asterisk users - Nov 2004 - Possible to display which extensions are in use on the phone's display?

Hi all, 
 
We're considering using Asterisk in our small (8 user)
office.  There is one feature that we have on our
current phone system that I haven't seen in the
documentation that I've read that I'd like to be able
to replicate with Asterisk.
 
On our current phones (Iwatsu) we have a button on the
phones for each extension that lights up when that
extension is ringing or is in a call, so I can see at
a glance if one of my coworkers is on the phone before
I go barging into his office.  Also, if I am in a
coworker's office and my phone rings, I can hit my
extension button on his phone and answer the call.  
 
Can this functionality be reproduced by Asterisk, and
if so, which SIP handsets would you suggest using to
do something like this?  Right now, I'm looking at the
Cisco 7960, but I'm open to other options.
 
Thanks for your help,
 
Richard




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Hi Richard,

Richard Hansberry wrote:
> Hi all, 
>  
> We're considering using Asterisk in our small (8 user)
> office.  There is one feature that we have on our
> current phone system that I haven't seen in the
> documentation that I've read that I'd like to be able
> to replicate with Asterisk.
>  
> On our current phones (Iwatsu) we have a button on the
> phones for each extension that lights up when that
> extension is ringing or is in a call, so I can see at
> a glance if one of my coworkers is on the phone before
> I go barging into his office.  Also, if I am in a
> coworker's office and my phone rings, I can hit my
> extension button on his phone and answer the call.  
>  
> Can this functionality be reproduced by Asterisk, and
> if so, which SIP handsets would you suggest using to
> do something like this?  Right now, I'm looking at the
> Cisco 7960, but I'm open to other options.
This question was dealt with in a recent thread. What it comes down to 
is a paradigm shift from a key system unit (which is what you describe) 
to a PBX.

You can use an application like Flash Operator Panel 
(http://www.asternic.org/) in conjunction with Asterisk to see who is on 
their phone (extension).

Regards,

-- 
Jason Becker
Director & CEO
Coalescent Systems Inc.
403.244.8089
www.coalescentsystems.ca

We had the same with our old phone system, I replaced it be adding a little 
panel in our web based support system that shows extension status, call 
duration, etc. I used an iframe that refreshes every 5 seconds, I wrote a 
script in python that generates the data by watching the Asterisk Manager. 
I'm also using the Simple Manager Proxy to proxy the manager connections. 
This is only practical is your users all sit in front of PC's. If a web
based
application won't work, you could probably write a simple app to run in the 
systray of the various PC's that displays line/extension status.

Pete

On Wednesday 17 November 2004 12:45, Richard Hansberry
wrote:
> Hi all,
> ?
> We're considering using Asterisk in our small (8 user)
> office.??There is one?feature that we have on our
> current phone system that I haven't seen in the
> documentation that I've read that I'd like to be able
> to replicate with Asterisk.
> ?
> On our current phones (Iwatsu) we have a button on the
> phones for each extension that lights up when that
> extension is ringing or is in a call, so I can see at
> a glance if one of my coworkers is on the phone before
> I go barging into his office.? Also, if I am in a
> coworker's office and my phone rings, I can hit my
> extension button on his phone and answer the call.?
> ?
> Can this functionality be reproduced by Asterisk, and
> if so, which SIP handsets would you suggest using to
> do something like this?? Right now, I'm looking at the
> Cisco 7960, but I'm open to other options.
> ?
> Thanks for your help,
> ?
> Richard
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
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> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
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> We're considering using Asterisk in our small (8 user)
> office.??There is one?feature that we have on our
> current phone system that I haven't seen in the
> documentation that I've read that I'd like to be able
> to replicate with Asterisk.
> ?
> On our current phones (Iwatsu) we have a button on the
> phones for each extension that lights up when that
> extension is ringing or is in a call, so I can see at
> a glance if one of my coworkers is on the phone before
> I go barging into his office.? Also, if I am in a
> coworker's office and my phone rings, I can hit my
> extension button on his phone and answer the call.?
> ?
> Can this functionality be reproduced by Asterisk, and
> if so, which SIP handsets would you suggest using to
> do something like this?? Right now, I'm looking at the
> Cisco 7960, but I'm open to other options.
This seems to be a popular request these days.  Most places I've seen  
call this "shared lines" I thought this was impossible with Asterisk,
but somebody kindly pointed me toward the hint() priority as outlined  
in this older post to this mailing list:

http://www.mail-archive.com/asterisk-users@lists.digium.com/ 
msg49781.html

I understand that this only works with the Snom phones (190/200/220).

I Hope that helps.

Thanks,
Noah

> From: Steven Critchfield <critch@basesys.com>
> On Wed, 2004-11-17 at 11:49 -0800, Tracy R Reed wrote:
>> On Wed, Nov 17, 2004 at 01:13:57PM -0500, Noah Miller spake thusly:
>>>> On our current phones (Iwatsu) we have a button on the phones
for
>>>> each extension that lights up when that
>>> 
>>> This seems to be a popular request these days.  Most places
I've
>>> seen call this "shared lines" I thought this was
impossible with
>>> Asterisk,
>> 
>> And it seems to be something the developers are not interested in
>> supporting. Whenever someone asks about this feature they are
>> normally told that this is a feature of small-office "key"
systems
>> and that Asterisk has its sights set on bigger systems so this
>> functionality is not pursued.
> 
> Correct, it isn't on a list for TODO as it doesn't scale to
> the size of an average office. Also it is only supported via
> some SIP phones and proprietary digital key set phones for
> which we will not get access to the supporting cards. So time
> is much better spent aiming for something that can be attained. --
> Steven Critchfield <critch@basesys.com>
> 
If you want to talk about features, scaling, etc., we should look what
the big commercial VoIP systems are offering.  The one that I have
experience with is Cisco's Call Manager.  We used shared call
appearances to allow our secretaries (excuse me, Administrative
Assistants) to catch their boss's calls and screen them, if they were
there.  While the "lines" were not available to everybody, shared
appearances were a very highly sought-after feature.

I agree with Steven about not spending a lot of time to make things work
with proprietary stuff.  When standards are closed, there is no
guarantee they won't change overnight with the next firmware release,
and therefore all of the code wasted.  But not all ways of handling
shared call appearances are proprietary.  

According to the Polycom IP manual, the SUBSCRIBE-NOTIFY method (RFC
3265) is supported on the phone.  Using the "hint" alluded to before,
it
appears that it should allow multiple phones to view the state
("call-info" bit for call appearance state notification).  All that
remains unknown (to me at least) is if the button can be used to take
over the conversation (the "line-seize" part to ask to seize the
line).
For references on this, refer to the Polycom SIP Administrator Guide v.
1.3.0, pages 31,135,111,113,117-8.

If these features are already implemented, then we need to let everyone
know.  I think this might be the "right way" to give the features
people
are requesting while still preserving scalability.  In big systems, each
extension would be, well, an extension.  If someone wanted Asterisk to
act like a key system, then lines and extensions would have a one-to-one
correspondence, with a shared appearance on all phones.  A happy medium.

Thoughts?