GO HERE Current state of aastra and xml scripts?

James Russo

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Hello,

I purchased a building which had a existing phone system in it. It consisted of about 15 Aastra 6757i and a rack mounted custom computer running PIAF. However, the computer needed to be re-formatted and a fresh copy of the latest PIAF was installed. I've included a screen shot of the version below.

So, I installed Extension Manager and I can get things working just fine, but my real question is where can I get the latest aastra XML scripts so I can use the visual parking lot, etc. Also, should I be upgrading the firmware on the aastra phones? Right now its at 2.6.0.1007.

This will be for a dental office. So, won't need much functionality (no log in/log out, etc). Parking might even provide to be a difficult concept to understand. :)

Thanks!

-jr
 

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You should consider Park Pro, it makes the parking feature much easier to use for the end users, due to its included Park and Announce feature, and BLF feature codes. It also includes a license for Page Pro bundled in as well. You can view the details in the FreePBX wiki http://wiki.freepbx.org/display/FCM/Park+Pro
 

James Russo

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Ok, thanks. Is it possible to set these up like a Key system? I really don't want to do it like that because I think Parking is better, but I have had problems with other dental offices just not getting it. Especially after they have been using Avaya Partner key system for the last 10 years..

Also -- what is the softkey used to actually park a call? I have things working where it says "No Parked Calls On Platform", so the scripts are working. But how do you actually setup a key to park a call. There is a "Park" option in the dropbox, but that doesn't seem to do anything and simply transfering to 70 (our park lot) doesn't work either..

-jr
 

hbonath

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When deploying Aastra, the FreePBX distro's set of scripts has worked very well for me on their platform.
As for Parking, specific to Aastra, if you invest in a Sidecar for the receptionist, either the M670i or M675i, can be programmed for the BLF hints used in the parking lot. (Make sure to enable BLF on the parking lot)
e.g. Set the lower right sidecar key to speeddialxfer, 70 and use that as the "park" key, then set the next key above that to be BLF, 71, and above that as BLF, 72, and so on for as many slots as you would like. Then the receptionist can hit the "Park" key to transfer someone to the parking lot, then the light for 71 will light up indicating that that slot is occupied and can then intercom someone to tell them they have a call parked on 71.
With this setup as well, you ultimately don't need the Aastra parking lot XML application.
 

leemason

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It's a real shame that the Aastra scripts are not being actively developed on an ongoing basis. Is there an alternative that will provide things like login/logout (without using device and user mode)? Is it just visual voicemail that scuppered Aastra with these (as I know there were legal issues with that) or is there anything else proprietary about the scripts? Would it be a problem (legally) for someone else to take over development or do Aastra hold any sort of patents that would affect this?
 

phoneguy

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Lee

Its more then just visual voicemail that has issues with legal problems. The scripts were also never released GPL but freeware so the license is really odd on them and scares most developers off. As you know the PBXact line uses a heavily modified version of the scripts and some of the script were completely re-written to make them stable or just flat out work.
 

Stewart

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The real issue with the scripts is that newer versions of the Firmware break them and there is practically Zero support for coding them. I've tried several times in the past where I'm trying to create something and I'm 95% done but can't quite seem to get it to work properly. I call, email, and post but just eventually give up because nobody helps. I understand that they gave us the manual and hoped we would take it and run, but sometimes following the manual doesn't do what it's supposed to. They really haven't been developer friendly to me at all. For example, in the 3.x firmware passing digits to the phone works just fine unless they are chosen from a php action loop. No idea why. Works fine in the 2.x firmware. Also, in the sugarcrm.php script selecting Capital letters doesn't work in 3.x. You can get a G but no H or I because it just moves on to the next letter. Lower case works fine. Don't know why. 2.x was fine. When I try for support they just say they don't support the scripts. I've given up on expecting any help from Aastra. This is the first I've heard of licensing issues with them, but you never can tell with corporations anymore.

The m675i sidecar is really good. Only issue is that it visually doesn't mate well with the 6739i because it has the same type of screen as the 6757i. But that isn't really an issue anyway. You can edit the sidecar via the mac.cfg file or just through the user interface. Everything updates on the fly except the column headers (but a reboot fixes those) and is quite responsive.

The parking may be a context issue. Check your mac.cfg file. You should see something like "sprecode: asterisk;[EXT]" where [EXT] is the extension of your parking lot. The default setup leaves that blank and causes issues.

As for firmware, there are 2 compelling reasons to be on 3.x:
1) Background images on the 6739i
2) FINALLY they implemented DTMF suppression. You don't hear DTMF talkoff in your ear and you don't hear when someone accidentally presses a key.
Aside from that, stick to the 2.6. 3.x isn't bad, they just aren't great. You get random bleeps and glurgs when pressing buttons or hanging up the phone but nothing showstopping. At least they are easy to switch between.
 
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Ok, thanks. Is it possible to set these up like a Key system? I really don't want to do it like that because I think Parking is better, but I have had problems with other dental offices just not getting it. Especially after they have been using Avaya Partner key system for the last 10 years..

Also -- what is the softkey used to actually park a call? I have things working where it says "No Parked Calls On Platform", so the scripts are working. But how do you actually setup a key to park a call. There is a "Park" option in the dropbox, but that doesn't seem to do anything and simply transfering to 70 (our park lot) doesn't work either..

-jr


You have to set the Park option under the Web GUI settings. On my 6755i, it's under Basic Settings --> Preferences --> Park Call. The correct entry is "asterisk;70" (no quotes, of course). This will automatically add a "Park" option when you're in a call (and you can also use the drop-down box to set it as a softkey or programmable key if you want). You can also set the "Pickup" option the same way, but I've had trouble configuring that properly. For my office, we have the "Park" keys set and then I just assigned a "BLF" option to "71" and "72" which allows me to pick up the calls once they are parked. This setup works for us because we're a low-volume office and we don't ever have more than one call parked.
 

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