So what exactly is a Cisco IP Phone Service?

Well in a nutshell an IP Phone Service (IPPS) is simply a web based application that is rendered to the client as XML which the IP Phone knows how to parse and display in a user friendly manner on the phone. Cisco provides a simple image below:

As you can see from this image that the components you need at a bare minimum are a web server and an IP Phone that is setup to use some sort of PBX device, Cisco of course wants you to use their CallManager product line however at home I use Asterisk. The application can be developed in basically any language you prefer, I like PHP so all my stuff is wrote in that. But PERL, .NET, etc are all supported. You could even develop an app that has a builtin webserver to host the pages.  Hopefully you have an idea about IPPS now and how it works so how about some code?

Simple Menu Example

Let’s say for example that you simply want to display a menu as seen below:

Your Cisco IPPS code would simply be:

Source code

<CiscoIPPhoneIconFileMenu>
    <Title>Menu</Title>
    <Prompt>Please Select An Item</Prompt>
    <SoftKeyItem>
            <Name>Select</Name>
            <URL>SoftKey:Select</URL>
            <Position>1</Position>
    </SoftKeyItem>
    <SoftKeyItem>
            <Name>Update</Name>
            <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/home/phone/?name=SEP001B0CDB5159</URL>
            <Position>2</Position>
    </SoftKeyItem>
    <SoftKeyItem>
            <Name>Exit</Name>
            <URL>SoftKey:Exit</URL>
            <Position>3</Position>
    </SoftKeyItem>
    <MenuItem>
            <IconIndex>0</IconIndex>
            <Name>Home Automation</Name>
            <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/ha?name=SEP001B0CDB5159&amp;devicename=SEP001B0CDB5159</URL>
    </MenuItem>
    <MenuItem>
            <IconIndex>1</IconIndex>
            <Name>OpenBook</Name>
            <URL>http://192.168.10.20/openbook/phone?name=SEP001B0CDB5159&amp;devicename=SEP001B0CDB5159</URL>
    </MenuItem>
    <MenuItem>
            <IconIndex>2</IconIndex>
            <Name>Cameras</Name>
            <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/cameras?name=SEP001B0CDB5159&amp;devicename=SEP001B0CDB5159</URL>
    </MenuItem>
    <MenuItem>
            <IconIndex>3</IconIndex>
            <Name>Weather</Name>
            <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/weather?name=SEP001B0CDB5159&amp;devicename=SEP001B0CDB5159</URL>
    </MenuItem>
    <MenuItem>
            <IconIndex>4</IconIndex>
            <Name>Traffic</Name>
            <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/traffic?name=SEP001B0CDB5159&amp;devicename=SEP001B0CDB5159</URL>
    </MenuItem>
    <MenuItem>
            <IconIndex>5</IconIndex>
            <Name>VisualMail</Name>
            <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/visualmail?name=SEP001B0CDB5159&amp;devicename=SEP001B0CDB5159</URL>
    </MenuItem>
    <MenuItem>
            <IconIndex>6</IconIndex>
            <Name>Help</Name>
            <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/help.php?name=SEP001B0CDB5159&amp;devicename=SEP001B0CDB5159</URL>
    </MenuItem>
    <IconItem>
        <Index>0</Index>
        <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/home/images/sm_icon_ha.png</URL>
    </IconItem>
    <IconItem>
        <Index>1</Index>
        <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/home/images/sm_icon_addressbook.png</URL>
    </IconItem>
    <IconItem>
        <Index>2</Index>
        <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/home/images/sm_icon_cameras.png</URL>
    </IconItem>
    <IconItem>
        <Index>3</Index>
        <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/home/images/sm_icon_weather.png</URL>
    </IconItem>
    <IconItem>
        <Index>4</Index>
        <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/home/images/sm_icon_cameras.png</URL>
    </IconItem>
    <IconItem>
        <Index>5</Index>
        <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/home/images/sm_icon_voicemail.png</URL>
    </IconItem>
    <IconItem>
        <Index>6</Index>
        <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/home/images/sm_icon_help.png</URL>
    </IconItem>
</CiscoIPPhoneIconFileMenu>

The CiscoIPPhoneIconFileMenu is the specialized container that tells the phone I’m going to send you a menu to be displayed on the phone that will have icons associated with each line item. This menu is actually created via PHP code that dynamically creates that menu from a database. I have a web app that is wrote specifically to manage my Cisco IP Phones. I can assign what type of phone it is, whether or not it is authorized to use the home menu tool, and which apps are shown on the phone menu.

Simple Image Display

Generating a text menu is one thing, but how about showing an image? That can be done as well, the newer color screen phones such as the 7921, 7925, 7926, 7945, 7965, 797x, 7985, and the IPC can all display PNG images. The older phones such as the 7940/41/42 and the 7960/61/62 can show a CIP image that is a little more complicated to use. One of the uses for images that I use on my phones is to show my security cameras as well as traffic cams that were on my way to the office when I wasn’t working from home.

And the code for this IPPS page would be:

Source code

<CiscoIPPhoneImageFile>
    <Title></Title>
    <Prompt></Prompt>
    <SoftKeyItem>
        <Name>Back</Name>
        <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/traffic/?device=</URL>
        <Position>3</Position>
    </SoftKeyItem>
    <LocationX>0</LocationX>
    <LocationY>0</LocationY>
    <URL>http://192.168.10.20/cisco/services/traffic/templates/CP-7921G/gencamimage.php?cameraid=3&amp;rand=1626227066</URL>
</CiscoIPPhoneImageFile>

The URL for the image simply needs to be that of the raw PNG data, nothing else. So what I do is take a screenshot from the camera and use the PHP image tools to recreate just a raw PNG:

Source code

<?php
 
error_reporting (E_ERROR | E_WARNING | E_PARSE);
 
$cameraid = $_REQUEST['cameraid'];
$display = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_CISCOIPPHONEDISPLAY'];
//$display = '298,168,12,C';
$display = str_replace(" ",'',$display);
list($x,$y,$depth,$color) = split(",",$display);
 
if(isset($cameras[$cameraid]['link']))
{
	$link = $cameras[$cameraid]['link'];
}
else
{
	$link = 'http://video.dot.state.mn.us/video/image?id=' . $cameraid;
}
 
$image   = imagecreatefromjpeg($link);
$image_x = imagesx($image);
$image_y = imagesy($image);
 
$image_resized = imagecreatetruecolor($x, $y);
imagecopyresized($image_resized,$image,0,0,0,0,$x,$y,$image_x,$image_y);
 
header("Content-type: image/png");
imagepng($image_resized);
imagedestroy($image_resized);
 
?>

User Interaction

Where the IPPS really comes into play is the ability to actually perform operations as well such as running scripts on a web server. Each of those menu items can call another web page that would have certain actions attached to it. For example in the image below this is a status screen of some of the home automation systems installed at the house:

Again we are using a basic CiscoIPPhoneIconFileMenu to display a list of items to the end user, we have two basic icons that are associated. The red icon implies that the device or sensors are in a “false” state and green icons imply “true” state. Each of these menu items however are associated with an URL that then goes and does a certain action on my Insteon based automation network being managed via Indigo which runs on OSX. In the case of the action that created the buzz on Twitter my device Lab Rack Power is turned on and off by hitting a certain URL on Indigo that toggles the relay which turns on/off the power to the rack. This allows me to query the status of the power as well as remotely control it via a 7921 for example as shown below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I hope this blog post shows some of the benefits of the Cisco IPPS features of an IP Phone. It’s very rare that I see any company actually use the IPPS features, most of the time I feel that it is simply because of lack of understanding how easy it is to develop the apps. Any web developer could easily create an IPPS in no time, most all of my apps have taken less than a few hours to do and Cisco has made it easy using headers sent via the phone’s request to know what the capabilities of the phone are (i.e. color, screen size, model, etc) to allow easy create of templates. For more information on how to develop IPPS apps please head over to the Cisco Developer Network

Here are some more images of some of my IPPS apps I have created:

]]> http://BlakeKrone.com/2011/09/21/cisco-ip-phone-services-unrecognized-benefit/feed 0 http://BlakeKrone.com/2009/03/31/boxee-asterisk-caller-id-fun http://BlakeKrone.com/2009/03/31/boxee-asterisk-caller-id-fun#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:04:23 +0000 blake http://efreestylin.com/?p=202

Boxee showing caller id from Asterisk

While browsing around the PBX In A Flash forums I came across a post about getting incoming call notifications on XBMC and immediately thought this would be great with boxee as well seen as we use that every now and then on our Apple TV. The setup was a little bit on the painful side just trying to figure out how to make the “KaiToast” display how I wanted. Out of the box it works great on XBMC, but needs some tweaking to make it work on boxee.

Check out the How-To after the break!

To install you will need to modify a settings file in the boxee skin and also add a notification section to your dialplan on Asterisk.

To get to the boxee skin directory select the boxee app (in OSX, Windows will be somewhat the same) and right click to select “Show Package Contents“. Browse to the skin by going through Contents -> Resources -> Boxee -> skin -> Boxee Skin NG. From here we will want to place the phone.png image into the media folder that you can download below. Next open up the 720p folder and replace the DialogKaiToast.xml with the one attached to this post.

dialogkaitoast

Finally, you will need to trigger the notification from Asterisk somehow. I won’t go into much details as to how to do that specifically as everyone is different. I chose to modify my extensions_custom.conf as the following:

[from-pstn-custom]
include => notify-systems

[notify-systems]
exten => _X.,1,NoOp(Notifying Systems of new call)
exten => _X.,2,System(wget “http://:/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=ExecBuiltInparameter=XBMC.Notification(%2C${CALLERID(name)}%20<${CALLERID(number)}>%2C15000%2Cphone.png)”)

Now if AppleTV would support Growl so I could get notifications while running the plain AppleTV system I would be even happier, but this will do for now.

In comes Unified Communications, now if you have never heard this before Smart Computing Dictionary defines it as this:

unified communications (UC)
A broad umbrella term for a number of messaging options combining computers and telephony. UC combines UM (unified messaging), which describes a phone-accessible repository for a user’s voice mail, e-mail, faxes, and other messages, and adds real-time features such as follow me (which sends a call to all of a user’s phones to keep the user from missing the call), conference calls, and call rerouting.

So why do I call this “Talk 2.0″ (bad play on web 2.0, etc) and what makes this such a big deal? Well to me, UC is that next step in the evolution of communications. How many phone numbers do you have for any given contact? For example, I have a home phone number, a number for Digital Lifestyle Consultants, my mobile number, my work number, and my work mobile number. That’s 5 phone numbers that someone could call and try to reach me at! Now imagine this: 1 phone number that rings all of those, that is what UC is and why it is so great.

Currently I’m playing with two different types of UC: my personal Asterisk PBX and Grand Central.

Method 1: Asterisk PBX

What I’ve done with my Asterisk PBX is set it up so that when you call the home number not only will it ring the house lines, but if you get dumped into my voicemail box you have an option of trying to find me. If you select the find me option Asterisk will try me at different extensions, such as my MacBook Pro, my Nokia N800, my UTStarcom WiFi phone, and finally my mobile phone. Ok so I’ll admit, I am a big geek and that was easy for me to do, but for other people it might not be as easy to setup an Asterisk PBX and get it all working, in comes Grand Central.

Method 2: Grand Central

Grand Central was recently acquired by Google, which is great news for everyone wanting to use this services as we know we’ll get the quality that we know and love that Google brings. What Grand Central does is basically the same as what my Asterisk PBX does, only it does it in a much nicer and user friendly Web 2.0 application. It’s very easy to provision a phone number once you get an invite. Grand Central asks you a few questions and then you pick what phone number you want. My cousin was very lucky in that his mobile phone and Grand Central phone number are off by only one digit, making it even easier for people to remember. Once you have your account setup and your number picked out you simply start adding your phones, such as your home phone, mobile phone, or even your Gizmo Project account. When a caller calls your Grand Central number you can have it setup to ring all phones or only certain phones depending on the caller ID. Whats also great about Grand Central is that you can transfer the call between your numbers. Say you picked up the call on your mobile, but the caller wants to talk to your significant other or someone at your home, simply transfer the call by pressing * on your phones keypad.

But talking isn’t the only important part of UC. UC also has the ability to evolve your voicemail into Visual Voicemail. Visual Voicemail gives you the ability to see your voicemail in a web browser much like how you check your GMail, Yahoo Mail, or other web based email. With Visual Voicemail you no longer have to skip messages to get to that one you want to hear, simply look for it in your list and click the play button. By using either Grand Central or Asterisk PBX as your primary phone number you can set them up to ring your mobile phone a few rings short of allowing the mobile to go to voicemail, allowing your caller to leave voicemail on either Grand Central or Asterisk PBX systems. Both also allow you to setup SMS/email alerts that will notify you of new voicemail.

Ready to take the plunge and try out Unified Communications for yourself? Take a look at either Trixbox for Asterisk, or head on over to GrandCentralInvite.com to get your invite today.

If you grab an invite or setup Asterisk PBX please come back and post your thoughts!

Cisco makes some great VoIP products but yet they seem to leave out some of the most important features. Only one of their VoIP phones comes with a backlit screen: the 7970. Now as much as I would love to have that phone (it comes with a color touchscreen for web applications on the phone) I can’t justify the $500+ price tag.

So I decided to add a backlight to the Cisco 7960 I have. Using a EL foil ($12 eBay) I was able to modify the LCD screen by removing the standard foil and placing the EL foil in its place.

One task remains, I need to find a way to get 12v DC from the 48v DC that the phone takes. The inverter that is being used accepts 5v to 12v and I currently have it attached to a USB port on the desktop providing power.

Overall it wasn’t too bad of a mod, just took awhile to get things setup on the EL foil.