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================================================================================
=== Google Summer of Code 2009 ===
=== ===
=== http://www.asterisk.org/ ===
=== ===
=== <asteriskteam@digium.com> ===
================================================================================
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--- Personnel ------------------------------------------------------------------
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Administrator: Russell Bryant
Mentors: Russell Bryant
Joshua Colp
Mark Michelson
Tilghman Lesher
Luigi Rizzo
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--- Project Ideas --------------------------------------------------------------
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Project difficulty is listed on a 1 through 5 scale. A 1 would be a project
appropriate for a college student with familiarity with C programming, but no
experience with the Asterisk code base, or even Asterisk itself. A project with
a difficulty of 5 would be something appropriate for a student that already has
significant experience with the Asterisk code base.
1) There are a number of projects that fall into the category of improving and
creating new interfaces for developers to interface with Asterisk. To get a
bit of an idea for the higher level vision of this effort, see the following
wiki page: <http://astridevcon.pbwiki.com/Codename-Pinemango/>.
Some insight regarding the motivation for this overall effort is captured
in this mailing list post, written by Brian Degenhardt.
- http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-dev/2008-October/034700.html
Specific project ideas in this area are listed here:
a) Create a generic "data get" layer for Asterisk components to be able to
expose data that they maintain. Currently, modules implement specific
code to implement CLI commands, manager interface actions, and so forth,
while it would be much nicer to have this data available through a common
interface. For example, SNMP support has been added to Asterisk but is
limited in what it can expose due to the lack of this interface. This
project would be to create the infrastructure for this data layer and some
uses to prove its functionality. Then, various parts of Asterisk could
be converted as time permits. Note that this may end up sharing some code
with the "data put" interface in part b.
Difficulty - 2
Language - C
b) Create a generic "data put" layer for Asterisk components to allow
external interfaces to update configuration items, as opposed to having
to issue a full configuration reload to account for a single change.
This project would involve writing the infrastructure and some basic usage
to prove its functionality. Various parts of Asterisk could be converted
as time permits. Note that this may end up sharing some code with the
"data get" interface in part a.
Difficulty - 2
Language - C
c) Improve the performance of cache handling in the event core. The event
API in Asterisk provides a generic interface for subscribing to and
publishing asynchronous events. It also provides a caching mechanism for
events that represent state changes. So, to find out a state, you can
pull it out of the event cache. For example, the state of devices as used
for presence is handled using this mechanism. The data structures
currently used for maintaining the cache are not optimal for performance
when the cache gets large. This project would be to write code to
benchmark the performance of the caching mechanism, and then implement a
new storage mechanism that is more efficient.
Difficulty - 3
Language - C
d) Develop a method for federating Asterisk servers using distributed events
with a transport suitable for communication beyond a LAN. The current
event infrastructure includes ways to hook in and distribute events
between servers. There is a module which implements this, res_ais, but
it is only suitable for federating servers on a high speed LAN. This
project would be to implement a new event distribution module using a
protocol such as XMPP, or something else if deemed appropriate.
Difficulty - 2
Language - C
e) Implement a method that makes it very easy to add synchronous hooks
throughout the code base. Hooks are arbitrary callbacks within the
internals of asterisk where external components can modify asterisk's
behavior. While the dialplan allows applications to control much of the
asterisk behavior, hooks allow for business logic to be applied to
situations that are not associated with a call (eg: a sip registration
hook could allow time-governed registration period), or for situations
that occur during the execution of a dialplan application (eg: codec
negotiation hook to apply business logic to codecs proposed in the middle
of a Dial command, or a transfer hook to execute business logic when a
SIP REINVITE is received).
Difficulty - 3
Language - C
2) This section contains projects related to Voicemail support in Asterisk.
a) Extract the support for storage backends into an API to reduce code
complexity and its ability to be reused. The current Asterisk voicemail
application supports storing voicemail on the filesystem, in a database
via ODBC, and on an IMAP server. All of the storage code should be pulled
out into a form such that it makes the current app_voicemail easier to
maintain, but also allows the backend storage code to be used in a next
generation voicemail implementation, or potentially other things in
Asterisk that would like to use these interfaces.
Difficulty - 3
Language - C
b) One feature that has been widely desired for Asterisk voicemail is the
ability to customize menu layout. This project would be to improve
existing code, or develop a new voicemail application that supports
customizable menu layout. The app_minivm module currently in Asterisk
is one way of approaching this project, which is to break up current
Voicemail functionality into smaller applications to make it easier to
build a custom voicemail system in the dialplan. Luigi Rizzo had a
student work on a project to create a new voicemail system that included
these features that has some work left to be completed.
Difficulty - 4
Language - C
3) This section includes projects related to improving the Asterisk console and
logging interfaces.
a) Improve the way "verbose logging" works in Asterisk. Currently, the
Asterisk console and logging system only supports a single verbose level.
However, it would be extremely useful to allow a verbose setting per
console, and per log file that verbose output is being sent to.
Difficulty - 1
Language - C
b) Improve Asterisk logging such that advanced filtering is available at the
console so that output related to a single call is available without
having to see the output for other calls. Lack of support for debugging
individual calls has been a long standing difficulty for Asterisk
administrators on busy systems.
Difficulty - 1
Language - C
c) In addition to being used as an administrative interface, the Asterisk
console can also be used for making calls using the system audio and
video interfaces. In this sense, Asterisk can be used as a highly
configurable console based soft phone. Luigi Rizzo and some of his
students have put a lot of work into adding video support to the Asterisk
console when being used as a softphone. This project would be to work
with Luigi to continue this effort to improve the GUI that opens up for
handling calls. This would involve adding some buttons to handle calls
and contact lists, controlling the active audio source for a call, and
adding standard telephone buttons.
Difficulty - 3
Language - C
4) This section includes projects related to internationalization.
a) One of the projects that Luigi Rizzo previously worked on was replacing
the "say.c" code that implemented language support for saying dates and
times in C code, with an implementation that allows additional languages
to be added via a configuration file with special syntax. This project
would be to work with Luigi to enhance this code to better handle
languages where words change in multiple ways depending on gender and
number, and also adding more languages to the sample configuration file
that is distributed with Asterisk.
Difficulty - 3
Language - C
5) This section includes projects related to portability to other operating
systems.
a) Asterisk has been ported to cygwin a couple of times over the years, but
tends to bitrot due to lack of continued support by developers. This
project would be to revisit the current state of cygwin support and get
it working well in Asterisk 1.6. It should already compile, or be very
close to it. However, there is some testing to be done to ensure that
things work properly. Also, it would be most excellent to get a console
channel driver functioning in cygwin (chan_oss, chan_console, etc.).
Difficulty - 3
Language - C
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