[asterisk-users] Locking phones at night...

[Conrad Wood]

On Wed, 2006-10-18 at 13:24 +0200, Tzafrir Cohen wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 09:42:37PM +0100, Conrad Wood wrote:
> > On Wed, 2006-10-18 at 08:55 +1300, Hadley Rich wrote:
> > > On Wednesday 18 October 2006 05:47, Conrad Wood wrote:
> > > > To do something similar, I created a dialplan extension that - if
> > > > dialled - creates a file on the server. If dialled again, it removes the
> > > > file again.
> > > > Then, in the context of the phone I check for existence of that file and
> > > > if it exists I play a busy signal and hangup. (Of course, unless the
> > > > extension to re-enable it is dialled ;) ).
> > > > Additionally, I ask the user for a password to lock/unlock it.
> > > 
> > > This is a good use for the AstDB
> > 
> > Sure is,  but files in the filesystem are easier to process from
> > external (non-asterisk) programs. In my case, I have a web interface
> > that locks/unlocks phones too.
> > I find it most convenient  to use 'ls' to look up the current status of
> > stuff.
> 
> asterisk -rx could also be used. Or a phone menu. Problems with a phone
> menu: how can you tell the status?
> 

asterisk -rx requires access to the asterisk console which throws its
own bunch of problems with permissions and scalability.  I'd then prefer
to code it through the manager interface but that seems like a terrible
overkill here ;)
How would you use a phone menu for that? That sounds interesting. Our
users here like doing phonestuff on their phones rather than on websites
etc.

Conrad