[Asterisk-Dev] Qs on Astrix & zaptel

[Steven Critchfield]

On Thu, 2003-06-26 at 17:13, Shahed Moolji wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I still have not got a definity answer on my question.
> I do not intend to use the PBX features of Asterisk at all.
> 
> I want to use Digium Cards to build a custom IVR.
> 
> In such a case, am I better of using the zap_ api or
> the ast_ api's that are defined as a channel extension in the
> asterisk framework.

You would probably be better off running on top of asterisk. The reason
I state this is because if you write an application on top of just the
hardware drivers, or possibly the zapata library you then have to
reimplement a large chunk of asterisk and are left supporting that chunk
of code. If you write the IVR stuff you need on top of asterisk,
asterisk will continue to improve. You also get the benefit of an even
higher API to program to that gets you away from the interface drivers
completely. Once you application runs on asterisk, it will run on
Dialogic, Digium, 4 VoIP protocols, ISDN, and Voicetronix cards. This
will help you out in the long run.

If you are concerned about licensing, you have a couple of routes. 1,
GPL your code and not worry about anything. 2, purchase licenses from
Digium for non GPL versions of asterisk and write your IVR functions
into asterisk. Or 3, write your application to run via the AGI interface
where you no longer are linking with asterisk and are not bound by the
reciprocity of the GPL license.

> I just ordered my dev kit from Digium, and so have not yet started
> actual development.

Thank you for helping our community.

> It would probably take me at least a week to figure out all the C code
> in the zapata / zaptel and asterisk tar balls to find an answer to my
> question,
> as there is almost no good api docs.

Look at the agi interface. Most all the docs are actually contained in
strings in the apps/app_agi.c file. This is good because it gives you a
simple interface to asterisk, and if you wonder how something is done,
snooping around the app_agi.c file will usually show you pretty quickly.
-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>