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[gordon+asterisk at dro...]

Reading this thread with interest..

Curiously enough I asked something similar a while back - got a few
replies and at the time decided to stick to pure dialplan - but my
application was a general purpose PBX type of thing, and I didn't want to
use realtime nor an SQL database... ('embedded' system running from RAM),
So I have a "core" of dialplan, some hand-crafted macros, contexts, etc.
then everything else is machine generated - I have many PHP programs that
write the dialplan for me, based on the plain-text config files I keep (I
don't read anything in /etc/asterisk, I generate bits of it).

Typically, I'll hand-code a new function, then translate it into a config
file representation, then PHP code to write the dialplan.

This has worked well for me - and is fast enough to use for test systems
with a few 100 extensions (although typicall it's in the 20-60 range) -
where I re-write a lot of dialplan, then send an 'extensions reload' to
the system (1.2.x) No crashes doing this yet!

So maybe I'm creating a hybrid sort of system where PHP is my AEL

I'll give you an example:

Create a "call group" via my GUI - which creates an extension and a list
of other extensions in that group which are then called at the same time,
but each extension has a do not disturb flag which has to be honoured...

The line in my "extensions" config file looks like:

222:100,101,102,103,104,109::CG:House Phones:::::::::

Which means extension is 222, members are 100, 101, 102,103,104 and 109,
it's a Call Group called House Phones..

This generates (gulp - glad I didn't have to type this in!)

; House Phones
exten => 222,1,Noop(Call Group House Phones)
exten => 222,n,Set(dialString=)
exten => 222,n(cg2220),Set(dnd=${DB(100/doNotDisturb)})
exten => 222,n,GotoIf($["${dnd}" != ""]?cg2221)
exten => 222,n,Set(dialString=${dialString}&${ext100})
exten => 222,n(cg2221),Set(dnd=${DB(101/doNotDisturb)})
exten => 222,n,GotoIf($["${dnd}" != ""]?cg2222)
exten => 222,n,Set(dialString=${dialString}&${ext101})
exten => 222,n(cg2222),Set(dnd=${DB(102/doNotDisturb)})
exten => 222,n,GotoIf($["${dnd}" != ""]?cg2223)
exten => 222,n,Set(dialString=${dialString}&${ext102})
exten => 222,n(cg2223),Set(dnd=${DB(103/doNotDisturb)})
exten => 222,n,GotoIf($["${dnd}" != ""]?cg2224)
exten => 222,n,Set(dialString=${dialString}&${ext103})
exten => 222,n(cg2224),Set(dnd=${DB(104/doNotDisturb)})
exten => 222,n,GotoIf($["${dnd}" != ""]?cg2225)
exten => 222,n,Set(dialString=${dialString}&${ext104})
exten => 222,n(cg2225),Set(dnd=${DB(109/doNotDisturb)})
exten => 222,n,GotoIf($["${dnd}" != ""]?cg2226)
exten => 222,n,Set(dialString=${dialString}&${ext109})
exten => 222,n(cg2226),Noop(Calling ${dialString:1})

-- so the above stuff is generated by a PHP loop, and the stuff below was
hand coded by me, but then put into the PHP file for it to write out as
part of the process.

exten => 222,n,Noop(callGroup - Checking ringTone: Currently set to <${ringTone}>)
exten => 222,n,GotoIf($["${ringTone}" = ""]?noEntryRingTone)
exten => 222,n,Noop(callGroup - ringTone of ${ringTone} already set.)
exten => 222,n,Set(_ringTone=${ringTone})
exten => 222,n,SIPAddHeader(Alert-Info: ${ringTone})
exten => 222,n,Goto(doneRingToneCheck)
exten => 222,n(noEntryRingTone),Noop(callGroup - No entry ringTone set - checking internal ringTone)
exten => 222,n,GotoIf($["${internalRingTone}" = ""]?doneRingToneCheck)
exten => 222,n,Noop(callGroup - Internal ringTone of ${ringTone} set.)
exten => 222,n,Set(_ringTone=${internalRingTone})
exten => 222,n,SIPAddHeader(Alert-Info: ${ringTone})
exten => 222,n(doneRingToneCheck),Noop(callGroup - end of ringTone check)
exten => 222,n,Dial(${dialString:1},,wton)
Maybe the last part should be in a macro, but it's funny how things
evolve!

Gordon