[asterisk-dev] Voicemail redisign

[Kristian Kielhofner]

Tzafrir Cohen wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 01, 2006 at 01:37:04PM -0500, Kristian Kielhofner wrote:
> 
>>Matt O'Gorman wrote:
>>
>>>I think you would want just a controlled playback, we want as much as
>>>possible to be scriptable I would think.  as for the #include that
>>>was my exact thought, except for the default make it work like call
>>>parking does and just "work", but for anyone implementing their own
>>>they would  probably just have an include to the huge dialplan
>>>script. As for it affecting voicemail.conf, I think some options
>>>would be removed and it would mostly just be configuration space for
>>>the users.
>>>
>>>mog
>>
>>mog,
>>
>>	I don't know if making it work like call parking would be best...
>>
>>	I liked the idea of an "apps" folder, with the thought that in the 
>>future apps could be developed (and migrated) here, then shared by the 
>>community (after any potential disclaimers and such, obviously).  How 
>>cool would it be to be able to download some AEL/dialplan snippet, drop 
>>it in /etc/asterisk/apps, #include it where you want, and go.
> 
> 
> Or simply: #include apps/*.app

	True, but how would this expose any kind of help to the user (such as 
show application Voicemail from the CLI)?  The "show applications" and 
"show application [xyz]" are some of the best documentation Asterisk 
has.  Losing that would be taking a step backward.

>>	Or, even better...
>>
>>	What about this (format "inspired" by RPM):
>>
>>/etc/asterisk/apps/voicemail.app:
>>
>>; Some kind of format
>>%DESCRIPTION% Asterisk VoiceMail Application
>>%OPTIONS% u - play unavailable greeting
>>%OPTIONS% b - play busy greeting
>>%REQUIRES% ControlPlayback, VMAuthenticate
>>%FORMAT% extensions
>>;%FORMAT: AEL2 ; <-- for ael apps
> 
> 
> Hmmm... this requires an external parser. If you want to make it
> convinient for an external parser, use somthing like the lsb init
> scripts comments:
> 
> ;;;; Start Asterisk apps header
> ;; Description: Asterisk VoiceMail Application
> ;; Option: u - play unavailable greeting
> ;; Option: b - play busy greeting
> ;; Requires: ControlPlayback, VMAuthenticate
> ;; Format: extensions
> ;;;; End Asterisk apps header
> 
> 

	As I mentioned to Matt, I forgot to include semicolons in my example 
(obviously % is not valid ATM). :)

> 
> 
> I like it. Except I don't like having a separate independent format. If
> it is part of the dialplan it should be loaded and reloaded with the
> dialplan.

	It wouldn't be a separate format, simply an "extension" of the current 
format that would allow for some comments, dependencies, help/docs for 
the user that could be parsed and understood from the CLI.

	Maybe making it accessible from the CLI is a bit of a stretch, but as I 
said before, it would be very useful.

> So another dream: make it possible for every macro to describe itself
> that way?
> 

	Macros would be cool too :)!

--
Kristian Kielhofner