Posted on Monday, 2nd August 2010 by Michael
ADA: Asterisk Desktop Assistant by Diginum
The Asterisk Desktop Assistant is a plug-in that allows you to be able to click on telephone numbers inside of Microsoft Office Products, Firefox and Thunder Bird. Once you click on the number it will ring your phone, once you answer it will then dial and connect you to the number you clicked.
The Asterisk Desktop Assistant can be found her for download: http://blogs.digium.com/2008/12/22/asterisk-desktop-assistant-windows-click-to-call-and-more/
Though Diginum provides a great website and a lot of data on how to install this plug-in their directions are extremely high level and it takes more tweaking then they have documentation on.
First thing to do is make sure that the firewall protecting your Asterisk box allows port 5038 inbound to it if you are using the ADA plug-in remotely. Next if working remotely makes sure that if you are behind a firewall that it allows port 5038 outbound.
Second we will need to make some changes to your Asterisk PBX. I am going to assume that you are running a version of Asterisk that has FreePBX. If this is the case you will have to edit two files manually on the system as well as have at least 1 extension configured that you want to use.
1. The first file you will want to edit is /etc/asterisk/manager_custom.conf
You will want to add the following to the file:
[1001] <-- This is the extension / username, change to fit your system
secret = ****** <-- password to use
permit=0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0 <-- Where to allow connections from. I suggest locking it down
deny=10.0.0.1/255.255.255.255 <-- Where to deny connections from
read = system,call,log,verbose,command,agent,user <-- permissions for the user on AGI
write = system,call,log,verbose,command,agent,user <--permissions for the user on AGI
2. The next file you will want to edit is /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf
You will want to add this to the bottom of that file:
[ada] <-- context
include => from-internal
exten => 1001,1,Dial(SIP/1001) ßchange the 1001 to your extension
3. Now that is down issue the command asterisk –rx “core restart gracefully”
Third we will look at the actual install and configuration of the ADA plug-in on your windows system. The installation is pretty straight forward as you just click the setup and it installs. Once it is installed you will need to configure it to talk to your Asterisk box.
1. Install the ADA software. It can be downloaded here http://dl1.digium.com/ADA1.1/ADAInstall.exe; make sure that Firefox and any Microsoft application is closed before starting the install.
2. You will see it show up on your screen and in the lower right hand corner of your computer taskbar. To configure it simply right click on it and choose settings.
3. Only tab you need to worry about is the general tab where you will choose Asterisk and enter your Asterisk IP or hostname.
4. Choose Save Settings.
5. On the main screen enter the user name and password of the user you created above.
Fourth we will need to make some changes to the ADA system files for it to work with FireFox and ThunderBird.
1. There is a version restriction in the ADA software on what version of Firefox and Thunderbird it can work on. To get around this you will need to edit the following file in notepad: C:\Program Files\Digium\ADA\Mozilla\install.rdf. Look for the line <em:maxVersion> and change the number to something like 9.0 then save the file.
2. Next reboot the computer. Once the computer reboots your FireFox and Thunderbird will be ready to go.
Now you should see telephone numbers show up as links. If you hover over the links it should have a tag like this ada://717xxxxxxx. If you click that it will dial the number.
Fifth and final we will make the required changes to Microsoft Office. This will need to be done in each of the office products you run. At the time of writing this I am currently running Office 2007 at work and Office 2010 at home.
1. Click on the round office icon in the upper left hand column of the office product you are setting up.
2. Click on “That products name” options.
3. Click on Add-Ins
4. Click where it says Manage and choose “Smart Tags” and make sure to click on ADA (ADASmartTags) and then click on go.
5. Press ok.
Now you should be able to right click the number and choose dial.
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Posted in Papers | Comments (2)
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Hi
How I will setup the caller IP (phone number) of the ADA.
All my call true the ADA are שnonymous (without caller ID)
10Q
October 4th, 2010 at 8:33 am
I am not sure this is usually a setting in your PBX and with your VOIP provider. The ADA just uses the settings in the pbx.