We've just received a response to our first interview of the Asterisk developers. In this article we talk to Nicolas Gudino of Flash Operator Panel fame.

Question 1: What is The Flash Operator Panel?

Well, someone wrote this headline in voip-info about FOP:

"Asternic: The real-time Asterisk visual operator panel"

Thats the short version... My long version in on the homepage:
http://www.asternic.org/whatis.html

Question 2: How long have you been working on it?

The first release was on April 1st 2004. It took me one month and a half to put together that version. So, its been aprox. 8 months. I learned flash with the project. I needed a console for our recepcionist. I wrote one in php in a few hours, but I did not like the slownes of a web page refreshing every now and then. I knew that flash supported sockets, and since we use web based applications with mixed linux/windows machines, it made sense to make it browser based and multiplatform, and Flash proved to fit our needs.

Question 3: What are its main features?

The main features, in my opinion, are that it runs under windows, linux and mac without installation required on the client (appart from the browser and flush plugin). And that the server is easy to setup. There are a lot of Asterisk users that are not linux experts. My goal was to make it easy to install and run. You do not need to install and configure a database or a library, nor patch asterisk, nothing. Just install, configure, and run.

Then, we have the features of the application itself: Its realtime. no web page refresh needed. It shows: available/busy extensions, peer status (reachable/unreachable), caller ids and called numbers, mesages waiting indications and count, parked calls, call duration timers, number of users on a meetme, number of users waiting on a queue, statistic information on queues. You can transfer and originate calls using drag and drop. You can barge in on a call, something that its not possible to do with a telephone alone or within the dialplan. You can mute/unmute conference participants. You can have 'contexts' (different panels with just one server running).

Question 4: How have you found the Open Source community?

I've been using linux since 1997 if I recall correctly. But Asterisk is the only project where I actually made contributions: some internationalization patches, and other small features and bugfixes related to the flash panel. It was easy to got involved with Asterisk and it is the only project where I felt I could contribute without being flamed, overlooked or just ignored. And I was right. My little patches were all commited quickly, and there are a lot of great people working to make of Asterisk the next big thing since sliced bread.

The users of the flash operator panel generally suggest new features and provide feedback. There were some code contributions to the server part and a few donations. I met people from all parts of the world, they call me via iaxtel and got surprised because generally I actually pick up the phone... its fun.

Question 5: Where do you see FOP going in the future?

The near future is the release of version .15 in a week or two. The new features are some of the ones I mentioned early: mute/unmute meetme members, the duration timers are polled from asterisk, encryption, real time register/unregister events, statistics on queues, improved context handling, etc.

Then there are many other options/features pending:

• call recording
• customizable querys and display of asterisk database for showing DND, CallForward, etc
• ability to switch panel contexts inside the movie itself (now you need different web pages)
• ability to control just one channel (lock the actions to one button only)
• ability to originate calls to any number (not just to buttons defined)
• transfer directly to voicemail

I would also like to see other clients for the server. It will not be too difficult to write specific clients, the server part is harder. Maybe I can start learning java and write a new client. But I do not have the time right now. Or maybe I can try to port the flash client to Ming so I can really open source the whole project.

Question 6: Are you going to Astricon?

I wish I could... I could not afford to be there. Maybe next year.

Question 7: Could you give us a couple of words about yourself/your company?

We run a small ISP (House Internet) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, doing internet related works and services. We also do network and security consultancy. We started with voip a year ago, reselling voip termination services, and now doing consultancy and asterisk setups/customizations.

I'm 33 years old, married, with one 3 yeard old daughter and another one to come. Started with computers since the age of 9, copying the example source code of the Basic manual of my TI/99 4a (not just playing games). But I finally studied music at the Conservatory, not computers.

We started our company in 1991, by selling shareware on floppy disks. Then we started a BBS, the internet came after, and now we also do VOIP. Now that broadband is more common, and because there was a big emigration in the last three years (because an economic breakdown in our country), VOIP makes sense to a lot of people. My two brothers live in Europe. The brothers and sons of many people in Argentina are living in Europe/USA, and voip is great to keep in touch without spending a fortune.

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You can visit the Flash Operator Panel project at http://www.asternic.org/.

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