Is it me or does FreePBX now seem considerably less "Free"

[BlazeStudios (Tom Ray)]

Someone once told me they were going to do it in C++ and Java, be six months. That was 4 years ago.

[lgaetz (Lorne Gaetz)]

As an aside, memories are short, but I was in Sangoma support back when FreePBX 12 and 2.11 were current. There were, not a huge number, but regular reports of compromised systems arriving in support and here in the forum with malicious module code installed. That attack vector has all but vanished (with other(s) taking it’s place ) in the intervening years in large part due to module signatures and the Firewall module.

As for signatures discouraging contributors, I see 3rd party module development (what little there is) as healthy now as 10 years ago when I was doing it regularly. Anyone with the skills to code up a FreePBX module, is more than capable of following a wiki page to sign it. The recent(ish) formal contributions of the Allow List and Dynamic Routes modules also belie the claim.

[billsimon]

@BlazeStudios

I do love, though, how this is following the classic template. We’ve entered stage 4 of this conversation now.

The person who started this thread never came back to follow up. Lit the fuse, walked away. Maybe they found a considerably more “free” option to work with.

@BlazeStudios

Stage 5 is where they realize that a project like this is actually pretty f’ing hard to do

I assume this is why there is not an abundance of FOSS Asterisk GUIs out there. It’s hard work and most people who work want to be paid for it. Only crazy people like @xrobau write a whole GUI as a labor of love and give it away for free.

[dicko]

What does any of this mean?

@shomi

The API’s and SDKs are getting so feature rich, standardized, and easy to use, that you don’t need to use a dedicated GUI + VoIP Engine server for most things now.

I am gradually making that transition now that it is more practical to do so. I don’t even need to know what they are using on their backend but I think a lot of them are using FreeSwitch.

What API’s ?
What SDK’s ?
What GUI’s ?
What VOIP Engines ?
How are they all ‘standardized’ ?

If “I don’t even need to know what they are using on their backend”, by what logic can you “think a lot of them are using FreeSwitch” ?

But given all this random nonsense, may we ask you "How’s your project going so far ? " and "Are you keeping up with your meds. " ?

[matthias1232 (Matthias Binder)]

I remember i wanted to make a new OSS epm some years ago but i got warned to not do that because Sangoma already has a comercial EPM.

Also i have seen pull requests for OSS EPM in Github but they are open since last year.

Dont know how Open Source everything is when Sangoma has everything under control, what modules will be added and which will be gooing to die.

Also the Upgrade tool from FreePBX 15 to 16 forces me to Remove my OSS EPM first . I bet if we really would update that modules to work in FreePBX 16 it will never be published because then many people would not need to Buy the Comercial EPM

[dicko]

Sangoma does not directly ‘publish’ the OSS endpoint manager, it is available along with many others at

FreePBX Contributed Modules

[matthias1232 (Matthias Binder)]

@dicko

Sangoma does not directly ‘publish’ the OSS endpoint manager, it is available along with many others at

Yes but its still in the Unsupported Repository with 14.0.3 and the PBX Upgrader forces me to remove the module with all Settings first to be able to Update the FreePBX Version

[lgaetz (Lorne Gaetz)]

The OSS EPM has no maintainer. If it did, there would perhaps be a version that works with php 8 7 that can be installed on 16. Any modules that are known not to work on 16 with php 8 7 will block the upgrade from proceeding.

Nothing is done to discourage anyone from working on this or any other module.

Edit #1- it looks like there may be an OSS EPM ver compatible with 16, in which case re can revisit. Anyone with details pls start a new thread.

Edit #2 - tried installing the below linked PR on FreePBX with framework 16.0.19 and it fails. So again, anyone who wants to update endpointman for 16, please start a new thread for discussion.

[jfinstrom (James Finstrom)]

@lgaetz

The OSS EPM has no maintainer

Looks like the work got done on github…

fixes for PHP 7.3. Tested on running system.

[dicko]

Now all that is needed is to bump to php 8 7.4 (probably not a big problem) which FreePBX is kinda new at having missed the last 5 7 years of php improvements kudos to @billsimon for mostly doing that for them

[shomi (Sam Shomi)]

@xrobau

@shomi

It all started with sysadmin and module signatures

C’mon, we’ve beaten that horse to death. Module INTEGRITY VALIDATION was 100% open and 100% free, with full documentation on how anyone could do it.

Here - let me help you: Sangoma Documentation

Sysadmin was always a bit of an oddfellow. People wanted a GUI to manage their network interfaces, and other system specific stuff, and were willing to pay a small amount of money to have it built into FreePBX. That’s it - and was many MANY years before Module Integrity Validation.

But c’mon. Give up on beating on module integrity validation - I REALLY went into battle to get that approved, and I went out ot my way to NOT limit it and to make sure all of the tools and documentation were right there in front of everyone who could possibly want it.

I even agreed (admittedly, later) that people wanted a way to do it without needing to get Sangoma installed, so Sangoma Documentation emerged.

And how did that work out for you?

Advanced notice to the community regarding Clearly IP modules

Here’s the a gdoc as authoritative source, just in case something is edited here.: Sangoma Libel - Google Docs OK, so here I am responding as me - xrobau, Rob, the guy who CREATED FreePBX, and also the guy that created all of the GPG stuff, not as a representative of Clearly IP. Here’s the quick summary - I’m totally blindsided by this post, and it seems that there’s a lot of wild accusations being thrown around, lawyers are getting involved, and a bunch of crap is happening, all because Sangom…

Btw, since you guys apparently don’t have a forum over there for me to post this, the workaround you guys came up with for this has a problem. By switching to clearlyip mirrors, it fails the signature checks in /usr/bin/sysadmin_manager when doing Admin > Module Admin > System Updates, so congratulations…you played yourself.

[shomi (Sam Shomi)]

@dicko

What does any of this mean?

@shomi

The API’s and SDKs are getting so feature rich, standardized, and easy to use, that you don’t need to use a dedicated GUI + VoIP Engine server for most things now.

I am gradually making that transition now that it is more practical to do so. I don’t even need to know what they are using on their backend but I think a lot of them are using FreeSwitch.

What API’s ?
What SDK’s ?
What GUI’s ?
What VOIP Engines ?
How are they all ‘standardized’ ?

If “I don’t even need to know what they are using on their backend”, by what logic can you “think a lot of them are using FreeSwitch” ?

But given all this random nonsense, may we ask you "How’s your project going so far ? " and "Are you keeping up with your meds. " ?

You connect your JoeSchmoo front end with any one of a dozen or more carrier/enterprise/wholesale SIP providers API’s, including Realtime calling APIs, Individually or simultaneously, and tada. ‘Cloud’ PBX. Some of them even have private backbone connections to Amazon/Microsoft/Google etc.

[lgaetz (Lorne Gaetz)]

I feel like everything that needs to be said, has been at this point. Locking thread. @Gizepi64 PM me if you wish to add your own thoughts since it’s not clear if you’ve had a chance yet.