Bugs, Bugs, Bugs in FreePBX! (RANT)

FreePBX Development
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RANT AHEAD!

I just got done installing the latest Distro and I have to say that I’m really surprised at the number of very serious bugs. It seems that a lot of dev. time has gone towards making the GUI pretty, and introducing most of the bugs that I’ve found (and reported).

I really don’t understand this desire to make the GUI look good. FreePBX and Asterisk is a PHONE SYSTEM. The end users generally never see the GUI. I don’t need it to look pretty. I don’t want tabs. I don’t want fields that disappear. I want a long list of text entries that I can easily modify.

It is especially important that the configuration in the GUI matches what ends up on the Asterisk .conf files. At least three of the bugs that I reported have to do with some dev deciding to try to make the GUI fancy and thereby making entries that end up in the .conf files even though they disappear entirely from the GUI.

And I didn’t even bother to report the fact that the feature codes module now checks for and won’t let you change some of the fields if they overlap with DISABLED feature codes. Who thought that was a good idea? I mean, its fine if you want to warn me, but to actually prevent me from using a feature code because it overlaps a code that I’ve already disabled is lunacy. Now, I have to go back, enable it (the GUI won’t let me change it unless it is enabled - more unnecessary fanciness in the GUI), change it, disable it, and then (and only then) can I set the other feature code to what I want it to be…

Please, stop trying to make the GUI look pretty. This is a phone system!!

RANT OVER.

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it’s an open project - feel free to contribute

the complaint about feature codes is a little weak imo, i can see others who feel just the opposite including myself

we do have a variant without all of the GUI fluff you can try - vanilla asterisk and config files only; i’d try that from the ground up on your next install and you might find some new appreciation for the pretty GUI

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I’m not a programmer. I’m a user. The only way that I can contribute is by making suggestions - which I have. Telling me to “contribute,” after I’ve already done so, is essentially saying that my contributions are not valued. Thanks.

The bugs that I’ve reported are serious issues. The GUI does not accurately reflect the database and thus does not reflect how the .conf files are built. Virtually all of the bugs that I found on my most recent install are the result of GUI decisions. Think about that: FreePBX builds a great phone system using Asterisk. The bugs are in translating the GUI to the database, which is the easiest part of the task, and not in building the phone system from the database, which is the hardest. That’s truly unfortunate. The GUI merely needs to be functional. Regrettably, form is now overriding function.

Regarding feature codes, I can certainly see preventing the use of duplicate feature codes that are enabled. But, why would anyone want the system to preclude the use of feature codes that duplicate DISABLED feature codes? By definition, a disabled feature code isn’t being used. And why would anyone want to be precluded from changing a feature code before you enable it? The end result of these form over function decisions is that configuration becomes unnecessarily time consuming.

And this is just one of many areas where the form has overridden function and made configuration unnecessarily complicated and time consuming.

For example, you added a floating “submit” button. It often covers up the final entry on each page, meaning that I have to hide the submit button to fill out the field, then reveal it again to submit the change. Why? Apparently, somebody thought that a floating submit button looked “pretty.” Great! And you added tabs, so now every entry in every module has multiple pages that I have to click on and then hide the floating submit button in order to edit the final entry.

I’ve been using FreePBX since 2.7. I still remember when you could cut and paste your dial plans one outbound route to the next. Now, most of the modules are cluttered up with tabs. Seriously? TABS?? I suppose next you’ll take the Microsoft approach and create five different modules that all do the same thing?

“[V]anilla asterisk and config files only” is not a “variant” of FreePBX. Rather, that’s just Asterisk.

There is a middle ground between the pretty GUI and the text based configuration that Asterisk offers. GIven that the vast majority of end users never see the GUI, why emphasize form over function? Why not just make a simple GUI that gets the job done and won’t become obsolute once the browser functions required to make it “pretty” become deprecated?

And since it won’t come through in the above, let me conclude by saying: Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my initial post. I do hope that you’ll give serious consideration to my suggestions. FreePBX still is a great product. But, valuable dev time is being wasted on making the GUI pretty. Pretty is not better.

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Not sure if there’s any changes by now. But some community members said that FreePBX 15 works best with all modules on the latest edge releases.

But I do agree that it takes now very long for reported bugs to be addressed.

For example, this whole IVR Force Strict Dial Timeout is one big mess. Finally the “No - Legacy” was released, but now you can dial ANY extension in an IVR, no matter if you set Direct Dial to a Directory or Disabled.

I also reported a bug a long time ago: Queues allows you to set Skip Busy to Yes.
It works perfect in a scenario where you have a single “Operator” answering calls in the order they were received and don’t want to be bothered by external callers while on the phone.
All works great until the operator transfers a call that came from the queue to an extension who’s already on the phone, it basically preserves the Skip Busy even when transferred out of the queue and goes to that person’s voicemail.

Both issues are, what some of our clients struggle on daily basis.
IMO: The IVR “No - Legacy” is quite of a security risk. If someone figures out your doorbell extension and the DTMF code they can open your door now…

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Why don’t you use the freePBX 14 distro with Asterisk 13. It works and is less pretty… :wink:

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Better yet…
https://osdn.net/frs/g_redir.php?m=kent&f=asteriskathome%2Ftrixbox+CE%2Ftrixbox+2.6%2Ftrixbox-2.6.2.3.iso

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I don’t see any new issues in the Jira issue tracker and the most recent ticket under your username is from 2014. What are the ‘very serious bugs’?

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