Dear Experts,

What is the best way to restrict selective extentions from making outbound calls?
As well what is the best way, or is there any module which I can install to help me dedicate selective outbound trunk to some specified extentions only?
I use Elastix 1.3, the latest stable version available here as of today..

Thanks in advance

Ive recently been put onto this:
www.freepbx.org/support/documentation/mo...dules/customcontexts

Its a 3rd party FreePBX module that has the potential to break things horribly, but its also incredibly powerful! Highly recommended if you're a semi-experienced admin

Chilling_Silence wrote:

Its a 3rd party FreePBX module that has the potential to break things horribly

Which things the CustomContents application is known to break? I don't want to start using a module if it is known to give nightmares.. unless I misunderstand you..


Chilling_Silence wrote:
Highly recommended if you're a semi-experienced admin
Is there any other way (or maybe module) to achieve my need being a semi-experienced admin? even if it is more sophisticated
for my current level

Nakkoush:

First answer, per se, the module does'nt break things, it is more the implementer that can break things.
Second answer,Unfortunately not, but I believe you are in the right place her, please keep reading and exploring, welcome!
(start with
www.freepbx.org/support/documentation/ho...tricted-trunk-access )

Hey Chill:

I cautioned you not to give it to newbies, now look what you did, for your penance please go and immediately write a "cheat-freepbx into thinking you are more experienced than you are" module

dicko, no need to worry about what Chil wrote here.. I saw Custom Contexts at Elastix without tears even before posting here, but I hesitated to use it since it is still beta version and last release was maybe two years ago, then I thought of posting here maybe there is a module that I am missing concerning the extensions restriction

Nakkoush wrote:
Dear Experts,

What is the best way to restrict selective extentions from making outbound calls?

"Best" depends on your point of view. There are no great ways to do it built into FreePBX, but there are ways. Chilling_Silence has mentioned one popular method; if you don't care for that approach (which in some ways is a pain in the neck to maintain due to the number of options and the fact that the priorities don't necessarily automatically compensate when you add new routes), then check out this page: Links hidden for unregistered users. Login or register Here

As well what is the best way, or is there any module which I can install to help me dedicate selective outbound trunk to some specified extentions only?
I use Elastix 1.3, the latest stable version available here as of today..

Believe me, it's been requested often, there are several open tickets in the FreePBX bug tracker for some implementation of this feature (I should know, I've written at least two of them)!

Part of the problem is that the original author of Custom Contexts shows up every now and then, says he's going to rewrite it or write a simplified version, but for whatever reason hasn't gotten around to it yet. I'm not going to make any negative comments because I really don't know what his situation is, but I just wish he'd follow through. I think part of the problem is that when he does come around, he spends too much time on the IRC channels which, to paraphrase Pat Townsend's comments about Usenet a decade or so ago, can sometimes be "a cesspool and a dungheap" of misinformation. I think perhaps he then gets discouraged and moves on to other pursuits, but that's just speculation on my part. But whatever the situation is, I wish he'd get around to writing the simplified "Custom Contexts" (which he called "Custom Contexts Lite" ).

@ wiseoldowl, something similar to Custom Contexts lite is what I am actually looking for.. I've just installed Custom Contexts and I understand now your point about the number of options which for me seems to be too complicated and more than needed for my purpose; I think for my case I only need to use the "Outbound Routes" section to simply create a Context to allow and another to Disallow extensions from using the Outbound Trunks..

What I really wonder is that in this word of IT experts there is only one author (the one who wrote Custom Contexts) knowledgeable enough to write such application (module)?
I think there is no much people requesting for it.

Nakkoush wrote:
What I really wonder is that in this word of IT experts there is only one author (the one who wrote Custom Contexts) knowledgeable enough to write such application (module)?
I think there is no much people requesting for it.

Well, the answer to that is that when they came up with the module system, nobody felt the need to write any decent documentation so that ordinary users would have any inkling how to create a module. Those proficient enough to reverse-engineer existing modules have had some luck, and more recently the documentation has been improved (or so I've been told) but at this point in time there are still only a select few capable of writing modules without a whole lot of effort and head-scratching.

One other problem is that you pretty much have to know PHP to write a module. FreePBX is definitely not language-agnostic software (referring to computer languages); if you don't know or don't care to use PHP you aren't going to get very far. It also helps if you understand how to interact with a MySQL database. Personally, I don't qualify on either count.

Then we have to be patiend and wait.. For the time being, I will use the available "Custom Contents" 0.3.4 and let you know in case it breaks anything.

Im in the same boat, I have basically no knowledge of PHP or MySQL, however I wonder how difficult it would be to look at the code, modify it so its called customcontextslite (A find / replace perhaps?) and then have the main page so it only shows you the options of which outbound route you want to give the user access to, allowing all the others or leaving them un-changed from defaults?

Dont hold your breath for a positive outcome, but I might have a bit of a nosey at some point shortly ...