…I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making ships.
This chapter introduces the components that comprise the GUI and help it work with Asterisk. It describes the installation of the web server and the GUI components for those who are not using the AsteriskNOW distribution. It also shows you how to modify the GUI to suit your purposes. Technical information is also provided so that developers wishing to create their own GUI or application can utilize the web server and GUI components. We’d like to thank the folks at Digium for writing this chapter, especially the code examples, which they developed and tested.
Since the beginning, Asterisk has been a phone system for the brave. In the early days it took guts and more than a bit of tenacity to make Asterisk do your bidding. Those willing to accept the learning curve, wade into the config files, and fight for their calls were rewarded with a powerful, flexible phone system (as well as a very marketable skill set). However, the mass market was not, and is not, ready to script extensions, manage peers, and handle the other tasks that are the crux of Asterisk administration.
Since the early pre-1.0 days, people have tried to tame the mighty Asterisk with config file generators tied to databases and managed via a range of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The most successful of these did a fine job of creating an Asterisk-based application, but none of them provided the full flexibility that the raw scripting environment offers. By replacing the digital haiku of the dialplan with a limited list of options, the resulting system is reduced from Asterisk to an Asterisk-based system. Not a bad thing, but not the whole enchilada.[129]
In order for a GUI to be the Asterisk GUI, it would have to leave intact the manually scripted configuration files that have been the lingua franca of Asterisk since the dawn of time. It would have to provide a simple, graphical means of configuration without compromising the underlying Asterisk software or irrevocably fixing decisions that should be left open to the end user. It would also have to provide advanced functionality without taxing the computer or stealing valuable resources from the core goal of processing calls.
Coinciding with the release of Asterisk 1.4, Digium launched the Asterisk GUI project. The GUI was originally conceived as a component of Digium’s Asterisk embedded appliance. The appliance, sold as the Asterisk Appliance Developers Kit (AADK) as well as in a standalone configuration, is a small, solid-state Linux computer with optional analog (and potentially digital) interfaces. The GUI was built using a flexible and expandable framework that placed as much of the display and validation logic as possible on the client computer. It also took into consideration the need to preserve handwritten config files while providing an automated means of editing them. The resulting framework is known as AJAM (a play on the popular “Web 2.0” technology known as Ajax), which means Asynchronous JavaScript and Asterisk Manager. The core AJAM code, a series of AJAM-enabled web pages, and an extension to the Asterisk manager work together to form the Asterisk GUI framework.
[129] In fact, two of the authors of this book once attempted to write the ultimate Asterisk GUI. Lucky for you, they abandoned the project and began writing Asterisk documentation instead!
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