Overview

The Pronexus D42 control is a stand-alone control, which works in conjunction with the Dialogic D42 and the newer D82 series of cards to provide integration with the PBX, including the Nortel Meridian and Mitel SL-1. For historical reasons (and following the Dialogic convention) VBVoice preserves the D42 name.

Loading the D42 control

After installing Dialogic support from the Visual Basic menu:

1. Select Project and then Components

2. Scroll down the Controls tab list

3. Select Pronexus Dialogic-D42 ActiveX Control.

This will add the D42 control to your Visual Basic Toolbox.

Dialogic D42/D82 Voice Cards

D42 and D82 cards enable PBX integration by emulating proprietary sets. To a PBX/key system, these cards appear to be one of its own station sets.

The Dialogic D42 series of voice cards are available in four different types, each one designed to integrate with a particular PBX or Key System. The newer D82 card has only single version, which is configured for different switches by loading the appropriate firmware.

Features

The D42 cards emulate a digital set connected to the switch, and the D42 control provides access to the screen display text, the indicator status, and other set features, and allows control of special switch features, such Set Message Waiting Lamp, On/Off, Transfer, and Conference. These features vary according to the manufacturers support. Many of these are accessed through the use of special dial strings, which can be dialled in the normal way using a Dial control.

On-hook dialling

The D42 control also enables on-hook dialling with the use of a 'N' prefix on the dial string. This is required for some of the feature access strings.

Escape sequences

To access the advanced features, the system will have to dial certain escape sequences. The sequences for the four different cards are listed in the next section. In VBV32, a sequence was listed as an escape sequence if it began with the \ (backslash) character or a ^ (carat) character. Each escape sequence character to be dialled must be preceded by the \. Characters in the Dial control that are not preceded by the escape prefix will be treated as regular digits (or as invalid characters).

EXAMPLE

Caller ID

The D42 control also enables access to the caller number and caller name information as provided by the D42 card through the CallerId and CallerName properties. Other features of the D42 cards are provided by properties of the D42 control.

Transferring Calls

The hook flash sequence (exclamation mark ! by default in VBVoice) is used to initiate a transfer instead of an escape sequence as in the other feature dial strings.

In-band/Out-of-band signalling

In-band signalling is a method used by analog telephones to communicate with PBXs (e.g., calling into a PBX and using DTMF to respond to voice prompts). In-band signals use the same band of frequencies as the voice signal. This method provides limited integration because there are no standards and different PBXs provide varying levels of control.

Out-of-band signalling is used by PBXs to communicate with their station sets or a CT computer. Out-of-band signals do not use the band of frequencies use by the voice signals. The PBX transmits data that can include information such as called/calling number. Because of its versatility, out-of-band signalling is the preferred method.

In-band signalling must be used when audio DTMF tones are required e.g., connecting to another voice system which expects to receive audio DTMF digits.

D42/D82 boards can be set to communicate using either in-band or out-of-band signalling - see the table below.

Note: When using \di and \do to set the DTMF signalling method, the D42 channel will return to its default state after the call goes onhook.

D42 Properties

The properties listed below are supported on both D42 and D82 cards.

In general, the D42 properties map directly into the corresponding Dialogic API functions (called d42_functionname). The relevant functions are mentioned below. Please refer to the Dialogic document D/82JCT-U User's Guide for UNIX and Windows for a description of each function.

DisplayText

(Channel as Integer) String

Returns a string representing current content of the LCD/LED display. Please see the description of the Dialogic function d42_display for more details.

Note that information on the display often changes when the call is answered, so accessing the DisplayText before the call is answered (i.e in the Ring event or from the LineGroup CallerID and CallerName properties), and after the call is answered (in the LineGroup Exit event) may provide different information. The information provided, and number of characters available, is switch-dependent and is described in the next section.

DisplayTextEx

(Channel as Integer) String

Similar to DisplayText property, it retrieves the current LCD/LED display. However, unlike DisplayText property which can only retrieve a maximum of 49 bytes, DisplayTextEx can retrieve display data longer than 49 bytes. Please see the description of the Dialogic function d42_display for more details.

Connected

(Channel as Integer) Boolean

Returns a non-zero value if the channel is communicating with the switch. Please see the description of the Dialogic function d42_chstatus for more details.

Indicators

(Channel as Integer) String

Return the state of sets indicators. The number of characters available and encoding used to represent the indicator status, is switch-dependent. Please see the description of the Dialogic function d42_indicators for more details.

IntegerParms

(Channel as Integer, ID As Integer) Integer

Sets or reads an integer parameter identified by the ID. The parameters available are switch-dependent. Please see the description of the Dialogic functions d42_getparms and d42_setparms for more details.

StringParms

(Channel as Integer, ID As Integer) String

Sets or reads a string parameter identified by the ID. The parameters available are switch-dependent. Please see the description of the Dialogic functions d42_getparms and d42_setparms for more details.

LineGroup CallerID, CallerName

Caller ID returned by this function is normally only the internal extension or trunk number. The DisplayText will return an external caller id number and name, if available.