FOOD FOR THOUGHT Freeswitch & The Bunny

[wardmundy]

Hmmm. You will note that all of the Switch in a Flash domains already have been reserved... by us. So stay tuned.

 

[tusc]

FYI,

there's a mailing list for FreeSWITCH where most of the activity occurs ( http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/freeswitch-users ). In addition, an archive of the mailing list is kept on nabble which presents it in a forum interface. You can post on nabble and it'll also send off the message to the mailing list (and vice versa).

Here's the link:

http://www.nabble.com/Freeswitch-users-f32209.html

 

[MACscr]

Hmmm. You will note that all of the Switch in a Flash domains already have been reserved... by us. So stay tuned.

Done yet? =)

 

[drmurdoch]

Hmmm. You will note that all of the Switch in a Flash domains already have been reserved... by us. So stay tuned.

Might need to polish it off soon.

 

[wardmundy]

Guess what the Easter Bunny is bringing.

 

[blanchae]

I asked a question on the FreeSwitch wiki in March 2011 about its core model and realtime configuration as opposed to the archaic reload text file model and never received a reply. I think that the model where you must reload the core with the complete configuration rather than only what has changed to be quite backwards. Sure wish that they would integrate the database closer to the core. This would certainly make it way more scalable.

 

[anthm]

Here is an answer

Hi,

Sorry, I never noticed this question because we use a mailing list and do not use the discussion feature on our wiki.

here is the question:

Question: There is mention of Realtime, in the architecture. Does FreeSwitch receive it's configuration directly from the XML text files or from a database. Can you update just one extension in realtime and not have to update all the extensions? In comparing to Asterisk, you must reload all of the SIP extensions if you make a change to just one SIP extension. When using Asterisk/FreePBX, the process is FreePBX updates the MySQL database then when you submit, it writes to the .conf files and then Asterisk reloads "everything".



Answer:
FreeSWITCH is designed to work both in a static and dynamic environment. The design is described in detail in a few places including our FreeSWITCH 1.0.6 book. Basically FreeSWITCH holds all the config in an XML registry. This file is initially read from disk and fed through a pre-processor that can include other files and expand global variables etc. While its possible to design a gui around generating file and reloading, obviously this is not ideal.

We faced this same problem when I originally helped develop realtime for Asterisk. I did not particularly like the way realtime was done but I did not have final say in architecture decisions and I worked within the constraints I was given. Basically in FreeSWITCH instead of sprinkling a bunch of hooks all over the place we have one hook in the XML lookup function. When you invoke the module called mod_xml_curl it binds such a search function to a module that uses the cURL library to do a web post to a CGI every time something needs to be looked up. So when you register on sip, for instance, the sip module tries to locate the user in the XML registry and that triggers the module that hits your CGI and a small piece of XML is returned that is interpreted as the search results as if it was part of the static XML registry. This allows you to dynamically return things in real time. The default dialplan widely used in FreeSWITCH use XML so in turn, mod_xml_curl can allow you to deliver dynamic dialplan content.

Anyone can make another module that hooks to the xml lookups. In fact we have scripting modules that let you get callbacks in popular languages like lua, perl etc and allow you to generate XML. You can also just make your own C module and do anything you want to get the live data back to FreeSWITCH.

There is much more to discover but I hope that explains that we indeed have a deep appreciation for real time operations.


Here is the wiki page for mod_xml_curl
http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/Mod_xml_curl

 

[wardmundy]

For those of you that don't know...

Anthony Minessale is the Lead Developer and Primary Author of FreeSwitch. He's also written a terrific new book which is now available for the Kindle as well:




Welcome, Anthony! We look forward to hearing much more about your baby.

 

[Hyksos]

I will probably get nothing since obviously you refer to something coming up with easter but I have to ask since my curiosity is killing me.

You obviously want to announce something around easter but would you be willing to discuss a bit more what is coming up with the easter bunny this year?

Going fishing...

 

[tm1000]

Obviously it has to do with Freeswitch and PBX in a Flash. What distro it will be or what GUI it uses is something I am not allowed to comment on.

I will probably get nothing since obviously you refer to something coming up with easter but I have to ask since my curiosity is killing me.

You obviously want to announce something around easter but would you be willing to discuss a bit more what is coming up with the easter bunny this year?

Going fishing...

 

[Hyksos]

I get that no info will be given about what it will be, the anouncement will do that and I'll wait for it

But is it possible to know who is working on what will be anounced?

The piaf dev team? You obvously since you say you're not allowed Or Ward is referring to some other people he's near that will anounce something and he's reporting about that?

Again I'm fishing and "Just wait" is something I can respect. I'm just surprised that no one else is curious about that one liner from Ward.

I read a lot on the scene and information about freeswitch, blue.box and fusion is hard to come by. 2600hz seem to be more geared toward their whistle and the other things on the scene seem to suffer from low public activity.

Just trying to discuss the asterisk freeswitch PBX open source scene with people here since a lot of knowledgeable people are here and the informations is scarce.

Thanks for trying to sooth me TM.

 

[darmock]

No. Ward and I are so deep... not sure if we have enough air to swim to the surface.... there are a number of changes coming is all we can say. Unfortunately we all have mortgages etc so we have to work at things other than PIAF and double secret projects.... has not Incredible everything along with all sort of bits and pieces been enough? Crap We all hate skype and finally someone came forward with a few shekels which allowed one of the dev team to make most of it work. All of the dev team have other projects also!

Remember RSN!

http://catb.org/jargon/html/R/Real-Soon-Now.html

Now for the hint... it will start out small.

Tom

I will probably get nothing since obviously you refer to something coming up with easter but I have to ask since my curiosity is killing me.

You obviously want to announce something around easter but would you be willing to discuss a bit more what is coming up with the easter bunny this year?

Going fishing...

 

[tm1000]

What is low public activity to you?

FreePBX at it's core has 3 active developers.

Blue.Box at it's core has 2 active developers.

Does that make it 'low public activity'?

I read a lot on the scene and information about freeswitch, blue.box and fusion is hard to come by. 2600hz seem to be more geared toward their whistle and the other things on the scene seem to suffer from low public activity.

 

[compuguy]

This sounds very interesting, info about Freeswitch is very scarce.

I am going to be upgrading to piaf 2 soon from our old system which is 3 - 4 years old.