[asterisk-users] External call control for Asterisk

[Steve Edwards]

On Wed, 10 Apr 2013, Simon Green wrote:

> Hi there, I’m new to Asterisk and there’s a ton of documentation. I’m 
> not really sure where to start. What I want to do is this: a PBX service 
> ala FreePBX, but where call control is passed via SIP to an external 
> service which will tell Asterisk:
> 
> a)      * Whether the call is allowed
> 
> b)      * Where to connect the call, if necessary (i.e. forced 
> redirection to a C-party)
> 
> c)       * To disconnect the call at some time in future based on 
> charging considerations (i.e. online charging)

It depends...

You could probably do all of this just using dialplan logic and Asterisk's 
internal database.

If you are looking to build a system that will scale, you'll want to store 
your call processing parameters in a database like MySQL and access the 
parameters using an AGI (an external program written in any language 
you are comfortable with) and then write a dialplan to follow your 
business logic.

While the dialplan language does include methods to access databases, I 
find it cumbersome, limited, and ugly. I like to keep all the nasty 
details in a little black box and keep my dialplan clean and maintainable.

-- 
Thanks in advance,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Edwards       sedwards at sedwards.com      Voice: +1-760-468-3867 PST
Newline                                              Fax: +1-760-731-3000