Telephony Application Program Interface (TAPI) is a standard API (Application Program Interface) enabling PCs running Microsoft Windows to use telephone services. TAPI is design to support IP telephony and traditional telephony in one network. In other words, if a computer is equipped with TAPI application and hardware, you may be able:
- Call someone by clicking something on a computer screen
- Use a graphical user interface (GUI) to set up a conference call and then attend the call at the scheduled time
- See who you're talking to individually or at a conference call
- Add a voice note to an e-mail note you send or listen to a received voice note attached
- Set up your computer to automatically receive phone calls from certain numbers or block others
- Send and receive faxes
- Do the above things from both a portable wireless telephone/computer and a desktop computer
The TAPI standard supports connections by individual computers as well as LAN connections. Within each connection type, TAPI defines standards for simple call control and for manipulating call content. In addition to the interface for applications, TAPI includes a Service Provider Interface (SPI) for hardware vendors who are writing the driver software. The TAPI Dynamic Link Library (DLL) maps the API to the SPI and coordinates input/output traffic. Using TAPI, programmers can easily develop applications of different telephone systems, including ordinary public switched telephone network, ISDN, and private branch exchange (PBX) without having to understand all their details.
Developed jointly by Intel and Microsoft, TAPI is included with the Windows operating systems. Different versions of TAPI are available on different versions of Windows. TAPI 3.0 was released in 1999 together with Windows 2000. This version enables IP telephony by providing simple and generic methods for making connections between two or more computers and now also offers the ability to access any media streams involved in the connection.
TAPI: Telephony Application Program Interface
Related Terms: API, ISDN, PBX, IP Telephony
Reference Links: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp
?url=/library/en-us/dntapi/html/msdn_tapi_30.asp: TAPI Overview