mariadb mysql stored udf wrong error message

i just wasted 12 hours chasing an error in stored function on mariadb
select sugarcrm.canstart('10.8.0.99') as "val";
ERROR 1054 (42S22): Unknown column 'fixedip' in 'field list'
the error " Unknown column 'fixedip' in 'field list" was not related to any table I was referencing in my udf. turns out it is referring to a parameter name in the udf
i am setting a user variable like this:
 SET @fixedip := fixedip; the error is that my parameter name is ipadr and not fixedip! I am pissed that I was mislead into thinking this was a column in a table i was querrying or inserting into  

very annoying😞!!!

sugarcrm and selinux

selinux prevents the httpd server(apache from sending emails or connecting to a remote database unless permission is explicitly granted by setting boo leans as follows.

1. to send emails  usng the httpd server using php mail()which sugar does 
2. set httpd_can_sendmail must be set to tru using the :setsebool command
3. like this "setsebool -P httpd_can_sendmail 1"
4. to connect to a remote mysql instance not at local host you must set the httpd_can_network_connect_db boolean like
5. setsebool -P  httpd_can_network_connect_db 1

Implementing a call center using Asterisk PBX

Introduction

The client is an award winning travel agency with 21 offices in 5 countries. The business process across all the offices required customers to either call in a travel request or visit the office in person to start and/or complete the transaction; the vast majority of transactions were largely handled by telephone. To support this process the company used a TDM based Meridian PBX system that would ring on every agents desk as well as the main telephone operators console with the answering party responsible for handling the call or transferring to the requested agent. The company also incurred significant telecommunication costs to support the process.
Over time executive management became increasingly aware of some of the inefficiencies that were inherent in the process, specifically as it related to measuring the performance of individual agents and offices. In particular, as the telecoms cost became a significant line item in the monthly expense report and annual budget they sought to relate this cost to the revenue earned from the resulting sale of a ticket by the agent. With the agents compensation directly related to the sales of tickets and tours, the evaluation of cost inputs is a critical component and the allocation of telecoms costs to the agent needed a timely and accurate methodology.
This desire to find a suitable methodology  to allocate telecoms costs led to a larger evaluation of how best to redesign and retool the process to improve measurement and reporting. My participation in this evaluation provided an opportunity to highlight deficiencies that could be eliminated by the introduction of VoIP technology and in particular the GPL licensed Open Source product, Asterisk PBX. Among the elements discussed and identified as candidates to be leveraged for improving efficiencies are the following:

• 
  
  elimination of communication islands - under the existing regime each office could be classified as an isolated island of voice communications, with links to other offices being forced  through the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). While the head office had a very robust TDM system, customers would at times get a busy signal when all lines were in use; a once proposed solution to this problem was usually to increase the number of lines, this however was not cost efficient because the busy period for travel is during the summer months with the rest of the year seeing significantly reduced call volumes. While this used to represent the norm, I was able to demonstrate another reality, that of viewing the entire group as a single office, with the available lines being shared throughout the system. Quite simply if all lines in a particular office were in use, calls to that office would rollover to a designated answering group at one or more of the other locations in the system; this raised another benefit that needed to be realized; being able to reduce the number of lines across the system  allowed by the increased efficiency of use resulting from sharing.
• 
  
  converged voice and data networks - beyond the isolation of each office imposed by the nature of the technology in use, another level of isolation exists between the voice and data networks. One of the major benefits of VoIP technology is the convergence of voice and data networks, that facilitates the sharing of data between the systems. With the converged network both voice and data are digitized and share a common  transport mechanism and protocol. In fact a feature of the resulting implementation is the integration of incoming caller ids and the back-office CRM systems and Accounts Receivable systems to retrieve and present to an agent the callers profile before answering the caller. 
• 
  
  enabling the mobile worker - with voice and data now sharing a common network the ability of the mobile worker to connect to to the office from a remote location now includes voice communication. The mobile worker once connected to the network will have an extension make and receive calls using  the office PBX, regardless of their location; contrast this with the traditional extension which ties a worker to a specific physical location.
• precise cost allocation through call detail records
  

• solution
  

• Strategy
  
• Components
  

• Design
  

• Challenges
  

• Solutions
  

• Daily administration
  

• Next Steps
  

Starting to Blog about technology

I have been working in the technology field since 1983. The last 7 of these 27 years has been like the first 7, exciting; the time spent learning and leveraging all that's new and available in the Open Source world. At the end of 2009 I made a decision to write about the available technologies and how I have leveraged these tools to support business process' for various enterprises; schools, Government entities and commercial organizations.

My approach will be to address both the executive viewers of this newsletter who may need guidance in how to leverage these tools and the consequential impact on the bottom line and the techies that may be interested in practical how to's. My knowledge of FOSS tools is fairly wide and diverse and include:

• Asterisk PBX
• SugarCRM
• Pentaho BI
• Drupal CMS
• Sendmail
• Request Tracker (RT) trouble ticketing
• OpenVPN
• OpenOffice
• MySql
• PostgreSQL
• Apache
• Squid Proxy Server
• Qemu Virtual Computing
• Various programing languages (Perl, PHP, Java, Shell scripting)
• Gimp
• Nagios
• Freemind - a mind mapping tool that is the best tool I have used to organize my thoughts and develop an action plan.
  

and several other tools from the linux OS that I have used to support various platforms inhouse and those of my clients from various outsourced sysadmin projects.

With this introduction out of the way I will tease my first project - the Asterisk PBX. I have used this application to implement a call center platform for a large travel agency consisting of 23 offices located in 5 countries. This has been an on going project that has allowed the agency to leverage voip technologies to significantly enhance the efficiency of their agents as well as improve customer service. Part I of this series will discuss the objectives and strategy employed leading to this deployment - the exec piece of this post - and will be delivered this month.