what is the best /easiest way to create a dial plan ?
looking at all the asterisk options i see that the dial plan is where all the magic happens and how good is your dialplan determines how good your system really is.
Now looking at some of the macros in freepbx i see that there is a lot of predefined stuff…but i am running asterisk without freepbx as i have some requirements that freepbx doesn’t support and frankly i like the flexibility of doing my own, which comes at a cost of having to learn everything.
so the question is - would you recommend any tools for creating a dial plan?
The only thing that looks interesting so far is the Visual DP by Apstel, but before i spend the bucks i wanted some community feedback as to what else is out that that is good?
Over time i am sure i will become more knowledgeable in creating dial plan but i do have thing thing called time knocking on my door
Take a cup of coffee, think what you want to do. Then, create a dial plan 100% by hand, that do the things you want.
The only tool, the most perfect tool i use is: My Brain.
That’s the best tool i have. I create scenarios in my head, and transform my thinks to real using my hands.
Learn about DialPlans. Then you can create everything you want.
i truly enjoyed your post - and i do share your attitude - hence dropping the freepbx and going vanilla
my only problem is the timeline in which i have to develop this and launch - and not knowing what are all the capabilities…but since i ran into some issues this week with dial plans i am starting to think that i will do exactly that
I support your decision. It will pay dividends in the long run. FreePBX and other GUI’s make the INITIAL config a lot quicker. But it also allows you to configure a system you don’t know the first thing about. So when this system starts having problems, you don’t have a clue on how to debug and solve the issue.
If you start from scratch, take the time to learn Asterisk and make your own DialPlan, you will know the details about the system and that will make it more likely that you will solve the problems that you might have with your system. Also take note about the security aspect of the configuration.
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