.

In the case of the question I responded to, CTI isn't the only answer
though. What Tom wants can be accomplished without the need to purchase
an outside application and make an interface for it into asterisk. 

I'm not arguing whether or not asterisk should have CTI, it wasn't
necessary in this instance. I don't share your itch so I'm not
interested in scratching it as there are more interesting things to me
to be completed first. You are always welcome to work on it yourself
though.


> Steven Critchfield wrote:
> 
> >On Fri, 2004-01-09 at 15:08, toms at xmission.com wrote:
> >  
> >
> >>Hello all,
> >>
> >>I searched the groups for something on point and while I found some
close
> >>issues, none were right on so here goes...
> >>
> >>I was wondering if there is any support for external call control
typical of
> >>external ACD systems. I worked on an ACD system that was external to
the
> >>switch (Harris) and I would be interested in creating an interface
for call
> >>control. The idea being that a standalone box only needs to know
that a
> >>call arrived in the queue, and it will direct it to the agent with
the
> >>correct skill set (skills-based routing). There is really no reason
to have
> >>the main switch perform this type of processing and the associated
> >>reporting etc. Other things like agent on hook/off hook and call
status
> >>(ringing, parked, etc) would be necessary. 
> >>
> >>Has anyone worked on this that may be able to point me in the right
> >>direction? 
> >>
> >>The best analogy I can offer is wanting a CSTA type interface to
Asterisk.
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >On the old system you are used to, it was probably necessary for
there
> >to be an external computer t do more than rudimentary routing. But on
> >asterisk, you already are on a computer. You also are on an open
source
> >platform that provides you with the ability to add or change code
that
> >is there.
> >
> >With that said, have you looked at the queue stuff yet? As I
understand
> >it, the routing plans are modular and pluggable. This means if you
are
> >wanting to write a different method of deciding which calls go where,
> >just write it as a plug in to the current queue app and revel in how
> >easy the interface is. 
> >
> >Try working with the tools first, and then determine what other tools
> >you need.    
> >  
> >
> 
> 
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-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>