[asterisk-dev] Introducing the new ConfBridge

[David Vossel]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tony Mountifield" <tony at mountifield.org>
> To: asterisk-dev at lists.digium.com
> Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 12:22:06 PM
> Subject: Re: [asterisk-dev] Introducing the new ConfBridge
> In article <1561053615.95365.1298491443721.JavaMail.root at zimbra>,
> David Vossel <dvossel at digium.com> wrote:
> > Howdy,
> >
> > Over the next couple of weeks I will be working on a new feature set
> > for ConfBridge. In
> > order to accomplish some of the features I have planned, a new
> > configuration method for
> > ConfBridge will be necessary. This new configuration method is what
> > I am bringing to you
> > all today. Before I get started on implementation I want to tell you
> > all what I have
> > planned and open the floor for feedback.
> >
> > At the moment ConfBridge's configuration is centralized entirely in
> > the dialplan. The new
> > configuration method will be a combination of a new confbridge.conf
> > file and a new
> > ConfBridge application syntax that takes advantage of the options
> > declared in that config
> > file. This will result in a ConfBridge application that is much more
> > powerful than the
> > current application, but not backwards compatible with the
> > ConfBridge syntax used in 1.8.
> > The lack of backwards compatibility with the previous syntax is
> > unfortunate but necessary to
> > achieve the new functionality we have planned.
> 
> Seeing the latest commit for the max_members option, made me think
> about
> this approach a bit more.
> 
> > URL: http://svnview.digium.com/svn/asterisk?view=rev&rev=310880
> > Log:
> > Addes max_members option to ConfBridge bridge profiles
> > +;max_members=50 ; This option limits the number of participants for
> > a single
> > + ; conference to a specific number. By default conferences
> > + ; have no participant limit. After the limit is reached, the
> > + ; conference will be locked until someone leaves. Note however
> > + ; that an Admin user will always be alowed to join the conference
> > + ; regardless if this limit is reached or not.
> > +
> 
> This is the kind of option for which the ability to dynamically set it
> at run time would be very useful. Having to have a profile for every
> possible desired value would obviously be very cumbersome.
> 
> Similarly for some of the other options - wait for leader, recording,
> identify participants, etc. My application currently sets channel
> variables to control each of these options, which are then referred to
> in the Meetme command in the dialplan. Again, the more different
> options that need to be independently settable, the more profiles
> would need to be defined, one for each combination.
> 
> So, what could be a better way of making all the different profile
> items
> settable independently at runtime? Some kind of syntax to say take the
> value from a channel variable? Reinstate dialplan options for some
> features?
>

Umm, this is a good point.  What if I made an app that allowed bridge/user profiles to be built dynamically in the dialplan, would that work?

ConfBridgeCreateProfile(type,options) ; Allows custom User and Bridge profiles to be built dynamically and stored on the channel.

When ConfBridge is called on the channel with no user or bridge profile specified, it will check to see if one of these dynamic profiles exist and use it instead of the default profiles in confbridge.conf.

Example Usage

exten => 1111,1,Answer()
exten => 1111,n,ConfBridgeCreateProfile(bridge,i(16000)m(50)) ; creates a bridge profile with internal sample rate of 16khz and max members of 50
exten => 1111,n,ConfBridgeCreateProfile(user,a)  ; creates a user profile specifying this user is an Admin.
exten => 1111,n,ConfBridge(1111,,,)       ; Uses the dynamic bridge and user profiles just created.


~David