[Asterisk-Dev] CTI, 3rd party call support, manager future

[Jean-Hugues ROBERT]

Hi,

I agree that 3rd party call control is not as strong in Asterisk
as first party (thanks to AGI). One has to switch back and forth
between Manager API & (Fast) AGI, to control the call legs. This is not
trivial according to me. One issue that I noticed is missing
events. Hangup events for example. You have to look at the
returned value of some AGI commands to detect it, sometimes, in addition
to using the Hangup event on the Manager API.

A monitoring only application could not do that, it has to poll,
which is not the best I can imagine.

I don't know of any formal plan to improve 3rd party call control
in Asterisk, unfortunately, but I feel like the Manager API is a
good starting point.

Things become specially difficult when a channel is AGI blocked in
a bridged call or in a Meetme conference (there is some provision
to have AGI on a Meetme channel, but it does not work for VoIP).

I wish there would be an AGI command to switch the AGI into a
more event based model, so that unsolicited events would be
sent on the Fast AGI tcp connection, much like the Manager API
does. I miss Dtmf events for example (AGI wait_for_digit() blocks),
or some form of "progress" events during the AGI "dial" command.

Some mechanism to "cancel" a blocking AGI command is missing too.
You get by with the Manager API "Meetme kick" when in Meetme or
with the Manager API "Hangup" command (but obviously you hang up
the channel as a side effect...). I especially wish AGI wait_for_digit
to be Manager API interruptible. I still have to experiment with
Manager API "Redirect", maybe you can get by using it.

So, overall, little is missing I think, but coordinating the
two APIs to get a 3rd party view of the calls is rather complex
today.

Yours,

   JeanHuguesRobert

EOM

At 15:34 10/06/2005 -0700, you wrote:
>I am sure there is / will be substantial need for better 3rd party
>call control within Asterisk, ie. CTI.  I have been using the
>manager for the last month and although it has worked well
>it is limited.
>
>I have done my best to search the archives on this subject and have
>seen references to changing / updating / new ideas for the manager.
>
>My questions are: 1) Is this issue being addressed by anyone.
>Has there been a formal plan such as expansion of the current
>manager or starting a new manager from scratch.  We would
>like to join in anything on going and of course don't want
>to step on anything in progress.
>
>If there is nothing currently planned, should we invest time
>adding to the current manager? It seems to be not significant
>in the big picture as most CTI parts of a switch are secondary.
>
>Thank for reading,
>
>Mark DeBusschere
>markd at line-4.com
>
>
>
>
>
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