Is there an Alternative to TAPI?

Is there an Alternative to TAPI?

I realize this is the TAPI newsgroup, so hopefully I wont get blasted for 
asking this but, if I wanted to develop a telephony application is there any 
alternatives to TAPI that can still be coded from a relatively high level?

My intention is to develop an IVR application that can operate with as many 
different commercial PBX's as possible. (Ideally it would be possible to use 
within .NET but that seems like quite a stretch).

I've been reading about TAPI for the last week and it seems like it would 
work, but I've herd that Microsoft has deprecated TAPI (or at least stopped 
advancing it) and that JTAPI (Java TAPI) is the way the industry is moving 
(although TAPI is still widly supported).

I just want to move forward using the best technology possible. Does anyone 
have input on this matter?

Thanks for your time,
Trent

date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 11:41:17 -0500 author: Trent

Re: Is there an Alternative to TAPI?

Trent,

I currently can't see any significant movement towards JTAPI.
The last JTAPI spec V 1.4 is from 2002, so I wouldn't say
there is much more development going on than with TAPI.

I would say that MS TAPI is currently unparralleled in completeness
and industry support and it's the way to go for interfacing with
PBX systems. TAPI is a very complete API and there is no
significant need for major(!) updates.

The last TAPI innovations from the side of MS was TAPI3
which introduced a COM API in addition to the TAPI2.x  API.
TAPI3 also provides a good framework for working with
media (not only call control) and it also provides support for
H.323.
Unfortunately MS decided to go a different route with SIP and
their plans and innovations in the area of SIP don't include TAPI
any more. On the other hand I would say that although MS is
making huge efforts in the area of SIP, these efforts are not really
aimed at providing industry standard SIP support but rather creating
their own communication platform around Live Communications
Server. I doubt (and that's really a personal opinion) that they
will manage to replace classic (and VoIP) PBX systems with this
platform. For me this is rather a kind of "Enterprise Instant Messaging"
platform with audio and video support.

So with focus on telephony I wouldn't really bother about that.
There are already SIP implementations for TAPI available
(www.comisdn.com and currently in beta: www.terasens.com/products/terasip)


Best regards,

Matthias Moetje
------------------------------------- 
TERASENS GmbH
Augustenstrae 24
80333 Munich, GERMANY
------------------------------------- 
Fon: +49 89 143370-0
Fax: +49 89 143370-22
e-mail: moetje at terasens dot com
www:   www.terasens.com
------------------------------------- 

"Trent"  wrote in message
news:%236nr6pJkGHA.4828@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
>
> I realize this is the TAPI newsgroup, so hopefully I wont get blasted for
> asking this but, if I wanted to develop a telephony application is there
any
> alternatives to TAPI that can still be coded from a relatively high level?
>
> My intention is to develop an IVR application that can operate with as
many
> different commercial PBX's as possible. (Ideally it would be possible to
use
> within .NET but that seems like quite a stretch).
>
> I've been reading about TAPI for the last week and it seems like it would
> work, but I've herd that Microsoft has deprecated TAPI (or at least
stopped
> advancing it) and that JTAPI (Java TAPI) is the way the industry is moving
> (although TAPI is still widly supported).
>
> I just want to move forward using the best technology possible. Does
anyone
> have input on this matter?
>
> Thanks for your time,
> Trent
>
>
>
>

date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 23:53:50 +0200 author: Matthias Moetje [MVP]

Re: Is there an Alternative to TAPI?

Hello

I very much agree with Matthias comments here.

However, just for completeness will mention some other competing telephony
API's.

CSTA - google for it for further details.  More common with heavy iron
PBX's.  Unfortunately, as it comes from the telephony industry it is a bit
of a closed door and getting documentation on it is a bit like pulling
teeth.  That's the telecoms industry all over.  I have used it and it is a
powerful API.  I have only worked with it on Avaya platform and some people
say it varies between vendors.  Whereas TAPI is pretty standard - just level
of support varies.

ASAI.  This was originally designed by IBM I believe.  To my knowledge only
available on Avaya platform.

Then there are proprietary API's from a large number of vendors.  ie you
program to their API and you then can only work with their platform.
Usually powerful but of course not so flexible if your next customer has a
different PBX.

An example is the Dialogic API.  But many examples abound.

Can't comment on JTAPI as not a Java programmer.  I haven't heard a lot
about it and I really doubt it is the place to be for telephony programming
unless you are a Java programmer.

Oh and please don't mention that evil .NET thing!

Hope that helps.

Angus



"Matthias Moetje [MVP]"  wrote in message
news:OQcMxYMkGHA.1000@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Trent,
>
> I currently can't see any significant movement towards JTAPI.
> The last JTAPI spec V 1.4 is from 2002, so I wouldn't say
> there is much more development going on than with TAPI.
>
> I would say that MS TAPI is currently unparralleled in completeness
> and industry support and it's the way to go for interfacing with
> PBX systems. TAPI is a very complete API and there is no
> significant need for major(!) updates.
>
> The last TAPI innovations from the side of MS was TAPI3
> which introduced a COM API in addition to the TAPI2.x  API.
> TAPI3 also provides a good framework for working with
> media (not only call control) and it also provides support for
> H.323.
> Unfortunately MS decided to go a different route with SIP and
> their plans and innovations in the area of SIP don't include TAPI
> any more. On the other hand I would say that although MS is
> making huge efforts in the area of SIP, these efforts are not really
> aimed at providing industry standard SIP support but rather creating
> their own communication platform around Live Communications
> Server. I doubt (and that's really a personal opinion) that they
> will manage to replace classic (and VoIP) PBX systems with this
> platform. For me this is rather a kind of "Enterprise Instant Messaging"
> platform with audio and video support.
>
> So with focus on telephony I wouldn't really bother about that.
> There are already SIP implementations for TAPI available
> (www.comisdn.com and currently in beta: www.terasens.com/products/terasip)
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Matthias Moetje
> -------------------------------------
> TERASENS GmbH
> Augustenstrae 24
> 80333 Munich, GERMANY
> -------------------------------------
> Fon: +49 89 143370-0
> Fax: +49 89 143370-22
> e-mail: moetje at terasens dot com
> www:   www.terasens.com
> -------------------------------------
>
> "Trent"  wrote in message
> news:%236nr6pJkGHA.4828@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> >
> >
> > I realize this is the TAPI newsgroup, so hopefully I wont get blasted
for
> > asking this but, if I wanted to develop a telephony application is there
> any
> > alternatives to TAPI that can still be coded from a relatively high
level?
> >
> > My intention is to develop an IVR application that can operate with as
> many
> > different commercial PBX's as possible. (Ideally it would be possible to
> use
> > within .NET but that seems like quite a stretch).
> >
> > I've been reading about TAPI for the last week and it seems like it
would
> > work, but I've herd that Microsoft has deprecated TAPI (or at least
> stopped
> > advancing it) and that JTAPI (Java TAPI) is the way the industry is
moving
> > (although TAPI is still widly supported).
> >
> > I just want to move forward using the best technology possible. Does
> anyone
> > have input on this matter?
> >
> > Thanks for your time,
> > Trent
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>

date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 00:05:35 +0100 author: Angus Comber