Sherwood, Your intentions are noble and your desire to build this, fullfills an immediate need for business.
If your intention is just to build a GUI for Asterisk, read no further. If your desire is to build something more purposeful, your best bet would be to see the existing commercial GUI/HostedPBX offerings like Pbxware and Switchware from bicomsystems.com ( http://www.bicomsystems.com) and Thirdlane Technologies (http://www.thirdlane.com/opensource.htm) and the Open Source software like AMP and try to emulate (or preferably improve upon) them. My suggestion is to create a "VOIP Business in a Box System" that has inter-alia following list of modules: 1) GUI To configure Administer Asterisk Extensions across many servers 2) Postpaid and Prepaid Billing modules with realtime call progress detection and call cut-off 3)CRM Module for customers to register and provide their information for recurring billing. 4)Web based conference room management module 5)Web based click to dial and callback module Many of these modules are already available on Open Source like SugarCRM, AsreskiCC etc., and [EMAIL PROTECTED] CD contains AMP and SugarCRM at this time, besides other Open Source utilities like PhpMyAdmin. Here is the bottomline: ---------------------- The real need is for a commercially deployable solution that can create a business, without too many additions to it. Bicom Systems has promised for too long that their Pbxware and Switchware can fullfill this need to create a business, but they never deliverd their promise. PBXware and Switchware have been a total and expensive disappointment to me and for the few who invested in them. The story is similar with Thirdlane Technologies who promised a good Asterisk Management Interface but they have not been able to deliver a mature GUI to manage Asterisk, let alone deploying a Hosted PBX. AMP fullfills this promise partially and I am impressed with it's richness of features, to create a Open Source Hosted PBX where you don't need to bill the customer. AreskiCC Provides a module to run a Calling Card Business but not as a Hosted PBX . AMP Gives a nice Gui and can be used as a Corporate PBX but not as a Commercial Hosted PBX as it does not have a billing system. In summary a system that is a blend of AMP + AreskiCC + SugarCRM would be a good mix of ingredients to build what I would call a "Business in a Box" solution. There is money to make in such solutions. The Business in a box solution could be any one of the following, with the ingredient modules being varied. 1)Asterisk Calling Card Business in a Box 2)Asterisk Call Center Business in a Box 3)Asterisk Business Messaging Business in a Box 4)Asterisk Hosted Telephone and PBX business in a Box Etc etc. My .02 cents on this. Seshu Kanuri -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sherwood McGowan Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 9:02 AM To: 'Matt Florell'; 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion' Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Features you'd like to see in a GUI? ->Is this going to be a configuration utility or an end-user utility? Both, there will eventually be functionality for per-user permissions, however right now this is for the administrator to add/remove "accounts" in SIP and IAX, eventually other trunks, voicemail configurations, per user configuration of options, etc...think Asterisk @ Home's combination of tools, all in one place. Perhaps it would be better to show what's going on already, here's what I have currently working in my employer's system (an ITSP): Editing of individual extensions/trunks in SIP and IAX Voicemail Account / Option Editing CDR Searching Provisioning File Editing for devices User configuration editing (extra table setup for Account options) Account Management (Using SIP for end user accounts, interface merges voicemail, sip, provisioning, and user options on one page) System Statistics (concurrent calls, channels, memory usage, load, etc...) Current future plans: Specific SIP/IAX Channel Information Allowing dropping of a channel (this is due to the occasional need for dropping hung channels, which can really rack up fees on a system) SIP PRUNE REALTIME PEER <number> SIP SHOW PEER <number> [load] The above two options for IAX as well. Voicemail Greetings webinterface (not hard, just not finished yet) Voicemail Webinterface (really fairly easy, just not done) Extensions.conf editing Logging Interface Log viewing & Management As you can see, this is a fairly indepth project. Until I actually had to use Asterisk on a large scale (1000+ concurrent users), I hadn't thought of a lot of these features. The more I use it the more I come across little things that would be really useful. Thanks to Digium for offering the commandline option "asterisk -rx commandtoexecute"! Aside from these planned features, are there any other arcane options that you'd like to see? I'm definitely trying to get as many of the CLI commands implemented in one way or another, as many users don't want to sit in the CLI and watch verbose output, while admins such as myself need to be able to watch progression of calls. Thanks again, Sherwood McGowan ARTCP Developer _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users -------------------------------------------------------- NOTICE: If received in error, please destroy and notify sender. Sender does not waive confidentiality or privilege, and use is prohibited. _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users