QUESTION Deleting Call Records and WAVs

[G-Man]

Still learning on a SOHO standalone Intel I3 based PC Installed with IncrediblePBX/FAX 13-12.3 on CentOS 6.8 (Asterisk 13.10.0/Incredible GUI 12.0.39). I’ve set it up to record all inbound/outbound calls on a single Google Voice trunk and dedicated AvantFax on a second GV trunk.

My issue is that without success, I have searched everywhere (within this and other PBX related forums) for a no-cost solution for a simple web interface (GUI) that allows me to selectively manage (delete) recorded calls and associated call records (CDRs).

I successfully use the included IncrediblePBX interface to view, listen, or download recordings either through the UPC button or the CDR Reports button, but neither method offers a way to selectively delete call records by line or their associated wav files.

Likewise I am also aware of the command line ability to do batch deletes of wav files manually or to set it up as scheduled automated CRON job, but I require a much more selective method and don’t have the call volume that warrants such scripting.

There has got to be someone by now that has written a lightweight no-cost web app to allow an admin to selectively handle deletion of database entries as well as any associated wav file recordings all from a single web based interface. Any help pointing me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

 

[G-Man]

What, no love? Okay fine then – you all have left me with no choice but to write my own app for this. But fair warning... it’s not going to be pretty!

 

[krzykat]

Why do you want to delete either records or recordings? I can picture individuals wanting to do so - from the UCP if they have rights, but if its a business, then the boss or admin might not be too happy that someone does either.

 

[G-Man]

Why do you want to delete either records or recordings? I can picture individuals wanting to do so - from the UCP if they have rights, but if its a business, then the boss or admin might not be too happy that someone does either.

Should I take your inquiry to mean that offering me help is contingent upon how I answer your question? I just wanted to know if someone had written a similar GUI module that already does this to spare me needlessly duplicating the effort.

Both the “UPC” GUI and the “CDR Reports” GUI do a wonderful job at displaying CDR records as well as offer playback/download of WAVs, however neither offers a simple delete button. I find that frustratingly odd and hard to believe that no one designed this with the forethought that one day an admin just may want an easy way to clean out old records or delete old unneeded WAV files at some point to regain storage space or optimize a database.

Or could it be that the feature is actually there, but turned off and hidden deep in a config file somewhere? What am I missing or not understanding here? I will admit I am new to all this PBX stuff and may be missing some fundamental concepts behind what drives PBX design from a business perspective.

Recently retired, I am only using this for home use in a very small part-time business startup with no employees. I am just knowledgably dangerous enough to have hacked an old 2-line Vonage Router (JTAGed the firmware) and convert it into an ATA for a couple of analogue phones. Then I repurposed an i3 micro PC for a dedicated PBX backbone to play with. I configured it to record all inbound/outbound calls so I don’t have to take notes when customers call. I also set up another trunk dedicated for FAX.

I simply would like to be able to on-the-fly delete unneeded recorded calls from a GUI without running script or writing a CRON job is all.

 

[krzykat]

Should I take your inquiry to mean that offering me help is contingent upon how I answer your question? I just wanted to know if someone had written a similar GUI module that already does this to spare me needlessly duplicating the effort.

Not at all. I was just pointing out some potential pitfalls. I don't believe such an option exists, but was exploring the merits of it to see if others would jump in to assist. I don't think it's a bad idea from what you described, but there are reasons why some wouldn't want it. I do believe that somewhere someone did write a script that would clear out old CDR or at least the Recordings so that disk space didn't get eaten up.

 

[Noxee]

I'm also looking for a solution to this. Apparently on newer version of FreePBX there is a line hidden in code that can be modified to allow deleting from UCP but it doesn't exist on the version Incredible PBX uses. An alternative solution is to use FOP2. It allows you to record calls with a "push to start" function and then delete or download the recording. The downside is that I haven't found a way to do automatic call recording through FOP2.

 

[krzykat]

Apparently on newer version of FreePBX there is a line hidden in code that can be modified to allow deleting from UCP but it doesn't exist on the version Incredible PBX uses.

Which version and which line?

 

[Noxee]

Which version and which line?

Sorry for misleading, I found the thread I was referring to and in the end, it was posted in 2011 and was for FreePBX 2.7.0.6. That thread said that in /var/www/html/recordings/includes/main.conf.php there was a variable that could be changed to allow deleting. Anyways, the main.conf.php file doesn't exist anymore. I dug around in /var/www/html/recordings/ but couldn't find anything useful.

I have a potential solution that I'm trying to implement using FOP2. In FOP2, when you do an on-demand recording, it updates a Mysql table and defines variables such as who generated the call and to which destination. So what I'm trying to do is this:
- Make a post recording script that can be put in advanced settings (show read only and overwrite read only has to be activated).
- This script will update the FOP2 Mysql table with the same information.
- Hopefully I'll then be able to see a users automatically recorded calls from the FOP2 recordings section and be able to use it's delete function.

The problem is I am very new to writing script so I'm trying to learn fast to be able to base my script off the ones found in /var/www/html/fop2/recordings.php and /usr/local/fop2/recording_fop2.pl