Category Archives: Development

Reading Data From XML Documents in UCCX

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Have you ever wanted to do any of the following from a Contact Center application?

  • Read a schedule from a local document, rather than having to use script editor to edit schedules
  • Be able to load a schedule from a web server, so you didn’t even need to touch you CCX server
  • Bring in external data without UCCX Premium
  • Bring in external data from a database there isn’t a driver for

All these and more can be done by reading XML formatted data either stored in the local repository, or served from an external web server, and retrieved using the Create URL Document or Make REST Call steps. Since you are able to read from a web server, any web programing language, like PHP, ASP, or JSP, could be used to retrieve and format the data.

Once UCCX has the XML formatted data, the Get XML Document Data step uses the XPath syntax to get data out of the document. This is a powerful syntax for reading data from XML formatted documents, as we will explore here.

In this post, we will use the Make REST Call step to retrieve information from the REST interface on the UCCX server, which provides easy access to a remote source of XML formatted data. Continue reading →

Using PHP for Cisco IP Phone Apps

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One of the advantages that IP phones have is the ability to create custom applications that can perform any number of functions. PHP and other dynamic web development languages can be used to create a great deal of functionality. The following is a simple application that prints one of three quotes to the phone. PHP or another dynamic language could be used to query databases, websites, etc. for any kind of data you may want accessible from a phone.

The text below was saved as “quote.php” on a PHP enabled web server, and added as a standard XML app. Due to the layout of the blog, you are probably better off copying this into your favorite text editor.

<?php header(‘Content-type: text/xml’); ?> <!– Without this line, the phone will not parse this as XML. Must be the first line of the script –>
<CiscoIPPhoneText> <!– Puts text on the phone screen–>
<Title>Today’s quote is:</Title> <!– This displays on the top, over the main text area–>
<Prompt>Why do you ask?</Prompt> <!– This displays on the bottom, under the main text area–>
<Text> <!– This assigns the actual text on the phone–>

<!– The PHP function defines an array of quotes, and posts one to the text area–>
<?php
$quote = [“To be or not to be, that is the question”, “Everybody comes to Rick’s”, “Follow the white rabbit”];
$rnum = rand(0,2);
print($quote[$rnum]);
?>
</Text>
<SoftKeyItem> <!– Define a softkey. The ones here are the defaults, and the app doesn’t really need them.–>
<Name>Update</Name> <!– The name that displays–>
<URL>SoftKey:Update</URL> <!– The URL or an action–>
<Position>1</Position> <!– The softkey position–>
</SoftKeyItem>
<SoftKeyItem>
<Name>Exit</Name>
<URL>SoftKey:Exit</URL>
<Position>3</Position>
</SoftKeyItem>
</CiscoIPPhoneText>

The app is added to CUCM as an XML Service:

The app on a phone:

Also see: Cisco Unified IP Phone Services Application Development Notes, PHP books at Amazon.com