Telephone Reminders 4.0.3 Adds 3 New Functions

[wardmundy]

Not currently a better way. Once we get everything ported to Asterisk 1.4 and PBX in a Flash, we'll work on it.

 

[wardmundy]

Final release of Telephone Reminders 4.0 is out today. Includes new Web Scheduling module which can be run independently or within FreePBX. Nerd Vittles article includes detailed upgrade instructions for PBX in a Flash users that already had installed 4.0. This final release also includes a major bug fix that resolves a problem with delivery of recurring reminders. Thanks to all the pioneers!!

 

[jehowe]

Perfect! Installed it this morning without a hitch. I really like the new interface and Cepstral integration.

Thanks again Ward for another great feature. Now get packing!

 

[troycarpenter]

Great Job!

With the web php script comes another possibility...via CLI!

Generate a POST request to http://<your-piaf.host>/reminders/index.php with the following data:
APPTPHONE=<phone number to call to match your dialplan>
APPTMO=<month, 01-12>
APPTDA=<day, 01-31>
APPTYR=<year, 2008>
APPTHR=<hour, 00-23>
APPTMIN=<minute, 00-59>
APPTRECUR=<recurrence, 1=Never, 2=Weekdays, 3=Daily, 4=Weekly, 5=Monthly, 6=Annually>
APPTMSG=<Message+with+pluses+for+spaces>

You will need to format the data per your favorite POSTing tool.
Here's an example using wget:
wget --post-data 'APPTPHONE=8617&APPTMO=02&APPTDA=25&APPTYR=2008&APPTHR=12&APPTMIN=30&APPTRECUR=1&APPTMSG=This+is+a+CLI+test+reminder' http://192.168.0.123/reminders/index.php

This knowledge will allow automating phone reminders from scripts...like say an ICAL to Asterisk Reminder script. (hmmm...export calendar from your favorite PIM software to ICAL then run a script to put them in Asterisk...nice).

 

[wardmundy]

Two (or more) heads are ALWAYS better than one. Thanks for the great tips, Troy and FrontLine (below).

FYI: Troy's example is a good reason why you may want to either leave this application behind your firewall or require passwords for access (see below). If you can POST data, so can anyone else with web access to your server. Here's the syntax once you password protect the directory as explained in the next post:

wget --http-user=maint --http-password=password --post-data 'APPTPHONE=204&APPTMO=02&APPTDA=26&APPTYR=2008&APPTHR=09&APPTMIN=00&APPTRECUR=1&APPTMSG=This+is+a+CLI+test+reminder' http://192.168.0.178/reminders/index.php

 

[frontline]

multiple user access/web passwords

A couple of useful tweaks that work for me. First the dial plan for reminders can be modified to accommodate multiple users/passwords. In my case I allow users to access reminders using their voicemail password. That requires a one line change to the /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf file. Edit that file:

nano -w /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf

find the line under from-internal-custom that appears as

exten => 123,3,Authenticate(12345678)

and replace it with

exten => 123,3,vmauthenticate(${CALLERID(number)})

save the file and run "amportal restart" from the command line. Henceforth dialing 123 and entering a valid voicemail password will provide access to the reminder system.


Second, the excellent instructions at the "Best of" website tell how to setup password authentication for the web interface. Following those instructions you can add users to the list of authenticated web access users. To add a user find the line that appears

Require user wwwadmin maint

and add your users to that line.

e.g. it might become

Require user wwwadmin maint micky mouse

Then setup a proper password for users micky and mouse by executing from the unix command line something like this

htpasswd /usr/local/apache/passwd/wwwpasswd micky

enter the password for micky as prompted. Then repeat the command above for user mouse.

After these additions micky and mouse will be able to access the reminders web interface using the name/password combination you setup for them.

 

[wardmundy]

We've got a slight variation on the web interface page that defaults to the current date and time for the scheduled reminder... for those of you that don't wear a watch. It also assures that your PBX in a Flash server is keeping time the same way you are.

If you'd like to use the updated web interface to Telephone Reminders, just issue the following commands after logging into your server as root:

cd /root
mkdir reminders-4.0.2
cd reminders-4.0.2
wget http://bestof.nerdvittles.com/applications/reminders4/reminders-4.0.2.zip
unzip reminders-4.0.2.zip
cd /var/www/html/reminders
mv index.php index-old.php
cp /root/reminders-4.0.2/index.php index.php
chown asterisk:asterisk index.php

 

[gaijin]

Changing the voice used

I have installed Lawrence-8kHz
& both Lawrence & Alison show up when I do swift --voices

I have changed the line in /etc/asterisk/swift.conf to:
voice=Lawrence-8kHz

I have done amportal restart & even rebooted the pbx

I still always get Alison.

Is there anything else I need to try?

 

[frontline]

Have you registered both voices (option --reg-voice) with swift? If so, then which one shows as default? You could try selecting the voice in the swift command line (option -n) to see if it is working. Just remembered that some of the prompts in reminders are hard coded Allison and are played from pre-recorded files. If you use the web interface then the actual reminder should be voiced by the default you have chosen.

 

[xxolloxx]

I added a field for Caller ID (CID) to the form.




As for the code: since I don’t know PHP, wherever I saw the $APPTPHONE variable, I inserted $CID.

…
$CID=$_REQUEST['CID'];

…

$CID = str_replace( array(chr(13),chr(10),"<",">"," ","(",")","-","."), "", $CID ;
//not sure what this does//

…
if ($trunk<>"local") :
$txt2write = "Callerid: " . $CID . "\n" ;
fwrite($fptmp,$txt2write) ;
else:
$localid = chr(34)."Reminder".chr(34)." <123>" ;
$txt2write = "Callerid: " . $CID . "\n" ;
fwrite($fptmp,$txt2write) ;
endif ;


So far it works without a problem. I enter use my home number as Caller ID for my own reminders and work numbers for reminders to my coworkers.

Perhaps someone who knows what there doing can clean up my code.

Max

 

[phinphan]

Just installed the system and it works great with extensions that are part of the system but when you dial an external number the messages starts playing before the other phone is picked up. If you have a long message you can hear the end of it but otherwise it is cut off. Any suggestions?

 

[wardmundy]

I added a field for Caller ID (CID) to the form.

$CID = str_replace( array(chr(13),chr(10),"<",">"," ","(",")","-","."), "", $CID ;
//not sure what this does//

That line of code is what keeps the bad guys from hacking into your system if your web server is exposed to the Internet. Thanks for other suggestion. I'm just not sure whether I want to integrate spoofed CallerID into the app or not. There are lots of legal implications. Right now, it's set in the .php file.

 

[jchuby]

first off thanks for this awesome script. As a coder, reading it has clarified so many .call file issues.

Second, I am having some problems.
I have tried to modify the dialplan so that the called user can also press 3 and be transfered to a telephone number that i have added into .call file.
The variable is passed along without a problem, I just think my diaplan DIAL function is screwed up.

I am using Local as my outbound, and letting the system decide (as recommended by the guide.

Here is my modified dialplan from the If=3 on...

exten => s,n(lbl_RemindT1_3),GotoIf($["${track}" > "2"]?:lbl_RemindT1_0)
exten => s,n,Dial("Remindee","IAX2/5555@voipjet/${rec}|300|TtWw") )
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${DIALSTATUS}" = "CHANUNAVAIL"]?lbl_RemindT1_6:)
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${DIALSTATUS}" = "CONGESTION"]?lbl_RemindT1_6:)
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${DIALSTATUS}" = "NOANSWER"]?lbl_RemindT1_6:)
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${DIALSTATUS}" = "BUSY"]?lbl_RemindT1_6:)
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${DIALSTATUS}" = "CANCEL"]?lbl_RemindT1_6:)
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${DIALSTATUS}" = "DONTCALL"]?lbl_RemindT1_6:)
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${DIALSTATUS}" = "TORTURE"]?lbl_RemindT1_6:)

any help is much appreciated as I just built a new system using pbxinaflash instead of my usual trixbox

 

[voipaddict]

Telephone Reminders on straight Asterisk box?

Has anyone tried to install Telephone Reminders on a straight Asteirsk box? I'm running Asterisk 1.4.13 and am interested in "porting" this over to my installation. Anyone?

Thanks in advance

 

[mudcow007]

Reminder 4.0 on Asterisk 1.4 issues

hello guys

a little help if anyone can, I’ve installed reminders 4.0 onto our Asterisk box (1.4).

The installation went fine (I think!) i followed the instructions (which were a great help!)
and I can dial into the reminder system via an extension number

When I try a set the reminder (from a phone and not the web interface) it confirms the reminder is set however when its
time to play the reminder we get this error on the asterisk cli:

NOTICE[31464]: chan_local.c:566 local_alloc: No such extension/context 777@from-internal creating local channel

NOTICE[31464]: channel.c:3024_ast_request_and_dial: unable to request channel local/777@from-internal

WARNING[31464]: cdr.c:830 ast_cdr_init: CDR already initialized on **Unknown**

NOTICE{31464]: pbx_spool.c:341 attempt_thread: Call failed to go through, reason 0

The context in which all of our extensions are in is [Internal] if i change the "from-internal" I get the same error

anyone shed any light onto it? I’m stumped

 

[tshif]

Hmmm. It seems you might not be running on PBXIAF? If this is not a FreePBX system, you might be missing some of the contexts that reminders needs? I could be completely wrong -

 

[mudcow007]

which context(s) do we require? do you know?

we have had a play around with our contexts but still no joy.

coudl i change to code to match our contexts? if so does anyone which parts do i focus on.


thanks for the reply

 

[voipaddict]

I had a similar problem on a non PIAF system. I posted earlier if anyone had a workaround for a straight Asterisk system. There are some differences in the contexts, which I thought I had found, but there must be other things I'm missing. This is such a great add-on that I can't imagine that non PIAF users won't want to implement it.

Thanks

 

[mudcow007]

cool! i thought i musn't be alone!

the annoying thing is, it seems to try but then fail at the call, everything else works!

is anyone out there using an an Asterisk non piaf machine with reminders?

 

[wardmundy]

Lots of trixbox folks are using this. Your problem is that FreePBX is an integrated component in the LAMP stack of these systems. It would take a book to explain all of the things FreePBX does... for free.