How to use bundled samples

There are several bundled samples included into Visual Dialplan downloadable package.
You can find there simple dial plans like “Hello World” dial plan that may be used to test the Asterisk and Visual Dialplan configuration but also there are advanced dial plans like “Quick Office” and “Simple IVR” dial plans that may be good start point for building your own dial plan.

Please follow these steps to successfully use these samples:

1. Define the connection to the Asterisk (Elastix, trixbox…) server
Visual Dialplan comes with integrated SSH client.
Type in the SSH access parameters at Preferences dialog and click on the “Test connection” button to test the connection with the server.
You should get the message that confirms you have established the connection to your Asterisk server.

Now you should click on the “Detect” button to detect the Asterisk server version.
You should get the message informing you about the Asterisk server version and appropriate version will be selected automatically from the drop down list.

Now you should select appropriate type of your server (Plain Asterisk, Elastix, trixbox etc.) from the ‘Asterisk server type’ drop down box.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
It is very important to set the appropriate type of the server in order to instruct Visual Dialplan to deploy the dial plan appropriately.

2. Read the server configuration data
Select defined server above at the “Select server …” drop down box to read the server configuration data.

Visual Dialplan will connect to the server and read server configuration data.
It will pre-populate library components with configuration data and later on validate the dial plan accordingly.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Visual Dialplan will only read configuration parameters but will not change any of it.

3. Open the dial plan sample (File/Open Dialplan option from the main menu)

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Make sure to open appropriate dial plan i.e. if you set up Plain Asterisk server type then open samples from Plain Asterisk folder, if you set up Elastix server type then open samples from Elastix folder etc.

4. Validate the sample dial plan
Now you are ready to validate the dial plan against your server configuration and clear all potential warnings.
Select Dialplan/Validate from the top menu.

Components that are not properly connected or configured will be marked in red and consequently the contexts and subroutines with such components will be marked in red.
You should open those contexts/subroutines and clear the warnings.

5. Additional instructions

Read any additional dial plan instructions provided within the notes at the contexts graphical presentation, if available.

6. Deploy the dial plan
When you are done with all the warnings you are ready to deploy the dial plan.
Simply click on the “Deploy” button or select Dialplan/Deploy from the main menu and the dial plan will be deployed to the Asterisk server.
No additional work at Asterisk server side is required (Visual Dialplan will automatically load new dial plan into the Asterisk and do all the other work you usually did manually).

Once you successfully deployed the dial plan the confirmation massage will be displayed.

Make sure you have already read the following articles:

Visual Dialplan Overview
How to connect to Asterisk server
How to read Asterisk server configuration
How to work with Elastix (trixbox, PIAF etc.)

Without the knowledge from above tutorials it would be very hard to understand the samples.

We also recommend you to check these movies:

Hello world sample
Simple dial plan

How you are ready to try the basic samples – start with Hello worlds sample and then proceed with all basic samples (numerated samples that starts with “00_” and end with “03_”).

After you have successfully complete the basic samples try the advanced samples that require Apstel Integration Server (db sample, credit card sample).

The payment (credit card) sample requires Payment gateway configured properly under the Visual Dialplan Professional view and Apstel Integration Server installed and running. Both should be there if you have selected check box Install Embedded Integration Server when you have installed Visual Dialplan Professional.
In case you do not have it, you should first download and install Apstel Integration Server: http://www.apstel.com/download-integration-server/
And then you should create Payment gateway named “Auth.net Gateway” under the Integration Server view in Visual Dialplan Professional.

Select Development mode radio button and insert username (API login ID) and Transaction ID at Payment gateway configuration window (Integration Server view in Visual Dialplan Professional). You should received your username and Transaction ID once you have registered developer account at Authorize.net.

If you do not know it, simply log in to the Merchant Interface at Authorize.net and click “Account.” Then click “API Login ID and Transaction Key.” Your API Login ID will be displayed. For security reasons, you cannot view your Transaction Key. Instead, you must generate a new one. To do this you will need the Secret Answer to the system-generated Secret Question, which is “Simon”.

After you have this all configured, deploy the Payment (credit card) sample and run the it.
Call the extension number 0055, enter credit card number, expiration month and year, and the dial plan will do the credit card processing through Apstel Integration Server.

At the end of the payment transaction the Integration Server (IS) sets the following variables:

IS_PAY_RESP_CODE
Response Code: The overall status of the transaction (1 = Approved, 2 = Declined, 3 = Error, 4 = Held for Review)

IS_PAY_RESP_SUBCODE
Response Subcode: A code used by the payment gateway for internal transaction tracking

IS_PAY_RESP_RSN
Response Reason Code: A code that represents more details about the result of the transaction. Format: Numeric

IS_PAY_RESP_DESC
Response Reason Text: A brief description of the result, which corresponds with the response reason code

You can check these variables in the dialplan, or Asterisk server log.

Should you have any further question, please do not hesitate to contact us.