Services and Directories
You can use Cisco Unified IP Phones to deploy customized client services that users can interact with using the phone keypad and display. Services deploy using HTTP from standard web servers.
Users access client services using the menu options (availability varies by phone model). When a user opens the Services menu item, a menu of configured services displays. The user then chooses a service from the list, and the phone displays the service.
The following list gives typical services that might be supplied to a phone:
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Weather
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Stock information
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Contact information
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Company news
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To-do lists
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Daily schedule
The following figures shows a sample icon menu and a Directory list.
Phone users can navigate a text menu using the Navigation button followed by the Select softkey, or by using the numeric keypad to enter a selection directly.
When a menu selection is made, the Cisco IP Phone acts on it by using the HTTP client to load a specific URL. The return type from this URL can be plain text or one of the CiscoIPPhone XML objects. The object loads and the user interacts with the object.
Cisco Unified Communications Manager limits Cisco IP Phone service activity to a specific Services pane in the Cisco Unified IP Phone display. A service cannot modify the top line of the phone display, which contains the time, date, and primary extension. A service cannot overwrite the bottom line of the display, which contains softkey definitions.
Note |
HTML Disclaimer: Phone service developers must take into consideration that the phone is not a web browser and cannot parse HTML. Although content is delivered to the phone through HTTP messages using a web server, keep in mind that the content is not HTML. All content comes to the phone either as plain text or packaged in proprietary XML wrappers. |