Re: OGo and Asterisk integration

John Helmuth wrote:

> Here's my two cents, for what it's worth:

Thank you for this.

> I think VoIP scenarios are the same as CTI scenarios, from the point of 
> view of the user.
> 
> Either you want to dial a person that's shown on the Ogo screen (Dial 
> Out), or you want to see the person's Ogo screen when that person calls 
> you (Dial In).

The first part I agree with as step one. The second part, well as you 
identify this seems particularily challenging and Im not sure of its 
value as this information caller ID etc can/is provided already by the 
asterisk application set. Now in terms of a call history manager or 
interface this has merrit but then we are moving into CRM territory of 
which there are some very good contenders in the gpl world. ie: sugarcrm 
see sourceforge. As always IMHO there needs to be a balance in terms of 
feature enhancements between what is needed (ie: customer requirements) 
and what is desired (ie: cool features and additions) Hence I set the 
original question in that context. On the positive side, asterisk does 
come with a call tracker and reportisng function via logs..:)

> Dial Out appears simple: What the user wants is for his phone to dial 
> the number he clicks on.  It should be comparatively simple to do, if 
> the CTI plugin is available, and there's a link between the logged in 
> user and his phone.  This should work fine with the web based interface, 
> I would think, essentially entirely on the server (or servers.)

Agreed. Then next step is to figure out the interation with asterisk.

> Dial In is complicated in the web interface, I think, as there would 
> have to be a way to pop up a new window (or refresh the window he's 
> looking at) showing the caller's information... how do you do that with 
> a browser?  Seems like some special client software would be necessary.
> 
> So, at the least, Asterisk integration should be a CTI plug in that uses 
> whatever protocols Asterisk is using to to a 'dial out' on the logged in 
> user's phone when they click on the dial button.

Yup.


> I'm not sure how the dial-in should be done... how does the current Ogo 
> CTI plugin handle this?

No idea but helge pasted the URL in the post above.

> Of course, the other things that a CTI solution might offer would be 
> reporting on call time (handled completely by Asterisk or equivalent) or 
> handling group rings with timing and notifications... probably also 
> handled completely by Asterisk, not Ogo.

regards

/ch

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