Asterisk, the open source telephone PBX, has released a beta test of version 1.4. One of the most interesting features of this release is the ability to use an IMAP server for voicemail storage. Being a long time user of both Courier and Asterisk it is my hope they will interoperate.
The reason the beta is out, of course, is so we can find out what does and doesn't work. If Asterisk will need changes to work with Courier I would like to provide them that feed back as soon as possible, and/or submit the patches myself. Rather than trying to summarize the documentation here, I have attached it. There isn't much. The Asterisk developers are using the UW C-Client software to access the IMAP server. It makes sense for them to not write their own IMAP client. The question becomes how well C-Client and Courier-IMAP work together. The two issues that are apparent to me are authentication and mailbox format. The current design apparently has Asterisk authenticate to IMAP with a userid and password that can read and write everybody's mailbox. I don't like that, and I am not sure it is even possible. There is a mention of avoiding that using Kerberos. The other thing is they are quite insistent that you must use a particular mailbox format. I think the real issue is having a mechanism that allows granular locking. It doesn't seem to me that an IMAP client has any business worrying about how the IMAP server stores its messages. In the next few days I hope to do some testing and be able to report more specific issues. Here is the read me: ====================== IMAP Voicemail Storage ====================== 03-01-2006 - James Rothenberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> By enabling IMAP Storage, Asterisk will use native IMAP as the storage mechanism for voicemail messages instead of using the standard file structure. Tighter integration of Asterisk voicemail and IMAP email services allows additional voicemail functionality, including: - Listening to a voicemail on the phone will set its state to "read" in a user's mailbox automatically. - Deleting a voicemail on the phone will delete it from the user's mailbox automatically. - Accessing a voicemail recording email message will turn off the message waiting indicator (MWI) on the user's phone. - Deleting a voicemail recording email will also turn off the message waiting indicator, and delete the message from the voicemail system. ===================== Contents of this file ===================== - Installation Notes - Separate vs. Shared Email Accounts - IMAP Server Implementations - Quota Support - Application Notes - Known Issues ================== Installation Notes ================== -------------------------------------- University of Washington IMAP C-Client -------------------------------------- You will need a source distribution of University of Washington's IMAP c-client (http://www.washington.edu/imap/). Asterisk supports both the 2004 and 2006 versions of c-client, however mail_expunge_full is enabled in the 2006 version. You will want to make the appropriate changes to the c-client Makefile, for instance: EXTRAAUTHENTICATORS=gss EXTRADRIVERS=mbox In src/osdep/unix/Makefile, set CREATEPROTO to mbxproto. This is done to utilize mbx mailbox format (see below). Compile c-client and verify that a c-client.a file has been generated. ------------------ Compiling Asterisk ------------------ Configure with ./configure --with-imap=/usr/src/imap or where ever you built the University of Washington IMAP C-Client. Then make menuselect go to voicemail options and check the imap box then make, make install and asterisk will have imap storage support for voicemail. --------------------- Modify voicemail.conf --------------------- The following directives have been added to voicemail.conf: imapserver=<name or IP address of IMAP mail server> imapport=<IMAP port, defaults to 143> imapflags=<IMAP flags, "novalidate-cert" for example> expungeonhangup=<yes or no> authuser=<username> authpassword=<password> The "expungeonhangup" flag is used to determine if the voicemail system should expunge all messages marked for deletion when the user hangs up the phone. Each mailbox definition should also have imapuser=<imap username>. For example: 4123=>4123,James Rothenberger,[EMAIL PROTECTED],,attach=yes|imapuser=jar The directives "authuser" and "authpassword" are not needed when using Kerberos. They are defined to allow Asterisk to authenticate as a single user that has access to all mailboxes as an alternative to Kerberos. -------------- Mailbox Format -------------- Mailboxes should use the "mbx" mailbox format. The "mbox" format does not support concurrent access to mailboxes, which can cause deadlock or strange behaviors. You can convert mailboxes from mbox to mbx using mailutil: mailutil copy INBOX #driver.mbx/INBOX -------------- IMAP Folders -------------- Besides INBOX, users should create "Old", "Work", "Family" and "Friends" IMAP folders at the same level of hierarchy as the INBOX. These will be used as alternate folders for storing voicemail messages to mimic the behavior of the current (file-based) voicemail system. ================================== Separate vs. Shared Email Accounts ================================== As administrator you will have to decide if you want to send the voicemail messages to a separate IMAP account or use each user's existing IMAP mailbox for voicemail storage. The IMAP storage mechanism will work either way. By implementing a single IMAP mailbox, the user will see voicemail messages appear in the same INBOX as other messages. The disadvantage of this method is that if the IMAP server does NOT support UIDPLUS, Asterisk voicemail will expunge ALL messages marked for deletion when the user exits the voicemail system, not just the VOICEMAIL messages marked for deletion. By implementing separate IMAP mailboxes for voicemail and email, voicemail expunges will not remove regular email flagged for deletion. =========================== IMAP Server Implementations =========================== There are various IMAP server implementations, each supports a potentially different set of features. ----------------------- UW IMAP-2005 or earlier ----------------------- UIDPLUS is currently NOT supported on these versions of UW-IMAP. Please note that without UID_EXPUNGE, Asterisk voicemail will expunge ALL messages marked for deletion when a user exits the voicemail system (hangs up the phone). ------------------------------- UW IMAP-2006 Development Branch ------------------------------- This version supports UIDPLUS, which allows UID_EXPUNGE capabilities. This feature allow the system to expunge ONLY pertinent messages, instead of the default behavior, which is to expunge ALL messages marked for deletion when EXPUNGE is called. The IMAP storage mechanism is this version of Asterisk will check if the UID_EXPUNGE feature is supported by the server, and use it if possible. ---------- Cyrus IMAP ---------- Cyrus IMAP server v2.3.3 has been tested using a hierarchy delimiter of '/'. ============= Quota Support ============= If the IMAP server supports quotas, Asterisk will check the quota when accessing voicemail. Currently only a warning is given to the user that their quota is exceeded. ================= Application Notes ================= Since the primary storage mechanism is IMAP, all message information that was previously stored in an associated text file, AND the recording itself, is now stored in a single email message. This means that the .gsm recording will ALWAYS be attached to the message (along with the user's preference of recording format if different - ie. .WAV). The voicemail message information is stored in the email message headers. These headers include: X-Asterisk-VM-Message-Num X-Asterisk-VM-Server-Name X-Asterisk-VM-Context X-Asterisk-VM-Extension X-Asterisk-VM-Priority X-Asterisk-VM-Caller-channel X-Asterisk-VM-Caller-ID-Num X-Asterisk-VM-Caller-ID-Name X-Asterisk-VM-Duration X-Asterisk-VM-Category X-Asterisk-VM-Orig-date X-Asterisk-VM-Orig-time ================= Known Issues ================= - Forward With Comment advanced option is not currently supported. This feature will be added in the near future. - Message Waiting Indicator blinks off and back on when a message arrives. This should be fixed soon. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. 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