Central Contact Database

I wonder if you have for example 100 IP-phones in your company connected to the Asterisk, can you have a Contact database of all the employees name and numer in the Asterisk and download this to the phones, so you only need to administrate all name and number at one place ?

What feature do you need from the IP-phones to require this function ? XML ?

Can you separate the central contactdatabase from every employees own number that they have in the phone, for examples number to family, friends, other businesspartners and so on. I mean if you update the central contact database, you don’t wont to lose these numbers.

Is there any solution on this problem ?

//Silverarrow

Asterisk does not serve a contact database to the phonebooks of your IP phones, this would be a function of your phones and most likely a web server and particular XML format.

With this in mind, you will need to find out from your IP phone providers how best to set this up.

well, it depends on what your phone is capable of doesn’t it !!

what phones are you using ? would a centralised “speeddial” system not be easier to maintain ?

[quote=“baconbuttie”]well, it depends on what your phone is capable of doesn’t it !!

what phones are you using ? would a centralised “speeddial” system not be easier to maintain ?[/quote]

I’m currently not using any phones yet, therefor i was wondering and asking, what kind of telephone do you need before i buy any? what is recommended ? I assume they must support XML ? Are there any other solutions than XML?

//Silverarrow

This particular line of inquiry is not directly related to Asterisk and therefore depends on exactly what you are trying to acheive. There are a myriad of hardware based SIP phones that support an LCD display of some sort that may display data from an HTTP/XML server.

You will have to do some research to find out what fits your needs.

One phone that will do this is the aastra 480i
The format of the xml is simple and the phones can dialout via the button. Buuilding the directory should be simple with php

You could also use astapi then it wont matter and the users can use outlook contacts.

Ian
www.cyber-cottage.co.uk