Devices/Users / Extensions mode Makeover

1/30/07, gregmac:

It's my intention in the QuickFormBranch to redo the interfaces for users and devices pages

Goals

Make them more user-friendly.

Too many 'raw' variables are exposed right now, there should be a minimal set of options, and then all the 'advanced' functionality (raw .conf file values) should have a checkbox (to enable overriding the value) with a textbox.

Get rid of "deviceanduser" and "extension" modes. They should be merged into one

There's a number of reasons for this. On the backend, there is really only one mode, the GUI is just presented differently. More obviously, we have to maintain two separate interfaces.

Users

The first page of users will be a list of users/extensions, with links to edit/delete each, as well as add new users.

The edit page will have the usual fields.

When adding, there will be radio boxes at the bottom, with options:

• Add a device for this user
  • If selected, additional form fields will appear to specify device information (a replica of the device interface?)
• Use an existing device
  • If selected, a drop-down will appear, listing all unassigned devices.
• Do not assign a device at this time

When editing, a list (table) will be shown below the form, with all devices assigned (fixed) to this user. Again, there will be edit/delete/add links, which will use the appropriate pages from the devices page.

Devices

This will work much the same as it does now, but be updated to support DevicesTakeTwo (might as well do it at the same time).

The first page will show a list of all current devices, along with the user they're assigned to (if fixed), or 'adhoc'. Probably showing device type and MAC would be helpful as well.

The edit page will be updated for DeviceTakeTwo? information - that is, it will ask for a minimal amount of information (based on the device type). It should allow overriding of these fields with checkboxes next to each textbox for the actual sip/iax.conf fields.

Note that this basically means it's technology (sip/iax/whatever) independent. In fact, for devices that support both IAX and SIP, it could even be an optional drop-down to select which technology to actually use, but for the most part we'll just figure this out as part of the device. The user should just have to select the type of device (make/model) and freepbx can determine the best settings.

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Basically, the devicesandusers and extensions modes would be merged together. For people using extensions mode, they can effectively ignore the 'devices' menu item, and it will act just as it did before (except they get an additional button to add a new device for a user). I imagine a lot of users aren't even aware you can have multiple devices per user.

It would also retain the existing functionality of deviceanduser mode, and in fact, make it even easier to use if you're basically just having multiple devices per user (and not doing adhoc).