CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi Xavier, Joe, and the members of CiviCRM,

The abstract of my project that I proposed for GSOC 2015 is as follows:

Abstract: Developing a bridge that connects FreeSWITCH and the CiviCRM to make and receive calls. The bridge will be in a form of an open source plugin which can be installed and hence enabling the CRM to communicate and route calls through FreeSWITCH running in background.

Please share your views.

Thanks,
Ashish

Hi,

I am pasting a link that describes the high level model of the project proposed by me, which will help you have a clear understanding of what I am trying to accomplish.

Although I have tried my best to be able to answer all your queries but ,if any, left please ask for it.

The link is: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B73pd7pfimfvfnA2dDBYUGhMUk9paFNVT0t1UDE4c2ZROHN1WkZtNVUzZ3R5eHB5VnhIVnc&usp=sharing

Please follow this order while going through the document: 1-> Introduction and Scope 2->Routing Plan 3-> Experiences with freeSWITCH

Thanks,
Ashish

 

Joe,

Thanks for letting me know about your voice broadcast extension. I am curious to see how the extension integrates and works with Civi. Also, you rightly pointed out that FreeSWITCH is better architected, and has good project momentum.
If I understand correctly, you have mentioned three potential items which can be taken up as projects,

•   Make calls through FreeSWITCH wherein the phone number appears in the form of a hyperlink and simply by clicking (click-to-call             through webRTC, preferably) on the link and hence recording the CDRs in Civi.

•   Enabling CiviSurvey to make outbound calls on top of the FreeSWITCH plugin.

•   Receive incoming calls and displaying the caller’s information through a pop-up (by running a script which checks the presence of the user in the contact list within Civi, as suggested by you) and displaying a short bio(information) of the user calling.



I have personally experienced the need of CRM+Telephony during my internship with Stanford University, where an NGO had to broadcast calls in order to convey messages to its members, in the most remote areas of India where mobile phones were the only means to reach out to people. Also, they had to organize and record the activity of each of its member and conduct surveys as well. An open-source CRM with telephony is the best suited solution for such organizations. And hence the integration will surely find its utility in the real world.

I agree that fewer, but quality deliverables should be the focus. I see that these features can be treated as individual projects themselves, considering the scope of work involved for them. My order of preference to implement the features would be in the order stated above. 

Also, in my conversation with Xavier on IRC, he advised that we should have someone with knowledge on FreeSWITCH as co-mentor. I know someone who can help us out with regards to FreeSWITCH. He is running a production instance of Freeswitch for his business needs to meet Indian Government regulatory requirements. He is also keen on building this bridge between Civi and Freeswitch. Currently he runs VTiger for his CRM needs, and together we are evaluating Civi.

Please share your views.

Thanks.

Quick reminder, not sure if the student(s) interested have done it already for this project, but you have to register and submit the proposal before tomorrow

http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,36143.0.html

If it's done already, all good, we'll discuss internally and with you and let you learn better our development workflow and tools we use and give you a chance to mingle with the community

PERSONAL INFORMATION
First/Last Name: Ashish Mishra

Email: itsme.kunnu@gmail.com

School/University: Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra

Graduation Date: 2015

Major/Focus: Computer Science and Engineering

Location: India

Timezone: IST(Indian Standard Time;+5:30)

Drupal.org Profile:

IRC: used Nas4free, FusionPBX IRC with temporary usernames

CV/Resume URL:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B73pd7pfimfvcEVpOU9qMi10Q3c/view?usp=sharing

Preferred time of day for virtual/video interview: After 10 pm (IST)

Open Source Experience: Worked and configured FreeSWITCH and generated a system that automatically records all the calls coming in and going out through FreeSWITCH.
Successfully installed FusionPBX and controlled FreeSWITCH with it. Developed conference line using FusionPBX.
Installed and implemented NAS using NAS4Free which is currently used by a financial organization called Brokerage Free for data storage and back up.

GSOC INFORMATION
If you have participated in Google Summer of Code in the past, please describe your participation:
No, I have never participated in GSoC in the past.
Have you applied to GSoC in the past and are you applying to any other organizations this year? If so, please explain.
No, this is the first time I am participating in GSoC.
How many hours will you devote to your GSoC project each week? What are your other summer plans (vacation, this time of year isn't your summer and you are in class, etc)?
28-35 hours per week, I have no plans for this summer. My college will get closed after April 27 2015. I will be completing my graduation this year and will be joining, Tata (one of the fortune 500 company) in the last week of August.

CIVICRM INFORMATION
Have you registered an account at CiviCRM.org?
Yes, I have registered an account on CiviCRM.org

Have you even built a site with Drupal, WordPress, or Joomla?  (Please provide details)
No, I have not built any site Drupal, WordPress or Joomla

Have you ever built a CiviCRM site or helped on a CiviCRM project? 
Not actually, but I have installed CiviCRM and explored its features.

Have you ever posted a questions to the CiviCRM Forums, JIRA, or GitHub?
Yes, http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php?topic=36085.0

Have you ever contributed code to CiviCRM?
No.

If you have not previously contributed to any open source projects, can you provide example code from school?
On my internship with Stanford University, I have deployed several IVRS who source code can be found on GitHub.
(https://github.com/itsmekunnu/IVRS-using-kookoo)  and also certain projects undertaken by me during college days such as graph plotter, etc are available with me which I have not pushed on GitHub.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Have you ever utilized IRC?
Yes, whenever I had to seek some knowledge about FusionPBX, Nas4Free, I used IRC.

Have you ever worked with Git?
Yes, I have working knowledge of Git.

Question based on knowledge of git:
You just committed some code (and not pushed yet), but you realized there is a typo in commit message. How would you change it (please explain each step of the solution)?
git commit --amend -m "New commit message" will help us change the commit message’s typo.
git commit –amend will open the last message that has typo.

Question based on given 'almighty_function':
Given this function:
functiongsoc_funciton($x, $y, $z) {
     if ($y != $z && $x == $y && $x == $z) {
       return "Success!";
     }
return "FAIL!"
}

Please provide set of values for $x, $y and $z for function to return "Success!". Explain your solution.
What, if anything would you change or fix in the function?
I will explain this with an example: gsoc_funciton(12,"12","12a")
will give success, because when doing 12=="12" and 12="12a" the strings are converted to integer but will doing "12"=="12a" the strings are not converted and string compassion is done by which they are not equal.
Hence, we will follow the same pattern that is $x should be integer; $y and $z will be strings with same numerical part as explained in the example above.

PROJECT INFORMATION
Which project idea sparks your interest and why?
The project idea of making outbound calls through CiviCRM using freeSWITCH, which is running in the background, interests me the most.
Calls form a significant aspect of CRM services. To have a bridge that improves the efficiency of managing call records with respect customer records, will make a big difference. There is a need for such service, and is not commonly found in CRM softwares.

Detailed overview:
Making calls through civi wherein a number appears in the form of hyperlink and user can simply call by clicking the link (click-to-call through webRTC preferably). The call routing will be done by freeSWITCH running in the background.
Also, storing or updating the Call Detail records either manually or automatically within CiviCRM.
The detailed project breakdown and project management as well as communication methods are described below under each head respectively:

Timeline breakdown: The initial project idea, description and discussions can be found on the following link: http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php?topic=36085.0

The detail weekly breakup is as follows:
19th-26th May 2015:
The very first week would be completely research week wherein the time will be spent in finding out how to enable CiviCRM’s communication with FreeSWITCH. Referring the use cases wherein CRM’s like Vtiger who have recently incorporated the freeSWITCH extension and studying and analysing the methodology used by them.

26th May-9th June 2015:
Documenting the research done and the information gathered and sharing it on the forum and hence gathering the useful comments by the community members of CiviCRM.

9th-30th June 2015:
Discussing the high level model of the project and deciding the road map mutually with my mentor. The useful discussions with mentor shall be documented simultaneously and each and every detail of the roadmap shall be well researched.
Also, delivering the first prototype of the project wherein the number can appear in the form of hyperlink and the Civi and freeSWITCH’s communication is achieved.

30th June- 7th July 2015:
Buffer week.

7th July-28th July 2015:
After successful completion of the communication between Civi and FreeSWITCH and that outbound calls are now possible, we will shift our attention to recording CDR’s (information to be included and the information to be excluded from CDR’s) in a fashion that is mutually decided by the mentor as well as the members of Civi Community.

28th July-4th August 2015:
First release of the working model of the project wherein the project will behave as decided and handling errors/bugs wherever reported by the community members.

4th-11th August 2015:
Fixing the bugs/errors (if any) otherwise making the project undergo with automated testing.

11th-18th August 2015:
Incorporating the code to the Civi Core and releasing the tutorials on how to use the new feature.

Disclaimer: In the event if implementation takes more time than anticipated, the proposed timelines will have to be readjusted accordingly.

Communication method: Google hangouts, Social media such as facebook, or via emails is perfectly suitable to me. However, if my mentor has some other preferences I have no problems in switching to that particular communication medium.

My email id is: itsme.kunnu@gmail.com
Facebook id: https://www.facebook.com/AshishMishraBIT

Which aspect of project idea do you see to be most difficult?
The understanding of CiviCRM’s architecture seems most difficult to me as I have not worked on Civi before.

Which aspect of project idea do you see to be easiest?
The implementation of FreeSWITCH and its communication with Civi seems to be easiest as I have a lot of working experience with FreeSWITCH.

Which portion of project idea will you start with?
Understanding of Civi’s architecture and figuring out the way to implement its communication with FreeSWITCH is what I want to start with.

Hi Xavier, Emily, Joe and the members of CiviCRM,

As asked by Xavier to do the four things here is an update on them:
1->"Are you able to communicate with the community?"

Yes, I am able to communicate well with the members of CiviCRM community. Members like Emily, Xavier, Joe and Owen have been asking me questions on my project proposal and I have been successful in giving them a clear understanding on the project proposal.
I have been posting on civi forum and also on the melange whenever there is an update or anything that has been asked of me.
I although apologize for not having too early in answering the questions due intermittent Internet and also due to my final semester examinations which are commencing from 20th April and will end on 24th April.
I assure that I will be replying faster and will be more active on the civi forum as well as melange after my examinations.   
I have also created an account on stack exchange to seek answers while using civi and its tools.

2-> "Are you able to set up an environment needed to develop for civiCRM?"

Yes, I have successfully installed civiCRM on my ubuntu machine.
3-> "Are you able to use our git workflow?"

Yes, I am able to use the civi git workflow and have successfully completed the task on github.
4->"Are you able to communicate well with your mentor?"

Yes, I am able to communicate well my mentors, Joe and Ravi (Brokerage Free). Ravi and me have also worked together and various projects like FreeSWITCH, NAS4Free, etc, and we have successfully completed it.
I keep him well informed about all my progress and we have regular discussions on GSOC.

Thanks,
Ashish

I've added a top level wiki page for the project athttp://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/GSoC+2015%3A+Click-to-Call%2C+freeSwitch+integration?moved=true.

Leo, thanks. There are many really good reasons to continue work towards a platform-agnostic CiviCRM extension that connects CiviCRM to Freeswitch - and the two biggest reasons are CiviCRM on Wordpress and CiviCRM on Joomla.

VOIPDrupal looks really cool, and as a Drupal/Civi shop, connecting that up to Civi would be useful for us. But we want to support the entire CiviCRM community including the growing number of Civi/Wordpress and Civi/Joomla sites and users.

It would be great for you and your shop at MIT to jump in and help mentor Ashish as he works through the CiviCRM + FreeSwitch GSoC project. No doubt your experience and coding VOIPDrupal would be invaluable. Interested?