[asterisk-dev] AstriDevCon 2014: Agenda item Deprecate AMI/AGI (Ben Klang)

[Phil Mickelson]

I can't speak for anyone else, but my vision would be for an easy to use
application that would allow for all the options you now have and even
more.  The major difference is that you wouldn't have to try to figure out
all the complexities of the current dialplan.

For example, you could have a drag and drop type of flow chart that could
be used for simple channel control.  Then you could name them, almost like
macros, and combine them to create more complex channel control.

Or, you could use some logical language constructs that include
If/Then/Else, Case, While, etc.  All of those could be handled through the
ARI (along with Stasis).  And, combine them with a database for even more
flexibility.

Further, imagine that you didn't have to even reload Asterisk to get this
done!  That you could add new dialplans, change existing ones, and remove
them completely, all in realtime.

My hope is to get the ability to create extensions the same way.  Then I
could handle everything.

BTW, I have a system, right now, that is handling incoming calls exactly
like the above.  I can add new phone numbers, remove them, etc and I never
have to reload Asterisk.  I don't have the simple to use general front end,
but it wouldn't be that hard to add.  I literally have a single entry point
in the dialplan to handle all incoming calls.  It seems to work (so far)
exactly like I expect it to.

Each of those phone numbers are a different customer.  Depending on the
customer information significantly different options are displayed to the
screen.  There is no way I could've done that with the existing dialplan.
And, further, each time a new customer was added or removed Asterisk
would've had to been reloaded.  That would've been a non-starter.

And, this is just one alternative.  I can guarantee you that you let a
bunch of programmers loose on this and you'll get a bunch of alternatives.
I believe, this is exactly what the Asterisk developers were hoping for.
At least, I hope it is!

Hope that answers your question.

Phil Mickelson
CBA Software, LLC

On Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 5:47 PM, Derek Andrew <Derek.Andrew at usask.ca> wrote:

> What is the alternative to the dial plan? Is everyone talking about
> getting rid of the statements like:
> exten => s,1,
>
> what is the alternative?
>
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