I am looking for information on telephone systems that can interface
with a web server.  I either need a telephone system has the ability
to send information to a windows server or how to write a scrpt that
will interface for me.
The goal is to have an id number be entered into the phone system and
have that kick off an event on the web server.  I only need the phone
system to communicate with the web server, not vice versa.  Any
information on
hardware to do this or how to write scripts to do this is what I need.

Hi, topless_intern-ga:

As icyy-ga notes, the hardware side of the solution would be a "voice
board" such as an Intel/Dialogic card or competitor.  These come in
varying capacities, i.e. handling from 2 lines to 48 lines (from a
T1).

But writing "a simple program" to take input from the phone line(s)
will require some specialized software packages.  In past years I
could have steered you toward Visual Voice, a former product of
Artisoft that featured Visual Basic controls useful with Microsoft
Visual Basic programs.  However time has not been kind to this very
successful product.

Back in 2000 Artisoft decided to divest this product line:

http://www.copia.com/press/pr_0007.html

apparently to a company called Stylus that is now defunct.  So if you
are looking to do development in Visual Basic, another approach is
needed.

While Copia claims to have filled the void with their VoiceFacts
product:

http://www.copia.com/products/

their Web site is oddly unspecific about exactly what programming
languages are supported by this product.  In scanning through the
"reviews" that they provide links for, it is clear that this is a
Windows product since it is DLL-based.  But it is not clear how
thread-friendly it is, or whether a COM interface or .Net approach is
allowed.

A solution that is proclaimed as Visual Basic compatible:

[Pronexus Computer Telephony Toolkit and IVR Development Package]

http://www.tti.net/computer-telephony-toolkits/pronexus-computer-telephony-toolkit.html

which according this annoucement is available in a .Net compatible
form:

http://www.commweb.com/article/COM20021010S0001

Here's yet a third Windows based IVR solution that looked worth
investigating:

[Simplified Telephony Solutions]

http://www.sim-phony.com/products-configurableivr.htm

But the world isn't necessarily Bill Gates' oyster anyway...

If you are more of an open source/non-Microsoft programmer, then you
might be interested in some of the projects being done at SourceForge.
 For example:

[Open Source PyTele: Python Extension for Telephony]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pytele/

is in late beta stage of developing Python extensions that implement
the Linux TAPI (telephony API) and can be used for IVR applications.

No discussion of voice response and open standards could be complete
without at least mentioning the "hot topic" of VoiceXML.  An open
standards but commercial implementation is offered here:

[VoiceXML IVR - Systems & Solutions]

http://www.plumgroup.com/?source=google-ivr

One caveat:  A lot of the buzz around VoiceXML and current voice
response development has to do with voice recognition, which you
clearly don't need for the project you described.

Finally let me offer a thought about the integration of the telephone
line/IVR server and the Web server.  Although icyy-ga's suggestion of
simply sending an HTTP request to the Web server in order to trigger
the required action, this might turn out to be "unreliable" in the
strict sense that transactions might get ignored.  Depending on how
critical the request/action response tie needs to be honored, I would
probably approach this integration through the backend, i.e. by
sending a request record from the IVR server to a relational database,
from which the Web server would receive appropriate notification via
middleware logic.  If you wanted to explain the nature of the "events"
to be triggered on the Web server, I'd be happy to revisit this
architectural issue.
 
regards, mathtalk-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by mathtalk-ga on 15 Nov 2002 23:10 PST

Here's a Web site that claims to make the Windows "TAPI" subject
easily understood.  I'm sure with their nice diagrams they come a darn
sight closer than I did!

http://www.sunny-beach.net/TAPIMadeEasy.htm

regards, mathtalk

A simple way would be to put a dialogic card (or one from one of its
competitors) into the web server (or a different PC). You could then
write a simple program that would take input for the phone line and
generate HTTP/HTML requests to the web server triggering the action
you required.