People have asked for many things after the release of func_odbc. Func_odbc is a module that permits you to create fill-in-the-blank SQL templates, which become dialplan functions. One of the requests was for automatically using the column names to populate variables, which became the HASH() function. Another request was for multi-row access, and that is now integrated within func_odbc as the parameter "mode=multirow".

I've been working on a concept over the past several months, which I call "adaptive capabilities". Some of you are already familiar with the original module that started this work, called cdr_adaptive_odbc. The idea behind this is rather simple, but the result is very powerful: instead of relying on database tables to be static representations of what Asterisk designers originally intended, make Asterisk adapt to the layout of a database table.

No doubt most people working with CDRs have felt that the Userfield is grossly inadequate to encode all of the details they would like to have. The problem is, how do you create a generic CDR engine that will satisfy different people on different systems with completely different needs?

One of the new features that will be available in Asterisk 1.4 will be a template-driven SQL function, whose name is func_odbc. This new tool will allow an administrator to create an SQL template, to be filled in with variables from the dialplan. Given popular demand, this module has been backported to 1.2, so it may be used with that earlier version. The svn repository where this backport is kept is at SVN Community. This backport will be kept up to date at least until 1.4 is released.

A patch for our sales guy, who didn't want to receive his voicemail in gsm format, I've created a way to specify an email attachment format per mailbox, such that our guys who are still on Windows can receive their voicemail in wav49 format, while those of us who have Linux desktops can continue to have voicemail arrive in gsm format.