[ale] [semi OT]: PBX reporting software for Linux? (Definity, etc)

[Bruce Griffis]

On Thursday 10 July 2003 11:19 am, Christopher Bergeron wrote:
> Does anyone know of any software that can be used to generate reports or
> retrieve call data from an Avaya/Lucent Definity PBX or similar PBX's?
>  I'm currently using a Windows package called Microcall (by a local
> company), and I was wondering if anyone had any information about how
> these PBXs store their data (call logs, etc) before I paid a few
> thousand dollars for this closed/proprietary package.
>
> Anyone have any info they can share?
>
> Thanks,
> CB

Sounds like a fun project. I did a centralized call accounting roll-out a few 
years back using a few G3i's for HQ and larger branch offices, and a bunch of 
Norstars for smaller offices. Also had a Seimens thrown in for good measure. 
It was a PIA, but the thought behind it was pretty good.

Anyway - I'm sure you already know that you connect your PC (or CDR printer 
from WAY back) to the SMDR port of the PBX, typically at 9600BPS (serial 
stuff). At least I did a few years back! The SMDR port is just throwing out 
formatted ASCII text. 

If you have your G3 manuals, look up CDR Format. Hopefully there will be info 
on the format. I haven't touched a PBX in a few years - so don't have the 
format readily available. You should be able to get date, time, duration, 
calling (or called) extension, dialed number and trunk group. If you aren't 
interested in costing right now, you could do something fairly 
straight-forward like pull the data into a buffer and then sort it with 
OpenOffice (or roll your own).

There is a project on sourceforge for call accounting. The url is: 
http://pbx.sourceforge.net/index.php   It doesn't look like much activity has 
taken place in the last 16 months. I did download the cvs, but didn't do an 
install (having no PBX at home!).

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