[Migrated from old forumParticipant April 5, 2015 at 7:25 am Post count: 327]

#5650 |

Hi all,

Is it possible to import existing Asterisk code and present it graphically?
If not, what would be recommended steps to move existing code to Visual Dialplan?

I have already developed dial plan (extensions.conf file), created by previous admin in the company, and I would like to ‘transfer’ it to Visual Dialplan because it is much easier to communicate dial plan logic with my managers that way (i am tired or making MS Visio diagrams to communicate dial plan logic).

Thanks in advance.

Daniel Colodores

[Migrated from old forumParticipant April 5, 2015 at 7:25 am Post count: 327]

#5651 |

Daniel,
As far as I know you cannot currently import existing dialplan code into VDP and show it graphically. The easiest thing to do is just create a new dialplan in VDP and design it to emulate the functionality of your existing hand code. It should take you less time to design using VDP so you shouldn’t really “lose” any time recreating your existing logic.

Kevin

[Migrated from old forumParticipant April 5, 2015 at 7:26 am Post count: 327]

#5652 |

Hello Daniel,

Although import functionality is not implemented at this moment (as far as I know), there are other functionality that are implemented and that you may find useful to include dial plan developed with Visual Dialplan to your existing extensions.conf dial plan or to move your extensions.conf code to Visual Dialplan.

How to include dial plan developed with Visual Dialplan to existing extensions.conf dial plan?

If you want to include dial plan developed with Visual Dialplan to your existing extensions.conf you will probably benefit from using include statement.
Simply add include statement in your existing extensions.conf to include the file developed with Visual Dialplan.
For example, if you want to name the file developed with Visual Dialplan ‘extensions-apstel.conf’ you will need to:
– rename the output file at preferences dialog (default is extensions.conf for Plain Asterisk server type, but you can rename it to whatever you want, rename it to extensions-apstel.conf)
– deploy extensions-apstel.conf file to your Asterisk server (using Visual Dialplan)
– add include statement into your existing extensions.conf to include newly created extensions-apstel.conf file, and reload the dial plan
That’s it.
When new call arrives the dial plan in extension.conf will be executed and newly created extensions-apstel.conf file will be included and extecuted too.
This way your existing extensions.conf file will not be changed and you’ll work with extensions-apstel.conf file only.

This approach is good if you want to keep existing extensions.conf file and keep working on new part of the dial plan in Visual Dialplan (separate branch or module or separate logical part of the dial plan).

How to move extensions.conf or part of extensions.conf to new dial plan developed with Visual Dialplan?

If you want to do that you will probably benefit the most from Include functionality and Custom Code component.

With Include functionality you can include existing traditional asterisk dial plan code or part of the existing traditional Asterisk dial plan code into Visual Dialplan and keep maintaining that part of the dial plan separately from the Visual Dialplan, in a traditional manner. This functionality can be very useful if you have structurally developed Asterisk dial plan code because you can Include those modules/parts of the code into Visual Dialplan and continue further development in Visual Dialplan leveraging existing modules you already have.

You may also find useful Custom Code Component (available in Visual Dialplan Professional version only) that will allow you to write or reuse already developed traditional asterisk dial plan code and to keep that code inside the Visual Dialplan graphical diagram within the Custom Component.

Michael Denich

Apstel support team

[Migrated from old forumParticipant April 5, 2015 at 7:26 am Post count: 327]

#5653 |

Thanks Michael and Kevin, this is very helpful.
I tried Include and Custom Code and it works (not like my imaginary import but still, this works ;).
I reorganized my hand made code better to Include it in Visual Dialplan while some specific modules are moved to Custom Code.

Thanks!

[Migrated from old forumParticipant April 5, 2015 at 7:26 am Post count: 327]

#5654 |

Daniel,
Glad to hear it! I think you’ll find Visual Dialplan as indispensable as I do in creating dialplans. I use it all the time, especially for DB integration with other systems, such as customer information and billing systems. Truly a treat to work with something this powerful.

Kevin

[Migrated from old forumParticipant April 5, 2015 at 7:27 am Post count: 327]

#5655 |

Sure it is!
Very powerful and feature rich tool, and I am learning something new every day working with it. The next thing I’ll try is to pool some data from the remote MySQL database using Integration Server. I’ll let you all know how it goes.
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