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UC with Open Source
A nice looking and easy-to-use interface, seamless integration, lots of features and good documentation in an enterprise-class solution-this is all that we promise through this writeup about a collaboration and Telephony servers, WildFire Jabber and Asterisk. These two work hand in hand by using a plug-in called Asterisk-IM and give you a truly integrated Unified Communications platform.
Let us see what these solutions are. WildFire Jabber is a modified version of Jabber Messaging and Collaboration Server, which can run on any platform including Linux, Mac and Windows. You can manage it from an easy-to-use Web interface. Asterisk, on the other hand, is the most renowned open source IP-Telephony Solution available. Not only many companies use it, there are also some vendors who manufacture IP-PBX boxes with Asterisk embedded inside. Asterisk-IM, which we will use, is a Java based plug-in for WildFire that adds integration functionality for Asterisk into it.
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| When adding credentials, make sure to use the right port and Context for Asterix Server. Values for a default installation are as above |
But Asterisk has one drawback--natively it has only a CLI based management and configuration interface. We solve this problem by using FreePBX, a graphical interface for Asterisk that makes management and configuration a breeze.
To make things simpler, we also have a distribution called TrixBox Linux. This CentOS based distro has all the required components for deploying a production class IP-telephony solution. It integrates Asterisk, FreePBX, SugarCRM, Maine, A4astersik (an billing and monitoring package for asterisk) in one CD. All you, then, have to do is to install this distro and your full fledged IP-PBX should be up and running in minutes.
The list of features in this Asterisk and WildFire combination easily competes with any commercial UC solution, and it will be difficult for us to list all of them in this story. So, we limit the scope of this article to integrating WildFire and Asterisk Servers to exchange information and user presence.
Pre-requisites
To start with, you will need TrixBox Linux running on a machine which has a valid IP address (say 192.168.1.1), WildFire Jabber Server running on a Windows Machine (say, with IP 192.168.1.2), at least two clients running any OS that are either connected through a Hard IP Phone or with any Soft Phone installed. Additionally, you will need Spark, a WildFire client that supports Asterisk-IM plug-in, installed on both the clients. You will also require the Asterisk-IM plug-in.
We assume that your WildFire and TrixBox setup is running individually and you are able to place calls and chat between both client machines. If you face problems in configuring TrixBox, visit http://dumbme.voipeye.com.au/trixbox/trixbox_without_tears.pdf for help. Installing and configuring WildFire is simple too. You can get all the above-mentioned applications on this month's PCQ Xtreme DVD. The Asterisk-IM plug-in available on the website of WildFire Jabber doesn't work with the latest WildFire version. So, while configuring use only the Astersik-IM.jar file provided on this month's PCQ Xtreme DVD.
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| Once done, your Spark client will automatically change the status of the user to 'On Phone', whenever the user dials out or receives a call |
Configuration
The integration of WildFire and Asterisk/Trixbox is very straightforward. First open up the folder 'C:\Program Files\ Wildfire\plugins' or wherever you have installed WildFire in your machine and copy the Asterisk-IM.jar file from this month's DVD to the folder. Now shutdown the WildFire Server and restart it by clicking on the WildFire Server Agent. Now you will notice two new things. One, a folder called Asterisk-IM is created on the plug-in folder and two, there is a new Tab available on WildFire's management interface. Now, go to the management interface and provide credential for the Asterisk Server. For the values of the required fields for a default Asterisk installation, please refer to the following screenshot. The only thing that might vary is the IP address of the Asterisk server.
Adeesh Sharma, Anil Chopra, Anindya Roy, Rinku Tyagi and Sujay V Sarma
Source: PCQuest
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