Dear experts,
There is one thing that I am missing from my previous Voice System (Linksys Voice System) which is the Phone Book..

I used to have all my Local and External numbers available for all my phones extentions, by browsing the Linksys IP phones 9** directory..
I am sure that this is possible with Elastix but I don't know how to do it and I want to avoid as much as possible uploading and downloading modules anyhow without hearing the expert's blessing here as they might break and cause issues I am not currently able to rectify..

Thanks in advance.

There is the dial-by-name Directory which comes with Elastix. AFAIK it should be enabled by default
You have to enter in the list of names, and their Extension, but its definitely worthwhile doing!

Chilling_Silence wrote:
There is the dial-by-name Directory which comes with Elastix. AFAIK it should be enabled by default
You have to enter in the list of names, and their Extension, but its definitely worthwhile doing!

Excuse my ignorance BUT I looked everywhere and I can't find the dial-by-name Directory, I looked even in Elastix without tears..

1- How do I access it from the phone side?
2- how do I add users to it?

It is indeed always there.
On the General Settings page there is a sub setting for "Company Direcrory", you may choose to use the directory by first, last or both of these. and a couple of other settings that are also self explanatory.
The names are taken from the extension "Display Names" and are played back from the voice mail "greetings" recordings or in the absence of those recordings spelled back robotically.
You may access it by enabling it in IVR's on the # option.
"FeatureCodes: -"Info source" is where you can read/change and enable it's functionality.
there is also a 411/ Dial by name feature for outbounfd calling you may seed it in "Unembedded FreePBX/Tools/Asterisk Phonebook" and by "CID lookup Sources" but here we need to pay extra for "CNAM: (name as well as number) CallerID (extra cost) on ZAP and most SIP services
The number to letter mappings are appropriate to North American Phones, I cannot vouch for other mappings.

coincidentally
www.freepbx.org/support/documentation
authoritatively documents the features of FreePBX

dicko wrote:
It is indeed always there.
On the General Settings page there is a sub setting for "Company Direcrory", you may choose to use the directory by first, last or both of these. and a couple of other settings that are also self explanatory.
The names are taken from the extension "Display Names" and are played back from the voice mail "greetings" recordings or in the absence of those recordings spelled back robotically.


I wasn't very clear from the beginning: Is there a way to set the 'dir' button on my Linksys SPA9** phones to display the company directory or a list of extensions?

I am not planning to use currently the IVR; Is it possible to access the phone book list of Elastix from my Linksys phones and how?.. if I press the existing "dir" button it is not taking me anywhere.. it is empty, I can simply add a new entity..

when I dial 411, it takes me straight to the phone book but it cannot find any extension probably because I haven't setup the phone book of the unembedded freepbx. is that what you mean?

Or do you mean that the Phone Book is only Voice interactive?

sorry but I am still confused

I don't have one of these phones so unless you want to send me one I probably can't give you any definitive answer on this. However, I note that the Linksys SPA941 manual says this:
[quote]Personal Directory
A directory entry consists of the following information:

nakkoush:

When your ready for it the output of:

wrapped up in xml and sent from the tftpserver in Elastix
or
wrapped up in html and poseted to <linksysip>/pdir.spa
will do it. edit:(sorry I noticed where I am, this wasn't for newbies corner)

Aastra's XML scripts do the directory very elegantly on the 55i & 57i phones. One of the XML scripts parses the Elastix/FreePBX/Asterisk list of extensions and displays them on the phone. Works very well. Getting the Aastra XML scripts to work on Elastix takes a while, but is worth the trouble.

dicko wrote:
nakkoush:

When your ready for it the output of:

Code:

/usr/bin/mysql  -h 127.0.0.1 -u root -peLaStIx.2oo7  --batch -B -N -D asterisk -e  ' select "n=", name,";p=",extension,";r=13" from users;'|sed 's/\t//g'|head -100

wrapped up in xml and sent from the tftpserver in Elastix
or
wrapped up in html and poseted to <linksysip>/pdir.spa
will do it. edit:(sorry I noticed where I am, this wasn't for newbies corner)

Thank you experts for all your suggestions which obviously is beyond my current expertise and sorry for my late reply the weekend was crazy for me..

I am eager to try what dicko and vtofa suggested; Currently there are still other priorities for me to learn Elastix before starting Aastra and parsing.. but hopefully soon you will see me back to continue this post!

Thanks All!

nakoush i need exactly the same thing...
did you found any solution...??
im waiting for your response...
thnx