Asterisk Integration

[bmoraca]

I've read through the forums a bit and noticed that there was some interest in Asterisk integration.

The company I work for has many years of experience with dental office integration (mostly with Dentrix) and we're looking at Open Dental as a possible solution. One other focus of our business has been the implementation of Asterisk phone systems. We've done small systems of as few as 10 phones up to 75 phones, and have found that Asterisk works wonderfully. One of our goals is a pre-packaged dental-focused phone system based on Asterisk.

One thing which would really help sell both would be integration with the practice management software. Working with Asterisk for a long time has given me a lot of insight into its workings, and I'd be very interested in working on an Asterisk integration feature for Open Dental. I am a bit green when it comes to Open Dental, so if I am making any assumptions I shouldn't be, please correct me.

Here's my thoughts: the logical way to do this would be through the server component. Asterisk has a feature called the AMI which is very easy to use and can facilitate call monitoring, placing, transfering, etc. The server component would talk to Asterisk through the AMI and then push the needed information to whichever client was appropriate. In addition, a "Call this Patient" option on the toolbar.

Hurdles: each "user" in Open Dental would need to be associated with an extension, requiring an expansion of that database table, and it would require some pretty serious work on the part of the server to parse the AMI information, but I think it is very doable.

Anyway, I'm tinkering around with the source to familiarize myself with it and hopefully we can see this feature added at some point. If anyone has any input, or if it's already on the books, let me know!

[jordansparks]

We just tapped into the AMI last week. We actually built an entirely separate standalone server program to handle it. Our server program populates a table in the OD database. Each workstation then polls that table once per second to unintelligently throw the information in that table into a grid on screen. In other words, all the intelligence is in the server program, and the workstation just displays the info. Our server program is hard coded for the Open Dental staff. It is not flexible enough to be used in a general purpose dental office yet. There would have to be lots more options added. And dental offices aren't usually interested in monitoring a phone bank like we are.

Your first hurdle of associating phone extensions has already been solved. We actually associated the extensions with employees. The employees are already associated with users. We went with employees because we're not really concerned with who is logged in, but rather with who is clocked in.

As for the "pushing" of information, we abandoned the push model years ago in favor of a polling model. It has worked really well, and even the one-second polling has posed no problems.

Our next goal is to pop information to the screen when a phonecall comes in and the extension picks up. It will automatically switch to that patient, and a dialog will come up with overview data. When we are able to accomplish that, we will likely make a server program available for everyone.

[sunny]

Hi,
we developed a Web service which integrates Open Dental With Asterisk PBX. with the minimal changes to open dental side we are able to get pop screens with incoming calls and also click to call integration with front desk phones. I am in the process of writing a separate applicaction which can be added via Program Links. If any one interested we can help.

[jordansparks]

Very nice.

[steveng]

Is there a common module for creating bridges with OpenDental ? Then it would be easier to switch patient from pop-up screen, I think.

[jordansparks]

Are you asking about our plug-in framework?
http://www.opendental.com/manual/plugins.html

[steveng]

This is new.
Then, I have a question: "Can you swtch patient in OpenDental from another application through this new plugin interface?"

[jordansparks]

Of course. You can do anything you want.

[gmaguire]

Hi, I am new to Opendental but am very interested in implementing the Asterisk PBX solution with it, especially the features of screen popping clinet data based on the incomming call. Has there been any further developments with this or are thes addons available for trial ?

Thanks in advance,
Ger.

[steveng]

Thought this may help in getting this implemented in application for ease of use.

C# classes that allow building applications that interact with an Asterisk PBX
http://asterisk-dotnet.sourceforge.net

[jordansparks]

sunny hasn't visited since that last intriguing post. Back then, we didn't have a plugin framework.

[steveng]

Question?
How hard it would be to store phone numbers in the database in their raw format Ex: 9712391150.
Then, telephone number format utility would not be needed anymore. All formatting would be done for the front end separately. You can even create a format masking parameter for international version.
Have something like "show phone numbers as" ###-###-#### or (###) ###-#### or ###.###.#### (you got the idea)

I'm trying to simplify patients search with SQL and avoid convoluted REGEX in WHERE clause.

Want to save time from receiving a call,search patient record with SQL, bring up short patient info on the pop up screen.

[jordansparks]

It would have to be another field. I want users to have total control over phone numbers formats. For example, to tag on extension numbers. There's nothing more annoying that a field that won't let you type what you want to type.

[steveng]

Actually, that would have to be 3 fields. Home, work and wireless numbers.
Another field could be used for phone comment/notes and may as well be used for ext # if necessary. Format masking would really work nice. Everyone will have their favorite way of viewing phone numbers plus it will satisfy international customers as well.
With so many variations http://www.wtng.info/...

[jordansparks]

Or we could ignore everything after the numbers when formatting, sort of like we already to when automatically formatting. You may be convincing me, although the regex isn't that bad, is it?

[steveng]

It really gets complex http://regexlib.com/Search.aspx?k=phone%20number. To try to keep it simple and use one common format you need to make sure "phone number" utility in OD runs to cleanup the mess left behind by front desk.
I believe it will only help in the long term.

[jordansparks]

Well, they are making it more complicated than it needs to be. To search for a phone number containing 123456, it would look like this:
1[^0-9]*2[^0-9]*3[^0-9]*4[^0-9]*5[^0-9]*6
Long, but not particularly complicated.

[Rickliftig]

Jordan - since you have been working with the phone panel (I assume in asterisk), do you seen any potential for adapting it to the dental practice? (Ie. caller id pops up the patient info screen)

[jordansparks]

No. What we've actually been working on has been webcam integration more than anything new with Asterisk. We now have one window where we can see all staff, each on their own webcam. So this would make webcam features more likely in the future, but Asterisk integration is complicated and much of what we did is hard coded. It doesn't seem very relevant right now. Keep in mind that we use IP phones here, not software phones. In other words, our mic, speakers, and keypad are not routed through the computer. We might look into integrating with a softphone at some point. That seems a little easier. And that does not depend on an Asterisk server.