Trixbox. by MATT FLORELL and JAMES PEARSON

Transcription

1 AsteriskNOW and Trixbox by MATT FLORELL and JAMES PEARSON

2 AsteriskNOW Officially released by Digium in 2007 Formerly called PoundKey Based on Asterisk 1.4 Web-based admin using new http manager interface Uses Custom Linux distro based on rpath Current release is Beta 6

3 Trixbox Created by Andrew Gillis Formerly called Home Recently purchased by Fonality Based on Asterisk 1.2 Uses many add-ons to Asterisk to add features FreePBX SugarCRM Several add-on graphic displays(dashboard, IVRGraph, HUDlite, etc...) Uses the CentOS Linux Distro Current latest is 2.2.4

4 Comparison AsteriskNow is much more lightweight Trixbox has many more features Installed based of Trixbox is much larger than AsteriskNOW AsteriskNOW is still in beta Trixbox creates much more complex and inefficient dialplan entries than AsteriskNOW

5 Going past the GUI to basic conf file settings... /etc/asterisk/ - Home to all Asterisk conf files extensions.conf the dialplan sip.conf entries for SIP phones zapata.conf and zaptel.conf telco PSTN settings voic .conf settings for voic boxes

6 extensions.conf - general The General Section -Used to control how the rest of the dialplan mechanics work. Below is the basic general section. [general] static=yes ;Whether Dialplan can be updated from the CLI writeprotect=yes ;Whether the Dialplan is able to be written from the CLI autofallthrough=yes ;If set to yes, then the extension will drop the call when nothing else to do clearglobalvars=no ;If set to yes, then all global cars will be cleared on extensions reload priorityjumping=no ;Whether to jump to different priorities based on the result of their operation

7 extensions.conf setting variables Section - Global Variables and Channel Variables -Used to set global variables accessible and updateable from all processes in the dialplan. They are just simply declared within the globals section. Global Variables are not case sensitive and do not instruct Asterisk to perform any functions or control it's behaviors. Typically you will use global variables as constants for other functions. Global Variables can be changed from within a channel by using the SetGlobalVar(variable) command. Channel variables will be used within each context where you need temporary storage of information. The example below uses global variables to translate extensions into actual connections. [globals] ; Add all extensions here. ZAP/SIP/MGCP/SCCP/whatever. 1001=SIP/ =SIP/ =ZAP/1 page=console/dsp Channel variables are declared the same way as global variables but they are limited to the context they are called in. All contexts called after a channel variable and within the original channel will inherit the variable until the channel is destroyed. Channel variables cannot be shared with other channels.

8 extensions.conf using variables Using Variables - -Variables are called within the Asterisk dialplan with the ${variable} moniker. The full syntax is ${variable:offset:length} where offset and length are optional. Offset is used to tell asterisk how far from the edge of the variable to go before it starts returning the variable. A negative offset value will cause asterisk to read the variable from right to left. Length determines how many characters to return from the offset. You must declare offset to use length. If I were to place ${1001} in my dialplan the system would return SIP/1001 as determined from the global variables section. If I were to place ${1001:2} in my dialplan the system would return P/1001 as determined from the global variables section. If I were to place ${1001:2:3} in my dialplan the system would return p/1 as determined from the global variables section. Channel variables may be set using the SET(variable=value) command. If I wanted to set variable ${ARG1} to value 1001 I would do so by issuing the command SET(ARG1=1001) within my dialplan. You may concatenate variables by placing them within each other or simply writing them together. For instance, say I have a channel variable named ${ARG1} with a value of 1001 and I want to get the global variable value that has the same name as the value in ${ARG1}. That can be accomplished by doing ${${ARG1}} within my dialplan. Asterisk will first locate the value of ${ARG1}, which is 1001, and return it. Our variable would now look like ${1001} to the Asterisk dialplan. Since ${1001} is a global variable, Asterisk would then return the value of SIP/1001 as determined from our global section. You can also take ${ARG1}555${1001} to return a string with a value of SIP/1001.

9 extensions.conf - macros Macro's - -Macro's are used as an inline function within a standard context. They inherit all the values within that context and if you run out of things to do within the macro they will return to that context. Since a macro is essentially stateless you can only use the s priority. All variables passed to a macro will be assigned a channel variable of ${ARG1}, ${ARG2}, and so on. Their most popular use is as a Dial Command. Below is a simplified example: [macro-dial_ext] ;Basic Dialing Macro w/ Voic exten => s,1,dial(${${arg1}},20,tr) exten => s,n,voic (su${arg1}) This macro can now be called within your dialplan as Macro(dial_ext,<extension>). This macro will take the ${ARG1} value given to it, look up the actual connection method through channel and global variable concatenation, issue the DIAL command for 20 seconds while playing a ringing tone to the caller, and then pass them to that extensions voic .

10 extensions.conf web examples Extensions and Contexts - See Below Links documentation+of+application+commands -Asterisk handles all call flows by going to a context, and looking for an extension contained within that context. If it finds the extension, it then executes the commands for that extension based on their priority (simple numbered list). Contexts are declared by brackets and every extension follow the context declaration are considered part of it. For example, the [globals] part of the global variables signifies that everything after that is treated as if it belongs in the globals context.

11 extensions.conf - examples Extensions use the syntax exten => <extension>,<priority>,<command>. the exten => is static and does not change for any part of your extensions. the <extension> value is used as a means to group and segregate commands from others. The <priority> value is a number ascending value (1,2,3,4,etc) that dictates the order in which commands are performed. The <command> value is the command that you wish the system to execute. Below is an example of a context used for basic inside dialing: [ext] ;Basic Inside Phone Dialing exten => _1XXX,1,Macro(dial_ext,${EXTEN}) ;Simple Dial Macro exten => _1XXX,n,Congestion ;If something goes wrong, play Busy exten => 8500,1,Voic Main ;Voice mail with Manual Login exten => 8500,n,Hangup exten => 8501,1,Voic Main(s${CALLERID(num)}) ;CID-Auth VM exten => 8501,n,Hangup exten => #9,1,Macro(dial_ext,page) ;Overhead Speaker Paging exten => #9,n,Hangup

12 extensions.conf - examples This example is the 'ext' context. It is used as an outward dial context. It contains 4 extensions: _1XXX (A pattern matching extension), 8500, 8501, and #9. Each extension consists of two commands. The 1 is a default starting priority that asterisk looks for in an extension unless specified otherwise. The n that you see is a priority shortcut that simply takes the proceeding priority and adds 1 to it. The _1XXX extension is a pattern-matching extension. The underscore _ is used to tell asterisk that what follows it a pattern mask. The X's in the pattern mask mean to match any number between 0 and 9. The extension as a whole will match any 4 digit number that starts with a 1, like for instance phones with extensions 1001, 1002, etc. Due to the complexity of dialplans and the relative limitlessness of them not all options or explanations can be covered in this presentation. This presentation was only designed to give you a basic understanding of how to read a dialplan. For a more indepth explanation of the concepts presented here please visit the links located at the beginning of each section. The code examples used in this presentation are excerpts from a sample asterisk configuration targeted to help tech-savvy beginners understand how Asterisk works. The sample configuration files can be downloaded from The sample configuration demonstrates a basic IVR with time-based prompts and prompt maintenance, Queues, MP3-based Music on Hold, SIP and ZAP connectivity, Outbound dialing control, Split extensions.conf, and exclusive module loading. These files do not contain all possible options and are stripped down to the bare essentials to make a working system. These configuration files are not designed to be used in a production environment. They lack adequate error trapping and controls.

13 The End