A recent post to the mailing list asked about how to stop and start a FastAGI server and how folks host Fast AGI servers. I shared some code I wrote for a small MBean that starts and stops a DefaultAgiServer from Asterisk-Java -- see the last FAQ question "Can I have an example of using an AGI server in a container like JBoss?". The MBean uses the JBoss-specific @Management annotation.

I work on a home-grown call center management application (EJBs, JSP webpages, and two standalone Java Swing applications, all talking through JBoss Application Server), and we've already been able to add a couple features with Asterisk-Java that add value and utility to our application. I didn't want to introduce another service to our infrastructure and I also didn't want to write an entirely new Agi server, as Stefan had done a great job on that part. Thus, the above MBean was born.

Comments and suggestions and other examples of how you run your Agi scripts are welcome and encouraged on our mailing lists.

Add a comment

Posted by Martin Smith on April 27, 2008 10:05:29 PM EDT #

Atlassian has improved the charting features in their latest release of Fisheye. So I had a look at the Asterisk-Java code base to see how it's major packages compare in size. This is what i got:

Let's have a look at the individual packages:

The Manager API

Support for the Manager API (manager) is by far the biggest package in Asterisk-Java. It provides access to a variety of Asterisk features from call control to monitoring and call center management. The size of this package and its steady groth ressemble the groth of features exposed by Asterisk.

The Asterisk Gateway Interface

FastAGI is an easy way to implement IVR applications in Java. The feature set is quite stable over time so we don't see significant changes in the code base. You'll even notice that support for AsyncAGI (i.e. running AGI scripts over the Manager API) was a quick win as it didn't have a significant impact on the overall size of the package.

Parsing Configuration Files

The config package is quite new and supports parsing Asterisk's configuration files. All config files use the same syntax and group up configuration items into contexts. It supports inheritance of contexts, includes and forms the basis for further development like configuration editors or dialplan visualization (stay tuned for more information from Martin on this topic).
Originally developed to parse voicemail meta files the config package is certainly a candidate for future growth.

The Live API

The live API is our own invention and takes integration a step further. Instead of only providing access to the basic features exposed by Asterisk the live API offers real objects with state and behavior that model core concepts found in Asterisk. There are channel objects with state like the current caller id, the progress or hangup reason and methods to redirect channels, start and stop monitoring and much more.
The live API speeds up developers by hiding the sometimes tedious details of the low level Asterisk APIs and has reached a significant size. Next to the config package the live API is under active development and will certainly grow in the future.

Responses[2]

Posted by Stefan Reuter on April 27, 2008 2:05:39 PM CEST #

Mauro has published an interesting article about Asterisk and SugarCRM integration. A swing popup notifies its user on incoming calls and provides additional information about the customer that is retrieved from SugarCRM.

The sample application serves as a good example on how to use Asterisk's Manager API with Asterisk-Java.

References

• Mauro: SugarCRM and Asterisk integration in Java

Add a comment

Posted by Stefan Reuter on April 18, 2008 11:50:00 AM CEST #

I've just finished adding support for Asynchronous AGI to Asterisk-Java. AsyncAGI allows you to run AGI scripts through a Manager API connection.

The way AsyncAGI is supported by Asterisk-Java hides the differences in the underlying communication from the users of our library. Your AGI scripts developed for FastAGI will run with AsyncAGI without a change.

To make use of AsyncAGI add the following extension to you dialplan:

exten => 1234,1,Agi(agi:async)

Create a simple AGI script, pass it to AsyncAgiServer and register the AsyncAgiServer as a listener to a ManagerConnection:

public class SampleScript extends BaseAgiScript
{
    public void service(AgiRequest request, AgiChannel channel) throws AgiException
    {
        channel.streamFile("tt-monkeys");
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
    {
        ManagerConnection connection;
        AsyncAgiServer agiServer;

        connection = new DefaultManagerConnection("localhost", "manager", "pa55w0rd");
        agiServer = new AsyncAgiServer(new SampleScript());
        connection.addEventListener(agiServer);
        connection.login();

        while (true)
        {
            Thread.sleep(1000L);
        }
    }
}

To run the sample you need the latest snapshot of Asterisk-Java 1.0.0 (at least 20080404.222056-117) and Asterisk 1.6.0.

References

• Moy: Asterisk Asynchronous AGI

Responses[1]

Posted by Stefan Reuter on April 5, 2008 5:02:44 AM CEST #