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Telephony Server Application Programming Interface

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TSAPI, short for Telephony Server Application Programming Interface, was a computer telephony integration standard developed and promoted by Novell and AT&T. It consisted of a number of call control commands for switching calls, voice mail and call logging using Netware servers. Unlike the competing TAPI from Microsoft/Intel, TSAPI was a server-based system and did not expect clients to switch calls. This was important to AT&T, who sold large telephone switches that TSAPI was intended to work with.

Description

TSAPI consisted of two primary parts, the TSAPI application programming interface itself, and a "telephony service provider" that ran on a server and talked to TSAPI clients. Novell produced one such provider, "TServer" that ran, unsurprisingly, on NetWare servers. TServer, in turn, talked to a driver specific to the brand of telephony switch being used. NetWare acted only as an operating system for TServer to run within, the traditional NetWare file and print servers were not directly used. TServer did make use of Netware Directory Services for security and provisioning. The whole system from client-side drivers to server to PXB driver was known as "NetWare Telephony Services" (NTS), at least when using Novell software from top to bottom.

The TSAPI message format were based on a standard promoted by the European Computer Manufacturers Association, which was directly supported by a number of European-built switches. On one of these switches the driver between the TSAPI server and the switch was "thin". "Thicker" drivers were needed for switches that did not directly support these standards. The client-side TSAPI API was available for Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2, Macintosh OS and UnixWare.

TSAPI was a control protocol only, it did not send actual data across the network for use with software-based phones. It includes commands for dialing, hanging up and so forth. TSAPI was a stateful protocol that required a channel, referred to as a stream, to be set up for all communications.

References

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