[asterisk-gui] Feature question/suggestion

[Pari Nannapaneni]

Thanks for the detailed email,

As you might have already noticed, I have updated the "service Providers"
tab so that it makes more sense for a novice

I've started rewriting the Number Plan (= Calling Rules) page on tuesday
But got interrupted as I had to take care of some fixes needed for the
next beta of AsterikNow.

I'll work on it tomorrow and the weekend. I'm ok with the idea of having
separate contexts like [callingplan-International], [callingplan-LongDistance]

 > Now what we need to do is alter the GUI to support this multi-step
 > hierarchy in a way that makes sense to non-telecom geeks.  (Most of
 > the time this won't get touched as the PBXs come pre-configured for
 > the ITSP, but we still want to give people flexibility)

right

 > As a final step, we've also added the concept of feature groups to the
 > GUI.  Features are each implemented as their own context (with a
 > feature- prefix).  Those are then assembled into feature groups and
 > the feature groups are then assigned to Users.  In order for this to
 > work, we've altered the Users structure to:

This we be something really cool to have, but my personal opinion is to keep
the feature set minimal and straight forward for the "initial" release.
But I would definitely like to work on this feature in a future release.

I was pretty amazed at what you have done so far at
http://www.sokol-associates.com:8088/asterisk/static/config/cfglinksys.html

- Pari



Steven Sokol wrote:
>> Thanks for the response, and sorry for the double post (e-mail client
>> acting up).  When I go to Options -> Local Extension settings, it points
>> to https://host.domain.com:8089/asterisk/static/config/localexts.html,
>> which is non-existant.  I browsed SVN and it doesn't exist there either.
>>
> 
> I'm working on some changes to my copy of the Number Plan
> configuration and the Service Providers configuration.  It seems that
> numbering plans kind of complex, depending on what you want to do.
> 
> In our case, our ITSP partner needs to have the numbers normalized
> into "canonical" US 1+ format for all calls, while local phone
> companies (connected via analog line) can only accept local calls
> dialed as 7 or 10 digits (i.e. without the leading 1).  If you dial a
> local number with a leading one, the bloody stupid network plays back
> SIT tones and tells you that you don't need to dial a 1.
> 
> So, we're altering the Service Providers tab and offering three
> different Trunk Dialing Formats for passing calls: E.164 Canonical,
> NANP Canonical, and "As Dialed".  Our ITSP gets the NANP Canonical and
> our analog line gets "As Dialed".  I'm working on altering the
> trunkdial macro to properly handle the various normalization methods.
> (Not working yet, but getting close.)
> 
> We also have people in various area codes using our PBXs, so we've
> added a Local Prefix field to the User settings.  If the number is
> dialed using a local pattern (i.e. a 7 digit dial) then the system
> checks for a channel variable called LOCAL_PREFIX.  If it finds it, it
> uses it.  If not, it uses the system's Local Prefix setting.
> 
> The real challenge with the GUI is to make it flexible enough to do
> the job but simple enough for non-geeks to use it.  In terms of the
> calling plans, I'm altering the system to come with a full template
> for the NANP (North American Numbering Plan).  In the users tab the
> administrator sees the basic categories:  US International, US Long
> Distance, US Local, Inside.  This equates to a somewhat more complex
> set of contexts which allow for Banned Exceptions (numbers which match
> the pattern but are excluded -- think 900 numbers), LCR Exceptions
> (numbers for which you want to designate an alternate, theoretically
> cheaper or better route), and then Default (which simply selects from
> available trunks in a give order).
> 
> [callingplan-International]
> comment = US International+
> include = cp-nanp-international-exceptions
> include = cp-nanp-international-lcr
> include = cp-nanp-international-default
> 
> include = callingplan-LongDistance
> 
> [callingplan-LongDistance]
> comment = US Long Distance+
> include = cp-nanp-longdistance-exceptions
> include = cp-nanp-longdistance-lcr
> include = cp-nanp-longdistance-default
> 
> include = callingplan-LocalTollFree
> 
> [callingplan-LocalTollFree]
> comment = US Local & Toll Free
> include = cp-nanp-local-exceptions
> include = cp-nanp-local-lcr
> include = cp-nanp-local-default
> 
> include = callingplan-InsideOnly
> 
> [callingplan-InsideOnly]
> comment = Internal Dialing Only
> include = users ; (We've replaced "default" with users)
> 
> Now what we need to do is alter the GUI to support this multi-step
> hierarchy in a way that makes sense to non-telecom geeks.  (Most of
> the time this won't get touched as the PBXs come pre-configured for
> the ITSP, but we still want to give people flexibility).
> 
> As a final step, we've also added the concept of feature groups to the
> GUI.  Features are each implemented as their own context (with a
> feature- prefix).  Those are then assembled into feature groups and
> the feature groups are then assigned to Users.  In order for this to
> work, we've altered the Users structure to:
> 
> 1) Create a private context for each user (i.e. [user-6000]).
> 2) Change the User's context value to use this private context instead
> of the calling plan.
> 3) Change the behavior of load_users() in pbx_config.c to generate the
> private contexts when loading, and to include the proper feature group
> and calling plan in the private context.  (About 5 lines of code.)
> 
> This gives us the flexibility to control access to anything on the
> switch in a very easy way.  It also allows us to grant access to
> private or custom features by simply including them in the user's list
> of includede contexts.
> 
> Here's a link to a demo of what I have so far.  Use 'manager' as both
> the user name and the password.
> 
> http://www.sokol-associates.com:8088/asterisk/static/config/cfglinksys.html
> 
> Feel free to play with it -- the Asterisk instance isn't doing
> anything right now.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Steve
>