Accessing PBX logs over serial

It's a shot in the dark, but has anyone here ever successfully plugged into an office telephone switchboard and accessed the logs? I'm writing an application here for a client and they want to be able to monitor calls' durations and times etc. Is this just a case of running cat on the serial port (cable-connected to the PABX) and then parsing what comes out?

Like I say, it's a shot in the dark, but it'd be great to hear if anyone has achieved this and with what manufacture/model ?

</odd request>

christo

What language are you coding your app in? Also, what is the model you're coding for?

nao

nao,

I'll probably do the phone - talking bit in PERL, Java or C - depending on what platform I'm working from. If I choose to install a mini box to manage this stuff, I'll most probably stick slackware on it, lock it down and code it in PERL. If I decide to stick the app on one of their windows systems, I'll have to find out some way of talking to the serial port in a Win95/NT/XP environment - and not being a Windows developer, that could be a bit of a headache..

As for hardware, at the moment they have a Siemens HiCOM 100E, which I have said I will attempt to plug into. In the meantime, they are looking to order an NEC IPS lite, (which is an IP-based switch).

What I can't work out is if the data is presented to the serial port on a call-by call basis (ie as the calls are terminated), or if I can dump the entire log in a single ASCII stream, which can then be plopped in a file and parsed at leisure..


christo

Try the original software for the pbx. Usually they download a caller log, even my cheap three port isdn pbx can do that.

The "Siemens HiCOM 100E", is that a bigger type of pbx (extendable, modular, ..?). I´m asking, because I only once worked on a non-SOHO PBX. And it offered a telnet login to a kind of ncurses like interface over the serial standard rs232 port

Unfortunately we don't have any such software to hand, and if we did, I don't know how useful it would be, because the aim here is to automate the process and insert call data into a database.



yeah - it's pretty big, but I don't know how easy it is to extend. What is a 'SOHO' PBX?.. And as for the telnet login, I guess such a process could be automated. I'll have to get some serial comms working of my slackware lappytop - that's the next task I have to face !!


christo

With the original software you would at least know if it keeps an internal caller log. But I am quite confident it does.

SOHO - "Small Office Home Office"

Ok, see you in a few minutes then

[edit]wait! read below![/edit]

I did a short search, seems like it can even be configured via the S0 bus.
http://www.hicom-faq.de/ - sorry, german site, I´ll extract the most important stuff:
Depending on the software version, you can use an ISDN card and dial "879" to configure it... Nice idea.

It does *not* save the calls in the pbx. And you need the original cable. Connecting it directly to your PC´s rs232 could burn the PC!. The cable has a black-box in the middle.

With the cable it should output ascii data, since you can directly connect a matrix printer they say

It'll be a few days, probably - I have some applications code to write first


The S0 bus? - I take it you're referring to /dev/ttyS0 ?



ooch. er. hmmm. I wonder where I might find one of them !! I better ring around some suppliers.


Right. This is interesting - so would you say that if I put a loop to cat /dev/ttyS0 >> file.log, then I should have something which I could work with?

In other words, all I need is a cable and then a quick session in the Linux forum to sort out my serial coms on my Slackware lappytop \o/

christo

ps many thanks for looking thru that German FAQ - I wouldn't have had a chance with that !!!

No. I meant via any pc isdn card connected to the internal isdn bus. And then using "/dev/ttyI0" and minicom. But this is for configuration, not sure about caller log.


... i guess so

Okay I get you..

I'll be round in a few days with my serial questions - as for the isdn thing, I'm gonna do everything I possibly can to avoid that


cheers!
christo

Hey if you do cat /dev/ttyS0 >> /dev/sound can you get the system to read out the data

haha rofl

OR - I could pipe it thru festival - that would do the job !

Right, I'm going to see if I can get some serial comms going between 2 of my slackboxen. If anyone has any wizard links or tips, don't hold back!


christo

I have done the recent HiPath courses of which the hicom was the forerunner. You would need a control adaptor and cable which then plugs into one of the handsets giving you RS232 or I believe you can program the central control unit RS232 to output call logging information.
Usually the information outputed is seperated by tabs and the next call record is seperated by CR/LF. you sould be able to use any terminal type software to view this (hypertrm/terminal/procomm+/kermit) and the settings are usually VT100, 9600bps, 8bits, 1stop.

If the company you are doing this work for are seriously interested in Voice over IP, forget the NEC and contact me for something which runs on linux with far greater connectivity options and is cheaper than the NEC. Indeed you may be able to upgrade the Hicom to support VoIP.