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Using the etSiemens Sample Program

The etSiemens program searches for telephony devices installed on the computer that use the Siemens CorNet TS TAPI Service Provider (TSP).  These devices will be listed in the programs “Device” menu.  The first time etSiemens is run the first device is activated.  You may select another device by clicking its menu option.

The layout of etSiemens is modeled after a typical Siemens handset to make it easy to use.  We expect that you already have an understanding of how to user your Siemens telephone.

Applications that you write using ExceleTel TeleTools need not look like a telephone!  In fact, most telephony enabled applications rarely look like a handset. Chances are you already have an application that you want to add telephony features.  It could be as simple as capturing the CallerID information then using it to look up a customer’s record and displaying that information for a call center agent.  In this case you would not even have a user interface for the telephony features!

 

Display

At the top of etSiemens is the display information as it appears on a Siemens handset with a few added features. 

Since your phone is capable of more than one call at a time each call is displayed as a little icon in the upper left hand corner. As new calls are created they will appear in columns of three. Remember, you can have multiples call on a single phone line!

The call icons (The phone icon on the bottom right of the screen) are color coded to indicate the calls current state. Green means that the call is dialing, waiting to be dialed or connected.  Yellow shows that the call is on hold.  Red indicates the inbound call has not yet been answered or has been hung-up.

Move your mouse over the call icon to see its CallerID information.

Clicking on a call icon when it is yellow will cause the currently connected call to be placed on hold and take the selected call off hold.

In the bottom left of the display is the duration of the current call.

In the bottom right of the display is a “Messages” indicator.  This will flash to indicate when messages are waiting.  This option must be configured, see the Feature Buttons and Standard Buttons section.

Feature Buttons

The 4 Feature buttons are located directly above the key pad buttons.  Each of these buttons has a label and a lamp to emulate the buttons on the handset.

Clicking on these buttons with your mouse button is just like pressing the button on the phone.

Due to a limitation in the Siemens TSP, ExceleTel TeleTools can not extract the name of the button.  To get around this problem there is a configuration dialog that allows you to set the display name of the button.  Right mouse click on the buttons to edit the labels.

You can also set the hint that will be displayed when you move your mouse over the button.  If a hint is not entered then the name will be displayed as the hint.

When “Voice Mail” is checked and the buttons lamp is lit the “Messages” indicator in the display will flash.  You should only select one button to have this option checked.

Keypad Buttons

The keypad buttons are located in the lower left section.  When clicking on these buttons with your mouse they work just like the buttons on your phone.

These buttons do not have an edit option.

 

Standard Buttons

The Siemens TSP only allows TAPI to access 8 of the  standard button/lamps on your handset. These buttons work in the same manner as the Feature Buttons described earlier.

When “Voice Mail” is checked and the buttons lamp is lit the “Messages” indicator in the display will flash.  You should only select one button to have this option checked.

Status Bar

The status bar found at the bottom of the application shows the name of the currently selected Siemens telephony device and indicates the current state of the handset, headset and speakerphone.  Green indicates that the device is off hook, yellow means that the device is muted and red shows that it is not in use (on hook).

Speed Dial Buttons

The speed dial buttons are displayed by clicking on the “View | Speed Dial Buttons” menu option.  You will not find these buttons on your phone!

Click on these buttons to dial the associated number. Right mouse click anywhere in the area of the speed dial buttons to display the menu.  This menu is used to create new buttons, delete buttons, edit buttons and arrange buttons.

The speed dial buttons require a phone number.

When the numbers are in canonical format (as illustrated) the Windows Dialing Parameters will be used taking into account the location, area code, long distance carrier codes and rules for accessing outside lines.

Call Log

The call log shows the last ten calls with a completion icon, name, phone number, date and time of the call, and duration.  Use the “View | Call Log” menu option to display the call log. 

There are four possible icons:
      Inbound, answered
      Inbound, not answered
      Outbound, answered
      Outbound, not answered

Other Features

Due to a limitation in the Siemens TSP some information may not appear in the display properly when the program first starts.  Click on the “Device | Reset” menu option to cause the phone to enter the test mode, this will cause the TSP to update the state of the display and buttons.  This operation can be done automatically each time etSiemens starts by checking on the “File | Auto Reset” menu option.

The “Device | Configure” menu option causes the TSP’s configuration dialog box to be displayed.  Normally you would select the “Phone and Modem” Control Panel applet, select the “Advanced” tab, select the “CorNet-TU TAPI Service Provider” then click on the “Configure…” button.

Settings

Many of the options for etSiemens are saved in an INI file when the program is closed.  This file can be found in the Windows user’s directory. For example: C:\Documents and Settings\Fred Flintstone\Application Data\ExceleTel\etSiemens\1.0\Config.INI.  Each time that the program starts it looks for this file and restores the buttons, configuration options, and the call log.

The first time etSiemens is run it looks for the etSiemens.INI file in the same directory as the file etSiemens.EXE is run from.  This file contains the default setting for the buttons and configuration options.  Systems administrators may want to modify these settings when deploying this application.

ExceleTel  TeleScope

Remember etSiemens only shows a small part of the power of ExceleTel TeleTools!  TeleScope is one of the most powerful programming tools for CTI and it is built into ExceleTel TeleTools.  With TeleScope you can access many of the features of TeleTools at run time as well as design time.  TeleScope will shorten your learning curve and aiding in solving problems once your application is deployed.  Be sure to take a closer look at ExceleTel TeleTools

Click here for more information about unique features found in TeleScope!

etLine TeleScope

etSiemens uses one TeleTools etLine control to access the line features of the telephony device.  The TeleScope can easily be displayed so a program can see just what is going on! 

This is a powerful tool programmers may use to learn more about the device(s) and for debugging.

This illustration show the log that is built into the etLine control. Notice the events that have fired and the properties that have been set.

 

etPhone TeleScope

etSiemens uses one TeleTools etPhone control to access the headset, handset, and speakerphone features of the telephony device.

This illustration shows some of the buttons that are available with the Siemens optiPoint500 handset.  Notice the property values listed in the Buttons tab.

 

What else can I do with TeleTools?

Remember this is just a sample program, demonstrating just a few things that you can do with Siemens TAPI enabled phones and ExceleTel TeleTools.  

Here are just a few other ideas!

Advance Call Logging
etSiemens only logs the last 10 calls but you could log each call to a database.

Visually impaired
etSiemens only shows a small log on the screen.  Your application could display it as large as you need to help users with visual difficulties.
etSiemens uses the color red for the lamps, your application could use any color necessary to help users that have a difficult time seeing colors.

Hearing impaired
Integrating Text-To-Speech technology allows you to announce the CallerID information through the computers speakers.

Advanced Call Features
etSiemens focuses on features that are readily available on the handset.  But that's not all  you can do with ExceleTel TeleTools.  You could use TeleTools features to make it very easy for your users to transfer calls, build conference calls, forward calls, etc…

Siemens phone systems and ExceleTel TeleTools are very powerful and flexible.  You are only limited by your imagination!  

 

 
 

Copyright © 1997-2007 ExceleTel Inc. All rights reserved. Friday August 17, 2007 11:05:24 AM

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