OpenVBX Blog

OpenVBX and MySQLi

Shawn Parker — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:07:06 +0000

Starting with OpenVBX 1.1 the install process detects wether a server is running a version of MySQL that is compatible with the MySQLi Driver and will enable MySQLi in those cases. Most of the niceties for using MySQLi are behind the scenes and mostly interesting to geeky types. Most of all, though, it gets your server using a database driver that is under active development and that will get improvements and bug fixes as your host keeps your server up to date. In some cases, depending upon your server configuration, you might also enjoy a slight boost in server response speed.

Unfortunately OpenVBX does not do any detection or make any changes to this setting during the Upgrade process, so if you’re running OpenVBX 1.1 or newer and performed and upgrade from a version pior to OpenVBX 1.1, and if your MySQL server version is greater than 4.1.13 for MySQL 4 or greater than 5.0.7 for MySQL 5 you should update your database config file to enable MySQLi.

If you don’t know what version of MySQL your server is running you can check your “Settings > About” page, under the Server Info section you can find the MySQL version that you’re running. Here you can also check the “Database Configuration” line. If that line starts with mysqli then you’re already in business. You’re done! If you’re running an older version of OpenVBX that doesn’t list the MySQL version you can check your hosting providers control panel to see which version of MySQL they provide.

Now, If you’re not already running the MySQLi driver and your MySQL server meets the requirements, log in to your web-server via FTP or SSH and navigate to [web-root]/OpenVBX/config/. There you’ll find a file named database.php. In this file there’s a line like:

$db['default']['dbdriver'] = 'mysql';

If yours already says mysqli then you’re done! If not, change it to mysqli and save the file. Now when you use OpenVBX you’ll be using the newer MySQLi library.

OpenVBX 1.2.5 Update

Shawn Parker — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:25:34 +0000

OpenVBX 1.2.5 is now available for download. This release fixes various issues including some important issues with tenant urls and the ability for tenant users to log in, plugin data saving, and TwiML parameter settings. The full changelog can be viewed on the 1.2 branch changelog entry on Github.

This update is recommended for all installs.

Download & Upgrade

Go to the OpenVBX Download Page to download the latest version of OpenVBX and be sure to consult the Upgrade Guide for best practices on upgrading your OpenVBX install.

Support for OpenVBX is handled via the OpenVBX GetSatisfaction Forums for usage troubleshooting/bugs and via the OpenVBX GitHub Issue Tracker for troubleshooting or submitting code modifications to OpenVBX.

OpenVBX 1.2.4 & Documentation Updates

Shawn Parker — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:58:55 +0000

OpenVBX 1.2.4 has been released. This update fixes an issue with Connect Tenant return authorization and also merges in a pull request that makes the Whisper functionality on the Dial Applet an optional feature.

Quickstart Documentation Updates

The OpenVBX Quickstart Documentation is now up-to-date with new sample code to reflect the most current version of OpenVBX and Twilio PHP API Library. You may also notice some fresh new style and layout adjustments making the overall documentation more readable. Also visit the Quickstarts for making Applets and Pages to see the current updates.

If you’re looking to build something new with your OpenVBX system, take a look at the rest of our Documentation for using themes, building plugins or implementing calls through your browser.

Community Documentation

In addition to our documentation, a great resource for getting acquainted with OpenVBX is available from the writers on OpenVBX Installers. Watch video tutorials from How to Install OpenVBX and How to Connect Phone Numbers to Flows in OpenVBX, and to How to Install the Outbound Flows Plugin .

Stay tuned for more updates and improvements coming soon.

Download & Upgrade

Go to the OpenVBX Download Page to download the latest version of OpenVBX and be sure to consult the Upgrade Guide for best practices on upgrading your OpenVBX install.

OpenVBX 1.2.3 Update

Shawn Parker — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:13:38 +0000

OpenVBX 1.2.3 has been released and fixes a fatal error that prevented OpenVBX 1.2.2 from running on web servers that used PHP 5.2.

Download & Upgrade

Go to the OpenVBX Download Page to download the latest version of OpenVBX and be sure to consult the Upgrade Guide for best practices on upgrading your OpenVBX install.

OpenVBX 1.2.2 Update

Shawn Parker — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:37:23 +0000

2012-01-12: The OpenVBX 1.2.2 release has been pulled due to a bug it introduced in to servers running PHP 5.2

This bug will be fixed in OpenVBX 1.2.3 and that will be released ASAP.

OpenVBX 1.2.2 was released today. 1.2.2 fixes some issues around number url updating and caching of data stored with PluginData.

fix number assignment to flow to null ApplicationSid fields as they always trump url values and can prevent a number assignment from taking hold
fix Memcache cache generation method to properly query the objects cache generation
fix VBX_Plugin_Store to return a generated id field when requested. The PluginStore database table doesn’t have a primary key of id like other cached database data so we need to generate one on a per request basis to enable proper caching of this data.
removed a check for php versions < 5.2 in MY_Model

Download & Upgrade

Go to the OpenVBX Download Page to download the latest version of OpenVBX and be sure to consult the Upgrade Guide for best practices on upgrading your OpenVBX install.

OpenVBX 1.2.1 Update

Shawn Parker — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:49:25 +0000

OpenVBX 1.2.1 was released today. 1.2.1 fixes some minor issues around installation and with sending emails from OpenVBX.

update outgoing email to properly set user-agent, reply-to and return-path for sent emails
- return-path won’t always override depending upon the server’s sendmail configuration
fix cache table keys to fix rare condition where mysql would reserve key-name lengths for utf8 making the resulting key length reservation more than 1000 characters
add minification config override for servers that don’t define a proper server document root
fix install setup error return to properly display the error

Download & Upgrade

Go to the OpenVBX Download Page to download the latest version of OpenVBX and be sure to consult the Upgrade Guide for best practices on upgrading your OpenVBX install.

OpenVBX 1.2 Released

Shawn Parker — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:46:01 +0000

OpenVBX 1.2 is now available for download. This release comes a bit sooner and a bit lighter than we had originally planned, but is no less packed with goodies than you deserve. This release brings speed improvements thanks to a caching layer, makes number management more sane, makes password storage more secure (not that it was insecure before, mind you), and brings more configuration options in to the Admin Settings to provide more control over how OpenVBX behaves.

Keep reading for more details on the features of this release.

Caching

This release introduces Object Caching code that will greatly increase the performance of OpenVBX for anyone who has been using OpenVBX on a server without APC. For those that did have APC, you’ll only get a little bit faster, sorry

For most users on commodity hosting (ie: Dreamhost, Hostgator, etc…) the default caching settings will be fine. By default OpenVBX will cache requests made to Twilio so that information is only requested once per one hour span.

For advanced users who have either APC or Memcache available on their servers the cache config file (located at OpenVBX/config/cache.php) can be modified to reflect the system you have available on your server. This will further speed up OpenVBX by caching database requests in system memory to provide additional boosts in performance. A more detailed look at the advanced caching options is available in the Object Caching Wiki Page on GitHub.

Cache timeout defaults to 1 hour. Sometimes, though, there will be situations where you want to force clear the cache to reflect changes that were made outside of OpenVBX. For example, if you purchased a phone number in the Twilio Account Portal you could be waiting a while for that number to show up in the OpenVBX numbers list. To force the number to show up you can navigate in OpenVBX to the Settings > About section and click the “» Flush All Caches” link in the Caching section. This will force OpenVBX to refresh all of its data from Twilio.

Redesigned Numbers Screen

The Numbers management screen has been redesigned to better identify your numbers and to break out numbers in to 3 types:

Assigned Numbers: These are numbers that are in use on this install of OpenVBX. Installs of OpenVBX are identified by the website’s domain name.
Unassigned Numbers: These are numbers that you own but that are not in use. This section will not display if you do not have an unassigned phone numbers.
Numbers used on other domains: These are numbers that you own but that have URLs that identify as them as being in use by other systems. You can view the associated urls to help determine where the numbers are being used. These numbers can be imported in to the current OpenVBX install but any information about where they were in use will be lost on import. This section is collapsed by default and will not display if you don’t have any numbers that are assigned to other applications.

Configuration Settings

More configuration settings have been added to OpenVBX’s Settings > System Config page that provide more control over how OpenVBX works. These new settings are:

Time Zone: Set your local time zone. This will default to the server’s time zone.
Email Notifications: You can now set wether to receive email notifications for new Voice & Text messages. Default is to notify users on both new Text & Voice messages.
Sandbox Number Display: Control wether to show the Sandbox number in the phone numbers list. This is only applicable to the parent tenant as sub-tenants cannot have sandbox numbers. Default is to hide the Sandbox number.
Dial Timeout: You can now configure the amount of time that a dial action will wait before giving up trying to reach a number. Default is 15 seconds.

Passwords

Password security has been improved by using PHPass Hashing Library for password encryption. Passwords are upgraded automatically when a user first logs in to the upgraded OpenVBX.

New passwords are also required to have a minimum length of 8 characters. Previously OpenVBX would allow users to set passwords of any length, including empty passwords. Existing short passwords will not be changed other than to upgrade the password to the new ecryption method.

Everything Else

Other improvements include:

User editing is now done in a dedicated screen instead of a pop-up.
Admins are displayed information about the user’s devices when viewing a user’s account details.
Helpful documentation snippets have been added to configuration settings with links to documentation pages on Twilio.com where appropriate.
More meaningful error messages are now displayed when errors occur.
An upgrade notice has been added so that you will be notified when a new version of OpenVBX is available for download.
Fix for servers running on non-standard ports to allow them to run without having to manually modify the config.php file.

Download & Upgrade

Go to the OpenVBX Download Page to download the latest version of OpenVBX and be sure to consult the Upgrade Guide for best practices on upgrading your OpenVBX install.

OpenVBX 1.1.3 Released

Shawn Parker — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:23:08 +0000

OpenVBX 1.1.3 is now available for download. This update includes many important fixes to request validation, better handling of servers that don’t use mod_rewrite, error reporting, and using the call to record feature. This update is recommended for all users.

The full list of changes is available in the OpenVBX Changelog file that is distributed with OpenVBX. Version specific Changelogs are available in the OpenVBX Wiki on GitHub.

Visit the OpenVBX Download Page to get the latest version.