[asterisk-gui] Opinion, what do you want in the gui for users?

[Ming Yong]

Steven,
Interesting that you mention auto-provisioning & the push aspects of 
provisioning.
You might want to take a look at Voiceroute's solution Druid Telephony 
Platform
We recently launched our Druid Telephony Platform that supports 
autoprovisioning of polycom, cisco, snom, aastra & grandstream phones. 
One of the things you mentioned about push configs is something we are 
actively working on.

We also have live demos of our auto-provisioning function at
http://www.voiceroute.net/site/index.php?p=livedemo
Click on User > Add Extension Wizard
Click on the polycom, cisco or any of the phone logos.

We really like some comments & see how we can also contribute to the 
Asterisk gui project.

Ming Yong
> On 4/13/07, Andrew Latham <lathama at lathama.com> wrote:
>> Would a provisioning middle-ware be the better option. A system 
>> described below.
>>
>> Stations = MAC address
>> Extensions = Stations
>>
>> 1. Station starts up and asks for DHCP
>> 2. DHCP gives TFTP or CONFIG server per MAC (lots of work here)
>> 3. TFTP or HTTP configs to the phones with correct settings (magic)
>> 3.1 TFTP or HTTP system ask the manager interface for info for extension
>> 3.2 TFTP or HTTP configs created and sent to Stations
>> 4. Station registers
>>
>
> Possibly, but here's my goal in narrative form:
>
> A user downloads/builds (or buys) an Asterisk with the GUI.  The
> README tells him to go and install all of his phones (Polycom, Snom,
> Linksys, Cisco, Grandstream, etc.), then run the discovery wizard.
> The discovery tool does the following:
>
> 1) scans the LAN and finds devices.
> 2) Identifies them by either a SIP options response (using the User
> Agent value) or simply by a MAC that fits within a known range for a
> given manufacturer (is this data available?)
> 3) adds the devices to a list (conf file, database, etc.) of known 
> endpoints.
>
> The system then builds a "guest" account for each of the newly
> discovered devices.  The device uses the MAC address to craft a config
> file for the phone (to be downloaded via HTTP or TFTP) or uses
> something like CURL to post a basic config to the phone.  The system
> also creates a PEER entry in Asterisk (using users.conf?) that points
> to a [guest] or [unknown] context.
>
> This basic configuration allows the phone to dial 911, dial inside
> extensions and to access the provisioning extension: the administrator
> can dial an extension, log in using an ID and PIN and feed Asterisk
> the new extension number for the phone via DTMF.
>
> In a VERY simple system that's really all that needs to happen.
> Asterisk will update the users.conf entry for the device and move it
> to the [inside] or [users] or [default] context and that's that.  But
> wait, that's not all....
>
> In a truly integrated system the user would be able to log into an
> AJAM-powered portal that allows them to control their system features
> (i.e. features configured on Asterisk using the AstDB, etc.) but they
> would ALSO be able to manage the buttons on their phone from the same
> GUI.  They could set busy-lamp fields (BLFs), configure phone
> features, etc. all from their portal page.
>
> One thing that I would like to try to overcome is the dependence on
> the DHCP->TFPT->HTTP chain.  In some cases the PBX administrator
> simply won't be able to control the DHCP options system in order to
> configure the TFTP option to point to the Asterisk system.  If we can
> build a basic "push" system that can update the TFTP and/or HTTP
> provisioning address on the most common brands of phone, we can avoid
> having to manage the DHCP process or server.
>
> Yes -- this may be a big pain.  However, we're trying to build
> something that competes with the big telecom players and, in the next
> few months, MicroSoft.  We need to make this as powerful and as easy
> as possible.
>


-- 
Ming Yong
Business Development
Voiceroute LLC
Voice: Dial 650.331.1732 ext 301
Call VOIP => sip:301 at pbx.voiceroute.net
ming at voiceroute.net