TUTORIAL HowTo: Flash Operator Panel 2 Installation

[markb1439]

Absolutely. It turned out to be a very simple issue with a very simple fix. For whatever reason, the OpenVZ VPS was not responding to FOP as "localhost". Rather than try to fix that issue at the OpenVZ level, the developer suggested that we simply change the FOP2 config file to point to the localhost by URL (127.0.0.1, of course) instead of name. That fixed it.

 

[mainenotarynet]

Tried the OP's instructions and all seemed well but I get to xt/Password and then FOP2 will not connect to the server.

PiaF 1.7.5.5-Purple
FPBX 2.8.0.4
Asterisk 1.8

Any ideas as what to try?

Thanks

 

[tm1000]

Tried the OP's instructions and all seemed well but I get to xt/Password and then FOP2 will not connect to the server.

PiaF 1.7.5.5-Purple
FPBX 2.8.0.4
Asterisk 1.8

Any ideas as what to try?

Thanks

FOP2 wasn't written for asterisk 1.8

 

[mainenotarynet]

I guess I just saved $40 then huh.

It looks like it wants to work as I get the "connection to Server, please wait" just never connects.

If they want to keep collecting the license fees they might want to make it work with *1.8


In that case what do I need to do to put things back the way they were?

 

[mainenotarynet]

I looked over at the FOP2 forum and found a test -- now I get server is running but can't listen on port 4445

I checked the linux firewall (my box is remote) and TCP 4445 is open to accept

and if FOPv1 used this port and is off now why can't the FOP2 listen there --any ideas?

UPDATE: I Refused to believe that if I put in extension and password that the hang meant that it would never work in * 1.8 as TM1000 says.

My problem was FOP2 couldn't listen on port 4445 - not sure why -- it is open and FOP is shut down. Anyways I found this on a Trixbox forum

Try adding rules, allowing all input/output from/to 127.0.0.1
This way, processes on the box itself can talk to each other.[/quote

I added this to the linux firewall and Lo and Behold it DOES work on Piaf-Purple/FPBX2.8/*1.8 -- at least I can see it now -- more to come.

Having that the server can talk to itself will help those who wish to have a remote box (RentPBX or others) and use FOP2.

Gues I won't save that $40 after all

 

[tm1000]

I looked over at the FOP2 forum and found a test -- now I get server is running but can't listen on port 4445

I checked the linux firewall (my box is remote) and TCP 4445 is open to accept

and if FOPv1 used this port and is off now why can't the FOP2 listen there --any ideas?

UPDATE: I Refused to believe that if I put in extension and password that the hang meant that it would never work in * 1.8 as TM1000 says.

My problem was FOP2 couldn't listen on port 4445 - not sure why -- it is open and FOP is shut down. Anyways I found this on a Trixbox forum

Try adding rules, allowing all input/output from/to 127.0.0.1
This way, processes on the box itself can talk to each other.

I added this to the linux firewall and Lo and Behold it DOES work on Piaf-Purple/FPBX2.8/*1.8 -- at least I can see it now -- more to come.

Having that the server can talk to itself will help those who wish to have a remote box (RentPBX or others) and use FOP2.

Gues I won't save that $40 after all

Wow. Please don't put words into my mouth. I never said it will "never work in 1.8"

All I said was it wasn't "written" for 1.8. Meaning someday in the future the FOP developers will add support I'm sure, just not at this time.

 

[asternic]

Just want to make something clear to avoid confusion:

FOP2 works perfectly with Asterisk 1.8, 1.6 and 1.4, and almost perfectly with 1.2. It always had. There is no other panel that has that broad asterisk version support. And it probably works well with 1.0 or 0.5, but did not bother to try.

The latest version (2.20 beta) has options to tweak behavior and take advantage of some 1.6 and 1.8 features. Just review the sample fop2.cfg for the new parameters.

The issues that affected 1.8 (calls dropped when redirected via AMI) were Asterisk bugs, not FOP2 bugs. They are solved on the latest asterisk releases. There are several asterisk versions with bugs that get exposed or become apparent *thanks* to fop2, and not *because* of fop2.

And for all PBX in a flash users, I have switched to PIAF myself and I am using it as my primary platform for developing FOP2. And I am using Asterisk 1.8 too.

For those asking why there is a separate database than the freepbx one, it is because freepbx uses the asterisk database (astdb) that is really basic and cannot be queried in realtime like fop2 dial box does (type some letters on the dial box and it will do a real time search on the phonebook to find matches. That is not possible to do with astdb)

And I want to mention that I have released another FreePBX module that might be handy: asternic cdr reports, you can get it from here and install as any other freepbx module:

http://www.asternic.biz/downloads/asternic-cdr-reports

About the port confussion and problems some users face, I will try to explain a little bit:

FreePBX comes with FOP(1) installed, its server listens to port tcp 4445 by default. When one application is bind to a port, no other application can take it. not even the same application (you cannot have two fop2 instances listening on the same port).

FOP2 *also* uses port 4445. So it is not possible to run FOP(1) and FOP2 at the same time if you do not change the listening port on one of them. You have the option to disable FOP(1) too by setting FOPRUN=false in /etc/amportal.conf (that is the best option, because if you are not going to use fop1, you will save cpu resources by not running an unneeded daemon, and you can upgrade freepbx without disrupting fop2). But if you are in doubt and want to try both, then change FOP(1) port to 4444 as explained in the FAQ in www.fop2.com (1st question). It is much better to change fop1 port than to do change fop2, trust me on this. You might want to let fop2 use port 4445. The problem on changing fop1 port is that when you update the fop(1) framework in freepbx, the configuration file is overwritten and the port will be again 4445.. so when you reboot the machine you will have to daemons fighting for the same port again.

So, port 4445 must be free and taken by fop2 server, you can check port usage with netstat:

netstat -lnp | grep 444

You should see 4445 being in use by fop2_server and if you have fop1 running, port 4444 taken by perl.

The other problem you might face are firewalls, you MUST allow connections to port 4445 on your asterisk server, not only port 80 or 443 (for web access), but also to port 4445. The flash xmlsockets or http5 websockets will use that port to communicate the client with the server. If you see the message: connecting to server, attempt number 1,2,3,4, it is because you cannot connect to port 4445 from your browser machine. If the port is up and used by fop2 (as verified by the netstat above), then your problem has to do with a firewall or missing port redirection (it could also be lack of flash player installed on the browser). The way to verify if its a firewall issue, you can try to telnet to port 4445 on your server from your desktop/browser machine. It must connect.

If you still have issues you can always try to catch me on the live help at www.fop2.com or read the forums over there.


Best regards,

--
Nicolas

 

[blanchae]

Hey Nicolas

Nice to see you are on the PiaF forums. Really appreciate FOP2, great interface. Thanks for clarifying some myths about FOP2.

 

[tm1000]

Nice to see another great developer using PIAF!

This is the PLACE for cool projects. Tom & Ward should be honored!

 

[TheShniz]

A nice CDR module... had to modify the .css a little bit to play nice with my own theme in FreePBX (tested w/ IE8).

To return things to 'normal', removed:
body {}
'font-family' from div, caption, td, th, h2, h3, h4 {}
a, a:hover, a:active {}
ALL tbody {}

 

[oneadvent]

I am getting this:

root@joshsphone:/usr/local/fop2 $ netstat -lnp | grep 444
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:9091                0.0.0.0:*                   LISTEN      4440/transmission-d
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:51413               0.0.0.0:*                   LISTEN      4440/transmission-d
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:4445                0.0.0.0:*                   LISTEN      3041/fop2_server
tcp        0      0 :::51413                    :::*                        LISTEN      4440/transmission-d
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:51413               0.0.0.0:*                               4440/transmission-d
root@joshsphone:/usr/local/fop2 $ /usr/local/fop2/fop2_server -X 3
Flash Operator Panel 2 - No valid license found. Demo Mode

Can't listen to port 4445

And I get a constant:
Connecting to server, attempt number : (that number rises)

And it never connects. I am on Asterisk 1.6. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[wardmundy]

Did you heed Nicolas' advice above

 

[oneadvent]

Yes sir I did, but the first time I skimmed it, reread at your advice and changed the FOP setting in amportal and I restarted the machine, and still I get the connecting problem. Is there anythink I can provide output wise to help narrow the problem?

Thanks!

 

[oneadvent]

Oh and I hadn't checked my firewall (cause fop1 worked) but I went ahead and checked and I have:
Accept If protocol is TCP and destination port is 4445

According to webmin, so thats open.

 

[oneadvent]

I figured it out: turns out it was a browser issue, changed over to chrome and it worked fine. Everything else seems to work in Firefox.

 

[blanchae]

Wonder if firefox was blocking pop-ups? I haven't had a problem with Firefox but have had with Opera.

 

[oneadvent]

I'm not sure, I dont see a popup that it would be blocking.

 

[blanchae]

When you click on the Panel tab, a login popup occurs asking for extension number and voicemail password.

 

[oneadvent]

Thats not a popup and it does come up.

 

[asternic]

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to write this great guide. But let me suggest a few things:

11. I've modified /var/lib/asterisk/bin/freepbx_engine for use with FOP2. It appears to be working fine. Would like someone else to doublecheck what I've done. Just search for fop2 or FOP2.

a. Download freepbx_engine (right click save as) from freepbx_engine

I recommed to skip this step and not patch FreePBX at all. It is more troublesome than anything else: freepbx updates will always be an issue. And there is no real need to change this as fop2 can be started via normal OS init scripts. I had a few support request from people using this modification that already have issues, because somehow they still had fop1 running, with no way to do a /usr/sbin/amportal stop_fop to stop it and let fop2 run happily.

So my suggestion is to leave the freepbx_engine alone, let it control fop1 as always, and if you want to disable fop1 because you have fop2, then edit /etc/amportal.conf and set FOPRUN=false (for FreePBX 2.8 or older), or in 2.9 go to FreePBX GUI Advanced settings and disable FOP1 there.

If FOP1 is disabled, fop2 will start normally via its init script /etc/rc.d/init.d/fop2 and you can control it from there:


service fop2 start
service fop2 stop
service fop2 restart

By the way, I am in the process of creating .rpms for some distributions. I can create one for pbxinaflash, so it would be much easier to install fop2.

Send me a pm or mail me if you want to test it out.

Bes tregards,