First steps with the Java UCI API to access a starface PBX

In my last Starface related blog post i have shown how to configure the UCI API of the starface PBX in eclipse. Today i want to show you how to use the API to access data and functions in the starface PBX.

The first step to access data on the starface PBX is to create an UciProxy Object. The proxy object manages the connection to the PBX in the background. The proxy object is really handy, because it reestablish the connection automatically in the background if the connection to the PBX has been lost. The proxy object can use different transport methods to access the PBX. Here is an example for a connection without callback over HTTP.

   //Create a Ucpransportfactory to access the starface PBX over the HTTP protocol.
   UcpTransportFactory ucpTransportFactory = new HttpUcpTransportFactory("YOURSTARFACE", 80, false);
   //Create a UciProxyFactory with the above created Transportfactory.
   UciProxyFactory uciProxyFactory = UciProxyFactory.createWithTransportFactory(ucpTransportFactory);
   //Create a proxy with the given credentials
   uciProxy = uciProxyFactory.createUciProxy("0001", "PASSWORD");
   //Establish the connection to the starface PBX
   uciProxy.connect();

Please replace "YOURSTARFACE", "0001" and "PASSWORD" with the host name, your user id and your password.

The next step is to create a so called  "Request Object". Every access able function in the starface PBX is handled by this objects. Here is a list of all Request Objects and their use:

Request Object	Use
UciCallListRequests	Get and manipulate the call list
UciCallRequests	start and end telephone calls or get the state of your telephone
UciFaxListRequests	Get and manipulate the list of your faxes or get the transmission report of a fax.
UciFaxRequests	Send new Faxes
UciFunctionKeyRequests	Get manipulate and press the function keys of your telephone
UciGroupRequests	Get and set Group settings
UciPhoneRequests	Manage your phones or set your primary phone
UciRedirectRequests	Change the redirect settings of your telephones
UciUserStateRequests	Get and set your avatar and manipulate your presence awareness status.
UciVoicemailListRequests	Get and manipulate the list of your voice mails

And here is the code to access your call list and write all inbound calls to the console.

   // Get a CallListRequest Object to access the calllist
   UciCallListRequests requests = uciProxy.getRequests(UciCallListRequests.class);
   // Get the inbound calllist for the lastday with no group calls,
   // ordered by startTime Ascending. If there are more then 1000
   // entries only the the first 1000 will be retrieved.
   CallList callList = requests.getCallList(new Date(), new Date(new Date().getTime() - 86400000),
     CallListEntryDirection.INBOUND, null, GroupRestriction.NON_GROUP,
     CallListEntryProperties.startTime, OrderDirection.ASCENDING, 0, 1000);
   // Create date and timeformater
   DateFormat df = SimpleDateFormat.getDateInstance();
   DateFormat tf = SimpleDateFormat.getTimeInstance();
   // Iterate through the callist entries and print every entry to
   // standard out.
   for (CallListEntry entry : callList.getEntries()) {
    System.out.println(entry.getId() + "/" + entry.getCalledNumber() + "/" + entry.getCallerNumber() + "/"
      + df.format(entry.getStartTime()) + " " + tf.format(entry.getStartTime()) + "/"
      + entry.getDuration());
   }

So you can see that the UCI API is very easy to use and with only a few lines of code you can access many information's in your PBX which are normally only available in the web interface. In the next post in the starface series i will show you how to get notifications about events occurring in the PBX. So stay tuned.