Network Deployment (Distributed operating systems), v8.0 > Applications > Communications enabled applications
Communications Enabled Applications concepts
Communications Enabled Applications (CEA) is a programming model that provides the ability to add dynamic web communications to any application or business process.
New feature: We can take advantage of integrated telephony and collaborative web services to extend the interactivity of Enterprise and web commerce applications. With the CEA capability, Enterprise solution architects and developers can use a single core application to enable multiple modes of communication. Enterprise developers do not need to have extensive knowledge of telephony or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to implement CEA. The CEA capability delivers call control, notifications, and interactivity and provides the platform for more complex communications.New feature:
Use this simplified programming model for adding web-based communications, Enterprise developers can do the following:
- Enable any application to quickly add communications support; for example, click-to-call integration
- Enable shared sessions between end users and the company
- Push relevant session data for application use; for example, customer phone numbers
- Deliver automated notifications and instant messaging support
- Provide enterprise-grade security, scalability, and high availability
- Integrate with customer private branch exchange (PBX) systems
CEA has two main services, telephony access and multimodal web interaction:
- Telephony access allows you to create a unified communications environment from within business applications to increase the efficiency of processes, reduce communications errors, and optimize business interactions in real time. CEA provides telephony access through a REST interface, through a web services client, and by using click-to-call widgets.
- Multimodal web interaction allows you to provide session linking (shared sessions) between users browsing the same website from different locations. With session linking, users can interact dynamically in collaborative ways, such as cobrowsing or coshopping web sessions.
Commerce web sites can use this service to provide product or customer support, while protecting information on the internal site. Commerce sites can use the collaborative shopping experience to attract more customers to their sites. With a combination of click-to-call functionality and multimodal interaction, you can support two-way synchronized text forms between the user and a customer service representative (CSR).
CEA is based on SIP-enabled services that use Representation State Transfer (REST) servlets and web services in a converged HTTP and SIP application. CEA includes a library of Dojo-style widgets for use in web applications. Dojo widgets are prepackaged components of JavaScript and HTML code that add interactive features that work across platforms and browsers. CEA widgets are extensible, allowing developers to customize them to handle more advanced tasks.
The CEA samples package includes three different sample applications that you can use to explore the telephony access and multi-modal web interaction services.
To learn more, see the information on accessing the samples and setting up the communications enabled application samples.
Access the samples
CEA call flow
CEA collaboration flow
Set up and use the communications enabled application samples
Samples documentation
SIP Servlet Specification 1.1
Concept topic