Topic: SAIL - suggestion for improvement

[arne]

At the moment I do not use the SAIL configuration environment, but I have tested it a little bit .. if my question shuold apear to be a result of to little testing, please bear over with me ..

One thing with configuration tools like asterisk@home is that it makes it a lot more easy to get started with Asterisk. On the other hand the Astersik@home is extremly complex, compared with what is realy required to do the same job. Because of this trobleshooting can be rather diffcult when things start to go wrong.

It looks for me like the SAIL installation is qute much "thinner" than the Asterisk@home and that it fits much bether with the SME design than the Asterisk@home@sme server installation.

Configuration tools in general makes it more easy to get started, but on the other hand they also usually will make some resrictions, and also in the end make things actually more difficult to unerstand.

Like the content of the extensions.conf, the dialplan, it's something betwen a configuration file and an extremely powerfull programming or scripting language.

And now the question:

Could it be possible to just make an include statement int the SAIL configuration files, at least extensions.conf, sip.conf and iax.conf in such a way that there will exist an option to include manual configuration and scripting, lets say something like a extensions_custom.conf file that is edited manually only.

In this way the users could chose how much automated and how much manual configuration they want, and I think the natural way to start up will some times be with an all over automated configuration, and then later on more manually edited things, scripting, etc.

Just some ideas .. and once more .. exuse me if this oportunity is alredy there and if I id not test it well enough to notice or discover that.

Best reg Arne.

[WillKemp]

Could it be possible to just make an include statement int the SAIL configuration files, at least extensions.conf, sip.conf and iax.conf in such a way that there will exist an option to include manual configuration and scripting, lets say something like a extensions_custom.conf file that is edited manually only.

You certainly could do that, but you don't need to. The "Custom Apps" section in the SAIL config system allows you to do exactly what you want to do. It effectively gives you a tool to write whatever you like in raw extensions.conf language and include it in the dialplan.

The advantage of doing it that way, rather than having an include statement (which you could do as a "custom app") is that it's then part of the SAIL configs and will be backed up when you back the SME config up and will be kept intact when you upgrade the system.

[JonB]

There is one proviso with using the Custom Apps in SAIL. You cannot use the pipe symbol |

The custom app is stored in the database and the database is pipe delimited.

Code: [Select]

exten => s,5,DISA(no-password|internal)

will not work and really screws the database entry for that custom app as I found out the hard way  

Jon

[WillKemp]

There is one proviso with using the Custom Apps in SAIL. You cannot use the pipe symbol |

There needs to be a way to escape the pipe in the DB then, ey?

I guess, if you needed to use it, then that would be one situation where you'd have to use an include statement.

Will

[JonB]

Ok, just found the answer. Arguments can be seperated with pipe | or comma ,

Jon

[SARK devs]

Hi guys.  

As JonB says, we can't use the pipe delimiter because the sme database doesn't allow it.  We can't use newline characters either so we had a hell of a job fiddling the freeform edits for sip.conf etc.   Turns out, it's also the reason why the Pennytel definition is jiggered.  There's a little bug in the SME DB code that doesn't always return the very last physical scalar in a tuple.  (We've fixed it in the next out). We're thinking very seriously about dropping the SME DB and going to an ODBC driver - thoughts? comments?

On the subject of sip and iax .conf files Arne, you can put anything you like in them as well.  Simply open the relevent header file (in headers) and append whatever you like, including peer and user stanzas if you wish.  

Best

Selintra

[WillKemp]

On the subject of sip and iax .conf files Arne, you can put anything you like in them as well.  Simply open the relevent header file (in headers) and append whatever you like, including peer and user stanzas if you wish.

Ah. On that subject... It might be useful to have an editable extensions.conf header in the headers list - or maybe just some freeform space in Global Settings. The reason it would be handy is to allow the setting of global variables for extensions.conf - for use in Custom Apps scripts. It would probably be useful for other things too, i guess.

Will

[SARK devs]

Nice one.

No reason why not.  We don't really use Globals much (we only have three) and one of them is for OTR.

We're also toying with the idea of just exposing every .conf file we don't actually manage in headers and having done with it.   Then you can go anywhere in Asterisk and do what you like.

[WillKemp]

We're thinking very seriously about dropping the SME DB and going to an ODBC driver - thoughts? comments?

If that would speed up saving the config from the control panel, i certainly think it's a good idea.

The only drawback i can think of is the lack of a simple text file to grep through when you're trying to find something - either if you've forgotten where it is, or if you're trying to find something out that's not well documented.

We're also toying with the idea of just exposing every .conf file we don't actually manage in headers and having done with it.   Then you can go anywhere in Asterisk and do what you like.

That couldn't be a bad thing. After all, if they're there, chances are someone will want to edit them. And the less messing around with text file templates, the better.

Will