The func_odbc dialplan
function is arguably the coolest and most powerful dialplan
function in Asterisk. It allows you to create and use fairly simple
dialplan functions that retrieve and use information from databases
directly in the dialplan. There are all kinds of ways in which this
might be used, such as managing users or allowing sharing of dynamic
information within a clustered set of Asterisk machines.
What func_odbc allows you to do
is define SQL queries to which you assign function names. In effect, you are
creating custom functions that obtain their results by executing queries
against a database. The func_odbc.conf file is where you specify the relationship between the function
names you create and the SQL statements you wish them to perform. By
referring to the named function in the dialplan, you can retrieve and
update values in the database.
Tip
While using an external script to interact with a database (from which a flat file is created that Asterisk would read) has advantages (if the database went down, your system would continue to function and the script would simply not update any files until connectivity to the database was restored), a major disadvantage is that any changes you make to a user are not available until you run the update script. This is probably not a big issue on small systems, but on large systems, waiting for changes to take effect can cause issues, such as pausing a live call while a large file is loaded and parsed.
You can relieve some of this by utilizing a replicated database system. In the version of Asterisk following 1.4 (currently trunk), the syntax of the func_odbc.conf file changes slightly, but gives the ability to failover to another database system. This way you can cluster the database backend utilizing a master-master relationship (pgcluster; Slony-II), or a master-slave (Slony-I) replication system.
In order to get you into the right frame of mind for what follows, we want you to picture a Dagwood sandwich.[137]
Can you relay the total experience of such a thing by showing
someone a picture of a tomato, or by waving a slice of cheese about? Not
hardly. That is the conundrum we faced when trying to give a useful
example of why func_odbc is so
powerful. So, we decided to build the whole sandwich for you. It’s quite
a mouthful, but after a few bites of this, peanut butter and jelly is
never going to be the same.
For our example, we decided to implement something that we think could have some practical uses. Let’s picture a small company with a sales force of five people who have to share two desks. This is not as cruel as it seems, because these folks spend most of their time on the road, and they are each only in the office for at most one day each week.
Still, when they do get into the office, they’d like the system to know which desk they are sitting at, so that their calls can be directed there. Also, the boss wants to be able to track when they are in the office, and control calling privileges from those phones when no one is there.
This need is typically solved by what is called a hot-desking feature, so we have
built one for you in order to show you the power of func_odbc.
Lets start with the easy stuff, and create two desktop phones in the sip.conf file.
; sip.conf ; HOT DESK USERS [desk_1] type=friend host=dynamic secret=my_special_secret context=hotdesk qualify=yes [desk_2] type=friend host=dynamic secret=my_special_secret context=hotdesk qualify=yes ; END HOT DESK USERS
These two desk phones both enter the
dialplan at the [hotdesk] context
in extensions.conf.
If you want to have these devices actually work, you will of course need
to set the appropriate parameters in the devices themselves, but we’ve
covered all that in Chapter 4.
That’s all for sip.conf. We’ve got two slices of bread. Hardly a sandwich yet.
Now let’s get the database part of it set up (we are assuming that you have an ODBC database created and working as outlined in the earlier parts of this chapter). First, connect to the database console like so:
#su - postgres$psql -U asterisk -h localhost asteriskPassword:
Then create the table with the following bit of code:
CREATE TABLE ast_hotdesk(id serial NOT NULL,extension int8,first_name text,last_name text,cid_name text,cid_number varchar(10),pin int4,context text,status bool DEFAULT false,"location" text,CONSTRAINT ast_hotdesk_id_pk PRIMARY KEY (id))WITHOUT OIDS;
After that, we populated the database with the following information (some of the values that you see actually would change only after the dialplan work is done, but we have it in here by way of example). At the PostgreSQL console, run the following commands:
asterisk=>INSERT INTO ast_hotdesk ('extension', 'first_name', 'last_name', 'cid_name','cid_number', 'pin', 'context', 'location') \VALUES (1101, 'Leif', 'Madsen', 'Leif Madsen', '4165551101', '555', 'longdistance','desk_1');
Repeat the
previous line and change the VALUES for all entries you wish to have in
the database. You can view the data in the ast_hotdesk table by running a simple SELECT statement from the PostgreSQL
console:
asterisk=> SELECT * FROM ast_hostdesk;which would give you something like the following output:
| id | extension | first_name | last_name | cid_name | cid_number | pin|---+-----------+------------+----------------+-----------------+-------------+----| 1 | 1101 | "Leif" | "Madsen" | "Leif Madsen" | "4165551101" | "555"| 2 | 1102 | "Jim" | "Van Meggelen" | "Jim Van Meggelen" | "4165551102" | "556"| 3 | 1103 | "Jared" | "Smith" | "Jared Smith" | "4165551103" | "557"| 4 | 1104 | "Mark" | "Spencer" | "Mark Spencer" | "4165551104" | "558"| 5 | 1105 | "Kevin" | "Fleming" | "Kevin Fleming" | "4165551105" | "559"| context | status | location |$+-----------------+---------+----------+| "longdistance" | "TRUE" | "desk_1" || "longdistance" | "FALSE" | "" || "local" | "FALSE" | "" || "international" | "FALSE" | "" || "local" | "FALSE" | "" |
We’ve got the condiments now, so let’s get to our dialplan. This is where the magic is going to happen.
Note
Before you start typing, take note that we have placed all of the sample text that follows in appendix H, so while we encourage you to follow us along through the examples, you can also see what it all looks like as a whole, by checking the appendix (and by copying and pasting, if you have an electronic version of this book).
Somewhere in extensions.conf we are going
to have to create the [hotdesk]
context. To start, let’s define a pattern-match extension that will
allow the users to log in:
; extensions.conf
; Hot Desking Feature
[hotdesk]
; Hot Desk Login
exten => _110[1-5],1,NoOp()
exten => _110[1-5],n,Set(E=${EXTEN})
exten => _110[1-5],n,Verbose(1|Hot Desk Extension ${E} is changing status)
exten => _110[1-5],n,Verbose(1|Checking current status of extension ${E})
exten => _110[1-5],n,Set(${E}_STATUS=${HOTDESK_INFO(status,${E})})
exten => _110[1-5],n,Set(${E}_PIN=${HOTDESK_INFO(pin,${E})})We’re not done writing this extension yet, but let’s pause for a moment and see where we’re at so far.
When a sales agent sits down at a desk, they log in by dialing
their own extension number. In this case we have allowed the 1101
through 1105 extensions to log in with our pattern match of _110[1-5]. You could just as easily make this
less restrictive by using _11XX
(allowing 1100 through 1199). This extension uses func_odbc to perform a lookup with the
HOTDESK_INFO() dialplan function
(which we will be creating shortly). This custom function (which we
define in the func_odbc.conf file)
performs an SQL statement and returns whatever is retrieved from the
database.
We would define the new function HOTDESK_INFO() in func_odbc.conf like so:
[INFO]
prefix=HOTDESK
dsn=asterisk
read=SELECT ${ARG1} FROM ast_hotdesk WHERE extension = '${ARG2}'That’s a lot of stuff in just a few lines. Let’s quickly cover them before we move on.
First of all, the prefix is
optional. If you don’t configure the prefix, then Asterisk adds “ODBC” to the name
of the function (in this case INFO), which means this function would
become ODBC_INFO(). This is not very
descriptive of what the function is doing, so it can be helpful to
assign a prefix that helps to relate your ODBC functions to the task
they are performing. In this case we chose HOTDESK, which means that
this custom function will be named HOTDESK_INFO.
The dsn attribute tells
Asterisk which connection to use from
res_odbc.conf. Since several database connections
could be configured in res_odbc.conf, we specify
which one to use here. In Figure 12-1, we
show the relationship between the various file configurations and how
they reference down the chain to connect to the database.
We then define our SQL statement with the read attribute. Dialplan functions have two
different formats that they can be called with: one for retrieving
information, and one for setting information. The read attribute is used when we call the
HOTDESK_INFO() function with the
retrieve format (and we could execute a separate SQL statement with the
write attribute; we’ll discuss the
format for the write attribute a
little bit later in this chapter).
Reading values from this function would take the format in the dialplan like so:
exten => s,n,Set(RETURNED_VALUE=${HOTDESK_INFO(status,1101)})This
would return the value located in the database within the status column where the extension column equals 1101. The status and 1101 we pass to the HOTDESK_INFO() function are then placed
into the SQL statement we assigned to the read attribute, available as ${ARG1} and ${ARG2}, respectively. If we had passed a
third option, this would have been available as ${ARG3}.
Note
Be sure that your data is unique enough that you only get a single row back. If more than one row is returned, Asterisk will see only the first row returned. With PostgreSQL, you could add a LIMIT 1 to the end of your SQL statement to limit a single row being returned, but this is not a good practice to rely on. A little further into this section we’ll see how we can use the LIMIT and OFFSET PostgreSQL functions to loop through multiple rows of data!
After the SQL statement is executed, the value returned (if any)
is assigned to the RETURNED_VALUE
channel variable.
Figure 12-1. Relationships between func_odbc.conf, res_odbc.conf, /etc/odbc.ini (unixODBC), and the database connection
So, in the first two lines of our following block of code we are
passing the value status, and the value contained in the
${E} variable (e.g., 1101) to the
HOTDESK_INFO() function. The two values are then replaced in the SQL statement
with ${ARG1} and ${ARG2}, respectfully, the SQL statement is
executed, and the value returned is assigned to the ${E}_STATUS channel variable.
OK, let’s finish writing the pattern-match extension now:
exten => _110[1-5],n,Set(${E}_STATUS=${HOTDESK_INFO(status,${E})})
exten => _110[1-5],n,Set(${E}_PIN=${HOTDESK_INFO(pin,${E})})
exten => _110[1-5],n,GotoIf($[${ISNULL(${${E}_STATUS})}]?invalid_user,1)
; check if ${E}_STATUS is NULL
exten => _110[1-5],n,GotoIf($[${${E}_STATUS} = 1]?logout,1:login,1)After
assigning the value of the status
column to the ${E}_STATUS variable
(if you dialed extension 1101, then the variable name would be 1101_STATUS), we check if we received a value
back from the database (error checking). We make use of the ISNULL() function to perform this
check.
The last row in the block checks the status of the phone, and if
currently logged in, will log off the agent. If not already logged in,
it will go to extension login,
priority 1 within the same
context.[138]
Note
In the version following 1.4 (currently trunk) you can use the
${ODBCROWS}
channel variable with statements executed by a readsql. We could have replaced the GotoIf() with something like:
exten => _110[1-5],n,GotoIf($[${ODBCROWS} < 0]?invalid_user,1)The login extension runs some initial checks to verify the pin code entered
by the agent. We allow him three tries to enter the correct pin, and if
invalid, will send the call to the login_fail extension (which we will be writing
later on).
exten => login,1,NoOp() ; set counter initial value
exten => login,n,Set(PIN_TRIES=0) ; set max number of login attempts
exten => login,n,Set(MAX_PIN_TRIES=3)
exten => login,n(get_pin),NoOp() ; increase pin try counter
exten => login,n,Set(PIN_TRIES=$[${PIN_TRIES} + 1])
exten => login,n,Read(PIN_ENTERED|enter-password|${LEN(${${E}_PIN})})
exten => login,n,GotoIf($[${PIN_ENTERED} = ${${E}_PIN}]?valid_login,1)
exten => login,n,Playback(invalid-pin)
exten => login,n,GotoIf($[${PIN_TRIES} <=${MAX_PIN_TRIES}]?get_pin:login_fail,1)If the pin entered matches, we validate the login with the
valid_login extension. First we utilize the CHANNEL variable to figure out which phone
device we’re calling from. The CHANNEL variable is usually populated with
something such as: SIP/desk_1-ab4034c, so we make use of the
CUT() function to first pull off the
SIP/ portion of the string and assign that to LOCATION. We then strip off the -ab4034c part of the string, discard it, and
assign the remainder of desk_1 to the
LOCATION variable.
exten => valid_login,1,NoOp()
; CUT off the channel technology and assign to the LOCATION variable
exten => valid_login,n,Set(LOCATION=${CUT(CHANNEL,/,2)})
; CUT off the unique identifier and save the remainder to the LOCATION variable
exten => valid_login,n,Set(LOCATION=${CUT(LOCATION,-,1)})We utilize yet another custom function, HOTDESK_CHECK_PHONE_LOGINS(), created in func_odbc.conf to check if any other users
were previously logged in to this phone and had forgotten to log out. If
the number of previously logged in users was greater than 0 (and should
only ever be 1, but we check for more anyway and reset those, too), it
runs the logic in the logout_login
extension.
If no previous agents were logged in, we update the login status
for this user with the HOTDESK_STATUS() function:
exten => valid_login,n,Set(ARRAY(USERS_LOGGED_IN)=${HOTDESK_CHECK_PHONE_
LOGINS(${LOCATION})})
exten => valid_login,n,GotoIf($[${USERS_LOGGED_IN} > 0]?logout_login,1)
exten => valid_login,n(set_login_status),NoOp()
; Set the status for the phone to '1' and where we're logged into
; NOTE: we need to escape the comma here because the Set() application has arguments
exten => valid_login,n,Set(HOTDESK_STATUS(${E})=1\,${LOCATION})
exten => valid_login,n,GotoIf($[${ODBCROWS} < 1]?error,1)
exten => valid_login,n,Playback(agent-loginok)
exten => valid_login,n,Hangup()We create a write function in func_odbc.conf like so:
[STATUS]
prefix=HOTDESK
dsn=asterisk
write=UPDATE ast_hotdesk SET status = '${VAL1}', location = '${VAL2}' WHERE extension
= '${ARG1}'The syntax is very similar to the read syntax discussed earlier in the chapter,
but there are a few new things here, so let’s discuss them before moving
on.
The first thing you may have noticed is that we now have both
${VALx} and ${ARGx} variables in our SQL statement. These
contain the values we pass to the function from the dialplan. In this
case, we have two VAL variables, and
a single ARG variable that were set
from the dialplan via this statement:
Set(HOTDESK_STATUS(${E})=1\,${LOCATION})Tip
Because the Set() dialplan
application can also take arguments (you can set
multiple variables and values by separating them with commas
or pipes), you need to escape the comma with the backslash ( \ ) so it is not processed by the
expression parser for the Set()
application, but rather parses it for the HOTDESK_STATUS()
function.
Notice the syntax is slightly different from that of the read style function. This signals to Asterisk that you want to perform a write (this is the same syntax as other dialplan functions).
We are passing the value of the ${E} variable to the HOTDESK_STATUS() function, whose value is then
accessible in the SQL statement within
func_odbc.conf with the ${ARG1} variable. We then pass two values:
1 and ${LOCATION}. These are available to the SQL
statement in the ${VAL1} and ${VAL2} variables, respectively.
As mentioned previously, if we had to log out one or more agents
before logging in, we would check this with the logout_login extension. This dialplan logic
will utilize the While() application
to loop through the database and perform any database correction that
may need to occur. More than likely this will execute only one loop, but
it’s a good example of how you might update or parse multiple rows in
the database:
exten => logout_login,1,NoOp()
; set all logged in users on this device to logged out status
exten => logout_login,n,Set(ROW_COUNTER=0)
exten => logout_login,n,While($[${ROW_COUNTER} < ${USERS_LOGGED_IN}])The
${USERS_LOGGED_IN} variable was set
previously with the HOTDESK_CHECK_PHONE_LOGINS() function, which
assigned a value of 1 or greater. We did this by counting the number of
rows that were affected:
; func_odbc.conf
[CHECK_PHONE_LOGINS]
prefix=HOTDESK
dsn=asterisk
read=SELECT COUNT(status) FROM ast_hotdesk WHERE status = '1' AND location = '${ARG1}'We
then get the extension number of the user that is logged in with the
HOTDESK_LOGGED_IN_USER() function.
The LOCATION variable is populated
with desk_1, which tells us which
device we want to check on, and the ${ROW_COUNTER} contains which iteration of the
loop we’re on. These are both passed as arguments to the dialplan
function. The result is then assigned to the WHO variable:
exten => logout_login,n,Set(WHO=${HOTDESK_LOGGED_IN_USER(${LOCATION},${ROW_COUNTER})})The
HOTDESK_LOGGED_IN_USER() function
then pulls a specific row out of the database that corresponds with the
iteration of the loops we are trying to process:
[LOGGED_IN_USER]
prefix=HOTDESK
dsn=asterisk
read=SELECT extension FROM ast_hotdesk WHERE status = '1'
AND location = '${ARG1}' ORDER BY id LIMIT '1' OFFSET '${ARG2}'Now
that we know what extension we want to update, we write to the HOTDESK_STATUS() function, and assign a 0 to
the status column where the extension
number matches the value in the ${WHO}
variable (i.e., 1101). We then end the loop with EndWhile() and return back to the valid_login extension at the set_login_status priority label (as discussed
previously):
exten => logout_login,n,Set(HOTDESK_STATUS(${WHO})=0) ; logout phone
exten => logout_login,n,Set(ROW_COUNTER=$[${ROW_COUNTER} + 1])
exten => logout_login,n,EndWhile()
exten => logout_login,n,Goto(valid_login,set_login_status) ; return to logging inThe rest of the context should be fairly straightforward (if some
of this doesn’t make sense, we suggest you go back and refresh your
memory with Chapter 5 and Chapter 6). The one trick you may be unfamiliar with
could be the usage of the ${ODBCROWS}
channel variable, which is set by the HOTDESK_STATUS() function. This tells us how
many rows were affected in the SQL UPDATE, which we assume to be 1. If the value
of ${ODBCROWS} is less than 1, then
we assume an error and handle appropriately:
exten => logout,1,NoOp()
exten => logout,n,Set(HOTDESK_STATUS(${E})=0)
exten => logout,n,GotoIf($[${ODBCROWS} < 1]?error,1)
exten => logout,n,Playback(silence/1&agent-loggedoff)
exten => logout,n,Hangup()
exten => login_fail,1,NoOp()
exten => login_fail,n,Playback(silence/1&login-fail)
exten => login_fail,n,Hangup()
exten => error,1,NoOp()
exten => error,n,Playback(silence/1&connection-failed)
exten => error,n,Hangup()
exten => invalid_user,1,NoOp()
exten => invalid_user,n,Verbose(1|Hot Desk extension ${E} does not exist)
exten => invalid_user,n,Playback(silence/2&invalid)
exten => invalid_user,n,Hangup()We also include the
hotdesk_outbound context which will
handle our outgoing calls after we have logged the agent in to the
system:
include => hotdesk_outbound
The
hotdesk_outbound context utilizes
many of the same principles and usage as previously discussed, so we
won’t approach it quite so thoroughly, but essentially the [hotdesk_outbound]LOCATION variable using the CHANNEL variable, then determine which
extension (agent) is logged in to the system and assign it to the
WHO variable. If this variable is
NULL, then we reject the outgoing
call. If not NULL, then we get the
agent information using the HOTDESK_INFO() function and assign it to
several CHANNEL variables. This
includes the context to handle the
call with, where we perform a Goto()
to the context we have been assigned (which controls our outbound
access).
If we try to dial a number that is not handled by our context (or
one of the transitive contexts—i.e., international contains -> long
distance, which also contains -> local), then the built-in extension
i is executed which plays back a
message stating the action cannot be performed, then hangs up the
caller:
[hotdesk_outbound]
exten => _X.,1,NoOp()
exten => _X.,n,Set(LOCATION=${CUT(CHANNEL,/,2)})
exten => _X.,n,Set(LOCATION=${CUT(LOCATION,-,1)})
exten => _X.,n,Set(WHO=${HOTDESK_PHONE_STATUS(${LOCATION})})
exten => _X.,n,GotoIf($[${ISNULL(${WHO})}]?no_outgoing,1)
exten => _X.,n,Set(${WHO}_CID_NAME=${HOTDESK_INFO(cid_name,${WHO})})
exten => _X.,n,Set(${WHO}_CID_NUMBER=${HOTDESK_INFO(cid_number,${WHO})})
exten => _X.,n,Set(${WHO}_CONTEXT=${HOTDESK_INFO(context,${WHO})})
exten => _X.,n,Goto(${${WHO}_CONTEXT},${EXTEN},1)
[international]
exten => _011.,1,NoOp()
exten => _011.,n,Set(E=${EXTEN})
exten => _011.,n,Goto(outgoing,call,1)
exten => i,1,NoOp()
exten => i,n,Playback(silence/2&sorry-cant-let-you-do-that2)
exten => i,n,Hangup()
include => longdistance
[longdistance]
exten => _1NXXNXXXXXX,1,NoOp()
exten => _1NXXNXXXXXX,n,Set(E=${EXTEN})
exten => _1NXXNXXXXXX,n,Goto(outgoing,call,1)
exten => _NXXNXXXXXX,1,Goto(1${EXTEN},1)
exten => i,1,NoOp()
exten => i,n,Playback(silence/2&sorry-cant-let-you-do-that2)
exten => i,n,Hangup()
include => local
[local]
exten => _416NXXXXXX,1,NoOp()
exten => _416NXXXXXX,n,Set(E=${EXTEN})
exten => _416NXXXXXX,n,Goto(outgoing,call,1)
exten => i,1,NoOp()
exten => i,n,Playback(silence/2&sorry-cant-let-you-do-that2)
exten => i,n,Hangup()If the call is allowed to be
executed, then the call is sent to the [outgoing] context for call processing, where
the caller ID name and number are set with the CALLERID() function. The call is then placed via the
SIP channel using the service_provider we created in the sip.conf file:
[outgoing]
exten => call,1,NoOp()
exten => call,n,Set(CALLERID(name)=${${WHO}_CID_NAME})
exten => call,n,Set(CALLERID(number)=${${WHO}_CID_NUMBER})
exten => call,n,Dial(SIP/service_provider/${E})
exten => call,n,Playback(silence/2&pls-try-call-later)
exten => call,n,Hangup()Our service_provider might look something like
this in sip.conf:
[service_provider] type=friend host=switch1.service_provider.net username=my_username fromuser=my_username secret=welcome context=incoming canreinvite=no disallow=all allow=ulaw
And that’s it! The complete dialplan utilized for the hot-desk feature is displayed in full in Appendix G.
How many things have you just thought of that you could apply func_odbc to? See why we’re so excited about this feature as well?!
[137] And if you don’t know what a Dagwood is, that’s what Wikipedia is for. I am not that old.
[138] Remember that in a traditional phone system all extensions must be numbers, but in Asterisk, extensions can have names as well. A possible advantage of using an extension that’s not a number is that it will be much harder for a user to dial it from her phone and, thus, more secure. We’re going to use several named extensions in this example. If you want to be absolutely sure that a malicious user cannot access those named extensions, simply use the trick that the AEL loader uses: start with a priority other than 1.
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