[Asterisk-Users] Possible to display which extensions are in

[Peter Svensson]

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004, Joe Greco wrote:

> > I don't think this is really a key system. AFAIK a traditional key system 
> > has a one-to-one mapping between lines and the buttons. Some pbx:es offer 
> > a mode where each *extension* is / can be represented by a button. This is 
> > called a Busy Light Field (BLF) for the status indications and also allows 
> > Directed Call Pickup. 
> > 
> > These systems exist on scale between a pure key systems and pure pbx. It 
> > is actually a very nice feature to have.
> 
> It is, but it seems to me it's also a bit more complex to determine what 
> constitutes "busy" on something like a 7960, where you've got multiple
> extensions each capable of more than one call appearing on the phone.

In an ideal world that would be left up to the user/implementor to decide. 
Some people would want one key per physical phone, signalling busy as soon 
as the phone was off hook. Some would want one per extension and so on. 
I have not used the hint functionallity so I do not know how versatile it 
is. 

It is more complex for SIP than a traditional pbx since SIP is more
decentralized. For most traditional large pbx:es the pbx is either
centralized or the parts are tightly integrated. That it is hard to
implement using SIP does not mean that large pbx:es don't have it. Most
seem to in fact.

Peter