a2billing v. 1.4x and beyond

[rjm]

Has anyone used any of the new a2billing versions? I need agent tracking so I need to upgrade. Has anyone evaluated system requirements to see if they match what is required for the new version?

 

[jroper]

Hi

The main requirement is for PHP 5.2 which is not in the CentOS repository, other than that, installation is broadly similar to 1.3.4

Joe

 

[rjm]

Thank you Joe. A few follow up questions:

1. If I have 1.3.4 installed, can I install on top of it, or do I have to remove it?
2. Is there any reason not to install PHP 5.2?
3. I think I saw somewhere that there is a star2billing script for sale on the internet. Can I use the star2billing script to run the install over 1.3.4?

Thank you once again. I just don't want to break anything.

Rob

 

[jroper]

Hi

You can upgrade the 1.3.4 database using the scripts provided in the A2Billing tarball. Back up first so you can go back.

The web directories simply replace the contents of the existing directories.

the new a2billing.conf replaces the old one, but the location has moved to /etc/a2billing.conf not /etc/asterisk/a2billing.conf and the agi-confs are now database driven.

You replace the cronjobs with the new ones.

Replace a2billing.php with the new version.

We have a svn directory, 1-current, which is where we do all our commercial installs from, the beauty of using SVN and symlinking from this directory to all the other elements (Webs, Crons, a2billing.php) is that when you come to upgrade, just do an svn update, and run the latest mysql upgrade scripts, and you are upgraded.

We keep the svn directory 1-current right up to date, and always is the latest stable version in there.

You can of course purchase the scripts off the internet. The A2Billing project does not get any revenue from the sale of these scripts as far as I know, e.g. I do not know if the author makes anonymous donations to us, based on his revenue he makes by selling these scripts. However we have made some money providing consultancy to clean up after scripts that have been downloaded from the internet and blindly run without being aware of the results. Star2Billing S.L. do not provide install scripts

The install is not that difficult, and well documented - one forum member said that the installation was so easy and well documented that ...even his mother could do it!

In respect of upgrading to 5.2, I cannot see any reason not to, it is stable code, and been out since 02-Nov-2006 it's just that Redhat are a tad slow in catching up.

I use the utter-ramblings repository from Jason Litka

Any problems, come back to me either on this thread or in the forums, and we will do what we can to assist.

Joe

 

[TheShniz]

The main requirement is for PHP 5.2 which is not in the CentOS repository, other than that, installation is broadly similar to 1.3.4

Alrighty, you caught my attention... I thought A2Billing only required PHP5? PiaF is currently going out with PHP 5.1.6 (pretty sure), and I've got A2Billing 1.7.1 running on it. So can you confirm A2Billing really needs 5.2.x, and what the effects/implications might be if run on 5.1.x?

 

[jroper]

Hi

Check the dashboard.

There are other effects, but I cannot bring them to mind now, they'll be in a forum post somewhere in A2Billing.net

Joe

 

[TheShniz]

Well, HMmmmmmmmmmmmm..... thanx Joe

I'm glad I finally caught this. I'll admit that I've been poking into A2Billing faily regularly now, and trolling through Tony's ever-so-detailed writeup (oh so long).

For anyone else saying 'whoops', go here:
http://forum.asterisk2billing.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=6101&hilit=php
(I've not tested it myself yet, but will very shortly)

I realize I'm not active on the A2B forums, but here's my measily contributions for those searching...

To upgrade from 1.7.0 to 1.7.1, run the attached .sql instead of what comes w/ 1.7.1; I know Areski says it doesn't really matter and will be fixed in next version, but I'm a stickler.

During Installation, don't run...
easy_install dist/callback_daemon-1.0.prod_r1528-py2.4.egg
...as this produces an error, but rather...
easy_install dist/callback_daemon-1.0.prod-py2.4.egg

 

[jroper]

Hi

That's corrected in the SVN direcory 1-current.

At each release, the "trunk" has to be stabilised, and then turned into a tarball, if a bug is found, and new dev work has started, it is quite time consuming to re-stabilise trunk, and re-release a tarball, but a minor edit can be made to 1-current fairly easily.

I'm not entirely happy with the c5-testing repository, it changes very rapidly, and it has not always been stable, I used to use it, but now I use utter-ramblings. Same principles apply though to upgrading php in that post.

Tony's post regarding configuration is still current, but one of the new features was the ability to route DID internally, so that carrier costs are not incurred when one customer calls another's DID.

Joe

 

[rjm]

Thank you. I am well beyond my comfort zone, so I am thinking that I may need to take you up on your offer.

I'll do a backup and give it a shot, follow your links (which I am hoping will help with the process), and hope the learning process is not too painful.

Thanks for your thoughtful and detailed reply. I very much appreciate it.

Rob

 

[rjm]

You mentioned that the install is well documented. Can you point me to the upgrade docs please? Thanks.

 

[rjm]

Joe, why do you keep the latest commercial version in 1-current/stable and not in trunk?

When I check out a copy of the 1-current, it drops it in /usr/src/a2billing/1-current/stable. How do I link it back to where it needs to appear to live?

Anyone?

 

[jroper]

Hi

Trunk is generally where the development work goes on, so that is always in a state of flux. When we stablise trunk and release, it goes to the latest tag. The tag is "kind of" symlinked to the latest tag, so that if you do an install from the SVN, rather than the tarball, and you use symlinks, rather than moving files around the file system, upgrading is as easy as doing an svn update, and applying the latest database script.

Joe