This post spurred off of the comment of Michael Collins on the Asterisk with PABX thread. I am going to post the relevant information here: "I started w/ AAH, then went back and learned the dialplan apps, scripting, etc. For some guys like me, it's easier to start with a working (if limited) system, and then tinker with it, break it, etc. After breaking a few systems I then went back and did a vanilla install to learn some more. I ended up settling on a compromise: I load Trixbox and then make a bunch of manual mods. I get the best of both worlds - a system that has all of the prereqs loaded for me, plus a GUI for stuff that I don't want to do a cmd line and also the power and flexibility of hand-editing my .conf files to get exactly what I want out of the dialplan. For those wondering how to get started, I can highly recommend STARTING with Trixbox, but definitely don't STOP with Trixbox. After you play with a pre-installed, working system, go out and get your hands dirty on a plain install. You'll be better off for it in the long run. Having both GUI and cmd line experience will make you a well-rounded Asterisk user. -MC I started w/ AAH, then went back and learned the dialplan apps, scripting, etc. For some guys like me, it's easier to start with a working (if limited) system, and then tinker with it, break it, etc. After breaking a few systems I then went back and did a vanilla install to learn some more. I ended up settling on a compromise: I load Trixbox and then make a bunch of manual mods. I get the best of both worlds - a system that has all of the prereqs loaded for me, plus a GUI for stuff that I don't want to do a cmd line and also the power and flexibility of hand-editing my .conf files to get exactly what I want out of the dialplan. For those wondering how to get started, I can highly recommend STARTING with Trixbox, but definitely don't STOP with Trixbox. After you play with a pre-installed, working system, go out and get your hands dirty on a plain install. You'll be better off for it in the long run. Having both GUI and cmd line experience will make you a well-rounded Asterisk user. -MC" My question to everyone is this...This is where I am at now. I have been using FreePBX for about a year, after moving from A@H. I am starting to need some manual changes and modules. My question is can anyone point me in a direction on how to learn how to create these. I read the O'Riley book and thumbed though some of the others, although I plan on reading them all the way through as time permits. I guess my question is where do I add these things. I would still like to use FreePBX because it just saves a ton of coding but I want to add my own things too. Do I put them in the *_additional configs (which appear to be written over by freePBX), the .conf files or the features.conf? Any web links with beginner how to's or more info on this would be appreciated as well! I didn't want to cross post ;) Thanks Curt -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20060828/bbf0a2a9/attachment.htm
You'll want to put them in the _additional.conf files, because AAH/TB/FPBX doesn't always play nice with changes to the configuration files that it modifies directly. Rushowr / SKM _____ From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Curt Shaffer Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 2:54 PM To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion' Subject: [asterisk-users] manual mods with GUI in place This post spurred off of the comment of Michael Collins on the Asterisk with PABX thread. I am going to post the relevant information here: "I started w/ AAH, then went back and learned the dialplan apps, scripting, etc. For some guys like me, it's easier to start with a working (if limited) system, and then tinker with it, break it, etc. After breaking a few systems I then went back and did a vanilla install to learn some more. I ended up settling on a compromise: I load Trixbox and then make a bunch of manual mods. I get the best of both worlds - a system that has all of the prereqs loaded for me, plus a GUI for stuff that I don't want to do a cmd line and also the power and flexibility of hand-editing my .conf files to get exactly what I want out of the dialplan. For those wondering how to get started, I can highly recommend STARTING with Trixbox, but definitely don't STOP with Trixbox. After you play with a pre-installed, working system, go out and get your hands dirty on a plain install. You'll be better off for it in the long run. Having both GUI and cmd line experience will make you a well-rounded Asterisk user. -MC I started w/ AAH, then went back and learned the dialplan apps, scripting, etc. For some guys like me, it's easier to start with a working (if limited) system, and then tinker with it, break it, etc. After breaking a few systems I then went back and did a vanilla install to learn some more. I ended up settling on a compromise: I load Trixbox and then make a bunch of manual mods. I get the best of both worlds - a system that has all of the prereqs loaded for me, plus a GUI for stuff that I don't want to do a cmd line and also the power and flexibility of hand-editing my .conf files to get exactly what I want out of the dialplan. For those wondering how to get started, I can highly recommend STARTING with Trixbox, but definitely don't STOP with Trixbox. After you play with a pre-installed, working system, go out and get your hands dirty on a plain install. You'll be better off for it in the long run. Having both GUI and cmd line experience will make you a well-rounded Asterisk user. -MC" My question to everyone is this...This is where I am at now. I have been using FreePBX for about a year, after moving from A@H. I am starting to need some manual changes and modules. My question is can anyone point me in a direction on how to learn how to create these. I read the O'Riley book and thumbed though some of the others, although I plan on reading them all the way through as time permits. I guess my question is where do I add these things. I would still like to use FreePBX because it just saves a ton of coding but I want to add my own things too. Do I put them in the *_additional configs (which appear to be written over by freePBX), the .conf files or the features.conf? Any web links with beginner how to's or more info on this would be appreciated as well! I didn't want to cross post ;) Thanks Curt -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20060828/c4587ce5/attachment.htm
My question to everyone is this.....This is where I am at now. I have been using FreePBX for about a year, after moving from A@H. I am starting to need some manual changes and modules. My question is can anyone point me in a direction on how to learn how to create these. I read the O'Riley book and thumbed though some of the others, although I plan on reading them all the way through as time permits. I guess my question is where do I add these things. I would still like to use FreePBX because it just saves a ton of coding but I want to add my own things too. Do I put them in the *_additional configs (which appear to be written over by freePBX), the .conf files or the features.conf? Any web links with beginner how to's or more info on this would be appreciated as well! I didn't want to cross post ;) Thanks Curt Curt, First things first - I frequently use the FreePBX editor: Logon to your system, then click FreePBX Administration > Tools > Config Edit You get a nice web-based page where you can bounce around to view and edit all of your config files in /etc and /etc/asterisk Occasionally I am at the Linux cmd line and I use vi, but that is rare. As far as where to start adding your changes, my personal experience is to use the extensions_custom.conf file. This lets me keep "my stuff" separate from the vanilla install. However, I have made mods to the actual AMP settings to suite my tastes and needs, and for this I did modify extensions.conf. (I keep a backup copy of all of my configs, as I'm sure that most of the * users do.) I've also created completely separate conf files and #included them. Again, this keeps things organized. You can use the #include directive with many of the conf files - gurus, please add any known caveats as I've only used #include for Zapata.conf, extension.conf and sip.conf. As far as how-to's, again I can speak only from experience. There are many how-to's out there, but they are usually pretty specific, so you'll probably want to decided WHAT, before you can find a HOW-TO. HtH! -MC -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20060828/129cb725/attachment.htm
On Mon, Aug 28, 2006 at 02:53:47PM -0400, Curt Shaffer wrote:> This post spurred off of the comment of Michael Collins on the Asterisk with > PABX thread. I am going to post the relevant information here: > > > > "I started w/ AAH, then went back and learned the dialplan apps, scripting, > etc. For some guys like me, it's easier to start with a working (if > limited) system, and then tinker with it, break it, etc.People here write "Asterisk GUI" and refer to Amporal/FreePBX . Amportal/FreePBX may have a horribly-complex dialpan, but this is not necessarily true for any Asterisk GUI. DeStar, for once, generates a rather simple and minimal configuration. Sometimes too minimal (modules.conf has an explicit list of modules). I'm not familiar enough with other Asterisk GUIs. Note that some Asterisk GUIs are basically "glorified editors" and won't help much abstracting away the rough part of /etc/asterisk . -- Tzafrir Cohen sip:tzafrir@local.xorcom.com icq#16849755 iax:tzafrir@local.xorcom.com +972-50-7952406 jabber:tzafrir@jabber.org tzafrir.cohen@xorcom.com http://www.xorcom.com