Visual Dialplan overview | Apstel LLC

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Visual Dialplan overview

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Visual Dialplan overview
How to connect to Asterisk
How to read Asterisk config.
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Visual Dialplan overview

We assume you have already downloaded and installed Visual Dialplan. In case you didnt, Visual Dialplan
Professional can be downloaded here: http://www.apstel.com/download/vdp_prof/. Software installation is simple as
clicking next, next, next
After starting the application you are asked to set up the basic properties of the Asterisk Server you will be
connecting with to deploy the dial plans.
You can set this connection now, or do it later. Ill do it now.

How to FreePBX,Elastix,PIAF
How to start your dial plan
How to work with Database
How to send emails

There are two types of connection you can set up local Asterisk server and deploy dial plan locally or set up remote
Asterisk server.
I chose to use the remote Asterisk server using SSH method as I think it would be the most commonly used scenario.

Here are the parameters you should type in:

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Name: <name of your Asterisk server, PBX1 for example>

Server: <Asterisk server IP or DNS>
Port: 22 <this is default port for SSH>
Username: <root access is required>
Password: < password >
Version: < Asterisk server version click on Detect button after setting up SSH and it will be detected automatically>
NOTE: After setting these parameters you may want to click on the Test connection button to test the SSH connection
to your Asterisk server. And then click on the Detect button to set up appropriate server version.
Asterisk server type: < server type Plain Asterisk, Free PBX, Elastix etc.>
NOTE: This is very important step. Make sure to select appropriate type. For example, if you select Plain Asterisk but
you have FreePBX, entire FreePBX dial plan may be deleted after dial plan deployment. Or click on the Detect button
and the type will be detected automatically.
Dialplan le: <extensions.conf or another le you want to deploy the dial plan to>
Conrm Deploy: <Yes>
Create Backup <Yes>
Reload: <Yes >
Visual Dialplan will now connect to your Asterisk server and will read Asterisk conguration parameters needed for
the dial plan development.
NOTE: Visual Dialplan will not change any of the conguration parameters, it will just read it to pre-populate library
components and make your dial plan development easier.
On the next application window Visual Dialplan will ask you to enter the registration code.
If you dont have a registration code, you can go ahead and work in the trial mode.
If you have a registration key, you may enter it now.

At this point you have completely congured Visual Dialplan ready to be used to create you rst dial plan.
From now on once you open Visual Dialplan youll be asked to create a new Asterisk Dialplan, Open an Existing
Asterisk Dialplan, or open and use one of provided Examples to play around with.
For the purposes of this article, I will create new Asterisk dial plan from scratch (rst option).

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Visual Dialplan overview | Apstel LLC

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Once you have clicked the New Asterisk dial plan wizard, you will be presented with a dialogue asking if youd like to
create your dial plan for particular Asterisk server (just congured Asterisk server is selected by default) or to develop
general dial plan for any other Asterisk server.

I will select rst option and create dial plan for just congured Asterisk server. This is the best choice that will make
sure your dial plan is the same version like your Asterisk server.
After the selection youll be given the choice to name your initial context. You can name this anything you want just
like you would when creating a new context in your already existing Asterisk extensions.conf.

I have created our Asterisk context with the name TestContext and a little description so I know what it is when
looking at the list of contexts.
After you have clicked the ok button to continue, youll be given the Visual Dialplan Context window for the context
you have just created. This is where you can create your Asterisk Dialplan in a visual manner, with interactive
conguration abilities.
Most of your attention will need to be focused here when you are within the visual Dialplan creation window.

This is where you will select the Asterisk dial plan blocks that you want to use. Dial plan blocks are separated in a
tabbed list of functionality: Entry, Variable, CallFlow, Call Management, Playback, General, Integration etc.
I found this very intuitive and easy to use for both new and experienced Asterisk Users.
The contextual help is handy.

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Visual Dialplan overview | Apstel LLC

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Using blocks from the menu above I created a very simple Asterisk dial plan. This dialplan simply starts, answers the
line, playbacks a sound le, waits for a second, then Hangups the line.

I simply clicked on the dial plan block in the toolbar and then I clicked on the context window, and the building
block instantly appeared. I repeated this for all building blocks above. Linking the boxes was as simple as dragging
from one boxs output port to the other boxs input port.
To modify the elements of the Asterisk dial plan I simply double clicked on one that particular building block and
then edited it from the contextual menu. For example, here is the Wait building block menu:

Once I were satised with test Asterisk dial plan I went up to the menu and chose the validate button. This button
can be found both in the title menu, and in the icons at the top of the window. Nice and easy to nd, and convenient
to have for newer asterisk users that need to verify their dial plan.

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I am satised with the dial plan and would like to deploy it now.
One very convenient feature of Visual Dialplan is the ability to remotely deploy Asterisk dial plan to Asterisk server
with a single press of a button.
This makes it very easy to test your Asterisk dial plans out quickly and efciently.
Simply select Dialplan > Deploy from the main many and Visual Dialplan will SSH to your remote Asterisk server
and do the rest of the job.
Youll be presented with a box to conrm the remote deployment. Just click yes, and it will do its job. Few seconds
later a conrmation window appears. The Asterisk Dialplan is successfully deployed to the server.

I didnt run into any issues using this portion of the software, except for permissions on our Asterisk Box. I disallow
root ssh logins, and because I have Asterisk running as its own user I am not able to securely modify /etc/asterisk
and its les. So, I instead just deploy to a symbolic link in our home directory to a le in the Asterisk directory with
the proper permissions. Make sure you validate your Asterisk dial plan before you deploy it to your remote Asterisk
server. This will make the whole process go a lot smoother as I found out the hard way.
This process was very easy to complete and makes management of Asterisk dial plans easier. You can verify the
Deployed Asterisk dial plan by editing the le, like this:

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