asterisk users - Oct 2004 - analog callerid private/out-of-area/...

Hello again,

Right now, I have two phone systems sitting side by side.  One is legacy 
pbx that we are in the process of replacing.  Everything is going ok so 
far, except for one interesting thing.  I say this because I get such 
interesting information from watching both systems interpret callerid.

See the chart below for a quick rundown of what I get... (forgive my 
ascii art skills).  What I want to understand, is why my legacy pbx can 
detect the difference between scenario 2 and scenario 4?  Asterisk 
doesn't show anything in any of the variables.

  A | B | C  | D | E | Scenario ID
===+===+====+===+===+===========      #   #    #   O   1
               O       2
  N   #   N#   #   N   3
               P       4

Legend:

A is ${CALLERIDNAME} inside asterisk
B is ${CALLERIDNUM} inside asterisk
C is ${CALLERID} inside asterisk
D is legacy pbx number display line
E is legacy pbx name display line

# is a 'valid' phone number
N is a 'valid' name
N# is a 'valid' name + number (only for ${CALLERID} inside asterisk)
O is 'Out-Of-Area' or similar
P is 'Private'


[puts on geek cap]

The only thing I can determine, after looking at the callerid code, is 
that - and this is a really wild guess - asterisk is _incorrectly_ 
stripping anything but numbers out of the callerid number field.  This 
field is where my legacy pbx places 'Out-Of-Area' or 'Private',
but for
calls where all callerid fields inside asterisk were blank.

I haven't read the callerid spec, but if my memory serves me from 
previous times when I've tried hacking with other callerid parsers, they 
did not throw away *anything* received in callerid.  If the spec says 
you should, and asterisk follows the spec, great, I'll shut up, but 
otherwise, why is asterisk stripping the number down to only numbers?

[puts on sleepy programmer dunce cap]

I know asterisk strips the callerid number down to only numbers so that 
callerid is easier to use inside the diaplan, but couldn't we also have 
the 'non-striptease' version available?  Or am I just being stupid and 
needing to be walloped with the clue stick again? ;P


Thanks,
Chris

-- 
Christopher L. Wade                     Unistar-Sparco Computers, Inc.
Senior Systems Administrator                            dba Sparco.com
Email: clwade@sparco.com                             7089 Ryburn Drive
Phone: (901) 872 2272 / (800) 840 8400            Millington, TN 38053
Fax:   (901) 872 8482                                              USA