[asterisk-dev] Proposed changes to Originate Action [Issue: 0017221]

[Ryan Bullock]

I have suggested some changes to how the Originate action behaves and
I also submitted a patch that changes the behavior.

Here is an overview of what it changes and fixes compared to the
current Originate action.

Currently the Originate action for the manager interface behaves very
inconsistently when compared to other manager actions.

The major problems I see are:

1. The output and information returned is different between 'Async: 0'
and 'Async: 1'
2. With 'Async: 1' it returns two packets that are a 'Response'
packet, the second is actually a 'Response' and an 'Event' packet.
3. If you do not have call events enabled and have 'Async: 1' you will
never get the event generated by action. This is not the case with
other actions, which will send events regardless of the eventmask for
the connection.

This patch makes the following changes:

1. It will always create the outgoing call asynchronously. The Async
option has been removed.
2. It will always respond on the manager connection, regardless of the
eventmask.
3. It checks the validity of the tech for the channel, existence of
the exten/context/priority, existence of the application. If these
fail it immediately returns with an error.
4. It includes the Application and Data, or Exten/Context/Priority in
the response event depending on which is used. (Old behavior always
included Exten/Context/priority regardless of what was used)
5. The 'Response' line in the event is removed in favor of 'Result'
which contains the text equivalent of 'Reason'.
6. It will always respond to an action as follows: Response Packet,
EventResponse, EventComplete. If there is an error before the outgoing
call is made it will only respond with a Response Packet.

I also believe that the old action would send the action response out
on all manager connections when 'Async: 1'. The event contained the
ActionID which could cause some odd problems when multiple users are
involved. The new one only sends the response to the appropriate
manager session.

Their is some sample output from the patch in the ticket
(https://issues.asterisk.org/view.php?id=17221).

What do others think of the proposed changes? At the very least I feel
that the Originate action should be changed to be more in-line with
other actions.