I need to spend some time with Grafana so I can speak with some authority, but for now I will make some assumptions.
I assume if you are working with historical data (exported 3CX report data or CDR data) that an integration with 3CX is not really required. But I am hoping with the Grafana integration that 3CX will be offering more direct access to the raw data both historical and real-time.
Today, things get really complicated when you need real-time data (important for real-time dashboards). Sure, it is straightforward to request the data, but when you need the data in real-time, poking the API every second to determine whether anything has changed is politely characterized as resource intensive. What is really needed is the ability to passively listen to events in real-time.
Unfortunately, if you have ever attempted to use the Call Control API to try and make sense of the real-time events it provides, you know it is a very challenging task. We have been working with these events for 15+ years and we are still finding unanticipated edge cases, or changes 3CX has made to the those events. Because the events evolve over time, it makes interpreting the meaning of the events an on-going learning process. ...Sigh...
What we really need/want is to know real-time things like who is on the phone, when they change their presence status, how many people are waiting in the queue and for how long, who is logged into queues, etc. The new configuration API may be able to provide some of the answers, but nobody, including 3CX, wants us poking multiple 3CX APIs every second to get real-time updates.
We will just have to wait and see what comes along with the Grafana integration and then we can decide whether a new approach to real-time data if possible. Any efforts 3CX makes to provide easy, supported, access to historical and real-time data is greatly appreciated.
