Hello list. I posted this over on the Biz section but some of the members thought I might find more people running Asterisk on the Mac over here. Here's my question: I have looked at PHLink and PhoneValet and neither seem to be able to do what I need, so I am looking at Asterisk. What I want to do is allow callers to call a our phone line and unsubscribe their phone number from our call center list. So, basically, when they call in, they would be greeted with a message something like: "please enter your 10 digit phone number followed by the pound sign". They would then have the number read back to them to confirm it or reenter it. Once confirmed, it would write the phone number to a text file for importing into MySQL or FileMaker. Is what I am trying to accomplish within the realm of what Asterisk can do on the Mac platform... or any platform... and if so, how difficult of an install is it? I have read varying accounts from it being a breeze to being frustrating. I have already been told I can do this via both caller id and via number entry by touch tone, my question is, are there currently any users who are doing the above on a Mac or should I only consider Linux? Also is there a GUI frontend to Asterisk for the Mac version? TIA --Rick
On Thu, 23 Apr 2009, Rick Dwyer wrote:> What I want to do is allow callers to call a our phone line and > unsubscribe their phone number from our call center list. So, > basically, when they call in, they would be greeted with a message > something like: "please enter your 10 digit phone number followed by the > pound sign". They would then have the number read back to them to > confirm it or reenter it. Once confirmed, it would write the phone > number to a text file for importing into MySQL or FileMaker.Piece of cake -- use Read() and SayDigits(). Any reason you don't want to write the number directly to the database? Any interest in looking up the number in the database so they know if they are entering a subscribed number? How will you keep a disgruntled customer or employee from un-subscribing other customers?> Is what I am trying to accomplish within the realm of what Asterisk can > do on the Mac platform... or any platform... and if so, how difficult of > an install is it? I have read varying accounts from it being a breeze > to being frustrating.It depends on the skills of the installer. I prefer to install from source but a lot of people depend on RPM or DEB packages or just use a "boot & nuke" approach with PIAF or something similar.> I have already been told I can do this via both caller id and via number > entry by touch tone, my question is, are there currently any users who > are doing the above on a Mac or should I only consider Linux?Asterisk is developed on Linux. Most users run on Linux. You will have fewer problems on Linux. Can you run Linux on your Mac? (I mean booting Linux, not VMWare or Parallels). Thanks in advance, ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Steve Edwards sedwards at sedwards.com Voice: +1-760-468-3867 PST Newline Fax: +1-760-731-3000
On Apr 23, 2009, at 3:14 PM, Rick Dwyer wrote:> Hello list. > I posted this over on the Biz section but some of the members thought > I might find more people running Asterisk on the Mac over here. > > Here's my question: > > > I have looked at PHLink and PhoneValet and neither seem to be able to > do what I need, so I am looking at Asterisk. > > What I want to do is allow callers to call a our phone line and > unsubscribe their phone number from our call center list. So, > basically, when they call in, they would be greeted with a message > something like: "please enter your 10 digit phone number followed by > the pound sign". They would then have the number read back to them to > confirm it or reenter it. Once confirmed, it would write the phone > number to a text file for importing into MySQL or FileMaker. > > Is what I am trying to accomplish within the realm of what Asterisk > can do on the Mac platform... or any platform... and if so, how > difficult of an install is it? I have read varying accounts from it > being a breeze to being frustrating.The main distinction between running Asterisk on Linux as opposed to OSX, is that you'll have access to hardware device drivers. If you're going to be using a SIP/IAX Trunk, then you'll be just fine on OSX. What your attempting to do falls closer to the category of "breeze". You can install the asterisk-addon package to handle your SQL queries from within the dialplan, or you can use AGI to have a perl or php script do that work. Niles