I’m looking for an Asterisk Outlook connector that not only allows the Outlook user to dial directly from their contacts but also allows Asterisk to open an Outlook contact when receiving a call. This will be for an attorneys office and they need to be able make notes in an Outlook contact when a call arrives. I am wondering if anyone has had a good experience with any of the Asterisk / Outlook plugins available and could recommend a good one that is capable of handling both inbound and outbound calls? Thanks.
You can use tapi (google it) for click to dail for the outbound but I do not know of any way of having
the inbound working with outlook.
If anyone else is trying to integrate Outlook with Asterisk & FreePBX, I have found a combination that seems to work pretty well. I found what appears to be a good open source Windows TAPI driver named ActivaTSP that attaches to Asterisk & allows Outlook to place calls with the press of a button and I also found another tool named IdentaPop Pro that will make Outlook focus on a contact when a call arrives if the contact is in the Outlook contacts list.
In my search for a good open source TAPI Asterisk driver I tried a couple and after some testing I found that the one named ActivaTSP seems to work by far the best. It can be found here: http://activa.sourceforge.net. Getting it to work was a bit of a challenge but in the end it seems to be a great driver to allow windows to attach to Asterisk through TAPI. Here are my installation notes.
Settings in Asterisk:
First you need to go into /etc/asterisk/manager.conf and either create a new user or use the one that is already there. I opted to create a new one as I did not want to give out the admin username and pass to everyone who would use this tool. I also needed to make sure that the IP address where ActivaTSP is installed is permitted. Also take note of the Port as this will need to be entered the ActivaTSP config. Here is an example of part of my manager.conf
[general]
enabled = yes
port = 5038
bindaddr = 0.0.0.0
;
; Add the following section to setup a new
; Username and and password to allow communication from the ActivaTSP TAPI Driver
; Use permit to allow communication from the IP address where ActivaTSP is installed
;
[MyUsername]
secret = MyPassword
deny=0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
permit=192.168.1.100/255.255.255.0
permit=127.0.0.1/255.255.255.0
read = system,call,log,verbose,command,agent,user
write = system,call,log,verbose,command,agent,user
#include manager_additional.conf
#include manager_custom.conf
Once this file was changed I restarted the server to make the changes active.
Now on to the installation of ActivaTSP on Windows:
Basically you need to download ActivaTSP and install it then go to Control Panel – Phone & Modem Options. Click on the advanced tab then choose ActivaTSP for Asterisk and click configure. Here you will have to enter your Asterisk Host IP, Port, User & Password from above. To set it up for extension 100 you will enter SIP/100 in the Line DN: field. This is the same text as found in the dial field under the FreePBX extension setup. You can leave Line Prefix blank and then in the caller ID Name field, enter a name that you would like to appear on your desk phone when placing calls from Outlook. I chose to put the word Outlook here. Under context I left from-internal in both the Outgoing & Agent fields as that is how my FreePBX is setup. Once all of these settings are entered you need to restart Windows to make the changes active.
Now that this is done Outlook can use this driver to place calls. Right click on a contact and choose call contact. A dialog box will open titled New Call and you need to make one last setting change. Choose dialing options. At the bottom you will se a dropdown box where you need to choose SIP/100 and you line. OK this box and click Start Call. Your desk phone should start ringing and as soon as you answer you will hear it ringing the contact you chose to call.
Since I am also interested in focusing Outlook on a contact for inbound, I found a product named IdentaPop Pro that is $40 per seat and it can be found here: http://www.identafone.com/cidpop.html. It uses the same TAPI driver to handle incoming calls. It pops the caller ID information on screen and can also focus Outlook on a contact when a call arrives. It has other features that I have not explored yet but it too seems to work well.
I am installing this configuration in an attorney’s office who wants to use these types of features to manage in and outbound calls with his clients. I don’t know if anyone else could benefit from this but just incase maybe you can avoid some of the pitfalls I stumbled into while trying to get this to work the first time.
I tried following these instructions last night to install ActivaTSP, but didn’t have any luck in it actually making a phone call. I could see in the console that it connected to the server and authenticated, but the phone never rang. I tried two different user names.
I was unable to figure out what I needed to call the ActivaTSP log file in order for it to log anything. (I understand you have to create the file for it to make the log even after you check the option to log.)
I should mention that we are running users and groups. I tried it with both my extension number (user) and device number and didn’t get a response from either.
I use it just to pop up a notification, but it can launch external apps and use the outlook contacts list. I don’t know if it will do what you want, check and see?
It does everything I need to do.
Have you tried Flexor CTI? It’s free to download for Outlook and gives you click to dial, and inbound call pop-ups - plus journaling and call logging. www.camrivox.com
…also worth noting that Flexor CTI supports Asterisk 1.2 and above, and can be downloaded here: https://uc.camrivox.com/uc/ui/FlexorUC.html?m=1
pmaurice, you are not self promoting are you? that would be bad. First post was fine.
Outcall seems quite nice - Simple and easy to use.
However when I use it, I have problems. Calling outside: my extension rings (as expected), all I hear is ‘goodbye’. Calling internally works great. What am I missing?
In OutCall Dialing Rules change Outgoing context to: from-internal
This fixed outgoing calls for me.
Now if someone can get OutCall to be able to read/search Outlook contacts. I cannot seem to make that work, nor can I import directly from Outlook, only a csv file.
ditto- still looking for something small & simple myself. needs to work w/ outlook 2010 64-bit. Nothing I have tried up til now does. (activaTSP works but no screen pops etc.)
Outcall is pretty much dead with so many bugs open.
This thread is also a bit old.
Has anyone come up with anything new recently to do simply pop-up of outlook account?
Prefer free and opensource but if not, don’t mind shelling a few bucks for it.
Thanks
I am using Activa 1.6.4 64-bit with Outlook 2010. I am able to initiate calls from Outlook using Activa, but it is very buggy. For example, sometimes the New Call window totally freezes Outlook.
Since there hasn’t been an update since 5/25/2010, this appears to be a dead project.
Can anyone recommend another solution?
I use ActivaTSP for click to dial from Outlook. I tried a bunch of free ones and it is the best of a largly poor lot.
I have tried the free version of Ingenius Connector which does both inbound popups and click to dial, but it’s not free (or reasonably price IMO).
Lorne
The only issue we have with ActivaTSP is the CDR Destination shows the extension making the call.
This is due to Activa creating the Originate command with the Channel being set to:
Local/xxx@from-internal
With Local instead of SIP, the Destination will not show the dialed number.
I learned that there is a new soft they call Asterlook that does make calls from Outlook. I ought to have Asterisk to set it up. See more at “Link removed for trolling by OPS”
Gianni67
Welcome to the forums. I see you just setup your account with us. It appears you are associated with the asterlook.com software. Please be upfront about this and not troll our forums for your product making it look like you are not associated with the same company that you are pimping the products for.