Many Fonality customers who employ their own software developers frequently ask if they can make their own modifications to their PBXtra system. They remind us that portions of our software are Open Source, and want to know to what extent they can make changes to the software, or the related system configuration. This document explains what's possible.
In general, we follow the philosophy that you own the system, and can do with it what you like. We have faith that our customers want their systems to be reliable and perform well, and will probably not make changes to compromise the performance of the system. This is all fine until we're expected to support the system after it's been adjusted. The bottom line is that we can't be expected to support changes that were made outside of the software we offer for configuration, maintenance, and integration. We trust that our customers see this as a reasonable restriction to the scope of our technical support services.
Supported Configuration Adjustments
Fonality's PBXtra product includes an extensive Web Administration Tool that can be used to configure every aspect of the system's configuration using a web browser. This administration method is the only recommended method for configuring your PBXtra system to meet your business needs. We also provide a User Administration tool that allows any end user of the PBX system with an extension number to login and see his/her own specific view of the system for tasks like remote configuration of call forwarding settings, viewing call logs, reviewing voice mail, and configuration of ACD functions identified by the system administrator.
3rd Party System Integration
Fonality offers some supported methods of connecting your PBXtra system to other systems, such as CRM or Business Intelligence systems. Our CRM Integration Guide describes what can be done, and what tools and features can be used for this purpose. Our technical support team will not be able to offer guidance beyond the scope of what's documented in the KB article. If you choose to do a 3rd party integration, you must do so using just the existing documentation.
Unsupported Configuration Changes
Some customers have a desire to make changes to the system configuration using the unsupported command line interface, or by modifying the text configuration files on the PBXtra system. This method of configuration is NOT RECOMMENDED. Note that making changes of this nature will void your support agreement if your changes negatively impact your system in any way.
Any changes made using this method are not supported, and must be done at the customers own risk. If anything goes wrong, you will not be allowed to engage our Technical Support staff to assist you to correct any problems.
If you are confident in your abilities, and decide to proceed at your own risk, please consider this advice:
Make a complete backup of everything you plan to change before you make any adjustments.
Do not change anything under /etc/asterisk/fonality/. If you do, our web interface may overwrite your changes next time you use the Admin Web Interface or User Web Interface tools.
Do not change any /etc/asterisk/*.conf files. Your changes may also be overwritten in the same manner as described in #2 above.
You may adjust /etc/asterisk/extensions.conf without fear of our software overwriting your changes. However, doing this will likely interfere with proper operation, and must be done with considerable caution.
Your changes may be overwritten, or broken by future updates to the Fonality software. If you make changes of this sort, you will be responsible for re-integrating every time there is a new software release that affects the same files.
If you do make an error that breaks your system, we will not be able to fix it for you. Your only remedy will be to return your system to Fonality, pay a re-provisioning fee, and start over from the last known Fonality system configuration again. All of your voice prompts and voice mail greetings must be recorded again. The current prevailing fee for this service at the time of publishing this document is $499 plus shipping. This fee is subject to change.