OSS Ramblings
http://www.ossramblings.com/blackberry_asterisk_integration
Asterisk, Blackberry and eGroupware
This is a near perfect solution. I run an Asterisk Vo/IP system for my office, and eGroupware with Cyrus for our mail system. We migrated from Microsoft Exchange some time ago and I've never looked back.
With eGroupware, we were able to replace 99% of the functionality of our Microsoft Exchange server with open source software. With sieve filters users can set up an unlimited number of server-side mail filters, something you can't do with Exchange anymore, and the web interface works much better with Firefox than Microsoft's web access. Our Asterisk phone system integrates into the mix and will deliver voicemail to the user's e-mail box.
Now, with my Blackberry I can download and play those voicemails without ever having to dial into the phone system, because they are wav files attached to e-mail that is picked up by my Blackberry. I'm feeling so "connected" right now it's not even funny :-)
Switching to an all open-source messaging suite like this was easier than I thought, but when we did the primary migration I only had about 10 users to worry about. This made it much easier. I took Outlook (or the appropriate mail client) and downloaded everything to a local storage. After setting up IMAP to the Cyrus server I pushed it all back up - not recommended if you're going to migrate a few hundred users, but effective in my case. I then set up the Funambol open source sync client for each user to sync their contacts and calendar between the server and their local store. This gives them remote access to their data, and I have a copy of that on both the desktop and the server in addition to the server backups in the event of a catastrophic failure.
On my Blackberry I again use the Funambol client to sync contacts and calendar to the server. Within 30 minutes of getting the Blackberry I'd already downloaded the Funambol client over the air and sync'd with my eGroupware server, without ever attaching the Blackberry to a computer.
Configuring Asterisk to deliver voicemails as a wav file to your e-mail box is simple. I now I have a completely integrated messaging system that doesn't tie me to a desktop computer, and every aspect of it is open source software!
blackberry + Cyrus
Hey Tony,
You seem to have a really nice setup. I myself am using postfix as IMAP server. I haven't yet configured an exchange frontend. I already tested openexchane,zimbra,... and they all seem to be able to replace exchange. On thing that still isn't clear is how the integration with your mobile works.
I enabled GPRS for my cellphone a couple of months ago. I found it quit usefull, but after a month a got a bill indicating I had consumed 50MB so I had to pay a lot extra (we only get 10MB for data exchange.), I found it very strange that I had used 50 MB as I only used my mail and limited every message to 2Kb. My guess is my mobile phone downloaded all the messages everytime to do a compare or something.
The next thing I wanted to investigate is the possibility to use a blackberry with my own mailserver. As blackberry devices are designed to handle email efficiently, I assume this wouldn't happen. Could you tell me how the setup for your blackberry with your cyris works? Maybe even give some figures about how much data you consume?
regards
Bjorn
ps I'm a total blackberry n00b
Mobile integration
There's two parts to integrate with my Blackberry. The first is the sync of my contacts and calendar using the Funambol free sync client. It connects to my eGroupware server and manages the sync. It's not automatic - I have to tell it when to sync. There's docs in the eGroupware site that describe how to configure the Blackberry Funambol sync. It's easy once your eGroupware is set up and accessible from the web. There's an rpc.php file on your egroupware server that the Funambol client will talk to.
The other part of course is push e-mail. I'm just using the Blackberry Internet Service (BIS). It checks my IMAP server and pushes anything new down to my Blackberry.
I'm not sure how much traffic that causes on my server, but I do know it logs into the IMAP server every somewhere between 3 and 15 minutes to look for new mail. I do this without having to buy a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES). It works with either an ISP's mail account or your own mail server - AS LONG as it's on the standard port 110 or 143. There's no way to specify what port your mail server runs on.
You don't have to worry about running your own SMTP service for the Blackberry. All your outbound mail from the Blackberry gets sent out from a blackberry.com smtp server.
I do monitor bandwidth on my network, but my mail server is such a tiny portion of the total that I can't give you a good idea of how much bandwidth the Blackberry service is actually using. I have a full T-1, and the addition of the Blackberry service hasn't impacted my overall network usage. I imagine that mail check every 3 to 15 minutes might take up a bit though.
If you have clients that can
If you have clients that can connect to exchange OTA using windows activesync like PDA's or Nokia mobile phones you can install z-push on your web server to deliver email to clients, however you still need to sync contacts etc using the SyncML connection. Z-push uses your own mailserver and webserver.
http://z-push.sourceforge.net/soswp/
What's the 1%?
You said that it's replaced 99% of the functionality of Exchange. What's the 1%? I'm curious because I'd like to be able to convert a small group of users over from Lotus Notes to a similar implementation and want to get a handle on what kinds of issues there might be.
Thanks!
The 1% is notes / tasks
I can only sync Calendar and Contacts, not notes or tasks. My users never even noticed though, it just means I'm not backing that data up in the event of a local hard drive crash.
Thanks
This is a near perfect solution. I run an Asterisk Vo/IP system for my office, and eGroupware with Cyrus for our mail system. We migrated from Microsoft Exchange some time ago and I've never looked back.
Can I ask why you migrated
Can I ask why you migrated from Microsoft Exchange, we're currently using it but we would like to try egroupware
Asterisk+Egrupware+Blackberry
HI Tony,
great work! Is there a guide step by step of you installation?
Best regards,
Pino
Voip solution in China
wow, the combination are really cool. In China, we use skype as a voip solution. blackberry is not sold in China yet. So is Ipod.
Asterisk Egroupware
Hi,
I'm trying to integrate asterisk in egroupware, I've unpacked the agis.tar in egroupware folder, but in applications menu got this:
Post-install Dependency Failure* asterisk-Post-install Dependency Failure*:(appname: phpgwapi; versions: 1.0.0,1.0.1,1.2,1.3; appname: phpgwapi; versions: 1.0.0,1.0.1,1.2,1.3; ))P
what could be wrong?
Egroupware work great, it's only this one applications that give me errors!
any suggestions is really appreciated, kindly regards
I'm not exactly sure what
I'm not exactly sure what you're using...
My asterisk doesn't directly integrate into eGroupware, although it will deliver emails to it through email - but that's not eGroupware specific. I'm not using the "Asterisk Groupware Integration Server" which sounds like what you're doing. To my knowledge the only thing I'm missing is the "click to dial" feature of clicking a contact in eGroupware and having it dial my phone, then dial the other person automatically. Personally I'm not ... that ... lazy ;-)
But, it sounds like you're having issues with the version of eGroupware not matching what you're trying to install. Check to see what version of eGroupware your copy of the Asterisk integration is designed for. eGroupware updates regularly, and some of the 3rd party applications may not...
voip
The Asterisk Voip system is great especially for businesses that need good quality conference calls and meetings
BIS sync with own IMAP server
Hi Tony,
I've read your config while looking for working solutions to get a real email sync between BIS and our internal dovecot server (we use egroupware with dovecot/postfix).
It seems your setup runs well but this left me some useability questions for you.
Could you tell me how this config handles the read/not read flag ? e.g. After having read an email on your BB, does it appear as read when you run your PC mail client ?
Second question, you said that sending email from your BB is made through the use of an smtp blackberry server, so what about the sent email in your IMAP sent folder ? Does this mean that you need to 'bcc' your own email to your company email adress ?
Thank you in advance for your lights, wishing you all an happy new year
C
Amazingly both issues are
Amazingly both issues are handled perfectly. Reading a mail on the blackberry sets the read flag in the IMAP server. The other direction doesn't happen though, so if I read the mail first on my desktop the BB still reports it unread.
The BB also stores a copy in my sent items folder in the IMAP server when I send them from the BB, so there's no need to BCC yourself.
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