This is the "VBOX plugin Version 0.5.0" for the Video Disk Recorder (VDR).

Written by:                  Gunnar Roth <gunnar.roth@gmx.de>

Project's homepage:          none

Latest version available at: http://linvdr.org/download/vdr-vbox/

See the file COPYING for license information.


Description:
This plugin is a frontend to the isdn answering machine vbox2.

FEATURES: 
	- Lists all calls recorded by vbox
	- Plays the call on the dvb card.
	- Multiple users (vboxes) supported
	- Support the vbox-ctrls Stop, Answer all, Answer, Reject , Suspend
	- Notifies of new calls recorded by vbox, while you are watching tv.
  - NEW: can resolve name from number with help of a script
REQUIREMENTS:

You need vdr, supporting plugins ;-). Now versions < 1.1.29 should be supported

A running installation of vbox2 on a reachable server or localhost. vboxd must be startable 
by inetd on the server.

You need the mad.h header from libmad (libmad-devel package have to be installed) and an 
installed libsndfile. (of course the libsndfile-devel packege must be installed too)
Recommended version of libsndfile is 1.0.4. See README of mp3-plugin 
for Install tips.

The vboxtoau program has to be in /usr/bin on the computer where vdr is running, or change the 
path in vboxclient.c at line 22. If you only have this program on your server, copy it to the 
vdr computer

CONFIGURATION:

The vbox-plugin supports multiple users and servers.
You have to create a vboxuser.conf in the  /video/plugins directory.
This file consists of one line for every user.
Example:

myserver:port:user1:passwort1:pin1

The pin is not used yet, but has to be there, set it to 0000.
Port can be -1, then the standard vboxd port is used.

HINT: Try the vbox console client to test, if you can connect to the server
before creating the conf file and running vdr.

USAGE:

If you have more than one user, you can select the user from the menu, after
you have entered the VBOX item from the main menu. If only one user exists
the vbox control stetting is shown directly.

In the main menu you can enter the list of calls menu by pressing OK, or go to vbox control settings menu by
pressing the red color key on the respective line:

These are the VBOX Settings:

 1) "stop"        - vbox will be stopped and will not answer any calls, regardless of other settings

 2) "answer all"  - vbox will answer all calls ( only if it is NOT stopped)

 3) "answer"      - vbox will answer the current call immediately. 
					This setting is autmatically reset by vbox after execution.
 4) "reject"      - vbox will reject the current call immediately.
					This setting is autmatically reset by vbox after execution.

 4) "suspend"      - vbox will suspend the current call immediately.
					This setting is autmatically reset by vbox after execution.


In the vbox calls menu you can browse through the messages and delete or mark as read/unread.

By pressing the OK/Red Button the message is played through the dvb card.
You can stop the replay by pressing the Ok/red button again.

ATTENTION: If you start replay of a message while you are replaying something other 
( like dvb ,mp3 or mplayer), the running player is stopped.

If pressing Refresh Button the messages marked as deleted are only really deleted if you
answer yes to the follwing confirmation message. Same happens,if you leave the menu.

If a user has new call messages, a notification message is displayed from time to time.
Only the user with the latest call message is notified. If the VBOX main menu entry have 
been entered, the notfication messages will be supressed for two hours.

You can switch off notifications in the VBOX Setup menu,
or switch off the confirmation message to delete marked messages.

By using the -r command line option you can use a script to resolve the caller name from
the caller number. This script must have the number as parameter and output the name on stdout.
In the contrib directory is a script "ldapphone2name.pl" for using a ldap server running at localhost.

The same way a mysql address db  could be easily supported.

TODO:
- Limit access by a pin code
- Warn the user, that the current player will be stopped if a call will be replayed 
  and let him decide if he really want this.
- add an command line option for the name of the script to convert the vbox call to au file format.
  ( this way a user can use vboxtoau in connection with another tool(e.g. sox) to in/decrease the volume
  of the call)
- Internationalization of texts if people send me the texts( only english and german is done)
- Support for other answering machine software (better be done by someone who actually runs 
  other am software)

THANKS:
 I wish to thank the following people:
 The creator of vbox for his vbox client and libvbox code.
 The creator of the mp3-plugin, where i copied the audio playing code from.
 and last but not least the author of vdr, for his great software.


Have fun!

Gunnar




