Re: Re: xAP Schema

[Stuart Booth]

On Sun, 25 May 2003 15:37:45 -0000, "Patrick Lidstone"
<<a
href="/group/xap_automation/post?postID=MMor-R8g4DQTWFaikH15lEZ5NrGdTzEPZY_w7miB5TQbqThXx1CK6Fpm76plqLspKWBFntdVLw7vVyM">patrick@l...</a>>
wrote:

>> 1. I like the idea of removing the Reason No <Name  Number>
from
>> mine and merging that information into the Phone or Name line.
>
>You can't do this sensibly because they're combinatorial.
>You can (theoretically) have e.g. INTERNATIONAL + WITHHELD etc.

True, it would make parsing the Phone field hard work, especially as
dashes and spaces are valid in that field, as with Name too, if ever
that is fully supported.

I absolutely definitely don't want to lose the Withheld component, so
back to something closer to my CID message formatting then, which
matches the Meteor documentation quite closely indeed:

(See later for a followup comment to this)

:
Phone="01234-567890"
--- Mandatory (may include dashes and spaces)
RNNumber=[AVAILABLE  UNAVAILABLE  WITHHELD]
--- Mandatory (Reason No Number)
Name=["Calling Line Name"  INTERNATIONAL  PAYPHONE]
--- Optional (not currently supported so will mostly be blank)
RNName=[AVAILABLE  UNAVAILABLE  WITHHELD]
--- Optional (Reason No Name)
:

>> 2. Patrick uses "CallType" and I shortened this field to
"Type". I
>> figure that the "Call" bit is implicit in the message
being a
>> CallerID event, so why not omit it? The shorter the messages are
the better.
>
>Not bothered either way.

I propose we go with "Type" as it's shorter.

>> 3. We have different values for CallType/Type. Which are correct?
I
>> pulled my values from the Meteor documentation way back when I
first
>> wrote the code.
>
>I need to check the BT SIN to find out what the right answer is. Data
>is definitely a valid value for call type field, and I'm pretty sure
>your message waiting flag is too. I have a feeling ringback might be
>indicated by the Name field?

According to the Meteor documentation that's part of the CallType.
That's all I know at this stage.

>> 4. Patrick uses TimeStamp which matches the incoming CID
>> information. I changed mine to a 'standard' DateTime value
>> using the notation that
>> Gerry Duprey suggested a while ago. I think that if all time/date
>> stamps use this one format then a larger variety of
>> formatting/parsing code is eliminated from a lot (if not all) xAP
>> applications.
>
>The issue here is that a dumb xAP interface to a meteor box will not
>have a real time clock to be able to append the year or seconds
>field. I'd much prefer to leave this as it is, given that it is odd
>anyway. If you want to reorder it to make it look more like a Duprey
>format, that's ok by me - but we shouldn't assume that supplementary
>information about time of day is available outside of the caller id
>box.

That's a compelling argument for dropping the additional stuff.

How about having your TimeStamp as Mandatory and my DateTime as
optional? Any more sophisticated software can generate this optionally
should it wish.

>> 5. I don't bother with the Text line as I feel that that is a job
>> for another item on the xAP network.
>
>Make it optional then :-) I use this all over the place, and it's
>very handy. Most of my apps generate some kind of human readable
>summary as a friendly gesture.

Game on. Being able to take a message and get an instant string out of
it can indeed be useful. Optional it is.

>> 6. Patrick's Number field includes International or Payphone. This
>is
>> duplicated in the Name field I believe, which would seem to make
it
>> redundant, increasing the size of the message, but removing the
need
>> for a low-end device having to check both fields.
>
>This was a deliberate design decision. It means a display device can
>always display number verbatim and it will be meaningful without the
>need to apply any decision logic, plus it neatly accounts for the
>combinatorial stuff mentioned earlier.

What about International *and* a Phone number in the CID message? Or
are they mutually exclusive? I'm sure I've seen this on my CID unit,
but it mostly just displays International and no number at all.

>> 7. Formatted Date/Time. This was another suggestion raised many
>> months ago now which I've left in.
>
>Not very keen on this.

I'm not wild about the length of the label and I have yet to use it
either in fact. I don't have any other real preferences one way or the
other.

S
--
Stuart Booth
xAPFramework.net - a reusable xAP framework for .net

<a href="http://www.xapframework.net/";>http://www.xapframework.net/</a>
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