Cisco Cisco Computer Telephony Integration Option 8.5 Developer's Guide

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CTI OS Developer’s Guide for Cisco ICM/IPCC Enterprise & Hosted Editions Release 7.1(1)
 
Chapter 4      Building Your Application
Integrating your Application with CTI OS via the CIL
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Design how CTI should work within your application. What are the 
interaction points? Get specific as to which screen will do the interacting, and 
which data values should be sent between your application and the CTI OS 
platform. 
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Determine when the application should connect to the CTI OS Server. 
Some applications will be server-type integrations that will connect at 
startup, specify a monitor-mode event filter, and stay connected permanently. 
Agent-mode applications will connect up when a specific agent begins his or 
her work shift.
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Clean up when you’re done. When and how does the application stop? Some 
applications will stay up and running permanently, while others will have a 
defined runtime, such as the agent’s workday or shift. For server-type 
applications without a specified stopping point, create an object lifetime 
model and procedure for recovering no-longer-used resources. For 
applications with a specific stopping point, determine what kind of clean up 
needs to be done when the application closes (e.g. disconnect from server, 
release resources).
What Language and Interface to Use 
The CTI OS Client Interface Library API comes in programming languages, each 
with benefits and costs. The choice of interface is important to direct you through 
this developer’s guide, since this guide addresses the CIL API for the C++ and 
COM programming environments. 
The main decision point in choosing which API to use will depend on your 
workstation operating system, your existing applications, and the language skills 
of your developers.
  •
ActiveX Controls. The CTI OS ActiveX controls are the appropriate choice 
for creating a rapid “drag-and-drop” integration of CTI and third-party call 
control with an existing desktop application. The CTI OS ActiveX controls 
are appropriate choice for developing a CTI integration with any fully 
ActiveX-compliant container, such as Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, Microsoft 
Visual C++ 6.0, or any other container that fully supports ActiveX features 
(e.g. Powerbuilder, Delphi, and many third-party CRM packages). The 
ActiveX controls will be the easiest to implement in graphical environments, 
and will help achieve the fastest integrations by providing a complete user 
interface. All CTI OS ActiveX components are distributed via dynamic link