[Asterisk-Users] Web UI - Best practices?

[Robert Roach]

Michiel van Baak wrote:

>On 11:51, Wed 14 Jun 06, Mike wrote:
>  
>
>>Hi,
>> 
>>I'm stuck writing a Web GUI because nothing out there is exactly what I
>>need.  I'm not writing something as extensive as what _is_ out there, but
>>just something that allows users to change where their calls are forwarded
>>and other small things like that.
>> 
>>What I wanted to know is what is recommended by those you successfully wrote
>>their own UI :
>> 
>>1) Modifying the config directly in the Asterisk RealTime DB and and use
>>Asterisk Realtime? This seems like the obvious choice, but I have a bad
>>feeling about this method...especially with respect to future changes I
>>would make to my UI or that the Asterisk dev team would make to their own
>>tables / code
>> 
>>2) Using custom tables I make up myself, and querying that DB with the MySQL
>>command directly in the .conf files (or Realtime asterisk for that
>>matter)(http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=Asterisk+cmd+MYSQL) ?
>> 
>>    
>>
>
>I went for option 3:
>WebUI writes stuff to db, and some script generates static
>extensions.conf for the server.
>I did not create something functional yet, but the
>design/planning docs are ready.
>
>  
>
IMO, option 3 is the best bet.  As you pointed out, writing to * 
RealTime DB puts you in harm's way w/ respect to future development, as 
well as operational dependency on the db.  Option 2 also has the same 
external dependency.  With option 3 your UI is abstracted from asterisk 
.conf files and if the db is unavailable for any reason * will not be 
affected.  Looking further out, any changes to * dial plan syntax will 
only need to be implented in your db->.conf  conversion script.